ASUN Announces Exploration of Expansion & Building New NCAA Division I Multisport Conference.

https://asunsports.org/general/2019-20/r...0122lh6utq

Maybe we should be asking a different question now:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ASUNSports/st...4672543744

It's certainly an interesting press release and interview with the Commissioner.

The football statement jumped out to me.

Conference Evolution: ASUN/CCSA/UAC


Do you anticipate other conferences will follow the ASUN lead in developing new conferences?

I don’t, for a number of reasons. One, we are the only Division I conference in our footprint that does not sponsor football. That means we are the only one that can start football. The ability to build a new football conference primarily in the southeast is a dominant factor. A second key factor is that the ASUN is well versed in conference realignment and we recognize the need to be innovative, to be bold, and to meet the real market demands of the institutions and their students. Thankfully, we are blessed with a visionary set of Presidents that are willing to have an eye focused on the future. I also think there is a strong possibility that the steps we are executing may trigger some change in the future. The NCAA is studying its championship financial model, the role of Automatic Qualification in championship field size and selection, and it would be a natural reaction after our announcement for some form of moratorium to be put in place.

(01-22-2020 07:34 PM)cruzan_flame13 Wrote:  Maybe we should be asking a different question now:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ASUNSports/st...4672543744

I think I'm completely confused...

Is Liberty, UNA and Bellarmine getting pushed to a different conference?

(01-22-2020 08:39 PM)unalions Wrote:  It's certainly an interesting press release and interview with the Commissioner.

The football statement jumped out to me.

Conference Evolution: ASUN/CCSA/UAC


Do you anticipate other conferences will follow the ASUN lead in developing new conferences?

I don’t, for a number of reasons. One, we are the only Division I conference in our footprint that does not sponsor football. That means we are the only one that can start football. The ability to build a new football conference primarily in the southeast is a dominant factor. A second key factor is that the ASUN is well versed in conference realignment and we recognize the need to be innovative, to be bold, and to meet the real market demands of the institutions and their students. Thankfully, we are blessed with a visionary set of Presidents that are willing to have an eye focused on the future. I also think there is a strong possibility that the steps we are executing may trigger some change in the future. The NCAA is studying its championship financial model, the role of Automatic Qualification in championship field size and selection, and it would be a natural reaction after our announcement for some form of moratorium to be put in place.

Turns out this is FCS football so we will obviously not be in the ASUN in 2023.


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(01-22-2020 09:02 PM)Liberty22 Wrote:  

(01-22-2020 08:39 PM)unalions Wrote:  It's certainly an interesting press release and interview with the Commissioner.

The football statement jumped out to me.

Conference Evolution: ASUN/CCSA/UAC


Do you anticipate other conferences will follow the ASUN lead in developing new conferences?

I don’t, for a number of reasons. One, we are the only Division I conference in our footprint that does not sponsor football. That means we are the only one that can start football. The ability to build a new football conference primarily in the southeast is a dominant factor. A second key factor is that the ASUN is well versed in conference realignment and we recognize the need to be innovative, to be bold, and to meet the real market demands of the institutions and their students. Thankfully, we are blessed with a visionary set of Presidents that are willing to have an eye focused on the future. I also think there is a strong possibility that the steps we are executing may trigger some change in the future. The NCAA is studying its championship financial model, the role of Automatic Qualification in championship field size and selection, and it would be a natural reaction after our announcement for some form of moratorium to be put in place.

Turns out this is FCS football so we will obviously not be in the ASUN in 2023.


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It confirmed the Liberty, UNA and Bellarmine will not be in the ASUN... we will be in the United Athletic Conference...

But, from what I read, and put together what I have been told by ASUN commissioner, both conferences will have football, one FBS ans one FCS. Both will work together in football, meaning if a UAC member wants FBS football, they will have an FBS home in the new ASUN as a football only membership. And the ASUN members with FCS football will have a football only membership in the UAC.

Its essentially 1 conference acting as 2.

The ASUN will have to have 20 members to have enough for football.

I'm just curious about who the members are going to be for both conferences.

(01-22-2020 08:39 PM)unalions Wrote:  It's certainly an interesting press release and interview with the Commissioner.

The football statement jumped out to me.

