Costal Carolina to leave Big South Conference
Photo by: hoopdirt.com
By Colin Guiliani, Staff Writer//
On Sept. 1, Coastal Carolina announced their move to leave the Big South Conference and join the Sun Belt Conference, effective July 1, 2016. The Chanticleers will join the Sun Belt for all sports except football, as their football program will make the jump from the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) in 2017.
What does this mean for High Point? High Point is not switching conferences anytime soon.
In an interview with The High Point Enterprise, Athletic Director Dan Hauser said, “we’re a proud member of the Big South and excited about representing the Big South because I believe we will have that national impact in many sports.” He went on to say, “we’re not actively pursuing anything right now. We’re happy with the Big South.”
While Hauser never shot down a move in the future, he made it very clear that High Point is not leaving the Big South anytime soon. The Sun Belt or Conference USA would be considerable upgrades, however, neither of those conferences will be knocking on High Point’s door anytime soon.
While the future of High Point is not up in the air, the future of the Big South is very much in question. Coastal Carolina was a strong school for the conference, leading with the fourth highest enrollment total, only behind Liberty University, Radford University and Campbell University.
In an interview with The Roanoke Times, Radford Athletic Director Robert Lineburg stated, “all their sports are really good, so from that standpoint, it’s hard to see them leave.”
Three of the seven players from the Big South drafted into the National Football League attended Coastal Carolina. The Chanticleers made the past two editions of the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, and they won the conference tournament five times, the second most in the Big South. Coastal Carolina’s basketball arena, the HTC Center, hosted the past three Big South tournaments for men’s basketball. The move leaves the conference with 10 full-time members, and just six football schools. Of those six football schools, only Charleston Southern, Liberty, Gardner-Webb and Presbyterian are full-time members.
In the midst of all the realignment in college athletics, the Big South has remained relatively stagnant. The conference has only added three new schools, Gardner-Webb, Longwood, and Presbyterian, since the turn of the millennium. Excluding Coastal Carolina, Virginia Military Institute is the only school that left the Big South since 2004 to join another Division I conference. Big South Commissioner Kyle Kallander said, “the Big South has seen relatively little membership change recently, and is confident on its ongoing stability.” Now, the conference must act. It must expand in order to ensure its survival. In an ideal world, the Big South would add two schools with football programs. Below are some directions the conference could take.
OPTION ONE: Convince Campbell and Kennesaw State to join full-time
Campbell is a member of the Big South in every sport except for football, in which they play in the Pioneer League. The problems with the Pioneer Football League, however, are plentiful. For one, it is a conference that is geographically spread and requires a lot of traveling. Some of the teams that make up the conference include Jacksonville University (Florida), University of San Diego (California), Butler University (Indiana) and Marist College (New York). Additionally, the Pioneer Football League is one of the weakest leagues in the FCS, as it only gained an automatic bid into the FCS postseason in 2013.
Additionally, this year, Kennesaw State joined the Big South for football only, but making the Owls a permanent member of the conference could be a great addition. Adding Kennesaw State gives the Big South their first school in Georgia. Making Campbell and Kennesaw State full-time members helps to ensure the survival of the conference as one that sponsors football.
OPTION 2: Look towards the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC)
Since the Big South is a one-bid conference in most sports, the only way that the Big South will be able to get teams is by poaching other one-bid conferences or by looking at the Division II level. One possibility is to lure some schools from the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, which, according to the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI), is the second worst Division I conference. North Carolina Central University is a promising option. Not only has NC Central won the past two regular season championships in college basketball, but they also have a strong football program, and are geographically close.
Elsewhere in the MEAC, North Carolina A&T State could be considered. They do not add much in terms of a new market, as NC A&T is approximately 20 minutes away from High Point. However, their enrollment of 9,000 students, their Division I football team, and their frequent appearance in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament makes NC A&T another competitive option for the Big South Conference.
OPTION 3: Dig in to Division II
Of course, another option is to lure Division II schools to the Division I level. There are numerous conferences in Division II situated in the southeastern and mid-Atlantic part of the country that have worthy teams. In Conference Carolinas, Limestone College, located in Gaffney, South Carolina, is a geographical fit and recently added a football team. Limestone also has an enrollment of 3,300, making it larger than any other school in Conference Carolinas and making it larger than two Big South schools, Charleston Southern and Presbyterian.
In the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association, Virginia State University and Fayetteville State University stand out for their football programs, enrollment sizes, and large facilities. Additionally, there are other Division II schools that fit both geographically and in terms of enrollment such as the University of West Georgia, Valdosta State University, University of North Georgia, and Columbus State University. If the Big South wants to look towards Division II for expansion, they’re not hard-pressed in terms of options.
Coastal Carolina leaving the Big South was a big, yet expected blow to a conference that’s already one of the weaker ones in Division I. With the Chanticleers officially leaving the conference, the Big South must act quickly in order to replace Coastal Carolina. It cannot survive in its current form.