(03-28-2011 11:52 AM)mjs Wrote: (03-28-2011 06:53 AM)MICHAELSPAPPY Wrote: Colonial is a much stronger conference than SBC.
It certainly is now. Now sure it was 10-15 years ago. Not sure what has happened to the Belt. Probably football, which the Colonial is smart enough not to mess with.
Actually, the CAA does sponsor football, but at the right level. CAA football is the strongest conference in America at the FCS level. Richmond football competes in the CAA. That said, the CAA is way stronger than the SBC year in and year out in basketball. George Mason, Old Dominion, VCU are pretty solid every year, and the others make noise from time to time. Drexel, James Madison, UNC-Willmington, Northeastern.
VCU is similar to UALR in a lot of ways, and dissimilar in some other really important ways concerning athletics. The #1 difference is how the VCU community relates to and supports the program. The Seigal Center at VCU holds about 7,000 and it is regularly full or pretty close to it. VCU really does a good job of promoting its athletics in the City of Richmond.
Also, although VCU is not the main state university, it attracts a different kind of student than UVA. Those students get behind the Rams in a big way, and there are a ton of them- the school has a student body of about 30,000, so filling up a 7,000 seat arena with current students and local alums isn't that big of a trick.
And finally, the population of the State of Virginia is not as myoptic about sports as is the largely provential population of this state that has totally bought into the "Chickenhawgs are the only game in town" mentality.