Georgia Southern's consolidation of Armstrong State's campuses became official as of January 1st. Georgia Southern now has three campuses: the main one in Statesboro, a large one that currently has 7k students in lower downtown Savannah, and a military-serving campus located on Fort Stewart. GS is now ~28,000 students large, the 4th largest in GA.
Normally, this wouldn't be a topic for a sports board, but it could affect where some Olympic teams in the SBC play and travel to in the future.
Unlike other state mergers like KSU/Southern Poly and GAST/Ga Perimeter which were right down the street from each other, Georgia Southern's campuses are a little less than an hour apart, but the Savannah Campus is not a branch at all. For now, all classes will be taught on both campuses and all students will be full-fledged, athletic-fee-paying students. Transportation will be provided to Savannah students to and from all home football games in Statesboro.
Georgia Southern is also moving the offices of some of its colleges to the Savannah Campus, namely GS's two most prestigious ones: School of Nursing and College of Education. This could mean that in the future, specific upper level classes might only be taught on one campus and students who would have attended class in Statesboro might now be moving to Savannah. That would spell doom for the City of Statesboro. In any rate, Georgia Southern will look and feel radically different in 5-10 years.
The expansion of the Savannah campus has already begun with a new Healthcare Professions College on the way and new dorms and auxiliary buildings having been finished recently.
Georgia Southern's Savannah Campus:
For the future of Georgia Southern Sports:
All sports will continue to be played in Statesboro. However, since Savannah students pay athletic fees, different ideas have been tossed around to include the Savannah campus in sporting decisions and opportunities. Georgia Southern will most likely host volleyball, tennis, or even baseball/softball tournaments in Savannah going forward. Armstrong built a brand new 2M dollar tennis complex right before the consolidation was announced and has adequate facilities for things like volleyball and softball.
The City of Savannah is also building a 200M dollar basketball arena to replace the current dinosaur of a Civic Center. The arena will be 9,000-10,000 seats and will be located in the Canal District of downtown. With no other major sports in the city needing a facility like that, I think they are assuming that GS will play some games there or use it for tournaments. This would significantly help Georgia Southern with scheduling out of conference basketball games. Read more on the new arena here:
http://www.savannahga.gov/arena