(04-07-2021 02:24 PM)whupemall Wrote:  

(04-07-2021 02:05 PM)eku05 Wrote:  

(04-07-2021 07:44 AM)The Cats Wrote:  If there is a 6th football school out there that intends to join for the 22-23 season, I'd think there would be an announcement soon to meet the 1-year notice required by most conferences by July 1. Wonder why there has been no rush of schools jumping at the chance?

I wouldn't assume that there isn't. I've heard some things that lead me to believe there are more schools interested than the ASUN will accept. It may be on our end that we're trying to figure out the best next move from among the options.

Also, it's at least possible some schools would prefer to wait until spring sports season is over to announce rather than dealing with the one-foot-out-the-door situation in their current conference.

Totally Unsupported Speculation on my part:

UTC threw the spring season when it became apparent they were going to win the SoCon championship. Rather than causing their longtime conference to suffer the indignity of having a reigning champ jump ship laterally to another FCS conference -- let alone a "new" football conference -- the Mocs withdrew outright from spring competition.

Whether or not it was part of a "deal" with the SoCon, it would be a good political move for UTC. They have a long, long history with their current conference. If they've opted privately to move to the ASUN, this could have been a way to smooth over any hard feelings with their soon-to-be former conference mates and insure future relationships with them are not jeopardized in any way.

It would almost be worth the P.R. hit they've taken with their fan base by quitting on the spring season while they were ahead.

Hey, I said it was speculation.

That's some speculation that took some thoughts

Uh no. UTC's coach was very much opposed to playing in the spring.

Go Trojans!!!

So is complete silence a good thing or bad thing?

Either way, I suspect we’ll have a 6th team in the near future regardless, even if it’s not someone that improves the ASUN brand.

Either will be very telling.
It'll either pick of the litter or
no one else is coming well take you I guess.
I suspect the latter but hope for three more teams.
Eight seems a better number.

(04-08-2021 07:39 AM)army56mike Wrote:  So is complete silence a good thing or bad thing?

Either way, I suspect we’ll have a 6th team in the near future regardless, even if it’s not someone that improves the ASUN brand.

I subscribe to the theory that things are quiet right now only because everyone is riding out the spring sports season before making any further announcements.

I wish I knew what was going on behind closed doors, though. Even if things are quiet publicly, it doesn't mean there aren't intense negotiations going on in private. Any way we can get a bug on Gumbart's phone?

I do think we'll probably need to hear something by July, at least from teams in conferences requiring a full year's notice, like the SoCon.

Most spring sports will be over by the end of May. A couple more go a week or two into June, and baseball goes all the way to June 30. But the College World Series actually begins in mid-June, so everyone not playing in that will be done with all spring sports by June 19.

So I expect an announcement on Monday, June 21. It falls after the spring season but before the July deadline, and it's the first full day of summer. There's poetry in that for a conference with "SUN" in the name.

We did big his phone once—didn’t get anything of worth really—the dude orders a lot of Domino’s Pizza though.

If there is going to be movement for the next school year, it must be official by 7/31 I think. I would expect this month for talks to really heat up if something is going to happen.

Things have been so quiet, which I guess isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I think IF we will have new members in, say, 2022, we should have announcements in the next couple of months (obviously by 7/31). You could have schools wanting to end the school year before making their intentions public.

And not that I’m necessarily worried about missing out on other schools, but say nobody else joins by fall of ‘22. What do y’all think the ASUN football teams do? Do we try to maintain a relationship with the WAC until all of their schools are through transition? Do we try to combine in some form or fashion with the remaining Southland schools (or just the Louisiana 4)? Or do JSU/EKU/UCA switch over to being a part of the Big South with UNA and Kennesaw? The thing is, I feel the Big South would actually be a pretty darn competitive football conference at that point, especially since North Carolina A&T will be joining up this fall.

Of course, the Big South would be 12 teams strong in that scenario, and that’s not really ideal for FCS.

There's need to be some kind of divisional play for twelve teams.

D1 360: Conference Realignment - Trans America & ASUN Membership History.

I could see a divisional setup like this.

East
Liberty
KSU
Jacksonville
UNF
Stetson
FGCU

West
Central Arkansas
Jacksonville State
Lipscomb
Eastern Kentucky
UNA
Bellarmine

In basketball each division team plays within their division twice and out of division once for a total of 16 conference games.

I would much much rather have Bellarmine, EKU and Lipscomb in Liberty’s division.

I highly recommend watching the above video (post#450).

(05-05-2021 10:00 PM)army56mike Wrote:  I would much much rather have Bellarmine, EKU and Lipscomb in Liberty’s division.

Then say goodbye to the Florida schools.

I think playing the Florida schools is best for Liberty's recruiting (athletes and students) but the better rivals are Lipscomb, Bellarmine, and North Alabama. It's interesting.

The conference hasn't been shy about shaking things up in creative ways. I wonder if we might see something different than a traditional East/West or North/South divisional setup. Maybe we see three-team pods that swap podmates every year or two, essentially rotating divisional opponents? So one year your pod (1) is aligned with pod 2 in Division A, while 3 and 4 make up Division B. But then in a couple of years the pods swap so that 1 is aligned with 3 and 2 is with 4. I'm a fan of this type of setup, since you can be aligned with a couple of permanent opponents but frequently play the rest of the conference.

Perhaps instead of that, we just mix up the divisions every few years, based on how competitive the teams have been? Of course, you potentially run into issues with travel if suddenly UCA is in a conference with FGCU and Liberty, for example.

Why have divisions?

Since the rumors started flying about JSU returning to the ASUN, I've diagrammed dozens of possible divisions with any number of future expansion teams.

Doing so has uncovered a couple of key truths:

1) Competitive balance, geographical sense, and historical rivalries are forever at odds. Every change to favor one will invariably hurt another.

2) Just when you think you've found the perfect structure, as soon as you add an expansion team, the whole thing falls apart. (See point one.)

I hope Gummbart can find you that elusive 6th football school soon. At this point, would you take a D2 call up if one emerged?

Only if it’s West Florida..... my opinion only.

(05-05-2021 12:32 PM)Courtside Wrote:  I could see a divisional setup like this.

East
Liberty
KSU
Jacksonville
UNF
Stetson
FGCU

West
Central Arkansas
Jacksonville State
Lipscomb
Eastern Kentucky
UNA
Bellarmine

In basketball each division team plays within their division twice and out of division once for a total of 16 conference games.

Would you be satisfied with these divisions?