I really hope that the following scenario plays out. The SoCon pursues Wilmington, who decides to connect with their southern roots once again and decides to join a more stable league. The SoCon also takes ETSU and reassures Davidson and CofC that the SoCon is here to stay and will focus more on basketball. The SoCon restructures its league from North South to East West divisions like so...
SoCon West:
Appalachian State
Chattanooga
ETSU
Furman
Samford
Western Carolina
Wofford
SoCon East:
Charleston
Davidson
Elon
Georgia Southern
The Citadel
UNC-Greensboro
UNC-Wilmington
(05-20-2012 07:16 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote: [ -> ]I really hope that the following scenario plays out. The SoCon pursues Wilmington, who decides to connect with their southern roots once again and decides to join a more stable league. The SoCon also takes ETSU and reassures Davidson and CofC that the SoCon is here to stay and will focus more on basketball. The SoCon restructures its league from North South to East West divisions like so...
SoCon West:
Appalachian State
Chattanooga
ETSU
Furman
Samford
Western Carolina
Wofford
SoCon East:
Charleston
Davidson
Elon
Georgia Southern
The Citadel
UNC-Greensboro
UNC-Wilmington
That could be the single greatest post I've ever seen on here. If only that would happen...wow.
(05-18-2012 07:58 PM)PittsburghBucs Wrote: [ -> ]What do we do with the soccer stadium if ETSU returns to the SoCon? Just answer me that.
Nothing. The SoCon has both Men's and Women's Soccer.
.....Maybe build some locker rooms?
Well I'll be damned.
Thanks Shadow.
There is a lot of talk on the UNCW message board, that if the CAA can't get Charleston and Davidson, that a good number of their fans would rather just go to the SoCon. I don't know how their administration feels, but I would guess my dream is a small possibility anyway.
I don't think there is any scenario where we'll be with App again, atleast not for awhile.
(05-21-2012 07:59 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think there is any scenario where we'll be with App again, atleast not for awhile.
Just another case of a former rival blowing past us an leaving us in their dust. Can anyone name a former rival that ETSU has blown past and left in its dust the past 25 years?
(05-22-2012 09:47 AM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ] (05-21-2012 07:59 PM)Buccaneerlover Wrote: [ -> ]I don't think there is any scenario where we'll be with App again, atleast not for awhile.
Just another case of a former rival blowing past us an leaving us in their dust. Can anyone name a former rival that ETSU has blown past and left in its dust the past 25 years?
Hey but we have soccer!
66- Good arguement.
Now, here's the ETSU spin:
ETSU is the best sports program in their conference! They blow away every one of their current rivals!
The problem with this talk of moving to another conference is-
A- Burned bridges with the SoCon and OVC. I might buy that if Mullins were to go the SoCon might be interested in them again, but until that happens, returning to the SoCon talk is a waste of time.
OVC just can't happen. I don't care if it is a new regime. ETSU spurned them once in the '70s and then spurned them again a few years ago. By this time the conference has got to have the philosophy ETSU can just rot. There are always other schools they can extend membership to.
B- The thing about moving to another conference is that most of them offer football. I still believe that ETSU could have gotten into the Big South when they were kicked out of the SoCon but they realized the football question was always going to be there so they went A-Sun, especially since the A-Sun was going to be more country club sport friendly.
If ETSU moves to another conference, more than likely the football question comes to the forefront. And all the coaches who believe that football will drain their own sport financially will be against such a move.
Lover once made the point that we should give Noland time to make changes because if he had come to ETSU throwing his weight around it would ruffle feathers and make it difficult for him to succeed.
I understand the point, but the counterpoint is throwing his weight around at first would also show who is boss and leadership abilities. Furthermore, the more Noland listens to the current athletic regime the more you have to figure he will be influenced by the current athletic regime.
What bothers me is that we haven't heard anything from Noland about the failures of ETSU sports during his regime. For instance, you'd like more from him than just a hollow statement about the new baseball park not having any seats than "the players voted to play there."
Interesting. Did they also vote to do summersaults at 6 a.m. a few days ago? Will the basketball players vote this year if they wish to play at Memorial Center, Brooks Gym, or perhaps Freedom Hall?
See, when Noland makes a comment like that he just takes his fan base to be fools. Player vote? Yeah, I'm buying that. Couldn't have been playing at the half-built place would mean not paying rent at another venue for a year. Noooooo.
Has there been one quote as of yet that makes anyone think the demise of the basketball teams last year was unacceptable? Or that he was upset with the way the halftime prize fiasco turned out and his own AD threw his employees under the bus?
C- The easiest thing that ETSU can do is just be the keystone of the A-Sun. If they do that, they have major influence in their own conference (whereas in another conference they would be the newcomer) and they make the NCAA men's basketball tournament with great regularity. No, ETSU doesn't become the Marquette of the south, as it was sometimes alluded to they would be after they dropped football. But they might become the Murray State or Winthrop. Football discussion is left to die on the vine.
I'm not saying this is the way ETSU should go. I am saying that if you know ETSU history and politics it's hard to believe they won't take the path C.
(05-20-2012 07:16 AM)ETSUfan1 Wrote: [ -> ]I really hope that the following scenario plays out. The SoCon pursues Wilmington, who decides to connect with their southern roots once again and decides to join a more stable league. The SoCon also takes ETSU and reassures Davidson and CofC that the SoCon is here to stay and will focus more on basketball. The SoCon restructures its league from North South to East West divisions like so...