Conference Evolution: ASUN/CCSA/UAC


Do you anticipate other conferences will follow the ASUN lead in developing new conferences?

I don’t, for a number of reasons. One, we are the only Division I conference in our footprint that does not sponsor football. That means we are the only one that can start football. The ability to build a new football conference primarily in the southeast is a dominant factor. A second key factor is that the ASUN is well versed in conference realignment and we recognize the need to be innovative, to be bold, and to meet the real market demands of the institutions and their students. Thankfully, we are blessed with a visionary set of Presidents that are willing to have an eye focused on the future. I also think there is a strong possibility that the steps we are executing may trigger some change in the future. The NCAA is studying its championship financial model, the role of Automatic Qualification in championship field size and selection, and it would be a natural reaction after our announcement for some form of moratorium to be put in place.

Logically, we'd probably start by looking at the other members of the already extant CCSA which will rename itself the ASun:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_Co...ssociation

Also, it mentions that the A7 are just the ones that have been in the ASun together long enough to form this new conference, and that other 3 (Liberty, UNA, Bellarmine) are equal partners.

(01-22-2020 08:51 PM)lion1983 Wrote:  

(01-22-2020 07:34 PM)cruzan_flame13 Wrote:  Maybe we should be asking a different question now:

https://mobile.twitter.com/ASUNSports/st...4672543744

I think I'm completely confused...

Is Liberty, UNA and Bellarmine getting pushed to a different conference?

I don't believe so. The CCSA which will be absorbing the ASUN includes Liberty and soon Bellarmine. I wouldn't believe North Alabama gets expelled.

It is hard to predict the future split between the two hypothetical conferences based on the CCSA membership.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coastal_...ssociation

This is all quite confusing to me. So it seems the CCSA is made up of the ASUN, Big South and MEAC. Does this mean we’re cherry picking 20ish teams from those three to form a mega conference? But the teams listed on wikipedia make no sense to me. I’m just not getting it. So do we add in C-USA, Southland, CAA, and Sun Belt. Is it only a pool of the schools that are CCSA members? Or does it expand to to all teams in these conferences?

Any early guesses on the new-ASUN expansion candidates?

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(01-23-2020 11:58 AM)WesternSkillet Wrote:  Any early guesses on the new-ASUN expansion candidates?

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Guessing only...

I do believe the UAC (United Athletic Conference) will be a FCS football only deal...

The ASUN will be a new 20 member Mega Conference that has FBS football.

Without guessing on which schools come to add the additional schools, I would say it would be a mix of Sun Belt and C-USA members. The remaining members of those conferences will merge together for another Mega conference.

So, Liberty will be in this new FBS conference I guess. You can’t be an independent in football if your conference sponsors football. There is a lot at stake here for the Flames!

There is conflicting reports between there being an FBS component or not. I don't expect one.

If there is an FBS component it’s going to have to be in the UAC—the conference that appears to be getting Liberty. Looking around the list of:

UNF, Jacksonville, FGCU, Stetson, Kenn St, Lipscomb, NJIT

I don’t see a whole lot of FBS football material.

The popular theory on the realignment board is that Liberty would like to attract current FBS programs, from C-USA East and/or SBC East, to form an 11th FBS conference.

Bethune-Cookman
Florida A&M
North Carolina A&T
North Carolina Central
Those 4 are large HBCU schools that should leave and join this group. The rest are getting smaller with students enroll that they should go D2. That would kill the MEAC off.
SWAC schools that are large enough to stay D1.
Texas Southern
Jackson State
Southern U.
Prairie View
The rest should go D2,

There are D2 schools with beach volleyball that could join are:
Carson-Newman
Catawba
Eckerd
Erskine
Florida Southern
Lincoln Memorial
Lynn
Palm Beach Atantic
Saint Leo
Spring Hill
Tusculum
Tampa

Between 2000 and 2010, Lincoln Memorial was the only one interested in D1. Only 4 have fpptball from that list. Saint Leo is exploring to add football.

If they are looking at football? MEAC and SWAC could be easily picked apart.

D2 schools?
Valdosta State
Albany State
West Georgia
Florida Tech
West Florida
Carson-Newman
Lenoir-Rhyne
Lindenwood
Limestone

Plus, you might try and grab Jacksonville State, Robert Morris, Monmouth and Murray State.

