Southland Expansion

[arkstfan]

Interesting news out of Shreveport. Centenary did not apply to the Southland after having been turned down at least twice before, but now has been asked to make a presentation to the league.

Could be the SLC is looking to go for a balanced expansion with one football and one non-football member.

The SLC hits all around Shreveport so adding Centenary may help shore up the media presence there. If they add Central Arkansas it adds the only Division II school in Arkansas to get consistent media coverage in Little Rock (being the largest of the group, traditionally the most successful, and a 30 minute drive help the cause).

[Retro]

I'd rather have UCA than centenary, but i think we should focus on Football playing schools because we need to them more than we do non-playing schools, especially considering how hard it is to schedule non-conference games..

Also, the SLC needs a presence in Arkansas more than shreveport.. No one in shreveport cares about centenary.. It's lsu country with a small segment of NWST, LA Tech and Grambling fans.

This is still a football conference and thats not going to change until a team wins a national championship in a different sport at the highest level and is competitive on a regular basis outside of conference.

[TexasTerror]

Interesting development. Rejected twice, but still going to give it a go are the Gentlemen and Ladies from Centenary. We shall see what happens...

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Centenary officials to meet with SLC
School among group considered for expansion.
May 19, 2005

By Jimmy Watson
[email protected]

Centenary College officials will travel to Houston on Saturday to meet with the Southland Conference board of directors. The meeting is part of a fact-finding mission for both the school and the conference as the SLC considers possible expansion.

Centenary Athletic Director Taylor Moore, who will make the trip along with Centenary President Ken Schwab and Faculty Representative David Hoaas, said the school was invited to attend and the meeting is simply a starting point of dialogue.

"We are very happy in the Mid-Con and Mid-Con officials are aware of the trip," Moore said. "We don't know where it will go from here, but we expect to respond to their questions."

Continued...

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050519/SPORTS02/505190310/1026

[arkstfan]

Looks to me like the non-football schools have let it be known that they aren't approving adding a school that plays football but will have to wait to be eligible for the NCAA basketball tournament unless they get another basketball school to balance the power.

I think TAMUCC can hang it up, with the SLC contacting Centenary unprompted, you have to think Centenary is the choice.

[89rabbit]

Very interesting.

[NoCoDanny]

Is Texas-Pan Am just totally off the radar screen? They get zero mention in any of this, I don't think they even submitted an application did they? If not, did they just think it was a lost cause?

[arkstfan]

Texas-Pan American isn't fun to travel to for most schools and their facilities are sub-par, though they tend to be a favorite baseball destination in early season due to weather and proximity to the beaches. The only times they had success in the Sun Belt in basketball resulted in visits by the NCAA and trips to the jailhouse.

The Belt got sick of dealing with them and gave them the boot, amazing given that it requires a unanimous vote of the other schools and given that the Sun Belt knew it was facing problems with numbers.

[NoCoDanny]

The only times they had success in the Sun Belt in basketball resulted in visits by the NCAA and trips to the jailhouse.

That sounds like a good story.

[kats89]

Again, we don't need anymore non football schools in the Southland. I would like to see Central Arkansas and Tarleton St. Both play football in DII.

[blackfordpu]

Again, we don't need anymore non football schools in the Southland. I would like to see Central Arkansas and Tarleton St. Both play football in DII.

I still think that Tarleton should hold off for a few years before trying to make the jump.

[TexasTerror]

UTPA is in the mix as well...

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UTPA to make sales pitch to Southland
May 20,2005
Wade Baker
The Monitor


EDINBURG — University of Texas-Pan American Director of Athletics Scott Street knows this is the chance the Broncs have been waiting for since the school was ousted from the Sun Belt Conference in July 1998.

And finally, seven long years later, UTPA has somebody who will listen to its sales pitch.

The Broncs, along with four other collegiate institutions, will attempt to persuade the Southland Conference that they’re the program primed for SLC affiliation when Street, president Blandina Cárdenas, vice president of business affairs James Langabeer and faculty athletic representative Tony de la Peña meet Saturday in Houston with the league’s board of directors.

UTPA rival Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, Centenary, Central Arkansas and Tarleton State are the other four institutions.

"The way I’m looking at it, we have a chance to present to them what UTPA is all about," Street said. "We want to take this chance and educate them on why we should be a member of the Southland Conference. We have a short video, we have a PowerPoint presentation, and I have written material in book format that I’ll give them."

The Southland Conference in January said it was "exploring the possibility of expansion" when Louisiana-Monroe announced that it was moving to the Sun Belt Conference in all sports beginning with the 2006-07 season. With the loss of Louisiana-Monroe, that will drop the Southland Conference to 10 members.

Southland Conference expansion will be discussed officially at a meeting in Galveston during the first week of June when the 10 presidents of the member institutions will be present, league commissioner Tom Burnett said. The Southland Conference hasn’t decided on how many institutions it would like to expand to, if it does go into expansion mode, Burnett added.

"Right now, we’re just feeling it out," Burnett said. "We’re going to give the schools a chance to meet with our board of directors, and we won’t know anything further until that June meeting. After that meeting, we’ll have a better idea of what we’re going to do. And if we do try to expand, it doesn’t mean it has to be one of the institutions we’re talking to Saturday."

Centenary is currently a member of the Mid-Continent Conference and was invited to Saturday’s meeting by the Southland Conference. With Centenary’s travel problems — having to board planes for practically every road trip in league play — the Southland Conference would be the perfect fit. Tarleton State and Central Arkansas are currently members of NCAA Division II but are exploring the possibility of moving to Division I, and of course, the Southland Conference would be the ideal league.

Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, who moved to Division I in 2002, would also be a natural fit for the Southland, along with UTPA, due to its geographic location with the other 10 member programs. The Southland Conference, once Louisiana-Monroe departs, will have six Texas members and four from Louisiana.

