(02-25-2013 11:43 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  Just because fans and the school want to join a better conference doesn't mean a better conference will want that school.

If a move does not happen soon or if it is only to a conference like the SoCon and/or OVC, I think we need to blame the previous athletic administration for their facility development plan.

I will say it until I'm blue in the face. The immediate needs of this school and community weren't for a new softball and/or baseball park or golf practice facility. The only reason to build the soccer fields was because ETSU got kicked out of the SoCon.

The immediate need of the community and school were for a new football stadium and basketball arena.

If those had been planned first, ETSU would still be in the SoCon, there would be renewed momentum and interest in the sports programs, and the non-revenue sports would have benefitted from the trickle down effect of fans checking them out (similar to how SuperFan would go on here and talk about the womens' soccer teams).

Better venues would have meant better teams. Better teams would have meant right now ETSU wouldn't be talking about which one of their former conferences they'd like to return to but rather which major conference they'd like to join.

But, hey. We have are all sports trophy from 2007, "The Greatest Year in the History of ETSU Athletics!"

How can anyone disagree with this? Obviously, we blame the previous administration for the facility development plan, and, obviously, we blame them for the entire debacle they made of ETSU athletics. Stanton and Mullins never saw a bad athletic decision that they didn't like. Of course, that horse's bones are nothing but dust now.