There is report that on the Charleston's ESPN radio talk show this morning that there are that an early rumors that there are talks that the Big South and Southern are in talks on merging. The idea is to merge, and that Monmouth and Liberty would be booted for this to work. Liberty wants FBS, but both Monmouth and Liberty could be homeless in the near future if these rumors are true. Kennesaw State to Southern Conference as a full member as well? A-Sun could take a hit at the same time as Monmouth and Liberty. Can A-Sun take in Monmouth for all sports, and try to start a football conference, and take in Liberty before they get into FBS? Winthrop could be adding football with them to decide at the end of this academic year. North Florida and Florida Gulf Coast are talking about football with FGCU been getting alums donating money for football. Could South Carolina-Upstate be also thinking of football as well?
Monmouth in the A-Sun could help be as a travel partner for New Jersey Tech.
Southern Conference lineup:
Mercer
Kennesaw State
Campbell (Pioneer football)
Charleston Southern
The Citadel
Gardner-Webb
High Point (club football, could add football)
Longwood (club football)
Presbyterian
Radford (club football)
UNC-Asheville
Winthrop (club football)
Chattanooga (could go FBS)
Furman
Samford
VMI
Western Carolina
Wofford
East Tennessee State
UNC-Grensboro (club football)
With what is going on and a possible Big 12 expansion which could be a trickle down effect, Southern Conference could have several teams be called up as a possible replacements.
So, their football will have:
Charleston Southern
Gardner-Webb
High Point (future)
Presbyterian
Winthrop (possible future)
Kennesaw State
The Citadel
Chatanooga
Furman
Mercer
Samford
VMI
Western Carolina
Wofford
East Tennessee State
Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Kennesaw State, Mercer and Western Carolina could move out of Southern Conference. Plus, Southern Conference could lose members to the CAA as well. It would be a 20 team conference with 13 for football. Since both Big south and Southern have been raided by both CAA and Sun Belt, this would solidfied their conferences in case they lose more schools.
I don't see this a realistic. Both conferences have 10 all sports members in a geographically friendly region. SoCOn has 9 for football which is their ideal number based on their history. Big South is down to the minimum of 6, but that is not the SoCon's problem to be quite blunt.
(09-01-2015 08:09 PM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]I don't see this a realistic. Both conferences have 10 all sports members in a geographically friendly region. SoCOn has 9 for football which is their ideal number based on their history. Big South is down to the minimum of 6, but that is not the SoCon's problem to be quite blunt.
The question is on how many more schools that Southern Conference will lose to the CAA and Sun Belt in the future? And if you look at the Big South schools I listed?
Campbell-North Carolina fits in Southern's geographic region.
Charleston Southern-South Carolina fits in with The Citadel.
Gardner-Webb-North Carolina
High Point-North Carolina
Longwood-Virginia with VMI
Presbyterian-South Carolina
Radford-Virginia
UNC-Asheville
Winthrop-South Carolina
Kennesaw State-Georgia from A-Sun as well.
This would solidfied their geographical region perfectly. This is proactive, and protect their conference for further raids. Kicking out the outlier of Monmouth and exclude Liberty makes it much more realistic for Southern. Southern and Big South do still have teams that can still be poached. Does Chattanooga decide on not just sitting still to see a Big South schools get a FBS spot, and decides to spend money to fix their facilities up to join the Sun Belt?
It wasn't a report it was just idle speculation from some yahoo radio host
I think this is more of a delusional comment rather than factual. So now we are going to get several conferences to merge and boot out Liberty and Monmouth. This is so outrageous it does not deserve comment. It's best to do a little homework if one is making a post rather than recite unfounded, radio host, sport shock jock topics, with no merit.
The Atlantic Sun might merge with the Big South, which would make more sense. Or better yet, add No Alabama and W Georgia to the ASun, with their football going to the Big South.
The So Con is too snooty to merge with the Big South. Smaller conference lose half their NCAA income by merging. Merger is always the last option.
