ETSU you are obviously too good for the A-sun? Please! But hey! All the great points that have been made about ETSU b-ball being above the A-sun over the last year were validated on ESPN highlights tonight when ETSU got knocked out of the measly, little, good for nothing A-sun tournament in the first round on your home court. Congrats on your very successful first season in the A-sun! Hold your head high for you can still use your ESPN coverage to build your program! By the way your gym looked like it was ACC or Big Ten quality maybe they'll give you an invite to join one of those conferences so you can get knocked out in the first round!?!

Freshmen and Rookies aren't allowed to run their mouths! Trying earning something. If ETSU came in and rolled through the A-sun and went to the NCAA's I still wouldn't agree that they don't belong. Do you honestly think that being 2-7 in the NCAA tournament with 1 NIT appearance in a program that has been around for 87 years means you have tradition? That may be better than some of the other schools in the Asun but that means winning the A-sun (on your home court) should speed up the development of your program. It seems to me that your administration knew exactly what they were doing and that was moving up and improving their level of competition. Crying about travel distances is just another example which supports the notion that a lack of fans willing to make the sacrifice to support your program is a sign of the lack of program tradition.

"The only thing worse than a gloating winner is a pathetic sore loser"

P.S. Have fun getting handled in Baseball as well!

You must have us confused with the fans who give a damn.

Well stated Hatter. I have enjoyed the Bucs fans on the board this BB season and I truly understand their plight. However, Pitt your have reaffirmed my opinion from the beginning....you are an idiot!

HAtter,

You are right ETSU probably does deserve to be in the A-Sun right now.
Yes we have fallen that far and are that bad. It has nothing to do with A-Sun being good just how bad we are. But the A-Sun was a huge step backwards from the SoCon.

Facts
1. A-Sun is ranked 30th of 31 conferences alot of the teams have 300+RPI ratings (out of 334 teams total)
2. A-Sun teams played SoCon teams 11 times this year. record 2-9.
3. The A-Sun has NO tradition, other then Mercer and Stetson no one else has been in the Conference longer then 12 years, FAU with the 3rd longest tenure is leaving next year. My guess for next leave would be (If not us,, please let it be us) is Gardner-Webb, if they hadn't had that grade fixing scandal recently they probably would have already been able to move on already. They want to build a football program.
4. The Majority of teams in the Conference are teams that have just moved up from Div II and the A-Sun was all they could find.
5. The A-Sun roster has had huge turnover because teams have moved on to better conferences, OVC, CAA, Sunbelt and yes even the SoCon. Samford, Jacksonville St, Troy, UCF, Georgia St. etc.
6. It looks the A-Sun solution to losing teams is to dip down into the Div II ranks and take those teams. They should just change the name to the Peach Belt II Conference.
7. The A-Sun is very much in volation of the NCAA rules regarding its automatic bid (at least 6 teams have been a member for 5 years) and it very much a possibitly that they could lose thier waiver.
8. When ETSU dropped football we were promised that they would work towards making our basketball team "Elite" the A-Sun is a huge step back from that.

Bottom line if you are happy playing in what is nothing more then a modified Div II league and perhaps the worst conference in the county great for you, We were used to something a bit better and the fact that we are in the A-Sun and we are struggling shows us just how far we have fallen and thats why we are so pissed off. However I would rather have gone 10-20 again on the SoCon this year then have a winning record in the A-Sun and yes if we had played in the SoCon we would have lost at least 20 games this year. A couple of back to back bad years like that the casual fan might get mad enough to force some changes and we could turn it around but that might not happen as long as we are in the A-Sun and "winning" 15-13. God help us if we ever lose 20+ games in the A-Sun I don't think if we reached that low a point we could ever recover.


These comments are all basketball related which is the sport that matters and is affected in this case so don't bring up how good your baseball, golf, tennis or soccer are we don't care nobody does. Basketball and footbal or THE sports everything else is background noise.


Flame away, but as Pitt said and I agree, for once, We don't give a damn.We feel like outsiders in your conference and I hope we always do for however long our banishment here last, 5 years or 20.

R

Well, sit back and get comfy. Unless ya'll get football back I don't think the SoCon is going to invite you to come play again.

Jeremo Wrote:Well, sit back and get comfy. Unless ya'll get football back I don't think the SoCon is going to invite you to come play again.

You don't have to tell us, we know that and live it everyday. Until Stanton and his lapdog Mullins leave ETSU athletics are going to decline. But not to worry the combonation of a very bad coach and having to recruiting down to the level we are now playing at we should be a solid middle of the pack A-Sun team for years to come. It does make for a very competive league when everybody sucks.

R

Well first off you all do care or you wouldn't be on this board to start with and I mean that in a positive way. Second, what can be done about it? I would assume that there are many folks like yourselves that feel the same way. I know I would. Is there a grass roots campaign that is making any progress?

Supposedly there is a "Football Foundation" but all I know about it is that they have a former disgruntled employee now at Chattanooga who sings their praises- but they have done nothing and I can't see them doing anything.

Now, the main thing is that I think we just have an Athletic Director who does not like football. Here's the deal.

