Another school leaves the Atlantic Sun. Why not UNF next?

[Westside Guy]

I can't see NJIT sticking around very long. This is a southern, and now very Florida, based league.

The travel costs are going to be a nightmare for them. I also doubt they stay the entire length of the contract (10 years).

[For_F-L-O-R-I-D-A]

ASun should try to recruit the University of Tampa (just won the national title in baseball DII), a Rollins College, or Florida Southern to make the jump to D1.

[Westside Guy]

University of North Georgia, Clayton St. and University of Alabama- Huntsville would also be good expansion options. The problem is that the Atlantic Sun is going have to look down to Division ll to expand because I don't see and Division l schools leaving their own conferences to come to the A-Sun

[JaxJersey-licious]

I can't see NJIT sticking around very long. This is a southern, and now very Florida, based league.

The travel costs are going to be a nightmare for them. I also doubt they stay the entire length of the contract (10 years).

This is great news for the conference and the school (and great for me since I can now see UNF play live at least once a year!) If you thought the road to the NCAA tourney was a tough one for UNF, look at what NJIT had to go through to get this far: Their initial D-1 entrance in 2007 culminated in a NCAA record 50+ game losing streak; having at one time to play "conference" games in places like North Dakota; limited recruiting possibilities despite being in a fertile recruitment area because they were new, had poor facilities, played fewer regional games, and had higher academic standards for being a technical school, and having virtually no chance at the NCAA tournament (the conference they used to be in had no automatic NCAA tournament qualifying bid unlike the Atlantic Sun and over the last few years they were independent). Then they pulled off a UNF this year defeating a ranked Michigan team on their home arena (as UNF did to Perdue) and had a pretty competitive team this year.

Traveling great distances would be the last of their concerns, otherwise they wouldn't have jumped at the A-Sun invite. First, they are a good solid state-sponsored educational and research institution (along the lines of Georgia Tech). But more importantly, the school and athletic director has been and continued to be very strong supporters of not just basketball but their entire D-1 athletic program. Proof of that is the new athletic center they are currently building which includes a new 3,000 seat arena in the heart of Newark with easy subway access (yes I said subway and I'm not talking about the sandwich place).

The main thing the NJIT program needs to continue to grow is what the Atlantic Sun provides - stability. That really helps recruiting (wouldn't the opportunity to get away from the cold for a few games in Florida and the South be a nice incentive) and they now get a share of   conference television money they previously lacked to help their program (along with the A-Sun TV contract benefiting from having a slice of the New Jersey cable market).

Yes, I'm coming off as a NJIT homer since I've got friends who went there and one that even teaches there but there's a really nice, quiet urban campus atmosphere there with next-door neighbor Rutgers-Newark so I've always wished them well. Plus, if there were more urban campuses like this available for Florida college students, those future graduates would be inclined to see the importance and benefits of developing and investing in urban cores.

[ProjectMaximus]

Thanks for sharing the insight, JJ-l. It seems like at least for the immediate future this helps both sides greatly.

You got me to google and come across this article in the NYT. Interesting to note that they were quite happy in the Great West conference...so probably not daunted by the idea of traveling south.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/09/sports/ncaabasketball/giant-killer-njit-competes-as-a-league-of-its-own.html?_r=0