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Full Version: NORTH Alabama to do study on move to Division 1
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perfect for the A-Sun, excerpt from Florence Alabama paper:

Members of the University of North Alabama board of trustees decided Friday to look into the feasibility of taking the university's athletic program to the NCAA Division I level.

Should the move occur, all Lions athletic teams would compete in Division I, except the football program, which would participate in the Football Championship Subdivision, formerly known as NCAA Division I-AA.

UNA is an NCAA Division II member, where it has won national championships in football and basketball.

Ironically, the university and the Shoals are the hosts for the NCAA Division II National Championship football game, which will be played next weekend in Florence.

"We're probably overdue, and we've had other opportunities to do this, but now is certainly the time," said trustee Billy Don Anderson.

The decision came during a called executive committee meeting Friday, which was held outside the trustees' regular meeting.

The executive committee board agreed unanimously to spend $30,000 with NACDA Consulting Firm for a feasibility study. Johnny Williams, a UNA graduate and all-conference defensive tackle for the Lions, will spearhead the study. He is a former senior associate athletic director at the University of Alabama and was the athletic director at Troy University during its transition from a Division II to a Division I school.

Mark Linder, who came to UNA as athletic director in August from Western Missouri State, said there would be challenges to the transition.

"There would be lots of staff, resources and scholarships to add, but our goal would be to get it to where it is a competitive (Division I) program," he said.

The earliest UNA could transition into Division I would be 2011. The NCAA has a moratorium on schools seeking a move to Division I.

This is not the first time UNA has explored Division I status for its athletic teams. Shortly after winning a third NCAA Division II football championship in 1995, officials inquired about making the change. The issue has been debated on other occasions.


Board members want to study move to NCAA Division I level
North Alabama might make more sense for the OVC if they plan to sponsor scholarship football. They are very close to the Tennessee border and there are already four OVC members located there. Jacksonville State is also still in the OVC for the time being pending any future plans that would not be able to take effect until after the moratorium ends. Maybe having North Alabama move up might even be enough to convince them to stay put although I kind of doubt it.
Horrible for the A-Sun! We need to shake this image that we take DII's. It's a recent trend that needs to stop.
I agree with Krocker, UNA has OVC written all over them. Maybe this will cool the pressure to move to Division I FBS at Jacksonville State. Since Georgia Southern seems interested in moving up, I also see the Southern Conference looking at North Alabama.

If UNA doesn't get in the Ohio Valley or Southern Conferences, I'd expect them to play Big South football.
UNA fits right at home in the OVC, I don't see the A-Sun being interested in that addition in the first place because they seem to be trying to steer clear of those school with football programs. I think the Atlantic Sun believes that steals from a feeling of complete unity within the confrence, Longwood still seems to be the favorite in my book but it wouldn't suprise me if no replacement was found at all next season.
I think the Atlantic Sun does not mind schools with non-scholarship football, like Jacksonville and Campbell, but North Alabama is clearly a scholarship program right now and that is unlikely to change. The OVC will probably take the first crack at North Alabama as a replacement for Samford and an inducement to hopefully convince Jacksonville State to stick around for a few more years.

As for Longwood, they have been sitting there all these years, and the Atlantic Sun just does not seem interested. If the administrators feel like the fans on here then they do not think the return for stretching the league's footprint into Virginia is worthwhile. Longwood makes perfect sense for the Big South except that there are 10 schools there now and they have no room at this time.
Longwood's chances would probably help if the Southern Conference lost a member to the Bowl Subdivision, i.e.:

Georgia Southern (Southern) to Division I FBS
Kennesaw State (Atlantic Sun) to Southern (a distinct possibility if they start football)
UNC-Asheville (Big South) to Atlantic Sun
Longwood (Independent) to Big South

I picked UNC-Asheville for this example since they are actually located near departing member Gardner-Webb (Boiling Springs), and are very close to USC-Upstate (Spartanburg) as well. UNCA does not play football, so they would likely stay in the Atlantic Sun for quite some time.
The problem with that is, if Georgia Southern moves up to FBS, Appalachian State will move up right behind them. Both schools are studying a move right now but Georgia Southern decided to be louder about it than Appalachian State. The groundwork has been going on behind the scenes at both places for some time.

If they both leave, the Southern Conference will be looking for two football schools, and the most likely locations to take those two members would be Georgia and/or South Carolina. This would allow Davidson to move from its current placement in the South Division to the North Division with the other North Carolina schools.

Georgia State and Kennesaw State could both get the call in this scenario. That would give the Southern Conference two presences in the Atlanta market after going for so many years with nothing there. A big question is whether the Southern Conference would take two football start-ups but they might have no choice.

This scenario, with Kennesaw State departing, would drop the Atlantic Sun to 10 members and leave them with no urgency to do anything. A replacement, probably one with football, would be needed for Georgia State by the CAA. If they took Coastal Carolina then Longwood would finally have a chance to join the Big South.
I was wondering when the Lions might take a serious look at moving up to Division I. UNA is one of the 3 original members of the Gulf South Conference who still remain in the league out of the 10 schools who started the GSC back in the early 1970's. The other two are Delta St. and West Alabama.