In 1996 ETSU athletics had a Top Eight Division I-AA football team. The basketball team was in shambles but so highly thought of that when the coaching position came open a stellar crop of candidates- Buzz Peterson, Derrick Whittenburg, Jeff Lebo and Ed DeChellis, who got the job- interviewed.

But then that AD, Keneer Frye, a local product, was driven off by the current president.

As was Frank Pergolizzi, who went on to revive football at Southeast Louisiana.

As was Todd Stansbury, who went on to be the assistant AD at Oregon State.

Finally they got sick of all these good ADs leaving because of the politics of the University and looked down the bench and saw a tennis coach- correct- TENNIS COACH- who had been there for 15 years and said "MAKE HIM THE AD!"

Again, the politics of the University. The smaller-sports coaches who looked at football as a revenue drain and always living in the shadow of Tennessee.

As I predicted upon his hire, David Mullins eliminated the football program about two weeks after he was named the full-time AD.

At the time I was a sportswriter for a local rag. I'm an ETSU grad. I had been covering them for years when nobody else was- often making road trips on my own dime.

Mullins would not talk to me- because he knew I was the only one who would ask him the tough questions out there.

It gets worse with him- but you have the idea already.

Where I think the football foundation fails is that they don't do anything. The administration won't talk to them or recognize them- which is to be expected- but then the Foundation won't fight back.

So the administration goes unchecked. The major sports go to pot- BUT WE WILL HAVE A SOCCER COMPLEX built on the old football fields and baseball field.

The only thing that will save this is for a complete removal of our administration- from the President on down.

AT THAT POINT- you have to then put in plans to build a football stadium and such.

I don't think that will happen. I think there isn't enough interest, I think that people would rather hike their skirts for UT 100 miles down the road than their own hometown, I think that a South Florida can build a football program but they already have a football stadium in place and it is a growing community with money- which we are not- and that what ETSU sports will become is nothing but an overrated golf and tennis school.

We didn't Fear the Hat enough. Whatever man. Come back with something when Stetson has actually been to the NCAA tournament. The SoCon must not be too bad moron, that's where you're coach came from.
As for ETSU, yes there is a football foundation, and no it was not started by a disgruntled former employee, though she is a member.
And anything is possible as far as going to another conference, everything is pending on facilities for ETSU at this point.

I can't believe we're arguing about whether ETSU is better than Stetson or Mercer. How far have we fallen? Will we be able to get up?

Remember when we used to beat Tennessee with regularity. When we beat NC State two years in a row. When we beat Memphis. These weren't unusual.This used to be ETSU basketball. And not 50 years ago. Just a few years ago.

And now we're discussing how we compare with Mercer.

Pleeeeeaaassssseee. Let the madness end!!!!

I'd rather not have Mercer compared with ETSU either. It's kind of insulting to me too. I'm proud that my school recruits athletes that have to make over 1000 on the SAT and want to be STUDENT-athletes instead of taking Big State U's leftovers and illiterate JUCO transfers as so many secondary state schools do. As they say,

Did somebody say something?

Thank you, Toby, for making my point for me. Mercer does not belong in Division I athletics.

By the way, ETSU has a med school, a pharmacy school ......

I teach at UT from time to time. We'd love to have what ETSU has in several academic areas.

Now, back to Mercer and their 3,000 students...

Mercer has defeated two #1 ranked teams in baseball this year (Florida and Clemson). I think that says more than beating Tennessee and NC State in basketball 5 years ago. Were they ranked #1 at the time? I don't think so.

By the way, remind me to make sure my doctor didn't go to E. Tenn. St. I'd like to live long enough to see you guys find another conference to take you.

Very nice, Toby.

I think it's great you support your school, but just because some of us have accomplished a great deal in a MAJOR sport other than the one in which you enjoy is no reason to attempt to kick dirt in our faces. No, college baseball is not as big as football or basketball, but college baseball IS a major D1 sport according to the NCAA and virtually all big-time media. You will see over and over the expression "in the three major sports" as my FAU colleague has expressed so eloquently.

College baseball is not to be catgegorized with tennis, track, etc. College baseball is a big time money-maker and ESPN's decision to cover of all Super Regional games two years ago is a case-in-point. Over the past ten years, college baseball has become an integral part of the "farm system" as far as the development of players is concerned. In fact, the majority of million dollar plus first and second round MLB draft choices now come from the college ranks.

You can denigrate the league all you want because you don't like college baseball, but doing so makes you look like a fool. If you don't think the sport is big time, come to a Stetson game and watch the pro scouts there. (Bet there are more than there are at ETSU basketball games!)

Lastly, if it were not for college baseball, Stetson would almost certainly have to drop to D2 for budgetary reasons. Long live college hardball!

You can also catch some very good curling matches on ESPN if you stay up late enough.

The fact of the matter is that I would rather watch curling and college baseball than A-Sun basketball.

Some people never change.....

Wrong again, Pitt.

You said, "Where I think the football foundation fails is that they don't do anything. The administration won't talk to them or recognize them- which is to be expected- but then the Foundation won't fight back."

Saturday and Sunday's Johnson City Press don't back you up.
http://www.johnsoncitypress.com/Sports.php

For general information, PittsburghBucs has already been kicked off of most relevant ETSU forums, save for this one. I'm sure it is only a matter of time.............