(02-05-2016 05:00 PM)Phlipper33 Wrote:  

(02-05-2016 03:04 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  Jacksonville left in the wake of UCF leaving because they wanted to play in the A-Sun with other Florida schools and had a few snide comments when Florida International then announced they were leaving the A-Sun to join the Sun Belt (and this was prior to FIU even studying adding football which came a few years later).

Uttering the word Lamar shows you have no clue.

Lamar was a member of the Sun Belt thanks to the American South / Sun Belt merger. The American South had Louisiana Lafayette, Arkansas State, Louisiana Tech, and Lamar playing football, Tech and AState upgraded to I-A and all had a handshake deal to play each other until such time they could start football in the league. The American South added Central Florida because they had indicated they planned to move I-A. Northern Illinois had agreed to enter a scheduling agreement with each ASC school as they moved to I-A and would join football only as soon as they got to the critical mass of six at the time. Lamar rather than pursue I-A dropped football but remained a member in good standing.

The league then merged with the Sun Belt. The Sun Belt TV deal conflicted with UCF's TV agreement (one was with SportsChannel Florida the other Sunshine don't recall which was which) and they were permitted to leave without notice one year after the merger because they had announced their move to I-A was on indefinite hold.

But at the time of the merger Lamar had attempted to block the entry of Arkansas-Little Rock. UALR had been invited to join by the old Sun Belt, Lamar wanted to rescind the invite (Lamar's hoops coach had come for UALR) and got no place with it. Shortly after Lamar withdrew to join the Southland citing travel savings.

Lamar has no one in the Sun Belt on the western side who would make the motion to invite them. I can tell you that one of our Board of Trustees members played against Lamar (threw one of the longest passes in AState history AT Lamar) and he wants nothing to do with them unless he's changed his mind in the last couple months. Our AD played against them as well and he will just say "I don't see them as a fit".

Lamar is carrying the burdens of past decisions, that may not be "fair" but life ain't fair.

So if I understand correctly, the Sunbelt won't even look at Lamar just because Lamar had hired away a coach from Little Rock, and stated that he didn't like his old school? Mike Newell was Lamar's head coach for only 3 years, and that ended 23 years ago. I'd be greatly surprised if anyone at a current Sun Belt school that would have anything to do with expansion is still around from then. Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if most people at Little Rock didn't even know who Mike Newell was.

Even at that, why would that stop Texas State or UT-A from supporting Lamar? They were in the Southland together and I'm not aware of any issues between the schools during that time. Arkansas State was with Lamar in the Southland before both joined the Sun Belt, are they supposed to be pissed about Lamar's coach's comments regarding Little Rock?

I've often heard the Sun Belt doesn't want anything to do with any Southland Conference team, but I really have no idea why that would be the case. All of the western teams have history with the teams in the Southland that might move up. Is the eastern half of the conference that controlling that all new additions must be in the East?

Lamar's behavior leaving the Belt was noted, but they aren't getting a bid because they bring little upside to the league. If they had a lot of fans and were in a complementary location they'd be looked at.

I'm not opposed to the Belt looking at SHSU in the case of an opening, but the opposition isn't coming from South Alabama fans. Its coming from Arkansas State and ULL fans.