(11-27-2016 09:25 AM)AppManDG Wrote: (11-27-2016 07:57 AM)Saint3333 Wrote: I agree 9 for football works best, but for all sports CCU was a no brainer. They will be in the top half if not top fourth of pretty much all Olympic sports.
We really can't complain too much as App was likely the largest driving force for adding CCU.
UNCG, no thanks.
Andy, you gotta get past that SoCon prejudice and consider what's best for App. Name another non-football school within 3 hours of Boone that's a better choice. Don't think we were a driving force behind their admission.
Davidson. They're easily the best non-football school within maybe a six- or seven-hour radius of Boone.
Of course, you meant a school the SBC could actually get. No way they'd leave for any league other than the Big East.
I'd put UNCW as a more attractive non-football school than UNCG, but they're farther than the 3-hour radius, too. Besides, I'm doubtful UNCG would have interest in the SBC over staying in the SoCon or holding out for the Colonial.
All in all, there is no reversing decisions already made, and I'm personally very happy Coastal Carolina was chosen over EKU, Liberty, or the hypothetical UNCG or UNCW (who also wouldn't likely leave the Colonial for the SBC, anyway). Coastal is pretty darn far for a "travel partner," and that's a fair point. They're not much closer, if at all, than Georgia State is. But they are excellent from an all-around athletics standpoint, and they help meet the interests of the conference as a whole much better than any of the non-football options closer to Boone.
Really the only thing that would make sense would be for geographic realignment between the Sun Belt and C-USA. After three years, it's still ridiculous to me, with nothing at all against the fine programs in the western part of our league, that we are in a conference with Texas and Louisiana schools but not Charlotte, ODU, and Marshall, while those schools share a conference with UTEP and three other Texas schools. But that is another topic altogether.