(06-27-2020 10:09 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  

(06-27-2020 10:05 AM)Cyniclone Wrote:  

(06-27-2020 09:46 AM)johnbragg Wrote:  I think the easiest solution, the solution that protects everybody (which is something administrators like), is for Monmouth and Robert Morris to switch from Big South football to MEAC football.

I'm not sure the Big South wants to go past 12 full members. (Assuming that Presbyterian survives in Division I). Howard doesn't want to be seen as killing the MEAC. With NC A&T, the ASUN affiliates and the two northern affiliates, Big South is at 10. MEAC is at 6.

I don't know that Monmouth or RMU would care very much about dropping down the ladder a little bit. They'd be moving to the MEAC for (mostly) the same reasons the Big South took them in (protecting members of the club), and they'd be looking at less travel.

With two affiliates, MEAC football has a cushion against defections, which makes defections a little less likely.

Except the MEAC gives up its automatic FCS playoff berth so it can send its champion to the Celebration Bowl. Do they, or NBC for that matter, want Monmouth or Robert Morris representing the MEAC in this celebration of HBCUs?

If one or two more MEAC schools leave, it would probably be a moot point anyway. Everyone would have to find another home, go indy or drop to D2 (is it permissible to have non-football independents?)

That's something I hadn't thought through, and is significant. On the other hand, the MEAC commissioner is talking about bringing in PWIs, because keeping the MEAC alive is more important than keeping the Celebration Bowl.

There's definitely two paths that diverge from another MEAC school leaving: Either take anyone willing to come aboard (D2s, PWI FCS football programs) or dissolve as the rest of the pack run for cover. I suspect it'll be the latter because any affiliates will always be a flight risk, especially if they're a cultural misfit (PWI Chowan joined the CIAA until Conference Carolinas, the place they probably wanted to be all along, invited them). Meanwhile, there's few if any D2s able and willing to join, and that's not likely to change for a long time. And everyone left is eyeing the door nervously.

If the MEAC can get Virginia State to come aboard, they can survive one more defection. Maybe. If Delaware State or someone else moves first, it's over.