It's no secret ETSU fans have been less than enthused about having to join the A-Sun after getting kicked out of the SoCon.

But for now, it's ETSU's conference. It's all of our conference. While I do dream of the day ETSU can be in a more prominent conference, I also don't have a problem with the A-Sun trying to raise its stature.

Instead, it appears that the A-Sun is simply happy to be the place where Division II schools go to be Division I and then see how long it takes to move elsewhere. Every year we see a school leave and then talk of a less than underwhelming college coming in to join us.

This is a conference that would do just about anything for Division II Rollins to move to Division I so they can accept them. This is a conference that fans actively say they wouldn't mind Savannah State- SAVANNAH STATE- join their ranks.

You can say it's kneejerk thinking, but with KSU adding football, it seems it's only a matter of time before they look to another conference to join. I can't believe they'd want to be a FCS Independent.

And then who comes in? Lincoln Memorial? King?

Anyone else believe enough is enough?

The question is- if you're the Conference Commish, what direction do you try to have this conference to take? It IS worth saving- a conference with a lot of big market potential with Nashville, Jacksonville, Orlando, Ft. Myers, and, for the time being, Atlanta.

My thoughts? Try to get non-scholarship football established at all of the schools. Make a conference the way the Pioneer League has. In time, grow the league into a scholarship program.

My other idea is more radical. Petition the NCAA to play baseball during the summer. Athletes are in school year-round anyway, and competitive college baseball will gather more attention if it isn't going up against basketball and spring training in March.

Hoops wise- try to establish tournaments with another larger conference- the way there is a "Big 10-ACC Challenge." You might not get a league of that caliber, but let's say you started one with the A-10. Northeastern schools get to make a trip south to Florida or Nashville or wherever.

Suddenly, you get more attention in the media in these large markets, a lot of tourist dollars in the A-Sun towns, and the strength of schedule increases. You MUST encourage A-Sun teams to schedule as difficult as possible. Shoot for the Top 10 Conferences.

Any other ideas?

(12-06-2009 08:40 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  Any other ideas?

Become "THE" southern lacrosse conference. There is no LAX conference south of NC. There's a huge void in the South for LAX. Ga and Fla LAX are growing extremely fast at the HS level.

LAX is the fastest growing sport. The TV revenue will someday be significant. Because of Title IX, other ACC and SEC schools won't add men's lacrosse (but they have added women's lacrosse - like Florida, S Carolina, Vanderbilt, Miami etc).

Jacksonville and Mercer have already announced DI teams.

Get Lipscomb, Belmont, Stetson and FGCU to add the sport. Or add Presbyterian as an affiliate.

With six lacrosse-playing schools, the ASUN then gets an autobid.

Hey the A-SUN isn't great, it's not even good, but it is what it is. I've stopped pissing all over the conference long ago. I suggest you try to do the same and deal.

Truth be told, the A-SUN has denied membership to Savannah State several times.

I'm out~!

It's all Stetson has ever had.

ETSU has had much more.

(12-07-2009 10:20 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  It's all Stetson has ever had.

ETSU has had much more.

Why doesn't ETSU make an attempt at the Ohio Valley Conference? The Ohio Valley granted non-football SIU-E membership. At least the OVC has other Tennessee public U's.

Let the ASUN become a Fla-Ga-SC league. A number of Florida schools, like UWF, Lynn, Barry, Ave Maria (after more growth), will probably want in a DI ASUN when the moratorium lifts.

FYI, the OVC was courting ETSU, Belmont, and Lipscomb. We all turned it down. If we would have said yes, the ASUN would have ceased to exist. To be honest, the ASUN is better than the OVC in basketball lately.

There is no doubt that the ASun is a much better basketball, baseball, and women's soccer conference than the OVC. I don't really know why anyone would jump to the OVC.

(12-06-2009 08:40 AM)PittsburghBucs Wrote:  Any other ideas?

I don't want to see us add anymore new D-1s to the mix. I would rather see our league hire strong coaches (I think Mercer's recent change was an improvement), spend some dollars recruiting, and build stronger teams that make some noise.

