Do you think that Davidson, Jacksonville, and Savannah State should join the Big South for football?

Savannah State would probably relish an invitation.

However, they have done VERY POORLY (Man, is that an under-statement) since their ill-advised move up to 1-AA.

Davidson, Jacksonville, (and U of San Diego, for that matter) appear to be geographical anomalies in the Pioneer League, but you have to understand that the Pioneer is one of several leagues for Div. I Non-Scholarship Football (is this referred to as 1-AAA ?).

Other 1-AAA FB conferences are the Patriot, Metro-Atlantic, and Northeast. The Metro-Atlantic FB conference is down to 3 of it's own schools (Marist, Iona, St. Peters), and 2 guest schools (Duquesne and LaSalle of the A-10). So there may be some shake-out there. Duquesne had reportedly been sniffing around the Patriot, and making some inquiries.

Anyway, Davidson and Jacksonville are in Div 1 NON-Scholarship FB by choice, and therefore are limited in the conferences in which they can play FB.

Were they to move up to 1-AA, Davidson would probably play ball in their all-sports conference (SoCon) while Jacksonville would have to look outside the A-Sun (which doesn't sponsor FB). The Big South might make sense for Jacksonville, under such a scenario.

Rumor has it that High Point is also starting non-scholarship football.

Also, Savannah St and Winston-Salem St are supposed "in" for the MEAC this year. That is upsetting NC A&T, Hampton, and SC State fans that are really looking for a way out.

Hampton could be another SoCon candidate.

with gardner webb joining the big south, campbell is really out of place. they would make a nice #12 for the big south.

Looks like Birmingham Southern is dropping down to D3.

http://www.bscsports.net/News/gen/2006/5/26/5-26-06-d3.asp?path=gen

Big South looks like a nice 10 team league with Presbyterian moving up. I wonder if A-Sun goes after Longwood now.

I'm really disappointed to see Birmingham Southern moving down all the way to Division III, but given the cost of attending BSC, they are losing a lot of revenue by offering athletic scholarships.

big south

radford
longwood
vmi
liberty
unc ashville
high point

gardner webb
campbell
coastal carolina
winthrop
charleston southern
presbyterian

thats a perfect 12 team division, and although the nc schools are split up, they each have a natural rival. the geography is excellent

the atlantic sun then would have
usc upstate
kennesaw st.
mercer
east tennesee st.
belmont
lipscomb
stetson
jacksonville
north florida
florida gulf coast

the asun is more spread out but its still not so bad, except for maybe usc upstate. but they are just happy to be in a conference.

Actually, USC Upstate (Spartanburg) is very close to where Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina all come together, and is just over two hours on I-26 from Johnson City (ETSU). Florida Gulf Coast is the real outlier, as Fort Myers is approximately 12.5 hours from Nashville and 10.75 hours from Spartanburg.

There are some really good travel pairings in the A-Sun, assuming Campbell boogies:

ETSU/USCU
Belmont/Lipscomb
Mercer/KSU
UNF/Jacksonville
Stetson/FGCU

Campbell is also starting non-scholarship football in '08.

bsu dropping also really really helps the big south as their geogrpahy now is perfect. if they could get campbell and longwood, they could finally become a stable conference with 6 fb members and 12 overall, which would allow them to work on improving instead of just suriviving.

of course socon expansion always hangs over their heads, with coastal and/or winthrop being the biggest targets imo.