FB: USA South Athletic Conference

[Ron Boerger]

wow...i didn't see the odac for su coming...i thought maybe the cac, but i didn't see the odac...for the usasac and personally, i hate to see su go, so i hope this doesn't happen

i'd be willing to bet on some type of usasac/gsac merger if this goes through - the usasac doesn't want to be left in a vulnerable position if another member decides to leave...

CAC?  Do you mean the SCAC?  It's full, they wanted 12 schools and with Birmingham-Southern joining they have them.  Not to mention the travel costs would really be tough for a school with the relatively small financial resources SU has in comparison to the rest of the current SCAC membership. 

[wasper68]

Does anyone know what the Stips are for getting into one confernce or another. If you go based on location, then its a "Cluster ____" For example Ferrum and Averett are right in the middle between Guilford and Bridgewater. Yet Greensboro is next door to Guilford. CNU is in line (up & down Interstate 95) with Methodist and NCWC, but an overnight trip away from Averett, Maryville, Shenandoah and Greensboro as well as Ferrum.

So it's 6 of one and a half dozen of the other as far as travel and location. Has to be something else that drives the conference make up.

I think academic strength is heavily looked upon especially in the ODAC.

[narch]

if su leaves the usasac, this is what i'd like to see happen:

usasac - averett (fb), cnu (fb), ferrum (fb), g'boro (fb), huntingdon (fb), lagrange (fb), m'ville (fb), mu (fb), ncwc (fb), piedmont

this would make for an 8 game conference football schedule for each member (just one additional game), and an 18 game conference hoops schedule (and most of the usasac teams are already playing a few games against gsac schools) - the schools in the new usasac would be asked to sponsor a team in each conference sanctioned sport (or at least those that would lose an aq with the defection of su), meaning the current gsac schools might have to add some sports, but i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing

great south women's college conference - mary baldwin, meredith, peace, salem, agnes scott, spelman, wesleyan (and they could invite sweet briar and hollins into the mix, as well)...ralph/pat, could this potentially give this conference aq status in a number of sports??

i think this would be a great solution for all teams involved if su opts to leave the usasac...the trip to huntigdon, m'ville and lagrange isn't really desireable, but neither is the trip to winchester

[PrideSportBBallGuy]

SU go ahead and leave, do what you think is best for you athletics.  I say let the GSAC join USASouth, it might keep that conference(basketball) tournament out of CNU. 

[narch]

I think academic strength is heavily looked upon especially in the ODAC.

i think the word you're probably looking for here is reputation...there are many schools which are every bit as strong as most of the odac schools (take w&l out of this statement), but don't have the same reputation that the odac schools enjoy

[Pat Coleman]

wow...i didn't see the odac for su coming...i thought maybe the cac, but i didn't see the odac...for the usasac and personally, i hate to see su go, so i hope this doesn't happen

i'd be willing to bet on some type of usasac/gsac merger if this goes through - the usasac doesn't want to be left in a vulnerable position if another member decides to leave...

CAC?  Do you mean the SCAC?  It's full, they wanted 12 schools and with Birmingham-Southern joining they have them.  Not to mention the travel costs would really be tough for a school with the relatively small financial resources SU has in comparison to the rest of the current SCAC membership. 

CAC -- Capital Athletic Conference. Doesn't currently sponsor football, but would have enough teams if Shenandoah joined and Villa Julie added football. Frostburg State is also rumored to be a CAC candidate.

[Pat Coleman]

if su leaves the usasac, this is what i'd like to see happen:

usasac - averett (fb), cnu (fb), ferrum (fb), g'boro (fb), huntingdon (fb), lagrange (fb), m'ville (fb), mu (fb), ncwc (fb), piedmont

this would make for an 8 game conference football schedule for each member (just one additional game), and an 18 game conference hoops schedule (and most of the usasac teams are already playing a few games against gsac schools) - the schools in the new usasac would be asked to sponsor a team in each conference sanctioned sport (or at least those that would lose an aq with the defection of su), meaning the current gsac schools might have to add some sports, but i don't think that's necessarily a bad thing

great south women's college conference - mary baldwin, meredith, peace, salem, agnes scott, spelman, wesleyan (and they could invite sweet briar and hollins into the mix, as well)...ralph/pat, could this potentially give this conference aq status in a number of sports??

i think this would be a great solution for all teams involved if su opts to leave the usasac...the trip to huntigdon, m'ville and lagrange isn't really desireable, but neither is the trip to winchester

Yes, that could work.

