Would you be willing join the Big South/Atlantic Sun football, to stay in FCS?

(06-13-2017 08:30 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  This won't happen, so please don't get too upset, but ...

... I think the SWAC and MEAC should drop down to DII, while any teams that want to be serious about spending to be competitive in DI transfer to other conferences. Tenn St is in the OVC, for example.

Division II? They should be NAIA. Besides, the SWAC schools fill a nice niche, i.e. an often easy win and cheap opponent.

Alabama State is easily one of the better SWAC athletic departments. Schools like Valley and Alcorn drag the league down.

It does look like Alabama State is the driver to lower the number of conference games. They are starting to schedule outside HBCU for OOC. A 4 game series with Kennesaw State, as well as FBS Troy, South Alabama, and Auburn on future schedules. With 11 game FCS limit and Alabama State loading up 4 OOC, they kind of forced the SWAC hand.

http://bamastatesports.com/news/2015/8/3...53126.aspx

(06-13-2017 11:45 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 08:30 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  This won't happen, so please don't get too upset, but ...

... I think the SWAC and MEAC should drop down to DII, while any teams that want to be serious about spending to be competitive in DI transfer to other conferences. Tenn St is in the OVC, for example.

Division II? They should be NAIA. Besides, the SWAC schools fill a nice niche, i.e. an often easy win and cheap opponent.

SWAC title game drew 38-40k 3 years in a row until last year. Sad to see it go.

(06-13-2017 10:33 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Would you be willing join the Big South/Atlantic Sun football, to stay in FCS?

To be honest, no. The OVC and MEAC are the only two conferences that we would leave the SWAC for and the MEAC deal for us is pretty much already in place.

(06-13-2017 11:59 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  It does look like Alabama State is the driver to lower the number of conference games. They are starting to schedule outside HBCU for OOC. A 4 game series with Kennesaw State, as well as FBS Troy, South Alabama, and Auburn on future schedules. With 11 game FCS limit and Alabama State loading up 4 OOC, they kind of forced the SWAC hand.

http://bamastatesports.com/news/2015/8/3...53126.aspx

In the SWAC'S defense we didnt schedule those games until after the the conference announced the 7 game schedule. The Kennesaw State series is a 2 game series not a 4 game. We have a 4-game series vs Tuskegee that has already been extended to an 8-game series.

(06-14-2017 02:06 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 11:45 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 08:30 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  This won't happen, so please don't get too upset, but ...

... I think the SWAC and MEAC should drop down to DII, while any teams that want to be serious about spending to be competitive in DI transfer to other conferences. Tenn St is in the OVC, for example.

Division II? They should be NAIA. Besides, the SWAC schools fill a nice niche, i.e. an often easy win and cheap opponent.

SWAC title game drew 38-40k 3 years in a row until last year. Sad to see it go.

The League knew that it was unfair to ask ANY FCS fan base to travel in big numbers to Houston for the title game and then turn around two weeks later and travel to Atlanta for The Celebration Bowl. Many Grambling fans last year made the decision last year to skip the SWAC Title game and just attend the Celebration Bowl in Atlanta. This is one of the reasons that the Title game went away.

All they had to do was give home field advantage to the team with the better record or hold it in New Orleans, the center of geography in the conference. Give the students free tickets and discounted tickets for alumni and it's all systems go.

Sounds like weak excuses and some alterior motive to me.

(06-14-2017 06:17 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 10:33 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Would you be willing join the Big South/Atlantic Sun football, to stay in FCS?

To be honest, no. The OVC and MEAC are the only two conferences that we would leave the SWAC for and the MEAC deal for us is pretty much already in place.

I attend several b'ball games each year for Norfolk State and Hampton. I don't know, however, if the MEAC provides that much of an upgrade. That would be a tremendous increase in travel just to those two. And that is ignoring going all the way to DC (Howard), Baltimore (Coppin State and Morgan State) along with Delaware and MD-Eastern Shore (that last one will be a tough trip).

Seems like a lot of burden to abandon long time rivalries. But ... you all know the in's & out's much more and I guess certain schools (PV A&M?) are just not committed like Alabama State?

