(07-29-2021 01:41 PM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  

(07-27-2021 04:56 PM)Buckyball Wrote:  Your information is incorrect….Morehead St. has football, so they would disrupt the football schedule. Don’t see any advantage to the SoCon in adding them….no media market, facilities aren’t great, and they are in the middle of nowhere. And there’s not much reason for them to leave the OVC as it is currently.

Morehead State offers non-scholarship football, so they would almost assuredly keep FB in the Pioneer League if they left the OVC for another conference. But it's a moot point, because, as you rightly point out, they don't have much value to a potential new conference.

(07-28-2021 08:33 PM)MercerFan Wrote:  For Belmont, I guess it depends on how the league feels about UNCG? I know Belmont well from the ASun days, just like ETSU does. Great school. But do the football schools in the SoCon feel ok with non football schools (UNCG)? Obviously we are fine with UNCG, but do we want more? Does a school have a basketball advantage when they don’t have to fund football? I could argue both sides. It depends how the SoCon feels on it.

Adding more non-football schools isn't a deal-breaker for me. Nine feels like the right number in FCS with an 8/3 split on conference games vs. non-conference. If we added a 10th, would we go to 9 conference games and keep the true round robin? That has its own set of pros and cons. Adding non-football schools that can make the league better in basketball sidesteps that entirely.

Mostly, though, I think Belmont is the only school you could get everyone in the league to agree on. From there, it's more about whether everyone is comfortable expanding just to 11 or if there's an appetite for 12. If the best options are, say, Winthrop and Austin Peay, is it worth doing?

If the SoCon is to expand, Kennesaw State makes the most sense as an addition. We already travel through Atlanta on the way to Mercer anyway as does everyone else (except Citadel). Quality football & baseball programs, at least in the past (on baseball), and I get it - basketball isn't great, but you never know, that may improve. Having a piece of the Atlanta media market makes sense and I like adding another state school to the mix, versus adding a private institution. I have no inside info on this, but I don't think the SoCon has any interest in adding another non-football school.

If Morehead State wants to add scholarships, I'm sure they'll go to the OVC, with all of their other sports, or I assume they would. I really don't see how they are saving money being in the Pioneer with all of that travel (U of San Diego is in their league!).