You also have to remember Coastal just built a brand new baseball stadium this year. They hosted Clemson and South Carolina, and won both games. Their basketball arena has hosted 3 straight Big South tourneys, while football has done well too.

Myrtle Beach's metro area is also an important point. It is about 430K for Horry and Georgetown counties, then you add Brunswick County (Calabash, Sunset Beach, Ocean Isle all in that county), that's another 120K or so. That's about 550K or so in the three counties alone, and that doesn't include summer population and/or vacationers.

Coastal doesn't have great attendance (they fill the stadium for the in-state schools), but when you are playing FCS universities (mostly with small alumni bases in the area), it can be tough. The stadium is expandable to 20K. It would be different playing schools in the Sun Belt along with any of the MAC and Conference USA schools that could come to a larger stadium.

Also, if Coastal became FBS, you could potentially add Charleston (another growing metro) and Florence (already in the Myrtle Beach TV market) as areas you could draw from.

I feel SC has room for a third FBS program. The coastal areas of SC are very fast growing, with Myrtle Beach being at the epicenter of that.

(07-23-2015 12:41 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(07-22-2015 04:42 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  Good for Coastal Carolina, but to think this would be the first time that men's soccer and baseball were considered a big deal for an FBS conference is stunning.

Well, if it has to do with soccer and baseball? You might have to add more to why Coastal. There are other schools in the footprint that could help.

Missouri State baseball is much better than Coastal.
North Florida and FGCU should be considered to offset the UALR and UTA. There is a chance that all four could add football. Sun Belt needs back into the Florida market. Both schools have baseball and soccer.
SE Louisiana have a good baseball team.
Kennesaw State
Liberty have a good baseball team.
Nicholls State, NW La. State, Central Arkansas, Samford, SE Missouri State, McNeese State, Morehead State, Davidson, Elon, Stetson, Houston Baptist, Presbytarian, Sam Houston State and Citadel all baseball with football.

Davidson, Furman, Elon, Missouri State, Mercer, Wofford, Liberty, Incarnate Word, Stetson, Campbell, Central Arkansas, Jacksonville, Gardner-Webb and VMI have soccer.

Goose Creek high school,Conway high school
Summerville high school all times win leader

(07-23-2015 01:11 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 01:03 PM)ValleyBoy Wrote:  Per an article on the Sun Belt board (link on Sun Belt board) Benson named EKU & Coastal as two schools that the conference was looking at as new members of the conference.

No other schools were mentioned

So there is no need to start bring up the name of any other school located within the area that the Sun Belt covers.

Benson did say a few years ago that North Florida is a school that they are looking at as well. Sun Belt wants back into the Florida market. Jacksonville and Stetson are out. Florida A&M backed out of joining FBS. Bethune-Cookman is too small and no money. But that latest article sounded like they might wait on both EK and CC to move up all sports at the same time. North Florida could help in the Olympic sports that SBC really needs.

What Benson said a few years ago means nothing today. A few years ago 5 of the 11 members were not members of the conference. The Make up of the conference has changed since that statement.

(07-22-2015 04:42 PM)jdgaucho Wrote:  Good for Coastal Carolina, but to think this would be the first time that men's soccer and baseball were considered a big deal for an FBS conference is stunning.

I think you have to understand the SBC a little better. The reality is this is a Football/Baseball league. Basketball is a very secondary sport to most schools (Exception is Georgia State) Our basketball teams don't generally draw well, they don't generally compete well, and most teams frankly don't have the money to make basketball great. Football meanwhile has multiple schools that are against a league title game, citing they believe it will hurt the league more than help. (If there is not a great National TV spot, it hurts, if the title game knocks a team out of the access spot, it kills) So suddenly, AD's are not sitting here thinking we need a 12th football team...they are thinking, we need a 12th Olympic Sports Member to fix travel.

Since basketball does not carry much weight, being a Southern league, the onus fell to baseball. Baseball lost two of its best programs in the Florida schools to CUSA a couple years ago. Since they left...The league went from 4 NCAA bids to being a 1 bid league, despite the fact we've put a team in Super Regionals the past two seasons. What Coastal offers is a tremendous opportunity to gain some respect back for our baseball programs.

Meanwhile, SBC Men's soccer is in trouble. The league was only created because App, GS, and GSU were denied affiliate Men's Soccer memberships in the Socon and CAA. So the SBC's only 3 Soccer programs banded together and invited NJIT, Hartwick, and Howard to fill out a league. NJIT is leaving the SBC in a year or two, sticking the league with 5 members, so a Soccer program must be added. Coastal offers Soccer...pretty good Soccer. It's not a main issue, but it prevents an annoying issue that will not go away.

Why is JMU out of the picture?

(07-23-2015 11:43 PM)john01992 Wrote:  Why is JMU out of the picture?

Their Administration has pretty much decided they are no longer interested in FBS.

(07-23-2015 11:44 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:43 PM)john01992 Wrote:  Why is JMU out of the picture?

Their Administration has pretty much decided they are no longer interested in FBS.

When & Why?

(07-23-2015 11:45 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:44 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:43 PM)john01992 Wrote:  Why is JMU out of the picture?

Their Administration has pretty much decided they are no longer interested in FBS.

When & Why?

JMU is still interested in FBS, but want nothing to do with the Sun Belt academically.

JMU would take a MAC or CUSA bid in a NY minute.

(07-24-2015 02:33 AM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:45 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:44 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:43 PM)john01992 Wrote:  Why is JMU out of the picture?

Their Administration has pretty much decided they are no longer interested in FBS.

When & Why?

JMU is still interested in FBS, but want nothing to do with the Sun Belt academically.

JMU would take a MAC or CUSA bid in a NY minute.

And neither is likely to invite them and come July 1, 2016 JMU will require state board approval to reclassify.

JMU isn't interested in FBS, if they were they would scramble to move while they still control their own fate.

(07-24-2015 02:33 AM)NoDak Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:45 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:44 PM)chiefsfan Wrote:  

(07-23-2015 11:43 PM)john01992 Wrote:  Why is JMU out of the picture?

Their Administration has pretty much decided they are no longer interested in FBS.

When & Why?

JMU is still interested in FBS, but want nothing to do with the Sun Belt academically.

JMU would take a MAC or CUSA bid in a NY minute.

When they know that both MAC and CUSA are not going to be expanding anytime and they turned their head to the only conference that wanted them, they basically decided they no longer are pursuing FBS.