Quote:During a conference call Thursday that lasted about 20 minutes, the Southern Conference made major progress toward adding new members to replace the departing College of Charleston, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern.

Commissioner John Iamarino was upbeat during a post-meeting phone interview. He said the presidents and chancellors selected three schools for campus visits.

According to sources familiar with the SoCon's membership search, those three schools are Virginia Military Institute, Mercer and East Tennessee State.

http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2013/...rtscollege

Quote:The Southern Conference is expected to add three schools to its membership by the end of this month, but UNC Asheville isn’t on the list.

SoCon commissioner John Iamarino said Asheville was considered and discussed during a conference call with league presidents on Thursday, but the decision was made to make official visits to East Tennessee State, Mercer and Virginia Military.

Those visits over the next couple of weeks are expected to be followed by invitations to join the league, invitations that could be issued at the end of May during the SoCon spring meetings at Hilton Head.

http://blogs2.citizen-times.com/jarrett/

Does the JC Press have an original story on this? The Chattanooga article was on line there Friday night but has disappeared Saturday morning.

http://www.macon.com/2013/05/03/2465263/...cials.html

http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/1...re-by.html

Macon Telegraph Article has a clear-cut bombshell: "Mercer’s invitation would be contingent on committing to becoming a scholarship program" http://www.macon.com/2013/05/03/2465263/...icials.htm

Sounds as if Mercer is going scholarship football. That's good. If Davidson stays, I would guess that they're grandfathered in on their Pioneer League program. Given the SoCon has harped on a balanced conference football schedule over the years, four at home/four on the road, ten teams would change that. Or, go ahead and pick up Coastal and Kennesaw, have two divisions with SEC/ACC scheduling scheme. Of course, FCS divisional conference scheduling isn't practical unless both divisional champions can go to the playoffs.

Makes one wonder if they are going to invite VMI for all sports but football?

http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/1...re-by.html

Anyone else notice we dropped football in 2005? Haha

I hope the move to the SoCon is the right one...

From the VMI article: "When it comes to football, VMI would figure to find the competition a little less demanding in a revamped SoCon than the Big South. In nine seasons in the Big South, the Keydets are 11-38 in league games and 25-86 overall."

In Football staring up at the Big South. In Basketball staring up at the ASun especially without Charleston and Davidson. SoCon is a shadow of what she used to be.

Its not the right move in any angle that you can take, except maybe travel. But as far as competition name recognition to the average fan, competition level, etc., the OVC would have been a much better choice.

But I think that the Southern was the target from the start. And even though I think its a dumb move, its much better than the shape we were in a year ago- so im pretty happy.

I do wish the OVC would give expansion another thought.

(05-04-2013 08:36 PM)etsubuc Wrote:  Its not the right move in any angle that you can take, except maybe travel. But as far as competition name recognition to the average fan, competition level, etc., the OVC would have been a much better choice.

But I think that the Southern was the target from the start. And even though I think its a dumb move, its much better than the shape we were in a year ago- so im pretty happy.

I personally think the OVC is a better conference for us right now. The 2 reasons given to me as to why the Socon over the OVC were 1)the renewed rivalries with Furman, Davidison (may stay due to Socon concessions), UTC, WCU and Wofford and 2)the travel distance for fans to those schools. In the big picture I still would prefer the OVC, but that logic does make some sense....especially for football saturdays.

(05-04-2013 08:19 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  http://www.roanoke.com/sports/colleges/1...re-by.html

This article is terribly written and riddled with mistakes.

As for the Big South being better than the SoCon (even without ASU/GSU), what a joke.

Massey Ratings of FCS football teams from 2012
(excluding 3 GSU and 13 ASU...and 17 Stony Brook which is moving to the CAA for football)

7 Wofford
24 Samford
27 Chattanooga
30 The Citadel
37 Coastal Carolina
57 Liberty
58 Furman
65 Elon
90 Western Carolina
93 Charleston Southern
100 Gardner-Webb
114 VMI
115 Presbyterian

So, of all that is remaining of the SoCon and Big South, Coastal Carolina and Liberty would be middle of the pack and the rest of the Big South is worse than Western Carolina.

I think they author of the article must think that if they move to the SoCon with ETSU and Mercer starting up teams, the Keydets might get 2 conference wins instead of the 1 they got in the Big South last year (over Presbyterian)

Of course, ratings wise, just being in the SoCon (win or lose) VMI's rating will go up from playing better competition.

Big South has to be worried, if the lose VMI, they drop below 6 football schools and would lose their auto-bid to the NCAA playoffs.

Again, I say that the SoCon invite is a gift. Taking ETSU athletics forward from the Stanton-Mullins disaster is a challenging task. The SoCon is the realistic course to take at this time. Of course, we would prefer the Sun Belt or C-USA, and, had Brian Noland been at ETSU since 2003, that very well is where Buc athletics could be headed about this time. But, as reality slaps us in the face, we must recognize our situation. Therefore, getting football back and the Southern Conference as the place to play is a horse you don't look in the mouth.

(05-04-2013 07:48 PM)BucinBama Wrote:  From the VMI article: "When it comes to football, VMI would figure to find the competition a little less demanding in a revamped SoCon than the Big South. In nine seasons in the Big South, the Keydets are 11-38 in league games and 25-86 overall."

Yeah, they're helpless to beat juggernauts like Liberty, Charleston Southern, and Gardner-Webb, but those cupcakes in the SoCon like Wofford, The Citadel, Furman, Samford, and Chattanooga will just fall right over for the Keydets...

That article can be translated as: "Derp derp derp, derp derp herp-a-derp, I have no clue what I'm talking about, derp." The Big South is the worst football conference in the country, and even without App State and Georgia Southern, the SoCon is still significantly better. The competition will be a whole lot tougher for VMI, and if they can't recruit to that level, they're in for a world of hurt.

Didn't VMI leave the SoCon because they couldn't compete in football?

(05-09-2013 04:25 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  Didn't VMI leave the SoCon because they couldn't compete in football?

Yes, and they've only gotten worse in football since they left the SoCon.

So VMI, who wasn't competitive in the SoCon when they left, can't consistently win in a lesser conference is expected to come and compete?
Wow.

When will the SoCon delegation visit ETSU?

You guys are welcome to join us on the SoCon Fans Message Board, here's a link: http://socon.boards.net/

All the schools have their own boards, and there is links to those boards on the SoCon Forum.

Hoping to see some of you over there.

The thing to remember, however, is that right now VMI football is better than ETSU football.

They have a team. The Bucs and Mercer are just now starting theirs up, and there is no telling how good or poor they will be.