(06-14-2017 12:20 PM)MemTGRS Wrote:  

(06-14-2017 06:17 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 10:33 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Would you be willing join the Big South/Atlantic Sun football, to stay in FCS?

To be honest, no. The OVC and MEAC are the only two conferences that we would leave the SWAC for and the MEAC deal for us is pretty much already in place.

I attend several b'ball games each year for Norfolk State and Hampton. I don't know, however, if the MEAC provides that much of an upgrade. That would be a tremendous increase in travel just to those two. And that is ignoring going all the way to DC (Howard), Baltimore (Coppin State and Morgan State) along with Delaware and MD-Eastern Shore (that last one will be a tough trip).

Seems like a lot of burden to abandon long time rivalries. But ... you all know the in's & out's much more and I guess certain schools (PV A&M?) are just not committed like Alabama State?

The MEAC is expected to lose a few schools, Delaware State and MD-Eastern Shore to be direct. Our long-time rivals outside of Grambling are all in the MEAC or still in the SIAC. Our old SIAC rivals such as FAMU, Bethune-Cookman, and South Carolina State are all in the MEAC.

(06-14-2017 12:57 PM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-14-2017 12:20 PM)MemTGRS Wrote:  

(06-14-2017 06:17 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 10:33 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Would you be willing join the Big South/Atlantic Sun football, to stay in FCS?

To be honest, no. The OVC and MEAC are the only two conferences that we would leave the SWAC for and the MEAC deal for us is pretty much already in place.

I attend several b'ball games each year for Norfolk State and Hampton. I don't know, however, if the MEAC provides that much of an upgrade. That would be a tremendous increase in travel just to those two. And that is ignoring going all the way to DC (Howard), Baltimore (Coppin State and Morgan State) along with Delaware and MD-Eastern Shore (that last one will be a tough trip).

Seems like a lot of burden to abandon long time rivalries. But ... you all know the in's & out's much more and I guess certain schools (PV A&M?) are just not committed like Alabama State?

The MEAC is expected to lose a few schools, Delaware State and MD-Eastern Shore to be direct. Our long-time rivals outside of Grambling are all in the MEAC or still in the SIAC. Our old SIAC rivals such as FAMU, Bethune-Cookman, and South Carolina State are all in the MEAC.

Delaware St has been rumored to leave for some time. But where?

(06-13-2017 08:30 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  This won't happen, so please don't get too upset, but ...

... I think the SWAC and MEAC should drop down to DII, while any teams that want to be serious about spending to be competitive in DI transfer to other conferences. Tenn St is in the OVC, for example.

You realize that among FCS conferences, the SWAC is #1 in attendance almost every year, including this past year, and by a wide margin. The MEAC was the #5 conference, out of 13 FCS conferences.

(06-13-2017 09:54 PM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 09:31 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 09:10 PM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 06:23 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 02:47 PM)ken d Wrote:  Do you suppose the purpose of this is to enable members to schedule more "buy" games (or, in their case, "sell" games) in the future? For them, that's where the money is.

It sure looks that way. I don't see any obvious/rational reason to do away with the CCG and cut the conference schedule from 9 to 7 games, other than to free schools up for paydays as cannon fodder for FBS schools.

There's two schools with plans on leaving the SWAC so the conference will be down to 8 teams.

Are Alabama St and Alabama A&M planning to leave for the MEAC? Then the MEAC can split?

Us and Alabama A&M leaving is a STRONG possibility. I'm not sure how serious A&M is about leaving though.

I've been hearing rumors of that kind for years, but it hasn't happened yet.

You fit well in the SWAC. And it's not like you dominate the big sports. I'm scratching my head trying to remember the last time one of the Alabama schools won the football title? Or basketball? IIRC, you guys had a nice run in hoops around the turn of the decade, but that was 6-7 years ago?

(06-14-2017 04:10 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  You realize that among FCS conferences, the SWAC is #1 in attendance almost every year, including this past year, and by a wide margin. The MEAC was the #5 conference, out of 13 FCS conferences.

How about when you exclude neutral site games?

What are the SWAC budgets?

(06-14-2017 04:25 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  

(06-14-2017 04:10 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  You realize that among FCS conferences, the SWAC is #1 in attendance almost every year, including this past year, and by a wide margin. The MEAC was the #5 conference, out of 13 FCS conferences.