[Uncle Jessie]

Here are this weeks game nots on the Hornets game this Saturday. http://www.su.edu/athletics/Football_gn.pdf

[Uncle Jessie]

I got this article from poster Menowannalickee U., so a big kudos to him on first posting it on the ODAC side. Its a interesting article about Bridgewater having to find teams to play for open dates and brings up CNU and also mentions that the ODAC schools want to bring in another football school into the conference.
"Another problem, Clark said, is that conferences are growing, and with D-III teams still playing only 10 regular-season games, fewer schools have open dates. Coaches in the ODAC, Clark said, are becoming more interested in adding another football school for that reason. Now, with only seven football teams, each has to find four non-conference games, which hasn't been easy.("So many of us [ODAC coaches] have a difficult time with the schedule," Clark said. "... The only people out there that will play you are big public schools or open enrollment schools that will sometimes give you a difficult matchup.")" By Dustin Dopirak of the DNR
http://www.dnronline.com/sports_details.php?AID=12165&CHID=3

I think after reading this, its pretty clear SU will become an ODAC member.

[batteredbard]

Well we knew someone would bolt soon, didn't see it being SU though.

If Piedmont, which would be a good fit, bolts from the GSAC to USAC then I think Murvul should follow as a full member. And it would be natural for the four women's teams in the GSAC to pursue a southern women's conference.
Leaves LaGrange and Huntingdon swinging in the wind but they must be looking at other options already. Why else join the St. Louis group for football?

Is that school paper on the net so we can read the column?

[Uncle Jessie]

The SU paper is on line at www.su.edu
But its not a big article just a quick few sentences from President Davis in his weekly column so its not really a must see article.

[narch]

Well we knew someone would bolt soon, didn't see it being SU though.

If Piedmont, which would be a good fit, bolts from the GSAC to USAC then I think Murvul should follow as a full member. And it would be natural for the four women's teams in the GSAC to pursue a southern women's conference.
Leaves LaGrange and Huntingdon swinging in the wind but they must be looking at other options already. Why else join the St. Louis group for football?

huntingdon is the only school that is REALLY tough geographically for mu...

mu to huntingdon - 537 miles
to su - 358 miles
to piedmont - 356 miles
to m'ville - 393 miles
to lagrange - 444 miles

the cnu folks might raise a pretty big stink (and understandably so), though, if my proposal saw fruition:
cnu to su - 213 miles
to piedmont - 514 miles
to m'ville - 524 miles
to lagrange - 665 miles
to huntingdon - 758 miles

the more i think about it, the less i think this would work as i've proposed from a travel standpoint, but leaving huntingdon and lagrange out leaves the conference very vulnerable to a loss of aq status if anyone else decided to jump ship...would it be possible to get m'ville, piedmont and lagrange and hope that huntingdon could latch on somewhere?

could you align the proposed conference into divisions for sports other than football to allow for reduced travel (ie: play round robin in division, and one game with each team in the other division for hoops, play weekend doubleheaders at a central nuetral site in baseball/softball) - you could have the usasac east consist of au, cnu, gc, mu and ncwc and the usasac west consist of fc, hc, lc, m'ville and pc

not sure this would work...just some thoughts and "what if" scenarios...

[batteredbard]

Here's the developing story on SU from MDT

http://www.thedailytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070912/SPORTS/70912030

[CNU85]

Dang. Now I can't give Llama as hard of a time about BC playing cupcakes since they have to play everyone in the conference!!! 

Actually, I had heard the SU rumor...maybe about a week ago. I didn't want to post anything since it was just a rumor. SU moving to the ODAC brings up some interesting matchups. The SU/BC mathcup has the makings for a real good rivalry. It'll be interesting to see how conferences/teams jockey themselves after a move. I'm sure it will trigger more.

[Pat Coleman]

Here's the developing story on SU from MDT

http://www.thedailytimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070912/SPORTS/70912030

Looks good.

Peace also doesn't have football, however.