MBB: USA South Conference

wilburt · July 21, 2006, 10:39:40 AM

Ralph, this is what I see in the year or two:

1. Maryville and Piedmont going to the USASouth (regardless if both CNU and SU stay or go).

2. Agnes Scott and Spelman going to the SCAC (I know this will be 14 teams but they fit the SCAC academic profile and will keep Oglethorpe company in Atlanta). Plus I can see DePauw leaving the SCAC sometime soon...

3. Wesleyan, Huntingdon and maybe LaGrange going D3 independent (this will only occur as a last resort and only if 1 occurs first).

narch · July 21, 2006, 11:25:44 PM

honestly, i don't think any of this happens...i think the usasac will retain su and cnu (at least i hope they do)

wilburt · July 22, 2006, 11:52:39 AM

Check out this article from today's Daily Times. I already posted it on the GSAC Board. Very interesting, may not have been a wise decision to push Fisk out of the GSAC afterall. Reminds me of cutting your nose to spite your face...

http://www.thedailytimes.com/sited/story/html/261573

wilburt · July 23, 2006, 09:01:26 AM

There is a story/rumor/speculation going around that Lambert will take (or at least try to take) his Maryville Scots to the USA South and leave the rest of the GSAC to hang in the wind to fend for themselves ....

scottiedoug · July 23, 2006, 01:29:27 PM

William: A rumor going around where? There are people who think democracy has come ti Iraq....

wilburt · July 24, 2006, 07:42:28 AM

You mean to tell me there isn't a democracy in Iraq?

Next thing you will tell me is that Santa Claus isn't real

scottiedoug · July 24, 2006, 11:07:10 AM

Or that D1 athletics is amateur.

coachwgh · July 24, 2006, 03:56:26 PM

This is the same old rumor stuff that has been flying around for years. We are in fact getting to the point of the night where it is time to find someone to take home and we find ourselves on the men's side looking very paniced. Sometimes this is when bad decisions are made that you wake up the next morning and regret with all your being. I think the North/South with two games in your division and one with each team out of the other division works. Alternate home sites so over two years it is as fair as it can be. I would need 7 Saturdays to play the north and Maryville which would fit in Jan - Feb. Top two from each division goes to conference tournament. Why don't we just take a vote on here and pass it in to action.

Pat Coleman · July 24, 2006, 08:44:30 PM

Is that seven Saturdays even if you do two games on one overnight trip, either Friday/Saturday or Saturday/Sunday?

coachwgh · July 25, 2006, 07:18:18 AM

I am not very familiar with location besides Methodist. If that was something that could be done without traveling three hours or more after the first game and everyone was playing in that fashion then it would be an option but if you didn't have to do it, why would you. That would only be 3 road games one year and 2 the following.

wilburt · July 25, 2006, 07:31:17 AM

That's a fine proposal for basketball Coach Haynes but what about the other sports?

As far as the GSAC is concerned, it has had several opportunities to grow, but has passed them up in their infinite collective wisdom.

Stillman & Fisk are now gone and the GSAC leadership declined membership to Thomas More a couple of years ago. That's 7 coed schools and an automatic bid right there that has slipped through their fingers.

Now many are panicking (IMHO due to lack of leadership and vision) and now they (the GSAC ADs) are desperately talking about a merger with the USA South which poses more travel problems/hurdles than Thomas More would have provided in the GSAC if they had been allowed to join.

Go figure... Just my commentary...

Ralph Turner · July 25, 2006, 08:45:08 AM

Quote from: coachwgh on July 24, 2006, 03:56:26 PM
...I think the North/South with two games in your division and one with each team out of the other division works. Alternate home sites so over two years it is as fair as it can be. I would need 7 Saturdays to play the north and Maryville which would fit in Jan - Feb. Top two from each division goes to conference tournament. Why don't we just take a vote on here and pass it in to action.

With the travel distances in the ASC, the East and West play basketball as Coach Haynes has suggested, interdivision single games and intra-division double round robin. They play on Thursdays and Saturdays in a travel partner arrangement so the travel to the next venue is only about 3 hours, (with exceptions like Sul Ross State and Howard Payne or Austin College and University of the Ozarks. The ASC only has coed schools tho'.) Some years, they have considered all games towards the division championship. Other years they have played the full 22-games conference schedule but only considered division games towards the division championship and championship tourney.

In soccer they have played a Friday/Saturday travel partner format, single round robin conference, (currently without divisions) and 6 of the 13 teams going to the tourney.

In baseball, it is a Friday 9-inning game and then a Saturday 9-inning/7 inning DH in the Division format with inter-division "Cross-over" games thrown in. Last year, the Crossover game did not count.

Softball is 2 DH's on Friday Saturday, but necessarily pairing the same schools. There is an season-opening tourney at a neutral field in Irving, and the top 2 teams go to the post-season tourney.

The ASC Presidents expanded the post-season tourneys from the top 2 from each division to the top 4 for the 2004-05 year, with great success.

I think that the merger, or more accurately, the expansion of the USAC (to keep the AQ without losing 2 years as seen with the Lake Michigan/NIIC merger) is the best choice for both conferences.

wilburt · July 25, 2006, 09:03:20 AM

Ralph that sounds like it may just work out...

old_lion · July 25, 2006, 09:47:54 AM

Quote from: wilburt on July 25, 2006, 07:31:17 AM
Stillman & Fisk are now gone and the GSAC leadership declined membership to Thomas More a couple of years ago. That's 7 coed schools and an automatic bid right there that has slipped through their fingers.

Now many are panicking (IMHO due to lack of leadership and vision) and now they (the GSAC ADs) are desperately talking about a merger with the USA South which poses more travel problems/hurdles than Thomas More would have provided in the GSAC if they had been allowed to join.

I never did understand the rejection of Thomas More. They had good facilities and seemed to be a class operation. We made the trip up there a couple of years ago. It was a haul, but it wasn't that far ... and it was an easy trip, interstate almost the entire way.

Seems to me, the GSAC missed an opportunity. I would love to hear the rational for their rejection.

coachwgh · July 25, 2006, 01:08:16 PM

I don't know enough about the other sports to make suggestions on scheduling. Thomas More just wasn't a good fit. They are mostly commuter, 8 hours from us, and a lot of their administrative choices didn't jive with those of our conference. I miss playing them but I don't miss driving to N. KY.

An occuring theme in some of the posts are that if there is a merger somewhere, HC and LC may get left out. I think that is a real possibility due to our geography. It doesn't really matter we will still play the same people and to get to the tournament will take the same requirements.