with the A-Sun morphing into more of a football conference than a basketball one, maybe the A-Sun's olympic sports only teams should leave the A-Sun for another conference. I'm sure the SoCon would love to have Stetson and Jacksonville and maybe UNF, and/or maybe the Big South could pick up UNF and FGCU. This would help transition the A-Sun into being the football conference UNA and Jax State fans want it to be, IMO.

(03-22-2021 01:00 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  with the A-Sun morphing into more of a football conference than a basketball one, maybe the A-Sun's olympic sports only teams should leave the A-Sun for another conference. I'm sure the SoCon would love to have Stetson and Jacksonville and maybe UNF, and/or maybe the Big South could pick up UNF and FGCU. This would help transition the A-Sun into being the football conference UNA and Jax State fans want it to be, IMO.

I don’t think the premise is bad but I wonder how other schools would react. Does Liberty want to be in a Florida-less ASUN?

If I understand the situation in the ASUN correctly, they currently have 5 schools who play scholarship football at the FCS level. Kennesaw State plays in the Big South, which has 8 members, North Alabama which will play as an FCS Independent, and Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State which are part of the ASUN-WAC Alliance for 2021. That alliance includes a total of 9 teams.

They have one member (Liberty) who plays football as an FBS Independent, and one (Stetson) that plays in the non-scholarship Pioneer Conference.

Finally, they have five members who do not sponsor football. They are Jacksonville, North Florida, Florida Gulf Coast, Lipscomb and Bellarmine.


If my arithmetic is correct, that leaves five FCS conferences with fewer than 8 football members. The Big South, Ohio Valley, Patriot, and MEAC would all have 7, and the Southland would be left with 6.

The Southern Conference currently has 10 Olympic sports members, and the Big South has 12. Are they likely to absorb 4 more schools from the ASUN, which would reduce each of their members' share of NCAAT money? What would they gain?

If those four schools were able to find a home and leave the ASUN, that league would be reduced to 8 members, five of whom play FCS football. What three football playing schools are they considering adding (to get to 11 OS members), and where would they come from? Would FBS Liberty stay in the ASUN?

It seems like the needs of UNA and Kenn St have totally taken over the ASUN’s thinking. If the 4 FL schools have no intention of doing scholarship FCS football, their goal should be finding members that help bridge the geographic gap between FL and the other non-fb schools in TN, KY, and VA.

As football becomes the dominant force driving expansion for the conference, the FL schools will be increasingly sidelined.

(03-22-2021 01:00 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  with the A-Sun morphing into more of a football conference than a basketball one, maybe the A-Sun's olympic sports only teams should leave the A-Sun for another conference. I'm sure the SoCon would love to have Stetson and Jacksonville and maybe UNF, and/or maybe the Big South could pick up UNF and FGCU. This would help transition the A-Sun into being the football conference UNA and Jax State fans want it to be, IMO.

So leave the conference to get away from football and join another football conference?

There’s no Big East/A10/WCC equivalent in the South. Creating a new conference isn’t viable and even if it was, it wouldn’t be strong enough to get the best basketball schools without football like Belmont or Northern Kentucky.

The ASUN non-football schools will stay because anything else would be a lateral move with more travel

If Stetson or Jacksonville could join the SoCon, they would have done so already. Unless the SoCon loses a private school member, they do not require either of those schools. And considering that UNC-Greensboro is the only non-football school left in the SoCon, it's likely they would want an FCS scholarship football school to replace any member that left. So no dice for Stetson or JU there.

At some point, Bellarmine will probably head off to the Horizon or OVC, but Stetson and JU are core, long-term members of the A-Sun. There's no reason for them to go anywhere. UNF and FGCU may well play FCS football at some point, but they are also core, long-term members of the A-Sun. The 4 Florida schools are a bloc that aren't just going to be pushed aside because it would be more convenient for North Alabama or Eastern Kentucky.

