Big South Conference will implement divisions for 2018-19
By Collin Guiliani // Sports Editor
Next season, men’s basketball in the Big South is going to have a completely different look to it. Due to the additions of Hampton and USC Upstate, the Big South Conference will be splitting into two divisions for the 2018-19 season. The 12-team conference will be split into two divisions of six teams each, with the North Division containing Campbell, Hampton, High Point, Liberty, Longwood and Radford, and the South Division containing Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian, UNC Asheville, USC Upstate and Winthrop.
Coastal Carolina left the conference at the start of the 2016-17 season, which left the conference with 10 teams for the past two seasons. During this time, the conference implemented an 18-game conference schedule in a double round-robin format, where each team would play each other once at home and once on the road. However, after acquiring Hampton from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and USC Upstate from the Atlantic Sun Conference, this format could no longer be feasible, as a 22-game double round-robin format would be too long of a conference schedule.
Because of this, the conference schedule for the 2018-19 season will consist of 16 conference games. Each team will play every team in their division twice (once at home and once on the road), and will play every team in the opposing division once. Three of those games in the opposing division will be at home, and three will be on the road.
For HPU, this means that next season, they will play Campbell, Hampton, Liberty, Longwood and Radford twice, and will play Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian, UNC Asheville, USC Upstate and Winthrop once.
This is not the first time that the Big South has gone with a divisional format. Following the addition of Longwood for the 2012-13 season, the Big South split off into two divisions. The North Division consisted of Campbell, HPU, Liberty, Longwood, Radford and Virginia Military Institute, while the South Division consisted of Charleston Southern, Coastal Carolina, Gardner-Webb, Presbyterian, UNC Asheville and Winthrop. This alignment, which also consisted of a double round-robin format with regards to scheduling, lasted for two seasons, and would end at the end of the 2013-14 season when VMI left the Big South to join the Southern Conference.
There has not been a statement yet on whether or not this format will apply to other sports in the conference.