North Alabama to Big South for football and to the A-Sun for the other sports.

http://www.timesdaily.com/news/local/una...e862b.html

What an abysmal welcome to Division-I. Congrats UNA! Now you get to travel to Fort Myers, Spartanburg, DeLand, and New Jersey(?!).

This puts the A-Suck at 9 teams, I wonder who the tenth victim... err... "member" will be? Alabama-Huntsville, West Georgia, West Florida, Francis Marion?

We'd still be there if Paul Stanton hadn't retired.

(12-07-2016 12:01 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  We'd still be there if Paul Stanton hadn't retired.

So did Stanton retire or was he fired?

A reminder -- given the decade+ bone headed blunder of the Stanton/Mullins athletic model and all the wasted millions, the stable Southern Conference is fine right now for ETSU athletics as it continues its recovery from that destructive era. GO BUCS.

(12-07-2016 12:26 PM)brock20 Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 12:01 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  We'd still be there if Paul Stanton hadn't retired.

So did Stanton retire or was he fired?

He retired, why would you think he would be fired? His handling of sports? Sorry but while this board thinks that is the most important thing in the world his bosses didn't.

(12-10-2016 03:16 PM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 12:26 PM)brock20 Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 12:01 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  We'd still be there if Paul Stanton hadn't retired.

So did Stanton retire or was he fired?

He retired, why would you think he would be fired? His handling of sports? Sorry but while this board thinks that is the most important thing in the world his bosses didn't.

My bad. I somehow had Mullins on my mind instead of Stanton.

(12-10-2016 03:16 PM)RodShaw2 Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 12:26 PM)brock20 Wrote:  

(12-07-2016 12:01 PM)ETSUfan1 Wrote:  We'd still be there if Paul Stanton hadn't retired.

So did Stanton retire or was he fired?

He retired, why would you think he would be fired? His handling of sports? Sorry but while this board thinks that is the most important thing in the world his bosses didn't.

Correct, but as a student during his tenure I can tell you his focus was pouring everything into QCOM and didn't give the barest hint of a poo about anything else on that campus. It's been evidenced by the increased efforts by the alumni office to rebuild relationships, the expansion of alumni chapters in major cities throughout the southeast region, etc... It wasn't just about sports, he was bad all around.

D2 is a wasteland for football in the South. West Georgia has a good program, and so does Valdosta State, but after that, it gets really dicey really fast, especially in terms of facilities. Hell, Winston-Salem State plays on the infield of a speedway (which is either an annoyance or a novelty, however you want to look at it).

With that in mind, it's hard to fault UNA for looking up the food chain a little and wanting to get into D1 when there's not much good competition nearby. If memory serves, they have been looking at this move for a while. The Big South will be a positive step for them in football, and joining the Big South and the A-Sun through their strategic alliance bolsters both leagues in the event of a shakeup. Pretty good deal all around.

(12-15-2016 08:57 AM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  D2 is a wasteland for football in the South. West Georgia has a good program, and so does Valdosta State, but after that, it gets really dicey really fast, especially in terms of facilities. Hell, Winston-Salem State plays on the infield of a speedway (which is either an annoyance or a novelty, however you want to look at it).

With that in mind, it's hard to fault UNA for looking up the food chain a little and wanting to get into D1 when there's not much good competition nearby. If memory serves, they have been looking at this move for a while. The Big South will be a positive step for them in football, and joining the Big South and the A-Sun through their strategic alliance bolsters both leagues in the event of a shakeup. Pretty good deal all around.

Noticed that Campbell will start playing scholarship football in the Big South as well. This ASUN/Big South alliance is an interesting (survival) arrangement.

(12-15-2016 11:52 AM)Buc66 Wrote:  

(12-15-2016 08:57 AM)Mister Consistency Wrote:  D2 is a wasteland for football in the South. West Georgia has a good program, and so does Valdosta State, but after that, it gets really dicey really fast, especially in terms of facilities. Hell, Winston-Salem State plays on the infield of a speedway (which is either an annoyance or a novelty, however you want to look at it).

With that in mind, it's hard to fault UNA for looking up the food chain a little and wanting to get into D1 when there's not much good competition nearby. If memory serves, they have been looking at this move for a while. The Big South will be a positive step for them in football, and joining the Big South and the A-Sun through their strategic alliance bolsters both leagues in the event of a shakeup. Pretty good deal all around.

Noticed that Campbell will start playing scholarship football in the Big South as well. This ASUN/Big South alliance is an interesting (survival) arrangement.

Well, Campbell already jumped ship for the Big South in all sports before we left for the SoCon, so that was just a move they've grown into, but it does bolster the ability of the conference to survive potential realignment, and I agree, the arrangement is an interesting one. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, though; if the A-Sun or Big South were to go away, their AQ spots in NCAA tournaments would simply be at-large bids for mediocre power conference teams instead of other, probably more deserving mid-majors. Fractured and transient as its membership may be historically, I think having the Atlantic Sun is better for D1 sports than not having it.

Don't get me wrong, both leagues are still very poor quality relative to their peers, but a diversity of leagues is good for college sports.