Based on Commissioner Benson's stated requirements of;
a) an all sport add
b) a twelfth football program for divisions and a championship game
c) a travel partner for Appalachian St
I made an effort to quantify the possibilities for the SBC. I have prepared the following data, for the three schools that I believe meet the stated criteria; Eastern Kentucky, James Madison, and Liberty.
Television DMA
EKU, 63
Liberty 67
JMU 178
Facilities
Football
EKU Roy Kidd Stadium 22,000
JMU Bridgeforth Stadium 25,000
LU 19,200
Basketball
EKU Paul S. McBrayer Arena Alumni Coliseum, 6,500 basketball
JMU Convocation Center 7612
LU The Vines Convocation Center 8,085 BASKETBALL
Enrollment
EKU ca 16,000
JMU ca 20,000
LU ca 13,000
Endowment
EKU $44.4 million
JMU $66.978 million
LU $58,646 million
Academics (admissions)
Test Scores -- 25th / 75th Percentile
EKU
SAT Critical Reading: 430 / 555
SAT Math: 430 / 550
ACT Composite: 19 / 24
ACT English: 18 / 24
ACT Math: 17 / 24
JMU
Test Scores -- 25th / 75th Percentile
SAT Critical Reading: 520 / 620
SAT Math: 530 / 620
SAT Writing: 520 / 610
SAT Scores for public Virginia colleges
ACT Composite: 23 / 27
LU
not reported
Athletic budgets revenue/expenses
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/co...54955804/1
LU $19,437,572 $19,437,572
EKU $12,435,604 $12,435,604
JMU $30,957,078 $31,143,588
Distance to Boone, NC
EKU < 5hrs
JMU > 4hrs
LU <4hrs
JMU is at a disadvantage not being in a top 100 television market.
Facilities are adequate to excellent for all three.
Enrollments and endowments are similar enough, keeping in mind that JMU and EKU are publics, while Liberty is a private.
JMU easily wins the academics contest, but EKU is well within the SBC profile.
EKU has the lowest total athletic budget of the three, which could be cause for concern. However, the Georgia Southern budget is even smaller than EKU's. JMU's athletic budget is at high FBS levels now.
All three are geographically close enough to App St, but EKU more closely fits the SBC footprint as a whole
JMU and LU have great fan support in football. There is a question of recent fan support at EKU, however as recently as 2004, 22,700 people attended Roy Kidd to watch Eastern Kentucky vs Western Kentucky, so there is certainly potential.
EKU has the best quality basketball program of the three, which has been mentioned here as being as important.
I have not researched the non revenue sport profiles of any of the three.
I hope you guys find this useful.