SoCon West:
Appalachian State
Chattanooga
ETSU
Furman
Samford
Western Carolina
Wofford
SoCon East:
Charleston
Davidson
Elon
Georgia Southern
The Citadel
UNC-Greensboro
UNC-Wilmington
Where is "go" and his prediction of an ETSU move to the SoCon? Does he have an update?
Anything that one reads these days about the college conference reshuffling should remind Buc fans that their school has dropped into total athletic irrelevancy. You simply do not see ETSU on any list. Instead of building a basketball program as promised after the demise of football, money has been poured down the rat hole of invisible sports. Where has that left ETSU for a time like we're seeing? Holding the proverbial bag. See below article:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/sports/spo...r-1927827/
(05-26-2012 06:05 PM)Buc66 Wrote: [ -> ]Anything that one reads these days about the college conference reshuffling should remind Buc fans that their school has dropped into total athletic irrelevancy. You simply do not see ETSU on any list. Instead of building a basketball program as promised after the demise of football, money has been poured down the rat hole of invisible sports. Where has that left ETSU for a time like we're seeing? Holding the proverbial bag. See below article:
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/sports/spo...r-1927827/
Thank you Dave Mullins.
I wonder where ETSU will be when the NCAA implodes and the major conferences make up their own alliances. Which has got to be why the Appalachian States and such want to move to FBS. They want to be in position to be included in such a new alliance.
We may be in the last era of ETSU being a Division I program.
(05-26-2012 06:16 PM)bucfan81 Wrote: [ -> ]Thank you Dave Mullins.
According to the article:
"Without ODU, Georgia State and Rhode Island, which is shifting to the Northeast Conference, CAA Football's roll is reduced to eight in 2013: Richmond, William and Mary, James Madison, Towson, Delaware, Villanova, New Hampshire and Maine. That translates into only seven conference games. Members want eight league games, or, at minimum, nine teams."
That is some solid athletic shrinkage! Did they hire Stanton/Mullins as their conference co-commissioners? The way our athletics department has been run (into the ground), ETSU may be a good fit for CAA . . . especially since Maine and New Hampshire would be longer road trip$ than FGCU and Stetson.
CAA=Cheaters Athletics Association.
Just spouting here; but, I've held a long-time football grudge against JMU. Remember about 18ish years ago when ETSU football was ranked pretty high? We went to play at James Madison. They watered-down the field right before game time. Their players had rain cleats, our rain cleats were back at the dome (we didn't think we'd need them on a sunny day with no rain in the forecast). After our o-backs spent all game sliding all over the place, the JMU fans got to chant "over-rated" at us.
Congratulations JMU...you beat a so-called over-rated team by unethically altering the field conditions.
IF we wind up in the CAA, and IF we ever get football back: we should turn the floor of the dome into a lake and give our players swim fins for the JMU game.
I remember that game. That's the first I heard of watering down the field, but I do remember the "Overrated" chant, which was probably accurate.
I do remember how that loss eventually killed ETSU's chances of a repeat trip to the postseason.
I have always looked at that loss as a turning point of the program. Not that there weren't successes that followed- there were- but after that game JMU's program went one way and ETSU's went another.
Disagree with me if you'd like, but if ETSU still had football, I think they'd still be left out of the conversation because of location. The Tri-Cities simply isn't attractive enough to conferences. The whole motivation for moving to the FBS level is revenue. The increased revenue comes from media rights deals. So basically, it's about households and new, attractive TV markets. That's why ODU, Charlotte, and Georgia State are able to make the jump without any real on field success, or in the case of Charlotte, any kind of team. We can add football, but we won't become the 8th (Atlanta), 24th (Charlotte), or 42nd (Hampton Roads, VA) TV markets in the country. That's why in all of this advancement, App State is still on the outside looking in.
(05-29-2012 03:54 PM)LetsgoBucs Wrote: [ -> ]Disagree with me if you'd like, but if ETSU still had football, I think they'd still be left out of the conversation because of location. The Tri-Cities simply isn't attractive enough to conferences. The whole motivation for moving to the FBS level is revenue. The increased revenue comes from media rights deals. So basically, it's about households and new, attractive TV markets. That's why ODU, Charlotte, and Georgia State are able to make the jump without any real on field success, or in the case of Charlotte, any kind of team. We can add football, but we won't become the 8th (Atlanta), 24th (Charlotte), or 42nd (Hampton Roads, VA) TV markets in the country. That's why in all of this advancement, App State is still on the outside looking in.
And we are talking about getting back to the
FCS not the
FBS.
We just need to get back to where we were in 2003 and then move forward. We obviously are going nowhere in the fast lane without football and let us urge Dr. Noland to start the ball moving as quickly as possible
(05-29-2012 03:54 PM)LetsgoBucs Wrote: [ -> ]Disagree with me if you'd like, but if ETSU still had football, I think they'd still be left out of the conversation because of location. The Tri-Cities simply isn't attractive enough to conferences. The whole motivation for moving to the FBS level is revenue. The increased revenue comes from media rights deals. So basically, it's about households and new, attractive TV markets. That's why ODU, Charlotte, and Georgia State are able to make the jump without any real on field success, or in the case of Charlotte, any kind of team. We can add football, but we won't become the 8th (Atlanta), 24th (Charlotte), or 42nd (Hampton Roads, VA) TV markets in the country. That's why in all of this advancement, App State is still on the outside looking in.
ETSU with successful FCS football and a desire to move up would've been perfect for the Sun Belt. We would've given App a true travel partner while tying in nicely with WKU/MT and Ga. State.
The Tri-Cities isn't a huge TV market, but it's enough. Oh well, it's all irrelevant unless someone wins the lottery or a major shift in the culture at ETSU takes place, neither or which are likely to happen.