Appalachian St. and Georgia Southern will upgrade their football program from FCS to FBS and join the Sun Belt. Upon joining, the schools would be the 9th and 10th football members. Both schools are expected to join for the 2015 season.

In addition to the (2) all-sports members, the Sun Belt will also add Idaho and New Mexico St. as football-only members. The move will allow the Sun Belt to field a championship game. Schools like Jacksonville St., Lamar and Sam Houston St. were other potential members for spots 11-12 but will likely have to wait for current Sun Belt members to leave.

As has been expected over the past few weeks, the Southland Conference is set to expand by adding University of the Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian University and University of New Orleans. UIW and ACU will join for FCS football as well, upgrading from Division 2, with UNO set to join for non-football sports on Thursday. The addition of the 3 schools follows the additions of Oral Roberts and Houston Baptist, bringing a total of 5 new schools to the conference. The Southland recently lost Texas St., UTSA and Texas-Arlington to the WAC, although those 3 schools will all be leaving the WAC next season.

The Southland is dealing with some losses of their own with UTA, UTSA and Texas St. all leaving for the WAC. Oral Roberts was brought in as a basketball replacement for UTA and Houston Baptist next with their hopes of adding football. But while

the lack of a football program would seem to be a problem for UTPA, the Southland’s seeking of balance could be the key, potential membership as the reward.

UTPA membership in the Southland has it’s obstacles. Both University of Incarnate Word and Albilene Christian have sought membership in the SLC, and both sponsor football.

The addition of HBU will now give the Southland 11 total members, and will be the 9th football member upon adding the sport. The Southland also recently added Oral Roberts.

For the time being, it appears the Southland will remain at 11. Should they have difficulties with scheduling for 11 schools, the conference will always have the option of adding UTPA, currently a member of the Great West with HBU. But it would seem the Southland would likely wait until they officially have no chance at current Sun Belt and lone non-football member, Arkansas-Little Rock, a school the could be looking for a new conference if their arrangement with the Sun Belt were to change.

The path of the WAC over the past few months has been an interesting one. It appeared that they were straying from further expansion into Texas, holding off on putting more pressure on schools like Lamar and Sam Houston St. who have considered upgrading to FBS football. The WAC did opt to add Seattle, a non-football members. Texas-Arlington will be the third non-football member once they formally accept, giving the conference 10 total members, 7 of which are football members. As has been the case recently, Utah Valley remains on the outside of the WAC, a conference they were hoping to be extended an invitation.

Upon formally accepting, the WAC will be comprised of:

Seattle
Idaho
SJSU
Utah St.
Denver
NMSU
UTSA
Texas St.
Texas-Arlington
Louisiana Tech

Texas-Arlington is a school that has considered adding football. But it would be some time until they would have the assumed necessary revenues to justify adding the sport.

The Southland Conference continues to find itself in a tough spot. With a departure of UTA, that would be the third Southland school from Texas to depart. And with others like Lamar and SHSU potentially defecting down the road, that conference will need to consider replacements sooner than they expect. Houston Baptist recently got on the radar when they announced they’d like to sponsor football, making the Southland a logical fit. Other options could include Oral Roberts, a non-football member. UALR might also be an option is they ever opted to leave the Sun Belt. And any of the regional D2 schools would be considered as well.

A departure by Lamar from the Southland would also be that conferences third lost school to the WAC.  As discussed on this site, the Southland might soon need to consider some expansion candidates to maintain their membership numbers. Should Lamar depart, the Southland would be down to 9 members.

The Southland Conference, an FCS football conference, has known for sometime that their membership numbers might be shrinking. For a decade, Texas St. has been public about their desire to upgrade to FBS football. UTSA, a school without football much of this decade has plans to go from having no football program to being FBS in 2014. Not to be left out, FCS football newcomer Lamar has long term eyes set on FBS. And with three other Texas schools preparing to upgrade, Sam Houston St. has flirted with the idea of an upgrade.

Same story as the other Division 2 options in Texas.

Jacksonville St.

Location: Jacksonville, AL

Current Conference: OVC

Status: all-sports member

Jacksonville St. is clearly the top qualified option for the Southland. The school has had football success to the extent that they too, like some existing Southland schools, have considered an upgrade to FBS. The question isn’t would the Southland accept Jacksonville St., it’s would Jacksonville St. even consider a move to the Southland. Jacksonville St. has the advantage of sitting in a geographic location where 3 strong football conferences meet: Alabama. They sit at the southern most section of the OVC footprint, in the same state as Samford of the Southern Conference. Jacksonville St. is only a few hundred miles from the Louisiana based Southland schools. At this time, all signs point to Jacksonville St. having little interest in the Southland.

The Affiliate Option:

If the Southland finds itself in a tough spot with few Division 2 schools to consider, they could always attempt to bring in FCS affiliate members for football and local schools for all other sports.

With the recent defections by UC Davis and Cal Poly to the Big Sky for football only, the Great West Football Conference is now down to 3 members: North Dakota, South Dakota and Southern Utah. Each of those schools has it’s eyes on other conferences though. SUU hopes to one day be an all-sports member of the Big Sky. North Dakota and South Dakota hope to join fellow Dakota schools NDSU and SDSU in the MVFC for football. Three Dakota schools are Summit League members for other sports, with North Dakota expected to eventually join.

If the Southland did lose 2-4 members, they could always replace them with their top candidates. Hypothetically, those candidates could be UALR and Oral Roberts. The conference could then invite UND,
USD and SUU as affiliate football members. they could always just bring in SUU to replace the departing Texas St. If any affiliate members leave in the future, so be it. The affiliate schools bring some extra schools into the fold, but as long as the Southland has at least 6 football members, their FCS playoff bid will remain.

There are a number of different scenarios that could play out still. For now, according to the Southland commissioner, it does appear that it’s a matter of “when” UTSA and Texas St. leave for the WAC as opposed to “if”. So rather that do nothing, we can assume the Southland office is preparing for their loses.