Coastal is not a very good school. They have the highest drop-out, flunk-out, whatever you want to call it rate of any school in Division I (or did a few years ago). They take in a lot of Juco type kids. I think the generally sentiment is that the SoCon wants to be a conference of good sports and good educational institutions. Hence the reason Gardner-Webb would never be looked at.

As for Samford, they are in Birmingham, AL. They were very interested in the conference when VMI was leaving. It's a very short drive from UTC. They've had some good basketball teams in the past and their football team has showed major improvement lately.

so the publics want coastal while the privates want samford? how do the votes fall?

sorry to bash samford so much, but i can see why app st and the rest of the publics are getting frustrated. a conference dominated by privates can only grow so much. while i think it is ok to have a good mixture, a socon full of privates will only be as good the atlantic sun.

also, i agree with what you said about the public socon schools having unrealistic expectations. i know that they were probably not to happy with elon coming in in the first place, but who did they want, as i feel you guys were really one of the best options.

there really isnt that much out there anymore thats not private unless you want to expand the conferences footprint.

also, this is offtopic, but do you know why etsu chose the atlantic sun over the ovc? was the ovc an option or was the asun the last resort?

Not sure, maybe the conference is holding out for Hampton. But by the same token, I am not sure if the publics really wanted a small public in Coastal either.

I disagree with one of your statements though. I don't think the SoCon will ever be private only. And I do not think that an all private SoCon will only be as good as the A-Sun. There is a difference between well know smaller schools like Elon, Furman, Wofford, Citadel ... and schools like Belmont, Lipscmb, etc. I think name recognition, facilities, etc are much better and recruiting is also better. And I also think the SoCon will not be rid of all their publics (as in Western and UTC).

As for ETSU. They were OVC and dumped them. I think they wanted the Big South, but the Big South is holding out for football schools. The A-Sun was their only real option.

i dont think that the socon will end up as all privates, but the way they are heading is a conference dominated by private schools. i do think that the socon will always be higher on the food chain then the asun and big south, due to their history and the fact that the private schools that are in there currently are the top mid major privates of the south, especially in football.

i just think a good solid mixture would be better, but i dont know if that would be possible unless ovc schools were added. if a private were added though, i would take hampton over samford. hampton is superior imo and would add more than samford.

finally, i dont see how the socon can become an allsports conference as long as either uncg or davidson remain. they have a wavier so they cant be kicked out because they dont have football, and i doubt they would leave knowing the only other options are the asun or big south. i really like the 9/12 format they have as it allows for everyone to play everyone in football. they could do a 10/12 format too if they wanted with the following.

utc
hampton
app. st.
wcu
davidson/uncg
elon

ovc exp. candidate
ga st.
ga southern
furman
wofford
the citadel

anything to get ga. st in the league, and i would really consider taking back etsu if a 9/12 format would be considered.

Agreed, Hamptom is the school to add right now. Football is good, basketball is good. They have relatively good attendance. They are a good school. They'd be located in a new large region for the conference.

From what a SoCon official told me, the 9/12 format is what is going to be kept. I think Davidson will stay. As for basketball members. I think Georgia St will be one of the ones added. As for the other? I'd suspect a Big South ... maybe Winthrop, as I think Radford would fall into the category of Coastal Carolina?

Got another school's name who is interested in a basketball only membership to the confernece:

University of Jacksonville

Not a very good fit.

Didn't JU just leave the Sun Belt citing travel and competition concerns that the SoCon would only exacerbate?

Don't do it SoCon...don't do it!

take hampton or a good ovc school to replace etsu

take ga st and either winthrop or radford to replace coc and uncg/davidson

i would really work on reconciling with etsu though before taking a big south school, but if that is impossible as you have hinted, then this is what i would do.

It's not the SoCon reconciling with ETSU, I think it is more ETSU reconciling with the SoCon.

then etsu better get busy. they would be perfect in helping keep socon basketball strong if coc and uncg/davidson leave plus the atlantic sun is probably gunna lose its auto bid for a year or two, which can pretty much kill a mid major program.

start sending those im sorry cards etsu.

Why is the A-Sun going to lose its automatic bid?

because the asun is losing troy st. and ucf next year and fau is leaving soon too.

if im not mistaken, the rule is 6 teams together for at least 5 years.

that leaves
ga st.
jacksonville
stetson
mercer
cambell

as the only schools who have been there for five years or more. belmont wont have 5 continuous years till 2006. so if fau leave the asun before 2006, they lose their automatic bid. i think they are fighting to keep fau so it might not happen but it is a strong possibility.

These schools are in the Atlantic Sun after troy, central florida and Florida-Atlantic leaves.

Belmont
Campbell
East Tenn. St.
Gardner Webb
Georgia St
Jacksonville
Lipscomb
Mercer
Stetson