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mufootballfan Offline
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Post: #1
Conference Expansion
Any rumors of expansion of the A-Sun?
I know there will be some huge movement in the near future with the largeer conferences.Will there be much of a ripple effect for the A-Sun to deal with ?
09-28-2011 03:32 PM
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MercerFan Offline
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RE: Conference Expansion
It will be interesting to see what rumors develop during this season. Mercer is setting itself up nicely with football to be attractive to another conference in the long run... That's the good thing we have going for our school. So I'm not really concerned with how things shape up, MU has strong leadership.
09-29-2011 06:24 PM
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mufootballfan Offline
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RE: Conference Expansion
Heard the topic of expansion and the possibility of A-Sun football came up in last conference meetings.
Things could get interesting in the next few years.
11-04-2011 06:23 PM
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Mister Consistency Offline
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Post: #4
RE: Conference Expansion
I remember Ted Gumbart saying something to the effect of "We're happy with a ten team league." If that's the case, he has some work to do.

As a non-comprehensive list of schools to consider as promotion candidates...

Nova Southeastern (FL, Private)
West Florida (FL, Public)
Florida Tech (FL, Private)
University of Tampa (FL, Private)
Columbus State (GA, Public)
Shorter (GA, Private)
USC Aiken (SC, Public)

The main thing for the A-Sun should be establishing a stronger footprint based around the Florida schools and Mercer. There's a very real possibility that ETSU, Lipscomb, and Kennesaw State are all gone by the end of the decade, and the latter is almost definitely gone by then, so building the conference Florida/Georgia-heavy to withstand those losses will ensure the future of the conference; if you don't, you'd better start talking merger with somebody, be it SoCon, Big South, or whoever else.
(This post was last modified: 11-05-2011 01:47 AM by Mister Consistency.)
11-05-2011 01:46 AM
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MercerFan Offline
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RE: Conference Expansion
(11-04-2011 06:23 PM)mufootballfan Wrote:  Heard the topic of expansion and the possibility of A-Sun football came up in last conference meetings.
Things could get interesting in the next few years.

Good to hear. If they aren't talking football then the A-Sun is just hiding from reality. I do see the geographic move in taking another DII within the southeast, however, I hope there's a D1 willing to join. If they had to take Longwood I would MUCH prefer that. They have been D1 and won't come with all the baggage. Just add a rule that they have to pay a fee to offset travel.
(This post was last modified: 11-06-2011 04:00 AM by MercerFan.)
11-06-2011 03:59 AM
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Mister Consistency Offline
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RE: Conference Expansion
(11-06-2011 03:59 AM)MercerFan Wrote:  Good to hear. If they aren't talking football then the A-Sun is just hiding from reality. I do see the geographic move in taking another DII within the southeast, however, I hope there's a D1 willing to join. If they had to take Longwood I would MUCH prefer that. They have been D1 and won't come with all the baggage. Just add a rule that they have to pay a fee to offset travel.

The thing is, Longwood doesn't really bring anything to the conference that we couldn't get elsewhere AND is way outside the geographic footprint. Campbell and Belmont left the conference because of travel costs, so it seems like a stretch to add Longwood.

That said, there aren't many other schools already in Division I that we could likely lure in. Maybe we could get lucky and land Winthrop from the Big South, but their travel schedule is much better in the BSC than it would be in the A-Sun.

The issues I see with adding football are that (A) you have to find schools willing to go non-scholarship, of which there aren't many, or (B) all the existing programs have to go scholarship. That could be an issue for Jacksonville, in particular, because their "stadium" would have to be improved significantly (read: they would actually have to build one).

I'm all for the addition of football in general, but the addition of scholarship football would totally transform this conference, if the schools can make it happen. That's an awful lot of money, though.
(This post was last modified: 11-09-2011 08:17 AM by Mister Consistency.)
11-09-2011 08:16 AM
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MercerFan Offline
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RE: Conference Expansion
Yea it's true that's scholarship football would really be the only long-term way to save the conference. The bottom line is the conference is likely broken as the members as a whole are just too different with goals/sports/money/size/etc etc etc. Every school better have a contingency plan in place. D1 independent = bad news.

Football is just too important these days, and A-Sun schools such as ours have added it (thankfully!!).
(This post was last modified: 11-10-2011 07:59 AM by MercerFan.)
11-10-2011 07:57 AM
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