No FBS schools will be on board with this.

James Madison, Jacksonville State, Delaware, North Carolina A&T, Eastern Kentucky, Lamar and Northern Iowa are interested in FBS.

(01-23-2020 07:59 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  Bethune-Cookman
Florida A&M
North Carolina A&T
North Carolina Central
Those 4 are large HBCU schools that should leave and join this group. The rest are getting smaller with students enroll that they should go D2. That would kill the MEAC off.
SWAC schools that are large enough to stay D1.
Texas Southern
Jackson State
Southern U.
Prairie View
The rest should go D2,

There are D2 schools with beach volleyball that could join are:
Carson-Newman
Catawba
Eckerd
Erskine
Florida Southern
Lincoln Memorial
Lynn
Palm Beach Atantic
Saint Leo
Spring Hill
Tusculum
Tampa

Between 2000 and 2010, Lincoln Memorial was the only one interested in D1. Only 4 have fpptball from that list. Saint Leo is exploring to add football.

If they are looking at football? MEAC and SWAC could be easily picked apart.

D2 schools?
Valdosta State
Albany State
West Georgia
Florida Tech
West Florida
Carson-Newman
Lenoir-Rhyne
Lindenwood
Limestone

Plus, you might try and grab Jacksonville State, Robert Morris, Monmouth and Murray State.

No FBS schools will be on board with this.

James Madison, Jacksonville State, Delaware, North Carolina A&T, Eastern Kentucky, Lamar and Northern Iowa are interested in FBS.

Nope

It will be a basketball conference and an FCS football conference. The ASUN will stick together until 2023 then split I expect the split to be like this
Stetson
NJIT
Lipscomb
Liberty (associate member)
Bellarmine
UNF
FGCU
Jacksonville

New football conference
UNA
KSU

(01-23-2020 09:20 PM)Ewglenn Wrote:  It will be a basketball conference and an FCS football conference. The ASUN will stick together until 2023 then split I expect the split to be like this
Stetson
NJIT
Lipscomb
Liberty (associate member)
Bellarmine
UNF
FGCU
Jacksonville

New football conference
UNA
KSU

Then who else makes up the 20?

And who else makes up the football side?

And it would be dumb for Liberty to be an associate member. They could have stayed in the Big South for that nonsense.

(01-23-2020 09:26 PM)lion1983 Wrote:  

(01-23-2020 09:20 PM)Ewglenn Wrote:  It will be a basketball conference and an FCS football conference. The ASUN will stick together until 2023 then split I expect the split to be like this
Stetson
NJIT
Lipscomb
Liberty (associate member)
Bellarmine
UNF
FGCU
Jacksonville

New football conference
UNA
KSU

Then who else makes up the 20?

And who else makes up the football side?

And it would be dumb for Liberty to be an associate member. They could have stayed in the Big South for that nonsense.

Well I guess we’d be a full member since they don’t sponsor football.


It would be something like

Basketball: Winthrop and Belmont maybe Radford or High Point

Football: Gardner Webb, Charleston Southern, Campbell, Jacksonville State, Austin Peay, EKU, Tenn Tech, NCA&T

This is so confusing and an embarrassing media roll-out by the ASUN.

Here's a key component to the press release.

The chronological steps in this plan are:

a) ASUN Conference expands to 20 members (by June, 2023)
b) The ASUN transfers rights to the ASUN name and marks to the CCSA
c) The ASUN 7 join the CCSA (July 1, 2023)
d) The CCSA adopts the ASUN name as a multisport conference
e) The remaining ASUN members adopt the name United Athletic Conference

What happens to the other current ASUN members - the ones that are not part of the ASUN 7?
- Two current (Liberty, North Alabama) and one future member (Bellarmine) of the ASUN are not classified as part of the ASUN 7, simply based on the length of time they have been in the ASUN. Schools must have played together for eight consecutive years to become part of the "continuity" group that can start a new conference. The implementation of this plan will include ALL ASUN members equally, and providing a conference setting that is equal to, or better than, the status quo is a requisite part of the plan. Contractual agreements will be signed with every current ASUN member to guarantee their conference slot, without any buy-in, buy-out or loss of AQ access benefits. This expansion plan does not exclude any current ASUN member or ASUN affiliate member in any sport.