Most of the original members moved up to 1AA (Nicholls St., Northwestern St. and SE Louisiana to the Southland, UT-Martin to the OVC, Jacksonville St. to the Southland & A-Sun before the OVC), Troy to ECC, MCC and TAAC/A-Sun & Southland before leaving 1AA for the 1A Sun Belt). Mississippi College is the only original member to drop down to Division III.

If the Lions do move up, the most natural fit for them would be the OVC, but I'm not sure the league is interested in finding a replacement for Samford, which will be moving to the Southern Conference next year. The Bulldogs' departure leaves the league with 10 members, 9 of whom compete for the OVC football title (Morehead St. plays in the non-scholarship Pioneer League).

If UNA does get in the OVC, 6 of their opponents would be within fairly easy driving distance (1 in Alabama, 4 in Tennessee, 1 in southern Kentucky). That's closer than many of the Arkansas teams that UNA currently plays in the GSC.

I don't see North Alabama as a logical fit for the Atlantic Sun or the Big South. Only Belmont, Lipscomb and Kennesaw St. are within easy driving distance out of the A-Sun schools and there would be no conference affiliation for the football team. The schools in the Big South are too far away to consider for all-sports membership, and the Lions face tougher competition in the Division II GSC than they would in the 1AA BSC.

The Southern Conference is a remote possibility - but only if one or more current members decides to move up to big-time football. Should that happen - and if they haven't decided to move up to 1A themselves - the first team likely to get a So-Con invite would be Jacksonville St. After that, both Georgia St. and North Alabama would probably get a look, and so would Gardner-Webb. Not much chance that Kennesaw St. would get any consideration.

And, on a couple of related notes: with Samford joining the So-Con next year, the Bulldogs will most likely be placed in the Southern Division, bumping Davidson up to the Northern Division. And there is no logical reason for UNC-Asheville to leave the Big South - a rather compact league with a recent NCAA tourney first-round winner - for a widely spread A-Sun that hasn't had anyone make it past the opening round in recent memory.
Any chance Longwood could join America East? They would provide a southern rival for Maryland-Baltimore County, and adding Longwood would give the AEC 10 schools.
Georgia State will not move to the Southern Conference. The ONLY reason Georgia State would consider that lateral (at best) move is to be more closely aligned with Ga Southern and App St., both of which are moving-up in the previous scenarios.
I think the better fit for the SoCon, should Ga Southern bolt, is West Georgia. http://www.ajc.com/search/content/sports..._1212.html
They've flirted with moving up the past couple of years, plus they are a much better fit as far as size and location to Samford, UTC, and potentially mentioned Kennesaw St.
Look at the SoCon's recent moves, other than booting us, they've been taking small, private religion based colleges. Wofford, Samford, Elon, Davidson, Furman... The Citadel, though a state school is ran like a private school. I wouldn't expect to see UWG move there. The Southern also isn't big on adding D-2's that move up unless they have a ton of money.

ChooChoo Wrote:Georgia State will not move to the Southern Conference. The ONLY reason Georgia State would consider that lateral (at best) move is to be more closely aligned with Ga Southern and App St., both of which are moving-up in the previous scenarios.
I think the better fit for the SoCon, should Ga Southern bolt, is West Georgia. http://www.ajc.com/search/content/sports..._1212.html
They've flirted with moving up the past couple of years, plus they are a much better fit as far as size and location to Samford, UTC, and potentially mentioned Kennesaw St.
The SoCon is trying to stay balanced between public and private schools:

Public (7) - Appalachian State, The Citadel, College of Charleston, Georgia Southern, NC Greensboro, TN Chattanooga, Western Carolina
Private (5) - Davidson, Elon, Furman, Samford, Wofford

Obviously, if two public schools leave, the private schools may want to balance the expansion accordingly (which should help Gardner-Webb, and in turn, Longwood).

West Georgia should at least get a look from the OVC:

OVC North - Southeast MO State, Eastern IL, Eastern KY, Morehead State, Murray State, Austin Peay State
OVC South - Jacksonville State, West Georgia, North Alabama, TN State, TN Tech, TN Martin

If Jacksonville State leaves, the OVC could pick up Western Illinois, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville, Bellarmine, or Northern Kentucky (should the Knights or Norse decide to move to Division I).
North Alabama makes a whole lot of sense for the OVC if their addition can convince Jacksonville State to stick around. The OVC operated with 11 members for all the years that Samford was aboard so that does not seem to be much of a problem for them. It is always possible that they might have a 12th member in mind that we are unaware of anyway. As for Longwood, it is located nearly five hours south of UMBC, and America East will most likely focus on football schools if it ever expands again.

The problem with the Southern Conference projections people are making is that it will not lose just Georgia Southern. Appalachian State will follow Georgia Southern almost immediately if they decide to move up. That means the Southern Conference would be looking for two new members in that scenario and they would both have to be football schools. In addition, the Southern Conference seems to be striving to maintain an even balance in its public/private ratio, which is 6/6 with Samford added.
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