"I think this is our best shot," Texas A&M-Corpus Christi Director of Athletics Dan Viola said. "I’ve been here since the beginning, and I really think this could be our chance. I think the Southland has softened on their stance about wanting football schools only, and that’s always been our disadvantage in the past. But this time I think we have a shot."

[McTailGator]

I for one do not see what our rush is to add too many members that don't play football. I'd perfer for Lamar, UT-Arlington, and UT-San Antonio to all add football, but that just will not happen prior to 2010.

We know that Central Arkansas (UCA) is in as an all sports member, that's a fact. They will fill in for UL-Monroe (good riddens), but we will end up with 11 basketball teams, and we all know haveing 12 would be better for scheduling in basketball.

I look for UCA to start playing some SLC football schools on and "Out-of- Conference basis starting in 2006 and could be in the SLC as early as 2007.

I do not believe Terlington is ready budget wise or facility wise. But the could be in Future. Adding them would give us 8 football teams, which is a good number.

I think we should do this if the current non football SLC don't add football by 2010.

* Add Centenary for next year to replace UL-M, which also did not participate in FB for the 2005-06 season and keep the non FB sports even with 10 teams, but give them no voting prvileges for 1 year;

* Add UCA in 2008 for all sports and give them AND Centenary full voting privleges in 2008.

* In addition, also add TAM-CC in 08 for all sports but FB, which they don't do to get us to 12 schools (8 all sports and 4 non-FB).

This will give the SLC great media markets in Houston, Little Rock, Shreveport, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, Corpus Christi, Beaumont, Lufkin/Nacadoches (East Texas), New Orleans/Baton Rouge, Alexandria/ (Central La.), and Lake Charles/(Southwest, La). There are 30 Million people in these areas. Not too bad. When the conference is wooing TV deals, this will be a HUGE advantage for the SLC.

[TexasTerror]

I am not too sure about adding Centenary, but after reading your plan, it seems like a possible solution to the problem that exists in all the sports in the SLC. I just wish we had some more football schools because these out of conference schedules in football are ridiculous. I'm tired of seeing multiple non-Div I opponents on schedules (notably San Marcos this year, SHSU last year).

[89rabbit]

If the Southland takes Centenary, this could open the door for SDSU and NDSU to join the Mid-Con. and would help stabilize the Great West (since the Mid-Con. does not offer football).

Here are highlights from a Fargo Forum story (sub. site, but it is free)

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/index.cfm?id=92794&section=Sports

Shuffle could benefit NDSU
By Jeff Kolpack, The Forum
Published Saturday, May 21, 2005


A marriage of Southland and Centenary could leave the nine-team Mid-Con open for expansion.

“We would anticipate they would begin as early as June to re-discuss the issue of expansion,” NDSU women’s athletic director Lynn Dorn said. . . .

[TexasTerror]

A 14-team SLC? Wow, I'm not sure anyone currently in the SLC wants that. That'd be a little too much by my books. I'm for 12 teams. No chance in hell would I want 14 teams in the SLC, whether they be football schools or not.

[arkstfan]

That sounds like a good story.

The second time around the coach was apparently involved but there was no smoking gun. UTPA wanted to fire him but would have had to pay off his contract without stronger evidence of his involvement and couldn't afford to buy it out.

When they sent their suggested penalties to the NCAA, UTPA ASKED for the death penalty. The NCAA refused to give it to them. :p

The Sun Belt then voted to expel them. All UTPA got out of the deal was being allowed to announce that they had elected to withdraw.

[McTailGator]

A 14-team SLC? Wow, I'm not sure anyone currently in the SLC wants that. That'd be a little too much by my books. I'm for 12 teams. No chance in hell would I want 14 teams in the SLC, whether they be football schools or not.


Why not 14 schools? If you break them up into 2 divisions, you only have to play those 7 teams on a home and home basis and then play half the other division at home and the other half on the road. We all have scheduling issues and have to schedule the Wiley Colleges, Texas Colleges, and William Carey Colleges of the world. This would be a soulution to that.

We could also expand the SLC tourney's to 8 or 10 teams instead of just six and create more post season exitement for all.

Bottom line is, there are approximately 25 million people in the areas those 16 schools would be centered in. I'm pretty certain the SLC is trying to position it self to negotiate better TV deals using the size of the media markets as leverage. That's probably why TAM-Kingsville's name hasn't popped up. There ain't no market in or around Kingsville, Texas. They offer nothing.

There are 2 Million people in the Rio Grand Valley area were UTPA is located.

[NoCoDanny]

The second time around the coach was apparently involved but there was no smoking gun. UTPA wanted to fire him but would have had to pay off his contract without stronger evidence of his involvement and couldn't afford to buy it out.

When they sent their suggested penalties to the NCAA, UTPA ASKED for the death penalty. The NCAA refused to give it to them. :p

The Sun Belt then voted to expel them. All UTPA got out of the deal was being allowed to announce that they had elected to withdraw.

So what did they do exactly? Pay offs, grade fixing, killing people like at Baylor?

[TexasTerror]

Why not 14 schools? If you break them up into 2 divisions, you only have to play those 7 teams on a home and home basis and then play half the other division at home and the other half on the road. We all have scheduling issues and have to schedule the Wiley Colleges, Texas Colleges, and William Carey Colleges of the world. This would be a soulution to that.

FYI, the SLC Commish says in the next few years, SLC MBB and WBB teams will be limited to two such games a year. I think this year, the limit is three. I guess SLC schools will be hitting the road unless they can get Sun Belt, SWAC and the indies (A&M-CC, UTPA) to come to our place. Not sure if Big 12 schools or even C-USA's would be too willing to come to a SLC arena.