Hey SU, this is what your boy Joe really thinks about you


Re: There is good and bad at Div. 1A

Originally posted by Jaguar Diehard
The BAD:

1. Getting your butts kicked constantly on someone's homecoming.

2. Becoming even more forgettable as some of those MAC teams.

3. Funding to be able to compete and keep the required scholarship players.

4. Being competitive and supportive of OTHER sports.


The GOOD:

1. Recruiting would be a plus if you have an "away" game scheduled at Hawaii.

2. You can clock more dollars by scheduling teams like Texas A&M and SMU because it will be a Div. 1A game and will count as a stronger opponent than a Div. 1AA game.

3. You will upgrade to a better class of athletes because they WANT to play Div. 1A ball...at ANY cost!!!


Nonetheless, I think now is the time to jump. Others are about to get smacked down to Div. 1AA because of attendance requirements, but you know there will be grandfather clauses and other rationale.

Either way, if we jump up, the Tulanes' and USM's and SMU's will gobble us up contract-wise to not only help in the attendance, but the elimination of having to "step down" to the "lowly" Div. 1AA!

Just MHO!!!
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Number 2 of your "Bad": You mean like Marshall, Central Florida, Akron, and Toledo? :)

The funding issue can be solved with TV rights, Bowl tie-ins, as well as pay day games (which is related to #1).

The I-A, I-AA distinction only exists in football, so the SWAC is D-I elsewhere. With the added funding, they can step up in other sports, as well. The SWAC has been competive in other sports in the past anyway, so that's less of an issue.

The last comment concerning attendance is not a concern for any of the schools that you named. They were fine with the standard before playing SU and JSU, and will be fine when SU decides to end the deal. The schools that have to worry are the Sunbelt conference.
 
We have to find a way to raise our level of competitiveness. We should not be having this much trouble with other 1AA and the lower 1A.
 



I know a lot of SWAC talent comes from players jumping from D1-A to D1-AA without the need to sit out after a transfer. JSU had a first round reciever a couple years ago that transfered from Nebraska. SU has Ike that transfered from Texas.

Will that same talent be willing to transfer to one of these programs, and be willing to sit out a year? Basically, you would expect to get your talent straight out of high school or from JUCO.
 
Originally posted by Da_Sperm
I know a lot of SWAC talent comes from players jumping from D1-A to D1-AA without the need to sit out after a transfer. JSU had a first round reciever a couple years ago that transfered from Nebraska. SU has Ike that transfered from Texas.

Will that same talent be willing to transfer to one of these programs, and be willing to sit out a year? Basically, you would expect to get your talent straight out of high school or from JUCO.
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No they wouldn't frat. But with 85 scholarships and 1A status, the Ike's, Hayes, and others that transfer now to 1AA may have signed with your 1A program in the first place. Look at Marshall. They were very successful on the 1-AA level even before Randy Moss got there. Now they are doing okay in 1A due to getting even better players due to exposure and more scholarships. Sure they are not on the top tier of 1A programs witnessed by the azz kicking Va Tech gave them. But they will continue to get better. And they have a decent fan base too.

Now of course any of us HBCU's that could move up will not enjoy the success of a PWC Marshall program. But if we were able to make the move and all the financial ducks were in a row. Then after taking some lumps for a few years we would be competative. Just think about kids who really want to go to an HBCU to play ball, but get swayed by what 1A competition has to offer. We would get alot of the kids that we lose now, because we could say we are playing this team or that team. But there is also the downside. Being 1A does come with the hefty cost money wise. So it would not be easy. I would love to an all HBCU 1A conference and start by scheduling teams from the lower tier 1A conferences and have 1 game or so with a power house team. But all of that takes good planning by some folks who know what the hell they are doing and no fly by night stuff we are used to seeing in the SWAC.
 
Originally posted by JR



No they wouldn't frat. But with 85 scholarships and 1A status, the Ike's, Hayes, and others that transfer now to 1AA may have signed with your 1A program in the first place.


How many scholarships does 1AA get?

I would love to an all HBCU 1A conference and start by scheduling teams from the lower tier 1A conferences and have 1 game or so with a power house team.

I disagree. An all HBCU 1A conference would be the same as they are today. Black schools playing black schools majority of the time. I say, if you gone do it, get in there and mix it up with the PWC, FULLTIME. Do the reverse, go get in the SUNBELT, and schedule a game with an HBCU 1A powerhouse each year, and a regular powerhouse. It would be nice to have an HBCU 1A conference, but it serves no purpose. Even if you had the top HBCUs in the nation. All that would lead to is the downfall of a HBCU team. Somebody has to loose.
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Sperm,

You have a point about joining a conference, but I'm not sure that the Sun Belt will be around for long. However, I know that CUSA has to expand to 12 members in order to realize several million from ESPN's broadcasting of a championship game. The downside of a SWAC team joining CUSA would be having to play Cincy, Louisville, De Paul, St. Louis, Marquette, Charlotte, etc in hoops. But that's on ESPN every week as well, which is $$$.

Oh, and Tulane and Houston in baseball. :)
 
CUSA has some of the top basketball coaches in the conference.

Cincy, Memphis, Louisville, De Paul, St. Louis, Marquette, UAB. That would be ugly for any team to face that every week.
 
Originally posted by Da_Sperm
CUSA has some of the top basketball coaches in the conference.

Cincy, Memphis, Louisville, De Paul, St. Louis, Marquette, UAB. That would be ugly for any team to face that every week.
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Don't I know that!!!

However, the competition makes you better. I've wondered in the past few years whether certain HBCU's athletic programs have been held down by the weaker schools. If a couple of the stronger schools moved up, they might be successful, IMO.
 
I think some of us should go 1A if we could. We don't get any respect now so if we don't get it then, so what? The thing that would be most curious to me is how many blue-chip athletes we would get just becasue we are 1-A. Most of the better athletes don't give us a look now simply because we are 1-AA. If they had HBCU's as 1-A choices, we might be able to get a lot more of these athletes.

The downside to moving up is going to be the elimination of Classics. Games like FAMU-TNState, JSU-TNState, Gram-TNState, SU-Gram would have to be played at home in order to get the attendance numbers we need. I think that if USM could use Memorial in it's home attendance, they would play us there.
 
Sperm,
1-AA gets a limit of 63 scholarships if I am not mistaken. Most of our HBCUs don't even utilize all of them because they can't afford it.


TP,
You made some valid points. One thing for sure it will be at some sacrifice to move up. I am for it. But I am not sure about the timing. The thought of possibly seeing SU go 0-11 if we moved up sends a shudder through my spine. But alas , you have to start somewhere. I see even UCONN football is finally 1-A.

BTW,
Depending on what HBCU's moved up then you may be able to keep your Classic game ie SU-Gram, SU-JSU even though it is not a classic. Then you could schedule your rival if they are still 1-AA. But no more than one 1-AA game. After all, the reason you move up is to play the big boys. It is not an easy task and takes alot of planning.
 
Originally posted by Sonic98
We have to find a way to raise our level of competitiveness. We should not be having this much trouble with other 1AA and the lower 1A.
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I agree.
 
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