Sunbelt & CUSA have attendance problems for games. And that's because they're each spread across three geographic areas. Multiple people have floated splitting them into two or 3 separate geographic leagues, which I think would be ideal & an excellent chance for SFA to move up.nacluth said:
Cool. I would love to be the outlier in the conference and play in the Valley, but realistically, I think we would be a great fit in the Sun Belt. I honestly believe that with SFA in the Sun Belt for basketball would make it likely a two bid league.
nacluth said:
From Corpus to Conway is 664 miles which is the longest commute of the Southland. SFA is basically the most centrally located Southland school. That commute which is small for most other conferences gets us to about half of the MVC. WAC or C-USA commutes would be more than all the MVC. Just food for thought.
CertifiedAxeman98 said:
I have come to the conclusion that SFA is a Mid-Major team playing in a low major conference. The Southland was a mid-major conference but because of conference realignment and probably lack of good leadership the conference has slid down to a low major conference especially in basketball.
I see mid-major conferences with tv deals and the Southland schools have to go out and get your own deal (often behind paywalls). The league is not strong enough to get a conference wide deal done.
I also see it in the quality of the refs they get. You have guys that look like they just finished reffing a youth rec league game come in and be way over their head (I want the refs from the Drexel game back if they didn't go to another conference already). I am sure that coaches/schools would be willing to pay more for better refs or more training and accountability for the refs.
The conference has not done anything to mandate the level of facilities it wants in the conference and let schools in with extremely sub-par facilities in the conference without any requirement to upgrade over time. HBU should have been required to upgrade their basketball gym within 5 years of being in the conference. McNeese's new basketball facility is a great example of what should have been required of HBU.
Schools like Nicholls will continue to have a revolving door of coaches. Paying a head coach $95K a year will continue have coaches getting JUCO's in to do well enough to get a better paying job and then leave without any real commitment to long-term success.
We need to be a mi-major in a mid-major conference again. Being the big fish in a small pond is getting boring.
SFA_03 said:
Lets just go to the Big 12. We already having a winning record in basketball against them the past couple of years.
BigJack85 said:CertifiedAxeman98 said:
I have come to the conclusion that SFA is a Mid-Major team playing in a low major conference. The Southland was a mid-major conference but because of conference realignment and probably lack of good leadership the conference has slid down to a low major conference especially in basketball.
I see mid-major conferences with tv deals and the Southland schools have to go out and get your own deal (often behind paywalls). The league is not strong enough to get a conference wide deal done.
I also see it in the quality of the refs they get. You have guys that look like they just finished reffing a youth rec league game come in and be way over their head (I want the refs from the Drexel game back if they didn't go to another conference already). I am sure that coaches/schools would be willing to pay more for better refs or more training and accountability for the refs.
The conference has not done anything to mandate the level of facilities it wants in the conference and let schools in with extremely sub-par facilities in the conference without any requirement to upgrade over time. HBU should have been required to upgrade their basketball gym within 5 years of being in the conference. McNeese's new basketball facility is a great example of what should have been required of HBU.
Schools like Nicholls will continue to have a revolving door of coaches. Paying a head coach $95K a year will continue have coaches getting JUCO's in to do well enough to get a better paying job and then leave without any real commitment to long-term success.
We need to be a mi-major in a mid-major conference again. Being the big fish in a small pond is getting boring.
Well put. I couldn't agree more . Measures of financial investment , student interest and institutional commitment suggest that only SFA and Sam Houston are true mid-majors.
SFAJack_76 said:
Sam and SFA will be in the same conference, whatever it is, for many, many years.
SFAXE93 said:
Isn't that the Tarleton State intro into the conference?
Oh and the traveling and places they will go.
nacluth said:
They can have HBU and Incarnate Word so both conferences will be better.
nacluth said:
They can have HBU and Incarnate Word so both conferences will be better.
nacluth said:
Oh I think any Southland team can have good years and bad years, and congrats to HBU for putting it together this year. I think as a total sports program they are not in the same league as most SLC schools...except that they are.