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Post by brandon on Mar 29, 2023 13:26:29 GMT -6
Don't know how much, but I'm hearing some pretty damning things about the happiness of some OVC members. So much so they in the next few years, they may have to drop football....
Does this mean they join the ASUN???
Even though the ASUN WAC partnership is in effect, the ASUN hasn't completely dropped having football in conference.
Maybe an EKU person can give us more insight instead of just UNAs prospective on what actually went down in 2011.
From what I'm understanding is SEMO, TTU, UT Martin, Tennessee State and EIU are upset with the OVC and getting more upset.
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Post by ekusteve on Mar 29, 2023 16:10:39 GMT -6
I'm not fully sure if it was the Tennessee schools or if it was the schools that were not emphasizing football that kept UNA out. Different population kept NKU out.
I can still see scholarship football being a splitting issue amongst the membership. On top of those of us that left over football and other issues the OVC lost their best basketball schools. There also seems to be an upper Midwest focus on bringing on new candidates.
So could the Tennessee 4 be looking our way? Or SEMO?
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Post by unalions on Mar 29, 2023 19:19:52 GMT -6
Interesting. I say the more the merrier especially with football. As of now, it seems even the AWFC faces obstacles to becoming a single sport conference even for FCS. Of course, the alliance is fine but that certainly frees the ASUN up a bit to expand with football schools.
Maybe West GA will see the underlying issues and come to the ASUN, too.
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Post by brandon on Mar 29, 2023 20:34:09 GMT -6
I'm not fully sure if it was the Tennessee schools or if it was the schools that were not emphasizing football that kept UNA out. Different population kept NKU out. I can still see scholarship football being a splitting issue amongst the membership. On top of those of us that left over football and other issues the OVC lost their best basketball schools. There also seems to be an upper Midwest focus on bringing on new candidates. So could the Tennessee 4 be looking our way? Or SEMO? From what I was told, Murray stopped UNA, all other football schools wanted UNA in. Not sure about non football schools. |
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Post by brandon on Mar 29, 2023 20:49:14 GMT -6
Interesting. I say the more the merrier especially with football. As of now, it seems even the AWFC faces obstacles to becoming a single sport conference even for FCS. Of course, the alliance is fine but that certainly frees the ASUN up a bit to expand with football schools. Maybe West GA will see the underlying issues and come to the ASUN, too. I don't think being a single sport conference in FCS would be a big problem... there is already one (two if you count CAA) I wouldn't mind SEMO, UT Martin, TTU... that gives us 7 football and replaces the 3 we are loosing. Even if we stay with the WAC, it will be the same as the MVFC, BIG SKY and CAA as far as numbers. |
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Post by unafied on Mar 30, 2023 7:10:32 GMT -6
Were the 3 Tennessee teams and SEMO maybe the rumored 4 schools that could be joining the ASUN? Sounds like maybe there have at least been conversations between everyone?
I don't know. Geographically it makes a lot of sense for a few of those schools (if not all) to join with us. But it creates a lot of questions. If there's any football schools left, where would they play? What about the Big South teams? Not that that would necessarily be an ASUN problem, of course.
You also you have the fact that especially EKU, and possibly UCA as well, were trying to get away from schools that had lower budgets and less of a commitment to athletics. Would they be on board with this move?
And finally, if this were to happen... doesn't it signal that the "FBS as one conference" path is dead? There's no way that a team like Tennessee Tech will be playing FBS football in the next 10 years. So it seems the only way they would join us is if they KNOW that we will mostly all be sticking around for the long haul.
It's funny, really. I wonder how different the timeline would be if the OVC had accepted us back around 2011? I'm beginning to think it could have changed a LOT.
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Post by brandon on Mar 30, 2023 10:21:48 GMT -6
Were the 3 Tennessee teams and SEMO maybe the rumored 4 schools that could be joining the ASUN? Sounds like maybe there have at least been conversations between everyone? I don't know. Geographically it makes a lot of sense for a few of those schools (if not all) to join with us. But it creates a lot of questions. If there's any football schools left, where would they play? What about the Big South teams? Not that that would necessarily be an ASUN problem, of course. You also you have the fact that especially EKU, and possibly UCA as well, were trying to get away from schools that had lower budgets and less of a commitment to athletics. Would they be on board with this move? And finally, if this were to happen... doesn't it signal that the "FBS as one conference" path is dead? There's no way that a team like Tennessee Tech will be playing FBS football in the next 10 years. So it seems the only way they would join us is if they KNOW that we will mostly all be sticking around for the long haul. It's funny, really. I wonder how different the timeline would be if the OVC had accepted us back around 2011? I'm beginning to think it could have changed a LOT. To be fair about TTU, if they can't go FBS, then neither can we... To be honest, SEMO, TTU and to a lesser extent, UT Martin isn't much different in budget than the rest of the ASUN football schools. Sure, what we are being told is we are working to increase ours, but how long will that really take? And I think, as much as some of us may want it, the FBS thing as far as the ASUN/WAC together has a very low probability if everything was perfect from all schools involved. I think, take SEMO, UT Martin and TTU and keep the WAC partnership. We all know EKU and Tarleton is on the next FBS train if offered and they would more than likely be before anyone else in this conversation. After that, I think it would be a long time before another from this group is truly ready. So I say, to compete with the MVFC, CAA and to a lesser extent the SoCon, put this together and make it great... EKU TTU UTM APSU UCA SEMO UNA SFA Tarleton UTRGV ACU UT SUU 13 schools, you wouldn't play them all every year anyway, but at least all the WAC can play each other and all the ASUN can play each other every year. You could even use thar as sudo divisions and crown ASUN and WAC champions even if one don't go to the playoffs... |
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Post by ekusteve on Mar 30, 2023 10:27:05 GMT -6
Were the 3 Tennessee teams and SEMO maybe the rumored 4 schools that could be joining the ASUN? Sounds like maybe there have at least been conversations between everyone? I don't know. Geographically it makes a lot of sense for a few of those schools (if not all) to join with us. But it creates a lot of questions. If there's any football schools left, where would they play? What about the Big South teams? Not that that would necessarily be an ASUN problem, of course. You also you have the fact that especially EKU, and possibly UCA as well, were trying to get away from schools that had lower budgets and less of a commitment to athletics. Would they be on board with this move? And finally, if this were to happen... doesn't it signal that the "FBS as one conference" path is dead? There's no way that a team like Tennessee Tech will be playing FBS football in the next 10 years. So it seems the only way they would join us is if they KNOW that we will mostly all be sticking around for the long haul. It's funny, really. I wonder how different the timeline would be if the OVC had accepted us back around 2011? I'm beginning to think it could have changed a LOT. My understanding from when the Southland was being talked to was basically 2 football conferences. One FBS and one FCS. |
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Post by brandon on May 12, 2023 12:51:48 GMT -6
Well, what I've been told for some time now, and I admittedly gave up on, is happening.
