(06-12-2021 01:09 AM)army56mike Wrote:  Just for fun, and imagination sake, say we are able to add Chattanooga, ETSU, Western Carolina, and West Florida, rounding the ASUN off at an even 16 teams for most sports and nine for football. Would there be divisions still? Would there be pods? Would it just be a single conference?

Florida Gulf Coast
North Florida
Jacksonville
Stetson

UT-Chatanooga
ETSU
Western Carolina
Lipscomb

Jacksonville State
North Alabama
West Florida
Central Arkansas

Bellarmine
Eastern Kentucky
Liberty
Kennesaw State

I'm pretty confident with the current Florida schools staying together as a pod. I imagine the UT-Chatanooga, ETSU, and Western Carolina want to stay together or else they wouldn't move. They love their short road trips so add Lipscomb to their group. Trying to get the rest geographically close was how I split the rest up but they each have an outlier. Maybe switch Central Arkansas and Kennesaw State so that KSU can be with a Florida school. UCA feels weird no matter where they are.

I think all you need to do is switch Kennesaw St. and Lipscomb.

KSU should be with tuna and Jax at.

(06-12-2021 06:45 PM)army56mike Wrote:  I think all you need to do is switch Kennesaw St. and Lipscomb.

(06-12-2021 07:08 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  KSU should be with tuna and Jax at.

And this is why pods are hard. Three different people, three different opinions of who should be paired with who.

KSU tuna eku and Jsu changed conferences in order to be in a tight conference together.
It's pretty elementary.
The other schools were in a conference together already let them divide how they wish.

There just isn't a way to break down this particular group of 16 into four equal pods that will make sense (geographical, historical, philosophical, or otherwise) to all 16 teams.

I've tried.

If the rest of the conference schedule takes these shortcomings into account, everything will be fine. There are a few strategies already in use elsewhere in the NCAA to preserve historical rivalries when the two teams are separated into different divisions (permanent crossovers, etc.). No need to re-invent the wheel. Just adapt some of those techniques into the remaining ASUN schedule.

I haven't had time to map it out, but I wonder if a setup with 4 pods and two permanent crossovers per team would be workable?

I'm sure it'd break down somewhere. But something like that seems like a good starting place.

I pop in your board from time to time. Can someone tell me which school is tuna so I can follow along better lol? Thanks

(06-14-2021 09:40 PM)Todor Wrote:  I pop in your board from time to time. Can someone tell me which school is tuna so I can follow along better lol? Thanks

I had to figure that one out too, when BU joined the conference.

I believe it's the Univ. of North Alabama™.

(06-14-2021 09:40 PM)Todor Wrote:  I pop in your board from time to time. Can someone tell me which school is tuna so I can follow along better lol? Thanks

The University of North Alabama

(06-13-2021 04:17 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  KSU tuna eku and Jsu changed conferences in order to be in a tight conference together.
It's pretty elementary.
The other schools were in a conference together already let them divide how they wish.

Let's be clear...EKU did not switch for tight. The OVC is very, very tight. It's far more compact than the ASUN. I'm not saying that we desire a bunch of long road trips, but anyone arguing that as anywhere near the top of the reason we switched has no idea what they're talking about.

Tell me eku doesn't want to be in the group with tuna KSU and Jsu.
If not then what group do you think would be better for EKU.

(06-15-2021 01:46 PM)eku05 Wrote:  

(06-13-2021 04:17 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  KSU tuna eku and Jsu changed conferences in order to be in a tight conference together.
It's pretty elementary.
The other schools were in a conference together already let them divide how they wish.

Let's be clear...EKU did not switch for tight. The OVC is very, very tight. It's far more compact than the ASUN. I'm not saying that we desire a bunch of long road trips, but anyone arguing that as anywhere near the top of the reason we switched has no idea what they're talking about.

For the record, JSU changed conferences to 1) be in a conference with rival schools our students, alumni, and fans actually care about, and 2) be in a (football) conference where more than one or two other schools actually cared about football. The ASUN not only meets these goals, but crushes the OVC like a grape on both points.

If a tight footprint had been at the top of our priority list, we wouldn't have joined a conference stretching from Conway to Louisville to Lynchburg to Fort Myers.