(09-01-2015 09:31 PM)NewTimes Wrote: [ -> ]I think this is more of a delusional comment rather than factual. So now we are going to get several conferences to merge and boot out Liberty and Monmouth. This is so outrageous it does not deserve comment. It's best to do a little homework if one is making a post rather than recite unfounded, radio host, sport shock jock topics, with no merit.
Look who started this topic. The most delusional poster on this board.
(09-01-2015 10:31 PM)NoDak Wrote: [ -> ]The Atlantic Sun might merge with the Big South, which would make more sense. Or better yet, add No Alabama and W Georgia to the ASun, with their football going to the Big South.
The So Con is too snooty to merge with the Big South. Smaller conference lose half their NCAA income by merging. Merger is always the last option.
I agree this looks more realistic then a Big South/Southern Conference merger. Also, Monmouth is not going to move their other sports from the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference to the Atlantic Sun. They are only in the Big South for football.
I doubt Furman & Wofford (Presbyterian) or The Citadel (Chuck South) are too keen on promoting lesser programs in their own backyards.
Chuck South is 20 minutes away from El Cid, PC is 50 minutes from Furman and 45 from Wofford.
Look for either Campbell and/or Jacksonville to announce Big South football membership in the next few months. If Jacksonville goes I wouldn't be surprised to see Stetson join them.
The conference that is most in jeopardy of absorption is the one with the weakest brand.
The Southern Conference has an excellent brand and great tradition. Its unlikely they would want to share that tradition with the entire Big South conference (minus Liberty).
The mindset of the lower tier Division 1 conferences which the Big South is squarely a part of is to do whatever is possible to maintain NCAA automatic bids to championships. The NCAA is the only reliable revenue source.
The question then is could the Big South by merging/expanding with the Atlantic Sun be able to offer more championships?
The Big South does not sponsor the following sports:
Men's
Lacrosse (High Point)
Swimming (Gardner-Webb)
Wrestling (Campbell, Gardner-Webb)
Women's
Field Hockey (Liberty, Longwood)
Swimming (Campbell, Gardner-Webb, Liberty, UNC-Ashville)
The Atlantic Sun does not sponsor the following sports:
Men's
Fencing (NJIT)
Football (Jacksonville, Kennesaw St, Stetson)
Lacrosse (NIT, Jacksonville)
Rowing (Jacksonville, NJIT)
Swimming & Diving (NJIT)
Women's
Fencing (NJIT)
Rowing (Jacksonville, Stetson)
Swimming & Diving (Florida Gulf Coast, North Florida)
It looks like there is a potential match between women's diving and football if the two conferences could merge.
Now what I would propose is not a straight merger but for the Big South to absorb everyone besides Lipscomb and NJIT......6 schools.....4 of which are in Florida and then Kennesaw State and South Carolina Upstate all to the Big South.
Create a 16 team Big South that will be more competitive in all sports by doing the merger. Florida Gulf Coast will be a nice add on the basketball side of things for the Big South.
Big South ASUN merger makes more sense, but the Big South is stable at 10 members and still has the 6 members to get the football bid. I think they will be ok without having to merge. What would be in it for the Big South? They gain no additional football schools through the merger and can most likely take who they want from the ASUN right now.
(09-02-2015 12:10 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]Big South ASUN merger makes more sense, but the Big South is stable at 10 members and still has the 6 members to get the football bid. I think they will be ok without having to merge. What would be in it for the Big South? They gain no additional football schools through the merger and can most likely take who they want from the ASUN right now.
-More olympic sport depth as a 16 member conference.
-Higher seeds in the NCAAs.
-A toehold in Florida for recruiting.
I've long thought the Florida schools of the ASun to be a valuable group since there are so few Division 1 Florida schools in existence. They are enough to make the core of their own conference but could be nice in a super conference (16 team Big South).
(09-02-2015 12:34 AM)Kittonhead Wrote: [ -> ] (09-02-2015 12:10 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]Big South ASUN merger makes more sense, but the Big South is stable at 10 members and still has the 6 members to get the football bid. I think they will be ok without having to merge. What would be in it for the Big South? They gain no additional football schools through the merger and can most likely take who they want from the ASUN right now.
