(02-03-2021 05:56 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(02-03-2021 01:10 PM)BePcr07 Wrote:  

(02-03-2021 12:54 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(02-03-2021 12:11 PM)CitrusUCF Wrote:  

(02-03-2021 11:37 AM)BePcr07 Wrote:  McNeese AD said there are football schools within their footprint they would like to target. Who? The only ones I can see (other than those who have already left, are non-football, or are FBS) are SWAC schools. If that's the case, there are 2 in Texas, 2 in Louisiana, 1 in Arkansas, and 3 in Mississippi. I don't see those schools leaving the SWAC for the Southland.

Agree. I do not see any HBCUs leaving the SWAC. So that points to D-2 schools. I'm imagining that their target list is TAMU-Commerce, Angelo State, Central Oklahoma, West Florida, Midwestern State, and maybe this forum's favorites, Arkansas Tech.

I tend to think that if UWF goes D1, they will go to the A-Sun. Not sure how realistic the others are based on budgets, but that's really the only institutions that a quick perusal gives that are reasonably within the existing footprint with enrollments that seem realistic for D1. I guess some school like West Alabama might try to pull it off given their in-state peers have done so, but I'm not seeing a ton of options for them.

Then again, we didn't think the WAC or A-Sun could raid anyone else, so who knows how this might play out.

That seems like a realistic list. I don’t see the the Southland getting existing DI school unless the OVC implodes or scraps football, sending their existing schools looking for a place to affiliate their football teams.

If the OVC loses more schools (Belmont, Murray St, and 1 or 2 others), I could see the Southland adding from the OVC.

Outside of their footprint.

Angelo State
Midwestern State
UTPB
Commerce
Kingsville
Central Oklahoma
Arkansas Tech
Harding
NE Oklahoma tate
Missouri Southern
Missouri S&T
Delta State
Mississippi College

Those are the D2 schools in the region.

Texas Southern
Prairie View
Grambling
Southern

UAPB is below 3000 students. They are the Chicago State of the SWAC right now.

Most realistic potential adds, in my opinion. Everything else seems like mud thrown onto the wall and seeing if anything sticks. But that's because I don't see the SWAC schools you named leaving that league. That's not to say it's impossible; just that I think they'd rather stick together and make that league as strong as possible. And even though I threw in Angelo State as well, I feel as though that's a bit of a stretch. To me, the school that really sticks out to me as a candidate for the Southland is Midwestern State. They're not too far from any of the remaining Texas schools in the Southland.