Thoughts ?

If Justin Hare gets hot, it'll be the feel good story of the tournament, some heads will turn, and it'll be the start of Belmont's way out of the atlantic sun and into either the SoCon or the OVC.

If they don't have football why would the SoCon take them? Isn't that why ETSU got asked to leave? Do OVC teams all play football as well?

No doubt about it. The "Bruins" will win!

Hadn't thought of that OC. Wonder how many Bruin nicknames out there ?

To answer a question above, not all of the SoCon schools play football. COC, UNCG for example. Thus some of the controversy about us leaving. Has been discussed in detail on the SoCon board. Did we really need to drop FB, and how we handled it are the points of contention with the SoCon. Our transfer to the ASUN is the fallout of all that.

So people are not happy about the ASUN for two reasons. Either you miss football, or you thought we were promised a move UP in BB. (Concentrate on your better sport. )

As I mentioned in another thread, our move here was NOT a hostile takeover by the ASun. I think you guys were about the only ones willing, or I might say gracious enough, to take us in our current condition.

Alot of people know a whole lot more about the smoke and mirrors of this thing than I do, but that is a brief synopsis.

That said, Go Belmont. Tough draw. But Cinderella will make a showing somewhere.

Good luck Bruins!!!

Thanks for the info JWBuc

It's no secret that the SoCon needs another school, and it would not suprise me in the LEAST if they expanded again in basketball too, just in case Ga. Southern and App. State are looking to move into I-A football.

Here's the final Sagarin poll of the season. This is through March 11. The ASun ended up as follows, out of a total of 334 teams:

178 Belmont
194 Lipscomb
254 Gardner-Webb
256 East Tennessee State
263 Florida Atlantic
291 Stetson
301 Campbell
304 Kennesaw State
320 Mercer
329 North Florida(UNF)
331 Jacksonville

Here's how the Southern Conference ends up:

123 Davidson
159 Georgia Southern
177 College of Charleston
207 Elon
214 Chattanooga
226 Furman
238 Western Carolina
240 Appalachian State
260 Wofford
266 NC Greensboro
322 Citadel

So, if you put all the teams into one huge conference, the standings would look like this:

123 Davidson
159 Georgia Southern
177 College of Charleston
178 Belmont
194 Lipscomb
207 Elon
214 Chattanooga
226 Furman
238 Western Carolina
240 Appalachian State
254 Gardner-Webb
256 East Tennessee State
260 Wofford
266 NC Greensboro
263 Florida Atlantic
291 Stetson
301 Campbell
304 Kennesaw State
320 Mercer
322 Citadel
329 North Florida(UNF)
331 Jacksonville

The top three teams would come from the Southern Conference, the bottom two teams from the ASun, and 7 out of the bottom 8 from the ASun. And we call these comparable conferences?

kevster Wrote:So, if you put all the teams into one huge conference, the standings would look like this:

123 Davidson
159 Georgia Southern
177 College of Charleston
178 Belmont
194 Lipscomb
207 Elon
214 Chattanooga
226 Furman
238 Western Carolina
240 Appalachian State
254 Gardner-Webb
256 East Tennessee State
260 Wofford
266 NC Greensboro
263 Florida Atlantic
291 Stetson
301 Campbell
304 Kennesaw State
320 Mercer
322 Citadel
329 North Florida(UNF)
331 Jacksonville

Now that would be one big ugly conference!

You guys are placing too much emphasis on this year.. its a horrible year for the ASun. it will get much much better

Mercer,

How do you expect the ASun to get better? Where's the magic hat?

Seems to me that the ASun will continue to dribble among the bottom two or three conferences (out of 31) forever.

The ASun is made up of a bunch of Baptist colleges (no offense to baptists), one Church of Christ school, and ETSU & Kennesaw. Everyone I've talked to about the conference thought Kennesaw was a junior college.

Have you seen any ASun games on tv? Have you seen the "stadiums" these guys play in? It's a shame. I read on Campbell's web site that they have a dream plan for a 3,000 seat coliseum. High schools have bigger dreams than that. North Florida and Jacksonville should be banished to Division III. Florida Southern (Division II) is a lot better than either of them.

It's going to take time, but just last year we had 3 programs that became quality teams in the ASun (Troy, UCF, Georgia State). There's no reason that current teams won't rise to that kind of status. I'm not saying the "ASun" is going to fly up the ranks, but it could climb up the small conference ranks. The individual teams are the ones who can really jump up. I think GSU was an 11 seed in 2001 ... no reason a new team can't be that one day

Here is how the SOcon and A-Sun rank according the the NCAA RPI, thre out of the top four are Asun teams:

I'm not trying to creat an A-Sun SOCon war, but the Southern Conference is the same level as the A-Sun. A one bid league that will always get a 13 seed at best. It is not like ETSU left the SEC for the ASun.

Outside of the Southern conference, the Southern conference is viewed about the same level as the A-Sun. It has been about 10 years since a SoCon school has won a game in the NCAA's. The Asun last won five yeras ago. According to tha Socon record book, the league has never recieved more than one invite to the NCA's, the Asun has on multiple occasions. As recently as two years ago, the A-Sun had three teams in postseason play, two NIT and one NCAA. The leagues are even, except the A-Sun does not have football.

http://web1.ncaa.org/app_data/weeklyrpi/rpi3.html
94 Davidson
115 Belmont
143 Lipscomb
157 Gardner-Webb
159 Ga. Southern
169 Chattanooga
172 Elon
188 Col. of Charleston
212 Fla. Atlantic
225 East Tenn. St.
220 Furman
235 Appalachian St.
265 Western Caro.
267 Stetson
279 UNC Greensboro
288 Wofford Southern
293 Campbell
303 Mercer
319 Citadel
331 Jacksonville

Well that was ugly. Too bad for Belmont.

Looking at the poll, those of us that predicted the blowout loss were correct.

First time to NCAA can be rough. Playing UCLA on the west coast is tough. ETSU took a beating playing them at home after a long road trip to Hawaii several years ago.

UCLA has beaten many a team before in the NCAA, no doubt about that.

SC Upstate????? Please help!!!! Who decides these things!!!??????