-More olympic sport depth as a 16 member conference.
-Higher seeds in the NCAAs.
-A toehold in Florida for recruiting.
I've long thought the Florida schools of the ASun to be a valuable group since there are so few Division 1 Florida schools in existence. They are enough to make the core of their own conference but could be nice in a super conference (16 team Big South).
I disagree about the higher seeding. Eliminating a conference adds an at large and knocks all the one bid conferences down a seed line
I totally agree about the Florida grouping. I always though that was the direction the Asun should go. Become the Big West of Florida. Would be a long term project but I'm sure they could get a couple of more FL, AL upgrades.
Southern Conference Affiliates:
Air Force-Men's La Crosse, RMAC as a whole for FCS from D2 could move Air Force's Men's La Crosse into RMAC.
Appalachian State-Wrestling
Bellarmine-men's Lacrosse (future Southern member?)
Campbell-Wrestling (Big South)
Davidson-wrestling
Gardner-Webb-Wrestling (Big South)
High Point-men's Lacrosse (Big South)
Jacksonville-men's La Crosse
Richmond-Men's La Crosse
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville- wrestling
The question is who else get poached out of the Southern Conference?
Who will Southern Conference replace schools that they could lose?
Southern already have 3 schools from the Big South as affiliates and an A-Sun school.
Chattanooga, East Tennessee State, Mercer, Western Carolina and UNC-Greensboro (CAA?) leaves for bigger deal? Southern would need to decide where they go to. Would they extend Bellarmine a full invite?
Southern may not have much choice in the future on where to go if they lose schools.
So the SoCon absorbs the Big South only to kick out their most successful member who is a private school just like the majority of the SoCon? That makes sense.
Its also a socon requirment to play football. They have made exceptions in the past to get to a 9/12 format and uncg still lives off that exception on the new 9/10 format both of which are very acceptable and practical.
The Socon is the most stable it has been in a long time. Mostly private/military schools with a handful of content smaller publics that have been around for awhile that won't dominate the privates like app and ga southern did
(09-02-2015 07:04 AM)solohawks Wrote: [ -> ]Its also a socon requirment to play football. They have made exceptions in the past to get to a 9/12 format and uncg still lives off that exception on the new 9/10 format both of which are very acceptable and practical.
The Socon is the most stable it has been in a long time. Mostly private/military schools with a handful of content smaller publics that have been around for awhile that won't dominate the privates like app and ga southern did
Chattanooga and East Tennessee State are not small public schools.
The snobs in Southern do not want a very large Liberty because of a:) Liberty's mission is different from the Southern's and b.:) Liberty is spending a lot of money like a drunken sailor.
Athletically they are smaller than an app or ga southern and won't dominate the privates like app and ga southern did
(09-01-2015 10:57 PM)utpotts Wrote: [ -> ] (09-01-2015 09:31 PM)NewTimes Wrote: [ -> ]I think this is more of a delusional comment rather than factual. So now we are going to get several conferences to merge and boot out Liberty and Monmouth. This is so outrageous it does not deserve comment. It's best to do a little homework if one is making a post rather than recite unfounded, radio host, sport shock jock topics, with no merit.
Look who started this topic. The most delusional poster on this board.
I debated to even reply but with the recent Coastal move, it seemed best to express my thoughts about the Big South Conference as a school that is a member of it. I believe our initial poster means well and enjoys participating on this board due to their high volume posting in such a short membership time.
(09-01-2015 10:57 PM)utpotts Wrote: [ -> ] (09-01-2015 09:31 PM)NewTimes Wrote: [ -> ]I think this is more of a delusional comment rather than factual. So now we are going to get several conferences to merge and boot out Liberty and Monmouth. This is so outrageous it does not deserve comment. It's best to do a little homework if one is making a post rather than recite unfounded, radio host, sport shock jock topics, with no merit.
Look who started this topic. The most delusional poster on this board.
I debated to even reply but with the recent Coastal move, it seemed best to express my thoughts about the Big South Conference as a school that is a member of it. I believe our initial poster means well and enjoys participating on this board due to their high volume posting in such a short membership time.