Our schools are playing some of the big boys. On schedules this year are Louisville, Arkansas, Kansas, Washington, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Nebraska, Florida, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, and the list goes on. We need to beat more of these teams than in the past. ETSU did it this year. Mercer and Belmont have had some significant wins in the past years too. We also need to beat other mid-major schools on a regular basis, raising our RPI.

Look, the way to improve the conference is for each of the teams to make significant strides in improving their programs. When the Kennesaw States (as they seem to be doing this year), North Floridas, and others raise their RPIs, our league becomes more attractive. Heck, it wouldn't hurt if Belmont and ETSU could raise their RPIs too.

(12-08-2009 01:22 PM)Bruin2002 Wrote:  Our schools are playing some of the big boys. On schedules this year are Louisville, Arkansas, Kansas, Washington, Georgia Tech, Florida State, Nebraska, Florida, Vanderbilt, Cincinnati, and the list goes on. We need to beat more of these teams than in the past. ETSU did it this year. Mercer and Belmont have had some significant wins in the past years too. We also need to beat other mid-major schools on a regular basis, raising our RPI.

My main complaint with the ASun is the 20 conference games per year starting the first week in December. It's less than a month into the season and I think it's a little to early for conference games to be starting up. Plus less conference games means more chances for non-conference wins against major and other mid-major programs. How they can change this? Not real sure, other conferences have done lottery style schedules or geographical divisions which have worked out pretty well (eg Big 12 North and South).

edit: I'm not saying this should or shouldn't be done, I just think teams need more than 3 weeks of real games before conference play starts. The rest of the post is a conversation starter.

Afro - Campbell is dropping out in a year and a half, so that will reduce our in conference schedule by 2 games. My guess is that we won't start conference play until January once they are gone. We will have 10 teams at that point, and they will all be eligible for the NCAA tournament. I personally don't think Campbell is that much of a loss anyway. They are a better fit for the Big South due to their location.

This quote is the biggest problem with the ASUN. The last thing that should be done is to accept mediocrity. Plus the fact that Savannah State was denied is disturbing. Think about it, were the ASUN powers sitting around laughing "Ha ha ha we would NEVER take a team as low as Savannah State! We will only accept such great powers as NORTH FLORIDA and KENNESAW STATE!" (loud deep voice) and then they toasted to their unending wisdom.

Sometimes less is more. Less Campbell and no replacement is much more than another bum. Fool me once (UNF KSU) shame on you. Fool me twice (FGCU USCU) shame on me. Fool me three times? I have no idea.

(12-07-2009 09:46 AM)Stetson_1883 Wrote:  Hey the A-SUN isn't great, it's not even good, but it is what it is. I've stopped pissing all over the conference long ago. I suggest you try to do the same and deal.

Truth be told, the A-SUN has denied membership to Savannah State several times.

I'm out~!

Obviously everyone was outraged over getting these DII teams. What was the feeling of the league when it was announced ETSU was going to join?


Just wondering.

To be honest I would much rather have North Florida, USC-Upstate, and FGCU than Savannah State. They are terrible and operate out of an athletic deficit basically every year. Thanks for the insult though ;0

Of course you'd rather have KSU and the other DII schools, but your opinion is skewed because you ARE one of them.

Say what you will...it is still the truth. The evidence is in that link that showed that Savannah State was dead last in all of Division 1 sports for revenue. Kennesaw and North Florida were significantly higher than ETSU, and to be honest were in the top half of the ASun, and we haven't even gotten our D1 programs started yet. USC-Upstate might not be the greatest fit in the world, but UNF, FGCU, and KSU all bring significant resources to the ASun that Savannah State would never bring.

Savannah State moved up from D2 basically overnight about 7 years ago, against the wishes of their board of trustees and basically the entire university community. They've gone through probably half a dozen presidents and ADs in that time, got themselves put on NCAA probation for widespread compliance violations (huge indicator of a malnourished athletic department is no ability to hire and retain good regulators).

Also, another huge reason the presidents and ADs of the A-Sun members have always been against them is the staggering level of incompetency Savannah State displays every year in every sport - beyond basketball. For example, I don't believe their volleyball team has beaten a D1 opponent in at least 3 years. The softball team, near as I can tell, has NEVER beaten a Division I opponent and frequently gets crushed by D2, D3 and NAIA opponents.

