Big South football

[Sir William]

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens to Big South football over the next few seasons. While they've added Kennesaw State, Campbell and North Alabama, they've lost Coastal and Liberty, and Chuck South lost the only successful coach in its history, along with several significant assistants.

Predictions:
1) Chuck South returns to its losing ways.

2) Kennesaw and UNA become the perennial conference championship contenders.

3) Monmouth leaves in few years when invited to the NEC.

4) Jacksonville follows Campbell's lead and joins conference for football in couple of years.

5) West Georgia follows UNA's lead and transitions to D1/FCS and joins conference for football in couple of years.

6) Campbell begins seeking SoCon membership within 5-6 years. (Not saying they necessarily get invited.)

What else?

[FUBeAR]

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens to Big South football over the next few seasons. While they've added Kennesaw State, Campbell and North Alabama, they've lost Coastal and Liberty and they've also lost the only successful coach in Chuck South history.

Predictions:
1) Chuck South returns to their losing ways.

2) Kennesaw and UNA become the perennial conference championship contenders.

3) Monmouth leaves in few years when invited to the NEC.

4) Jacksonville follows Campbell's lead and joins conference for football in couple of years.

5) West Georgia follows UNA's lead and transitions to D1/FCS and joins conference for football in couple of years.

6) Campbell begins seeking SoCon membership within 5-6 years. (Not saying they necessarily get invited.)

What else?

No idea about #1 - They obviously lost most of their Coaching Staff + the Headman. Not sure about #6 - I don't know that Campbell will be any more or less interested in joining the SoCon than any of the other Big South schools. I'm SoCon-Centric (so, therefore, biased) so I would think all of the current and future Big South Members, with the exception of Monmouth, would prefer to be in the SoCon over the Big South. Maybe not.

I think 2-5 are spot on...except I don't know that Monmouth goes NEC. Didn't they leave the NEC? Not sure...anyway, I could just as well see them in the Patriot or the CAA, but all those schools/conferences north of NC just run together for me (sorry for sounding a tad like Citdog, but I'm being honest...about my (chosen) ignorance). Hey, maybe Monmouth will join the Ivies (just kidding).

[DFW HOYA]

Watch for Jacksonville.

[UNAPride]

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens to Big South football over the next few seasons. While they've added Kennesaw State, Campbell and North Alabama, they've lost Coastal and Liberty, and Chuck South lost the only successful coach in its history, along with several significant assistants.

Predictions:
1) Chuck South returns to its losing ways.

2) Kennesaw and UNA become the perennial conference championship contenders.

3) Monmouth leaves in few years when invited to the NEC.

4) Jacksonville follows Campbell's lead and joins conference for football in couple of years.

5) West Georgia follows UNA's lead and transitions to D1/FCS and joins conference for football in couple of years.

6) Campbell begins seeking SoCon membership within 5-6 years. (Not saying they necessarily get invited.)

What else?

I'm not so sure on this one. They seem pretty firm in their decision not to fund football scholarships. This was the major reason Kerwin Bell quit last year and went to Valdosta State.

[SENOREIDA]

RIP Big South. It wasn't good knowing ya.

[Franks Tanks]

No idea about #1 - They obviously lost most of their Coaching Staff + the Headman. Not sure about #6 - I don't know that Campbell will be any more or less interested in joining the SoCon than any of the other Big South schools. I'm SoCon-Centric (so, therefore, biased) so I would think all of the current and future Big South Members, with the exception of Monmouth, would prefer to be in the SoCon over the Big South. Maybe not.

I think 2-5 are spot on...except I don't know that Monmouth goes NEC. Didn't they leave the NEC? Not sure...anyway, I could just as well see them in the Patriot or the CAA, but all those schools/conferences north of NC just run together for me (sorry for sounding a tad like Citdog, but I'm being honest...about my (chosen) ignorance). Hey, maybe Monmouth will join the Ivies (just kidding).

Monmouth is not joining the Patriot League, unless something happens to Georgetown and the league is forced to add another member.

[NorthChuckSouth]

It's going to be very interesting to see what happens to Big South football over the next few seasons. While they've added Kennesaw State, Campbell and North Alabama, they've lost Coastal and Liberty, and Chuck South lost the only successful coach in its history, along with several significant assistants.

Predictions:
1) Chuck South returns to its losing ways.

2) Kennesaw and UNA become the perennial conference championship contenders.

3) Monmouth leaves in few years when invited to the NEC.

4) Jacksonville follows Campbell's lead and joins conference for football in couple of years.

5) West Georgia follows UNA's lead and transitions to D1/FCS and joins conference for football in couple of years.

6) Campbell begins seeking SoCon membership within 5-6 years. (Not saying they necessarily get invited.)

What else?

Still got the same players. I don't expect anything less than a 3-peat.

[Catamount87]

On the Campbell idea, there's that supposed SoCon balance between public and private schools issue that would possibly come into play. Then there's the SoCon footprint. Would the SoCon want to add another NC school, especially one located in a media market that ignores them?

Of course the idea not presented would be the Big South merging with another conference like the SoCon. Given that 1) apparently the SoCon didn't want Kennesaw St because of an apparent desire to only use FCS as a stepping stone, 2) the loss of CCU and soon Liberty, 3) relative weakness in the remaining football programs at Presbyterian, G-W and Monmouth and 4) Monmouth being a footprint outlier, a SoCon/Big South merger seems a bit unlikely.

[PaladinFan]

On the Campbell idea, there's that supposed SoCon balance between public and private schools issue that would possibly come into play. Then there's the SoCon footprint. Would the SoCon want to add another NC school, especially one located in a media market that ignores them?

Of course the idea not presented would be the Big South merging with another conference like the SoCon. Given that 1) apparently the SoCon didn't want Kennesaw St because of an apparent desire to only use FCS as a stepping stone, 2) the loss of CCU and soon Liberty, 3) relative weakness in the remaining football programs at Presbyterian, G-W and Monmouth and 4) Monmouth being a footprint outlier, a SoCon/Big South merger seems a bit unlikely.

I could see the SoCon having a lot of interest in Kennesaw State. Metro Atlanta is home to a lot of SoCon member alumni. If KSU is interested in staying with FCS football, they'd be a good one to target.

With 9 member football schools, you could potentially push that number to 12. Just because I like making things up:

SoCon West

Samford
UTC
Jacksonville State
Kennesaw State
Mercer
ETSU

SoCon East

Furman
Wofford
the Citadel
VMI
Western Carolina
Campbell/PC/GWU

Play everyone in your division, and a few cross over games a year.

[DFW HOYA]

Monmouth is not joining the Patriot League, unless something happens to Georgetown and the league is forced to add another member.

At some point the Patriot (and Georgetown) has to come to the reality that Georgetown is increasingly non-competitive with an NEC budget and an Ivy League admissions policy, either of which are incongruous with today's high-budget PL. Maybe the NEC would be interested in bringing them on, the Ivy less so.

I really don't see Monmouth as interested in the PL. As Rev. John Brooks famously said, "We have set a course for others to follow. So far, no one has followed."