(01-16-2013 02:07 PM)MTowho Wrote: Troy's AD issued a statement the other day with two options for handling the 8 team conference situation. Either play one team twice, which would be either be sort of embarassing or maybe awesome, or scramble to find another game. Troy seems to have lined up an AQ home and home in case. I would think that other SBC schools have tried to do the same in recent weeks.
Athletic Director Forum - Sun Belt Membership Update / T-Club & Hall of Fame Weekend
1/14/2013 10:30:00 AM
Athletic Director Forum - Jan. 14, 2013
I would be remiss if I did not start off this week's AD's Forum with congratulations to Coach Don Maestri for having the court at Trojan Arena named for him in a ceremony last Thursday. While his achievements on the basketball court are well documented, Don's development of young men off the court and his work as a positive ambassador for Troy University are equally as impressive. Our men's basketball team capped off a great evening in Trojan Arena by defeating ULM for their second consecutive Sun Belt Conference win.
There are two primary areas in which I will provide updates in this week's AD's Forum:
1) Conference membership / 2013 scheduling
2) “T” Club / Hall of Fame Weekend
Sun Belt Conference Membership / 2013 Football Scheduling Update
It is not a matter of if Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic will leave the Sun Belt Conference; it is a matter of when. Both institutions would prefer to leave at the close of the 2012-13 academic year; however, the final decision on their departure date has been held up pending a resolution to departure buyout terms. There is hope that these issues will be resolved in the next few weeks.
Assuming Middle Tennessee and Florida Atlantic depart prior to the 2013 football season, the current Sun Belt Conference would be left with eight football playing institutions. That would leave the following options:
· Only play seven Sun Belt games, which would leave one game open for each school to pursue. This option would give four schools four home conference games and the other four would have only three home conference games.
· Play eight Sun Belt games using the “baseball approach” of playing one Sun Belt opponent twice (home & home) for 2013 only in an effort to give each institution an equal number of home and away conference games.
Under the first option above, we have a verbal agreement for a home-and-home series with an opponent from an automatic qualifying BCS conference.
The belief is that this will be a one-year issue (2013 season) for football, as the expectation is that the Sun Belt will be back up to at least 10 football playing institutions in 2014. As quickly as this situation is resolved, we will release our schedule so that we can begin our season ticket sales process.
“T” Club and Troy University Sports Hall of Fame Weekend (April 19th – 21st)
Please mark your calendars and make plans to attend this event-filled weekend in April. The following athletics events will be occurring:
· Baseball series vs. UALR (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
· Softball series vs. Western Kentucky (Saturday (DH), Sunday)
· Football T-Day Spring Game (Saturday)
· Troy University Sports Hall of Fame Induction Banquet (Saturday night)
· “T” Club events to include a golf tournament and social events (Friday, Saturday, Sunday)
This weekend will provide an opportunity for many of our former student-athletes to see both their former teammates and classmates in addition to watching our current student-athletes perform. The pinnacle event of the weekend will be the induction of the second class into the Troy University Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday evening in Trojan Arena.
We have a very busy four-plus month period of winter and spring sports action awaiting us. We appreciate your support of Trojan Athletics and certainly encourage you to come out and support all of our teams when your schedule permits.
You will be pleased to know that we are improving in our Bubas Cup standing from last year – we currently are in seventh place (out of 12), which is up five spots from our final 2011-12 position. With our mission for Troy to be the premier athletics program in the Sun Belt Conference we know have plenty of work in front of us. We will not back down from the hard work necessary to accomplish the mission. Everything we do will be done in an effort to accomplish the mission, and we will succeed in our mission!
Have a great week and GO TROJANS!
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