You might not care about those last two facts. I realize on this board you're all primarily basketball fans and think only of what might make sense from that perspective - which is fine, that's your right. The league, and its stewards the presidents/ADs, however, have to operate in the best interest of all their coaches and sports. Adding Savannah State, a boat anchor so heavy they make UNF Men's Basketball look like the Kansas Jayhawks, would be irresponsible.

BTW, don't be so quick to look down your nose at Rollins. They thrashed UW-Green Bay of the Horizon League by 17 last year and are currently ranked #13 in Division II. Sad but true, they'd pistolwhip Stetson, UNF and FGCU right now and probably give JU all they want.

(12-08-2009 10:30 PM)MercerFan Wrote:  This quote is the biggest problem with the ASUN. The last thing that should be done is to accept mediocrity. Plus the fact that Savannah State was denied is disturbing. Think about it, were the ASUN powers sitting around laughing "Ha ha ha we would NEVER take a team as low as Savannah State! We will only accept such great powers as NORTH FLORIDA and KENNESAW STATE!" (loud deep voice) and then they toasted to their unending wisdom.

Sometimes less is more. Less Campbell and no replacement is much more than another bum. Fool me once (UNF KSU) shame on you. Fool me twice (FGCU USCU) shame on me. Fool me three times? I have no idea.

(12-07-2009 09:46 AM)Stetson_1883 Wrote:  Hey the A-SUN isn't great, it's not even good, but it is what it is. I've stopped pissing all over the conference long ago. I suggest you try to do the same and deal.

Truth be told, the A-SUN has denied membership to Savannah State several times.

I'm out~!

Hey I'm not saying accept mediocrity but just accept the fact that the ASUN isn't going to majorly improve anytime soon. It seems like talk from a lot of folks on this board have visions of becoming the next Horizon League. I work within the walls of Division I athletics and I've come to accept the bureaucratic and sluggish developmental trends in a sports department and how long it will take. In this economy, smaller Division I schools are just trying to survive with the pathetic resources they have. I've seen a lot of A-SUN school facilities and we've got a long way, imo.

I'm always rooting for the A-SUN to knock-off the bigger guys...that's just my opinion on where I think we're heading...give it 10 more years.

It won't take that long. I think Jacksonville, ETSU, Belmont, and Kennesaw all have the kind of programs necessary to win an NCAA tournament game (probably in that order at this point). One win in the tournament raises the entire conference a notch. We will never be a high major, but we have the potential to be a solid midmajor conference in my opinion...much on the lines of a Southern Conference. This is probably something ETSU fans don't want to hear since they were forced out of the Southern, but that is the truth.

hey - don't forget about State College of Florida - my guess is they will be on the radar soon. http://www.scf.edu Florida's newest university. in the same city as IMG Academies - with basketball, baseball, soccer development programs and my football buddies tell me football will start soon. what a recruiting tool!
(I am half joking and half forecasting the future - so if they bring in Rollins then SCF will be the travel partner of FGCU)

Funny how fans from Mercer and ETSU will talk smack about bringing D-2 programs into the A-sun without acknowledging that a program like KSU had a higher ceiling than both the ETSU and Mercer athletic programs as a D-2 program. KSU and North Florida passed both of these stagnant or deteriorating programs in athletic revenues and expenditures prior to even becoming an official D-1 program. It will be interesting to see how KSU's numbers continue to improve down the road as their program matures and football is introduced. I am fully expecting the quality of athletes and teams to develop positively along with these monetary advancements. Fact: Schools like Mercer and ETSU have been around for years and have developed a track record of mediocrity. Hence, Mercer being left in the dust by many programs throughout the years. I feel that the A-Sun has the right idea by bringing in big state run schools out of big media markets that have POTENTIAL as the conference actually has a vision. They know where a Mercer, ETSU or even Savannah State program will be in ten years- in the same shape they have always been in or even worse. However, while evaluating a North Florida or KSU they see promise and potential. Sit around and complain about it but if all the schools currently in the conference remain in the conference (outside of the Camels-big lose right? haha) for the next ten years or so it is not hard to see KSU, UNF, and FGC among the top programs in the conference.