There are enough southern D1 basketball only (or non-scholly football) teams that aren't in a mid-mid-major conferences to make a conference but why move to another conference that would still not get multiple bids to the NCAA:

Radford
Winthrop
UNCA
Belmont
Morehead St
Bellarmine
N Kentucky
Jacksonville
Stetson
UNF
FGCU
USC Upstate
Lipscomb
Longwood

Virginia: Two
Kentucky: Three
Tennessee: Two
South Carolina: Two
North Carolina: One
Florida: Four


Two seven team divisions to help travel. Split perfectly Public/Private

However that'll never happen.

Looking at it 10 of those would be aiming for an NCAA bid every year. Would be fun as hell to watch each year.

(03-22-2021 11:42 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  There are enough southern D1 basketball only (or non-scholly football) teams that aren't in a mid-mid-major conferences to make a conference but why move to another conference that would still not get multiple bids to the NCAA:

Radford
Winthrop
UNCA
Belmont
Morehead St
Bellarmine
N Kentucky
Jacksonville
Stetson
UNF
FGCU
USC Upstate
Lipscomb
Longwood

Virginia: Two
Kentucky: Three
Tennessee: Two
South Carolina: Two
North Carolina: One
Florida: Four


Two seven team divisions to help travel. Split perfectly Public/Private

However that'll never happen.

I think you're off on the Public/Private numbers (Radford, Longwood, and Winthrop are all public schools)

(03-22-2021 12:26 PM)whittx Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 11:42 AM)Yosef Himself Wrote:  There are enough southern D1 basketball only (or non-scholly football) teams that aren't in a mid-mid-major conferences to make a conference but why move to another conference that would still not get multiple bids to the NCAA:

Radford
Winthrop
UNCA
Belmont
Morehead St
Bellarmine
N Kentucky
Jacksonville
Stetson
UNF
FGCU
USC Upstate
Lipscomb
Longwood

Virginia: Two
Kentucky: Three
Tennessee: Two
South Carolina: Two
North Carolina: One
Florida: Four


Two seven team divisions to help travel. Split perfectly Public/Private

However that'll never happen.

I think you're off on the Public/Private numbers (Radford, Longwood, and Winthrop are all public schools)

Gotcha: Here's what I had (without Wikipedia lookup) as privates:

Jacksonville
Stetson
Bellarmine
Belmont
Winthrop
Lipscomb



Yeh, missed one

You could drag in High Point and drop a public and still have a 7/7 split

(03-22-2021 01:00 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  with the A-Sun morphing into more of a football conference than a basketball one, maybe the A-Sun's olympic sports only teams should leave the A-Sun for another conference. I'm sure the SoCon would love to have Stetson and Jacksonville and maybe UNF, and/or maybe the Big South could pick up UNF and FGCU. This would help transition the A-Sun into being the football conference UNA and Jax State fans want it to be, IMO.

Could they Merge into a rebranded MEAC? Would Stenson be willing to add scholarships to it's football team? Though If it's adding scholarships then it's going to stay in the ASUN. If Stenson goes MEAC football maybe have them go to the FCS playoffs and the Celebration bowl is the SWAC champion vs the best HBCU not in the FCS playoffs? With HBCU schools no longer just in either the SWAC or MEAC it could possibly lead to better Celebration bowl matchups.

(03-22-2021 01:28 PM)46566 Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 01:00 AM)DawgNBama Wrote:  with the A-Sun morphing into more of a football conference than a basketball one, maybe the A-Sun's olympic sports only teams should leave the A-Sun for another conference. I'm sure the SoCon would love to have Stetson and Jacksonville and maybe UNF, and/or maybe the Big South could pick up UNF and FGCU. This would help transition the A-Sun into being the football conference UNA and Jax State fans want it to be, IMO.

Could they Merge into a rebranded MEAC? Would Stenson be willing to add scholarships to it's football team? Though If it's adding scholarships then it's going to stay in the ASUN. If Stenson goes MEAC football maybe have them go to the FCS playoffs and the Celebration bowl is the SWAC champion vs the best HBCU not in the FCS playoffs? With HBCU schools no longer just in either the SWAC or MEAC it could possibly lead to better Celebration bowl matchups.

Stetson is not going to join the MEAC. And I would be highly skeptical that they can afford scholarship football. They added football to help enrollment numbers and their male/female ratio. That doesn't seem like a school that is about to spend millions to pay for scholarships.

