Northern Kentucky headed to the Horizon. This leaves the Atlantic Sun with only 7 schools, which is the minimum in order to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament.
Northern Kentucky joins Belmont, Mercer, East Tennessee State and Campbell as teams that have moved up to larger conferences.
I think at this point it makes sense for UNF to move up as well instead of stay in what looks to be a dying conference.
JU is impacted as well but I do not know if they have the resources to move up the way UNF does.
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebasketball/eye-on-college-basketball/25179715/reports-northern-kentucky-to-accept-bid-to-horizon-league
^^ Yeah UNF leaving the A-Sun is not happening anytime soon. Northen Kentucky probably left for the Horizon for geographic and recruiting practicalities since they're a lot closer to most of those league's teams. It's not like they're some historic athletic powerhouse that needed to break-free from their Antlantic Sun confines.
Yes, it's probalby the crappiest athletic conference in the nation but having those regional rivalries are a lot more important to UNF's basketball program than being a small fish in a huge pond. If they build upon their success with basketball, continue developing and being competitive in other sports programs, have athletic-supportive administration, and grow their local fanbase, the bigger conferences will come crawling to them.
Schools in these mid-major conferences don't really change conferences to to "move up", they do it for logistics. That's the real reasoning for NKU. Travel costs will be much cheaper for them in this league, as all the schools are closer together. The Horizon is a "bus league", while the A-Sun is a "plane league" where the teams have to take planes to many games and competitions. Similarly, Mercer and East Tennessee State left to join a football league when they added FCS football.
What really sucks is that the A-Sun is the only basketball league left in the Southeast, there aren't a lot of options for schools that don't have football.
This is the A-Sun's official response, in case anyone's interested.
http://atlanticsun.org/sports/mbkb/2014-15/releases/201505115qtm2p
With Kennesaw State starting football this fall, it is probably only a matter of time before they move on from the A-Sun as well.
The A-Sun really needs to try to start bringing in new schools to replace the ones they are losing. It may be time to extend an invite to NJIT (even though it's a terrible geographic fit). They also need to start bringing up D-2 schools out of the Peach Belt and other leagues, which is by far the better option. Otherwise, there may not be an A-Sun in a few years.
I just want to go on the record to say that JU rules and UNF drools. :)
I would look at Florida Southern or Alabama-Huntsville.
FS won the NCAA DIV 2 this year.
Alabama-Huntsville were qualifiers.
Not sure about academics though. Not sure what SAT range the ASun is going after for student athletes.
I would say that academics play zero role in A Sun membership.
BTW : University of South Carolina-Upstate guard Ty Greene won the Lou Henson award for MVP in a mid-major school.
USC-Upstate and FGCU both played in the CollegeInsider.com Tournament (a kind of NIT for mid majors).
USC-U made it to the 2nd round before falling to UT-Martin.
FGCU lost in the first round.
Quote from: fieldafm on May 11, 2015, 01:55:51 PM
I just want to go on the record to say that JU rules and UNF drools. :)
Amen, brother!
I say that they should kick those bums from UNF out of the A Sun and replace them with Oglethorpe University and Spring Hill College to capture those lucrative Georgia and Alabama radio markets.
Quote from: fieldafm on May 11, 2015, 01:55:51 PM
I just want to go on the record to say that JU rules and UNF drools. :)
Haha ya. ok. 8)
NJIT is joining the Atlantic Sun this year. That puts them back up to 8 schools.
http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/13061508/lone-division-independent-njit-join-atlantic-sun-conference
I can't see NJIT sticking around very long. This is a southern, and now very Florida, based league.
Quote from: For_F-L-O-R-I-D-A on June 13, 2015, 02:23:15 PM
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).
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.
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
Quote from: Westside Guy on June 13, 2015, 02:50:59 PM
Quote from: For_F-L-O-R-I-D-A on June 13, 2015, 02:23:15 PM
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.
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