How about when you exclude neutral site games?

What are the SWAC budgets?

Why would you exclude neutral site games? For an FCS, neutral site just means demand is so great that it swamps the ability of either school's home stadium to hold it. Which, btw, is a good thing, not a bad thing. The SWAC should receive massive credit for maintaining very high interest in its football despite tight budgets. Heck, SWAC average attendance last year was actually slightly closer to the nearest FBS conference than it was to the nearest other FCS conference.

Seriously, if anyone in FCS should drop down to Division II, there are a lot better candidates than the SWAC or MEAC to do so. Attendance for some of these conferences is almost microscopic.

If attendance for the games isn't tied in any manner to being DI -- and my intuition says they'd draw exactly the same if they were DII -- then I don't see that as justification for being DI.

Being DI shouldn't really have anything to do with attendance, IMO.

(06-14-2017 04:13 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 09:54 PM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 09:31 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 09:10 PM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 06:23 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  It sure looks that way. I don't see any obvious/rational reason to do away with the CCG and cut the conference schedule from 9 to 7 games, other than to free schools up for paydays as cannon fodder for FBS schools.

There's two schools with plans on leaving the SWAC so the conference will be down to 8 teams.

Are Alabama St and Alabama A&M planning to leave for the MEAC? Then the MEAC can split?

Us and Alabama A&M leaving is a STRONG possibility. I'm not sure how serious A&M is about leaving though.

I've been hearing rumors of that kind for years, but it hasn't happened yet.

You fit well in the SWAC. And it's not like you dominate the big sports. I'm scratching my head trying to remember the last time one of the Alabama schools won the football title? Or basketball? IIRC, you guys had a nice run in hoops around the turn of the decade, but that was 6-7 years ago?

The deal was all but done back in 2012 for us and A&M to leave but the SWAC stepped in at the last minute and struck some sort of a deal with us. The last time that we won the SWAC in hoops was 2013, the last time we won in football was 2004.

(06-14-2017 12:20 PM)MemTGRS Wrote:  

(06-14-2017 06:17 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 10:33 PM)MplsBison Wrote:  Would you be willing join the Big South/Atlantic Sun football, to stay in FCS?

To be honest, no. The OVC and MEAC are the only two conferences that we would leave the SWAC for and the MEAC deal for us is pretty much already in place.

I attend several b'ball games each year for Norfolk State and Hampton. I don't know, however, if the MEAC provides that much of an upgrade. That would be a tremendous increase in travel just to those two. And that is ignoring going all the way to DC (Howard), Baltimore (Coppin State and Morgan State) along with Delaware and MD-Eastern Shore (that last one will be a tough trip).

Seems like a lot of burden to abandon long time rivalries. But ... you all know the in's & out's much more and I guess certain schools (PV A&M?) are just not committed like Alabama State?

The MEAC wins Round of 64 games every once in a while. The SWAC never wins NCAA Tournament games or gets anything higher than a 16-seed. Mike Davis did produce a 15-seed Texas Southern team recently though they had the misfortune of facing one of the five best teams in the field.

(06-14-2017 06:20 AM)GreenHornet33 Wrote:  

(06-13-2017 11:59 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  It does look like Alabama State is the driver to lower the number of conference games. They are starting to schedule outside HBCU for OOC. A 4 game series with Kennesaw State, as well as FBS Troy, South Alabama, and Auburn on future schedules. With 11 game FCS limit and Alabama State loading up 4 OOC, they kind of forced the SWAC hand.

http://bamastatesports.com/news/2015/8/3...53126.aspx

In the SWAC'S defense we didnt schedule those games until after the the conference announced the 7 game schedule. The Kennesaw State series is a 2 game series not a 4 game. We have a 4-game series vs Tuskegee that has already been extended to an 8-game series.

"Alabama State University and Kennesaw State University have agreed to a four-year football contract beginning in 2017, both schools announced today."

That quote is from the link I provided, which is an Alabama State announcement. Alabama State plays at KSU in '17 and '19, and KSU visits Alabama State '18 and '20.

Tuskegee is D-II and the visit Alabama State each of the next four years.