I don’t think anyone will be joining the zombie MEAC. Maybe Chicago St

There are 28 Southern Non football/Non Scholarship schools in FBS/FCS Conferences including UMKC and Oral Roberts as Summit Outliers. The only sustainable alignment that makes any sense would be a 12 team Mid-Atlantic conference with the MD/VA/NC/SC schools and a 2 divison Southwest/Ohio Valley alignment.

However those 12 are a hodgepodge of priorities so the chances of something like that actually happening are nill.

The 4 FL schools are probably in the realistic best case scenario. Making sure the ASun is an option for football schools is a smart play.

UALR (AR)
UTA (TX)
TA&M CC (TX)
UTRGV (TX)
UNO (LA)
ORU (OK)

Lipscomb (TN)
Belmont (TN)
Morehead St (KY)
Bellarmine (KY)
SIUE (IL)
UMKC (MO)

UMES (MD)
Coppin St (MD)
Radford (VA)
Longwood (VA)
UNCA (NC)
UNCG (NC)
UNCW (NC)
High Point (NC)
Presbyterian (SC)
USC Upstate (SC)
Winthrop (SC)
Charleston (SC)

Jacksonville (FL)
Stetson (FL)
UNF (FL)
FCGU (FL)

(03-22-2021 03:07 PM)solohawks Wrote:  There are 25 Southern Non football/Non Scholarship schools in FBS/FCS Conferences. The only sustainable alignment that makes any sense would be a 12 team Mid-Atlantic conference with the MD/VA/NC/SC schools.

However those 12 are a hodgepodge of priorities so the chances of something like that actually happening are nill.

The 4 FL schools are probably in the realistic best case scenario. Making sure the ASun is an option for football schools is a smart play.

UALR (AR)
UTA (TX)
TA&M CC (TX)
UNO (LA)

Lipscomb (TN)
Belmont (TN)
Morehead St (KY)
Bellarmine (KY)
SIUE (MO)

UMES (MD)
Coppin St (MD)
Radford (VA)
Longwood (VA)
UNCA (NC)
UNCG (NC)
UNCW (NC)
High Point (NC)
Presbyterian (SC)
USC Upstate (SC)
Winthrop (SC)
Charleston (SC)

Jacksonville (FL)
Stetson (FL)
UNF (FL)
FCGU (FL)

SIUE is in Illinois

(03-22-2021 03:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:07 PM)solohawks Wrote:  There are 25 Southern Non football/Non Scholarship schools in FBS/FCS Conferences. The only sustainable alignment that makes any sense would be a 12 team Mid-Atlantic conference with the MD/VA/NC/SC schools.

However those 12 are a hodgepodge of priorities so the chances of something like that actually happening are nill.

The 4 FL schools are probably in the realistic best case scenario. Making sure the ASun is an option for football schools is a smart play.

UALR (AR)
UTA (TX)
TA&M CC (TX)
UNO (LA)

Lipscomb (TN)
Belmont (TN)
Morehead St (KY)
Bellarmine (KY)
SIUE (MO)

UMES (MD)
Coppin St (MD)
Radford (VA)
Longwood (VA)
UNCA (NC)
UNCG (NC)
UNCW (NC)
High Point (NC)
Presbyterian (SC)
USC Upstate (SC)
Winthrop (SC)
Charleston (SC)

Jacksonville (FL)
Stetson (FL)
UNF (FL)
FCGU (FL)

SIUE is in Illinois

Fixed. And added in UTRGV from the WAC and ORU and UMKC as Summit outliers

(03-22-2021 03:24 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:07 PM)solohawks Wrote:  There are 25 Southern Non football/Non Scholarship schools in FBS/FCS Conferences. The only sustainable alignment that makes any sense would be a 12 team Mid-Atlantic conference with the MD/VA/NC/SC schools.

However those 12 are a hodgepodge of priorities so the chances of something like that actually happening are nill.

The 4 FL schools are probably in the realistic best case scenario. Making sure the ASun is an option for football schools is a smart play.

