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Post by northalaspectator on Mar 9, 2018 22:11:11 GMT -6
I have no idea, so if it’s a well known secret please feel free to correct me. But I always wondered if having that D2 championship game kept some of our people from wanting to move up. And I mean, I was always proud of what it meant for the Shoals, but it should have never stood in the way of what was best for UNA. Maybe it played no role whatsoever in our reluctance, but I have a hard time believing that’s completely true. Having the football championship here had a small effect, but very little. I think probably having a slim or zero chance to play for National Title outside of football had more to do with it. Heck, it those Arkansas Schools hadn’t left the GSC we would probably still be D2.
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Post by unafied on Mar 10, 2018 11:39:41 GMT -6
I have no idea, so if it’s a well known secret please feel free to correct me. But I always wondered if having that D2 championship game kept some of our people from wanting to move up. And I mean, I was always proud of what it meant for the Shoals, but it should have never stood in the way of what was best for UNA. Maybe it played no role whatsoever in our reluctance, but I have a hard time believing that’s completely true. Having the football championship here had a small effect, but very little. I think probably having a slim or zero chance to play for National Title outside of football had more to do with it. Heck, it those Arkansas Schools hadn’t left the GSC we would probably still be D2. The difficulty of playing for national championships was always my reason for being reluctant to leave D2. I enjoyed being a big fish in a small pond. Now that we’re transitioning I’ve warmed up to who we will be going forward. And as I’ve mentioned in some other threads, I’m cautiously optimistic that some of our “minor” sports can have success. I do hate that men’s basketball (and probably women’s if we’re honest) are potentially the most affected, since we have a great past tradition. But as crazy as some of these small schools get just for making the Dance as a 16 seed, maybe we can get there someday and we’ll feel the same way. You really think the Arkansas schools leaving had that much of an impact? I’m not doubting, necessarily, just a little surprised if that’s true. I was never very happy with that setup, as it seems Central Arkansas was the only real solid program out of those. It almost felt like two conferences bound together, which I guess now that they’ve split off, you can almost say it was. At the same time, I’m not sure the schools that have replaced them are any “better”. We really should have made the move up when the clock struck 00:00 against Pittsburg State in ‘95. But, obviously you can’t change the past. Here’s a fun what-if. What if UAH had started a football program, say, after JSU and Troy left. If we had a blood rivalry with them in football, to go along with the great games against Valdosta and Delta, I wonder if we would be making this jump?
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Post by brandon on Mar 10, 2018 12:02:03 GMT -6
Having the football championship here had a small effect, but very little. I think probably having a slim or zero chance to play for National Title outside of football had more to do with it. Heck, it those Arkansas Schools hadn’t left the GSC we would probably still be D2. The difficulty of playing for national championships was always my reason for being reluctant to leave D2. I enjoyed being a big fish in a small pond. Now that we’re transitioning I’ve warmed up to who we will be going forward. And as I’ve mentioned in some other threads, I’m cautiously optimistic that some of our “minor” sports can have success. I do hate that men’s basketball (and probably women’s if we’re honest) are potentially the most affected, since we have a great past tradition. But as crazy as some of these small schools get just for making the Dance as a 16 seed, maybe we can get there someday and we’ll feel the same way. You really think the Arkansas schools leaving had that much of an impact? I’m not doubting, necessarily, just a little surprised if that’s true. I was never very happy with that setup, as it seems Central Arkansas was the only real solid program out of those. It almost felt like two conferences bound together, which I guess now that they’ve split off, you can almost say it was. At the same time, I’m not sure the schools that have replaced them are any “better”. We really should have made the move up when the clock struck 00:00 against Pittsburg State in ‘95. But, obviously you can’t change the past. Here’s a fun what-if. What if UAH had started a football program, say, after JSU and Troy left. If we had a blood rivalry with them in football, to go along with the great games against Valdosta and Delta, I wonder if we would be making this jump? We have actuallybeen talking about going D1 when the clock struck 00:00 in 95. But too many peaple, like you said, wanted to be the Big Fish in the small pond. We got serious about it about a year before the Ark schools left. You can't just say, well they ain't in our conference anymore, we want to move. They could still be played, but they really had nothing for us. I suspect, if the Southland wasn't so crowded, one or two more of the Ark. Schools would be moving up with Central Arkansas. The move should have happened years ago, I think even before our first national championship in football. I feel like, if we would have been proactive about it, and moved together, UNA, JSU and Troy would all be in the same conference today, or at least the same level. More than likely we would end up paired with USA(just by way of natural rivalry) and JSU and Troy would be paired together. (If in different conferences). The Old games between the original Big 3 were huge, drew big crowds and got a lot of attention in the state and region. When JSU dragged their feet, and UNA had Big Fish syndrome, it ruined it. But it is what it is. A conference could have been made like the early Big 12, when almost every game was a rivalry and the stands were usually split half and half with fans for each school, like it was with the Big 3. Since then, the biggest games UNA was in was the National Championship games(as far as attendance). That atmosphere used to be for conference games as well.
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