Western Illinois is leaving the MVFC/Summit to join the OVC...
I would expect one or two schools jump from the Southern part of the OVC to the ASUN in the near future.
Just more proof that the OVC is willing to put the southern schools on an Island.
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Post by unafied on May 17, 2023 5:56:17 GMT -6
Well, what I've been told for some time now, and I admittedly gave up on, is happening. Western Illinois is leaving the MVFC/Summit to join the OVC... I would expect one or two schools jump from the Southern part of the OVC to the ASUN in the near future. Just more proof that the OVC is willing to put the southern schools on an Island. I'm still surprised Tennessee Tech hasn't made the move. I know a while back they announced they were about to start investing in football upgrades. Other than Tennessee State, I think EKU and Austin Peay are probably the closest schools to them (I'm not counting Chattanooga and ETSU in the SoCon). It seems like they would want to keep a southern focus instead of now having multiple road trips potentially into Illinois and Missouri. I know their fan support is pretty "meh", and not sure what their money situation looks like. But they would certainly fill in the map well. |
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Post by brandon on May 17, 2023 6:26:45 GMT -6
Well, what I've been told for some time now, and I admittedly gave up on, is happening. Western Illinois is leaving the MVFC/Summit to join the OVC... I would expect one or two schools jump from the Southern part of the OVC to the ASUN in the near future. Just more proof that the OVC is willing to put the southern schools on an Island. I'm still surprised Tennessee Tech hasn't made the move. I know a while back they announced they were about to start investing in football upgrades. Other than Tennessee State, I think EKU and Austin Peay are probably the closest schools to them (I'm not counting Chattanooga and ETSU in the SoCon). It seems like they would want to keep a southern focus instead of now having multiple road trips potentially into Illinois and Missouri. I know their fan support is pretty "meh", and not sure what their money situation looks like. But they would certainly fill in the map well. Honestly, their fan base is a good one, when they care. I have family that live up there (Crossville right down I40) and are alumni there. The way they talk they figured they woulf have done came to the ASUN. They have a nice campus, not same buildng style as ours, but nice. Their money seems similar to UNA. It seems they shoulf fit in the ASUN pretty easy. They have good baseball and thats an ASUN priority. (Hope they dont kick us out) Honestly, TTU and SEMO seem like the perfect fit Peaple could argue that SEMO should be happy in the OVC becouse if Lindemwood and Little Rock, but if you look at the ASUN map with the UAC map and insert SEMO in them, they fit nice. |
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Post by unafied on May 17, 2023 7:00:22 GMT -6
I'm still surprised Tennessee Tech hasn't made the move. I know a while back they announced they were about to start investing in football upgrades. Other than Tennessee State, I think EKU and Austin Peay are probably the closest schools to them (I'm not counting Chattanooga and ETSU in the SoCon). It seems like they would want to keep a southern focus instead of now having multiple road trips potentially into Illinois and Missouri. I know their fan support is pretty "meh", and not sure what their money situation looks like. But they would certainly fill in the map well. Honestly, their fan base is a good one, when they care. I have family that live up there (Crossville right down I40) and are alumni there. The way they talk they figured they woulf have done came to the ASUN. They have a nice campus, not same buildng style as ours, but nice. Their money seems similar to UNA. It seems they shoulf fit in the ASUN pretty easy. They have good baseball and thats an ASUN priority. (Hope they dont kick us out) Honestly, TTU and SEMO seem like the perfect fit Peaple could argue that SEMO should be happy in the OVC becouse if Lindemwood and Little Rock, but if you look at the ASUN map with the UAC map and insert SEMO in them, they fit nice. My wife's cousins have/are going there. In fact the youngest one was offered a baseball scholarship. He went anyway, but decided to stop playing to focus on academics. They seem to have a good engineering program (something I wish UNA had). |
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Post by roaringsince96 on May 17, 2023 16:28:44 GMT -6
UNA does have a good engineering program now…it actually is an Auburn engineering degree and I think mathematics minor from UNA. I didn’t even that collaboration was a thing until we toured the engineering facilities.
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Post by unafied on May 17, 2023 17:17:10 GMT -6
UNA does have a good engineering program now…it actually is an Auburn engineering degree and I think mathematics minor from UNA. I didn’t even that collaboration was a thing until we toured the engineering facilities. Interesting. I know we need to differentiate from other schools in the state, to a degree. But if we had had civil engineering that would’ve been my degree of choice. I went to Bama for their engineering tour when I was still in high school. Almost went there, but ultimately decided on a different major altogether. I went through about 7 lol. Being an indecisive college student was rough. |
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