That said, I don't think very many ASUN fans (from any member school) would want to see the conference add NMSU and Idaho. A little sanity matters.

If you literally wanted to go by geography I think it would be

South
FGCU
Stetson
Jax
North Florida

East
Liberty
East Tennessee
Western Carolina
Kennesaw St.

North
Bellarmine
EKU
Lipscomb
Chattanooga

West
Jax St.
North Alabama
West Florida
C. Ark

But I don’t think many would be content with that.

(06-15-2021 04:07 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  Tell me eku doesn't want to be in the group with tuna KSU and Jsu.
If not then what group do you think would be better for EKU.

I love the series with JSU, and getting into markets like Atlanta where we have alumni is absolutely part of the motivation. But I've never claimed to have the answer for how pods/divisions should be aligned. All I'm saying is that if geographically tight is the main thing we wanted, then we just made the dumbest move in the history of college athletics.

In fact, our AD cited the wider Geographic exposure as a motivating factor.

(06-15-2021 06:41 PM)army56mike Wrote:  If you literally wanted to go by geography I think it would be

South
FGCU
Stetson
Jax
North Florida

East
Liberty
East Tennessee
Western Carolina
Kennesaw St.

North
Bellarmine
EKU
Lipscomb
Chattanooga

West
Jax St.
North Alabama
West Florida
C. Ark

But I don’t think many would be content with that.

Taking your geographical pods, if we were to drop West Florida (which I'd hate to do) and were somehow able to get NCAT to come over from the Big South, you'd get this:

Both NORTH and SOUTH would be unchanged.

EAST
Liberty
ETSU
WCU
NCAT (replacing KSU)

WEST
JSU
UNA
KSU (replacing UWF)
UCA

As you said, someone out there would be unhappy with this as well, but it'd be one heckuva conference in several OLY sports.

The 9-team ASUN Football conference would then look like this:

JSU
KSU
UNA
EKU
UCA
NCAT
UTC
ETSU
WCU

Perhaps the answer is in giving a stipend to the schools whose travel distance is the greatest in order to level the burden

(06-16-2021 10:25 AM)eku05 Wrote:  

(06-15-2021 04:07 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  Tell me eku doesn't want to be in the group with tuna KSU and Jsu.
If not then what group do you think would be better for EKU.

I love the series with JSU, and getting into markets like Atlanta where we have alumni is absolutely part of the motivation. But I've never claimed to have the answer for how pods/divisions should be aligned. All I'm saying is that if geographically tight is the main thing we wanted, then we just made the dumbest move in the history of college athletics.

In fact, our AD cited the wider Geographic exposure as a motivating factor.

I like eku also and would be ok if they were in another group. But to drive right past your neighbor tuna and KSU, in order to play 8 to 10 hrs away Florida , seems really stupid.

Uca is an argument for a Louisiana school addition.
I don't know how they feel about it but what school is available in driving distance of them.

(06-16-2021 02:42 PM)cleburneslim Wrote:  Uca is an argument for a Louisiana school addition.
I don't know how they feel about it but what school is available in driving distance of them.

There really aren't any "nearby" schools.

UTM (OVC) is 275 miles away from Conway.

NWSU (Southland) is 280 miles away.

SEMO (OVC) is 285 miles away.

Austin Peay (OVC) is 370 miles away.

The closest rumored candidate would probably be Missouri State (MVC) at 183 miles, if you take back roads. If you want to stick to interstates, that distance rises to 250 miles.

I think UCA is perfectly OK with being out on an island, though. The alternatives for them were the WAC (which has even worse travel), the OVC (which doesn't share their love for football or FBS desires), or remaining in the Southland (which we can assume they didn't want to do).

(06-14-2021 11:34 PM)BellarmineGrad Wrote:  

(06-14-2021 09:40 PM)Todor Wrote:  I pop in your board from time to time. Can someone tell me which school is tuna so I can follow along better lol? Thanks

I had to figure that one out too, when BU joined the conference.

I believe it's the Univ. of North Alabama™.

Thanks. It makes sense---now. I was looking over the lists of who belongs in what division, trying to cross schools off who couldn't be called that. I gave up and asked.

I thought for a minute it might be Jacksonville because of the Dolphin mascot lol. That was all I could come up with

Not sure I would have solved it on mg own. At least not unless someone wrote tUNA.