UALR (AR)
UTA (TX)
TA&M CC (TX)
UNO (LA)

Lipscomb (TN)
Belmont (TN)
Morehead St (KY)
Bellarmine (KY)
SIUE (MO)

UMES (MD)
Coppin St (MD)
Radford (VA)
Longwood (VA)
UNCA (NC)
UNCG (NC)
UNCW (NC)
High Point (NC)
Presbyterian (SC)
USC Upstate (SC)
Winthrop (SC)
Charleston (SC)

Jacksonville (FL)
Stetson (FL)
UNF (FL)
FCGU (FL)

SIUE is in Illinois

Fixed. And added in UTRGV from the WAC and ORU and UMKC as Summit outliers

College of Charleston isn’t leaving the CAA to play with that group of schools. The SoCon would take them back if there were an reason that they were forced to leave their current home, but I think they aspire to move to the A-10 if one or two schools get called up to the Big East.

(03-22-2021 07:51 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:24 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:07 PM)solohawks Wrote:  There are 25 Southern Non football/Non Scholarship schools in FBS/FCS Conferences. The only sustainable alignment that makes any sense would be a 12 team Mid-Atlantic conference with the MD/VA/NC/SC schools.

However those 12 are a hodgepodge of priorities so the chances of something like that actually happening are nill.

The 4 FL schools are probably in the realistic best case scenario. Making sure the ASun is an option for football schools is a smart play.

UALR (AR)
UTA (TX)
TA&M CC (TX)
UNO (LA)

Lipscomb (TN)
Belmont (TN)
Morehead St (KY)
Bellarmine (KY)
SIUE (MO)

UMES (MD)
Coppin St (MD)
Radford (VA)
Longwood (VA)
UNCA (NC)
UNCG (NC)
UNCW (NC)
High Point (NC)
Presbyterian (SC)
USC Upstate (SC)
Winthrop (SC)
Charleston (SC)

Jacksonville (FL)
Stetson (FL)
UNF (FL)
FCGU (FL)

SIUE is in Illinois

Fixed. And added in UTRGV from the WAC and ORU and UMKC as Summit outliers

College of Charleston isn’t leaving the CAA to play with that group of schools. The SoCon would take them back if there were an reason that they were forced to leave their current home, but I think they aspire to move to the A-10 if one or two schools get called up to the Big East.

Oh I agree.

I just wanted to put pen to paper on the southern non football schools and what such a confernce would look like

(03-22-2021 07:51 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:24 PM)solohawks Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:14 PM)Fighting Muskie Wrote:  

(03-22-2021 03:07 PM)solohawks Wrote:  There are 25 Southern Non football/Non Scholarship schools in FBS/FCS Conferences. The only sustainable alignment that makes any sense would be a 12 team Mid-Atlantic conference with the MD/VA/NC/SC schools.

However those 12 are a hodgepodge of priorities so the chances of something like that actually happening are nill.

The 4 FL schools are probably in the realistic best case scenario. Making sure the ASun is an option for football schools is a smart play.

UALR (AR)
UTA (TX)
TA&M CC (TX)
UNO (LA)

Lipscomb (TN)
Belmont (TN)
Morehead St (KY)
Bellarmine (KY)
SIUE (MO)

UMES (MD)
Coppin St (MD)
Radford (VA)
Longwood (VA)
UNCA (NC)
UNCG (NC)
UNCW (NC)
High Point (NC)
Presbyterian (SC)
USC Upstate (SC)
Winthrop (SC)
Charleston (SC)

Jacksonville (FL)
Stetson (FL)
UNF (FL)
FCGU (FL)

SIUE is in Illinois

Fixed. And added in UTRGV from the WAC and ORU and UMKC as Summit outliers

College of Charleston isn’t leaving the CAA to play with that group of schools. The SoCon would take them back if there were an reason that they were forced to leave their current home, but I think they aspire to move to the A-10 if one or two schools get called up to the Big East.

No way would the SoCon take or even want either Charleston or Elon back in the conference. Basketball in the SoCon has actually improved since they departed for their perceived "greener pastures" of the CAA.