Just announced

https://www.aseaofred.com/asun-adds-aust...oiC9su5U2o

(09-17-2021 05:04 PM)Ewglenn Wrote:  Just announced

https://www.aseaofred.com/asun-adds-aust...oiC9su5U2o

LETS GO PEAY!

I thought that Bellarmine might end up in the OVC, now maybe the OVC will end up with Bellarmine in the ASUN. How about Murray and Morehead?

(09-20-2021 10:28 AM)knightmoves Wrote:  

(09-17-2021 05:04 PM)Ewglenn Wrote:  Just announced

https://www.aseaofred.com/asun-adds-aust...oiC9su5U2o

LETS GO PEAY!

I thought that Bellarmine might end up in the OVC, now maybe the OVC will end up with Bellarmine in the ASUN. How about Murray and Morehead?

I don't know that either of those really fit the profile of what we're going for here. Morehead would be okay I guess when viewed as a non-football member who, like Stetson, plays in the Pioneer League for non-scholarship programs.

Murray plays scholarship football, but they'll never commit to it financially in the way that this conference is built around. They have their eye on the MVC, and I suspect they'll get there sooner than later.

Beyond that, remember that ASUN made a commitment to not take so many schools from any one conference that they would lose their AQ status. The OVC has reached that point. With Austin Peay gone they are at only 6 football-playing members. I suppose if the conference outright disbands then all bets are off, but I'm not holding my breath on any more OVC members.

If by chance we did take another OVC school I feel like Tennessee State might be worth a look.

I don't think Bellarmine was ever headed to the OVC. Their big institutional goalis to sell themselves as the premier Catholic university in the South (where there is a void to be filled), and the OVC isn't southern focused enough not dipping beneath the upper half of Tennessee.

(09-20-2021 10:46 AM)eku05 Wrote:  I don't think Bellarmine was ever headed to the OVC. Their big institutional goalis to sell themselves as the premier Catholic university in the South (where there is a void to be filled), and the OVC isn't southern focused enough not dipping beneath the upper half of Tennessee.

In terms of athletics, I think Bellarmine's "southern positioning" is lip service to an extent -- if, say, the Horizon League comes calling one day, BU would make the jump in a heartbeat (not saying I want that to happen). Decades from now, I can see them pushing for the Big East, but who knows what conferences will look like then?

I do believe that BU, in general, has a legit interest in the growing population base of the ASUN markets -- a lot of future college students down there.

(09-21-2021 03:29 AM)BellarmineGrad Wrote:  

(09-20-2021 10:46 AM)eku05 Wrote:  I don't think Bellarmine was ever headed to the OVC. Their big institutional goalis to sell themselves as the premier Catholic university in the South (where there is a void to be filled), and the OVC isn't southern focused enough not dipping beneath the upper half of Tennessee.

In terms of athletics, I think Bellarmine's "southern positioning" is lip service to an extent -- if, say, the Horizon League comes calling one day, BU would make the jump in a heartbeat (not saying I want that to happen). Decades from now, I can see them pushing for the Big East, but who knows what conferences will look like then?

I do believe that BU, in general, has a legit interest in the growing population base of the ASUN markets -- a lot of future college students down there.

That's totally fair. There are certain opportunities you wouldn't pass up because they are what they are. I think EKU would bolt for the Sun Belt, MAC, or C-USA instantly also. I don't anticipate any of those invites coming soon, though.

But the OVC would be a lateral move (maybe not even that at this point with Peay gone), and it would take them out of a geographic area that I know they value.