Swac Football Conference

[pbla]

What traditional or should I say predominately black colleges are in a predominately white conference? Tennessee State comes to mind. I am not certain if I am correcton that one.

Years ago UAPB/AM&N left the SWAC for financial reasons and joined the AIC(Arkansas Inter Coll. Conference) It was a mess. They were treated like step children.

In this date and time do you think SWAC schools would be treated any different?


:winkgrin:

That was a horror show. Remember when enrollment was barely in the 2000 range. After UAPB re-entered the SWAC, they had to put students in hotel rooms because there was not enough room on campus.

I remember one ole schooll alumnus saying "I would rather lose to a SWAC school than to get beat by an AIC school." Our football culture is different. I posted on this topic before, I still say the whole conference should move to
D1A as a conference rather than one team jump ship. Tennessee State.... man if they would experience at least one year in the SWAC(which is the only logical choice if they want to move to another conference other than the OVC) they never would want to go back to the OVC. I hear though they have some "OREOs" in their alumni and administration that do not want to be associated with a Black football conference. :smh: Anyway that is another topic.

 

[Kendrick]

You cannot get any better than the SWAC to have the best 10 State Schools in a conference. Everybody know who the schools were that dominated the political climate of the SWAC. You all know what coaches and schools ruled the SWAC for years. We were not in the SWAC but I can assure you that a lot of us were fully aware of who ran everything in the SWAC. Times have changed for the better.

WHAT?

 

[JR]

You cannot get any better than the SWAC to have the best 10 State Schools in a conference. Everybody know who the schools were that dominated the political climate of the SWAC. You all know what coaches and schools ruled the SWAC for years. We were not in the SWAC but I can assure you that a lot of us were fully aware of who ran everything in the SWAC. Times have changed for the better.

Sorry MD, I can't agree with you........The SWAC sucks. Whenever a bunch of know nothing about athletic Presidents run your conference with a puppet commish.....this is what you get. I am not saying the old SWAC was run great but we shole aint moving in the right direction. Can't get ole JR to buy that one........too many old school thinking folks in charge. Hell just look at our universities. Those presidents need to relinquish power and hire a progressive, smart and innovative commish and let him/her run the show.......then they need to take their arses back to their campuses and hire the same type of person for their AD and then step the hell away and go raise money for academic type stuff....... Like I said before on here. I can't wait till some forward thinking President comes along that knows some things and is the first SWAC school to tell the other Presidents see ya and I wouldn't want to be ya.........its gone happen sooner than later. At which school who knows.

 

[Jafus (Thinker)]

OrangeTiger posted on MEACFANS.com

WKU football will make move to I-A

Associated Press

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Western Kentucky University will move to compete in Division I-A football next year.

The school's board of regents voted 7-2 Thursday in favor of the switch, with one regent abstaining.

Western will submit paperwork to the NCAA office before June 1 and will be considered a reclassifying school for the 2007 and '08 seasons. The first year the Hilltoppers will be eligible to participate for a Sun Belt Conference championship and a berth in a bowl game is 2009.

They won a Division I-AA championship in 2002.

"I think that the greatest benefit is going to be the prestige and the perception, the value of the WKU brand," athletics director Wood Selig said.

Selig is sure the university has lost students and student-athletes because of the football team's classification.

The Hilltoppers have faced I-A competition, with poor results in recent years against Wisconsin, Auburn and Georgia. The Hilltoppers will play a schedule of 11 I-A teams and one I-AA team, Selig said.

"We don't anticipate playing Georgia and Auburn 12 times a year," he said.

The Hilltoppers are working on scheduling series with Navy, Vanderbilt and Indiana, Selig said.

One obstacle Western will face will be the attendance requirement. The NCAA says Division I-A teams must average 15,000 paid attendance for home football games. The Hilltoppers are averaging around 9,500 this season. There are plans to expand their Smith Stadium from 17,500 seats to 22,000.

Selig said the university has an aggressive strategy to boost that category. The school plans to rearrange student seating, get help from corporate partners and market tickets aggressively within a 70-mile radius.

The idea to make the move came under university President Gary Ransdell's "Challenging the Spirit" program, designed to encourage the university to think on a national level rather than a regional one. Ransdell has said the competition change is vital to the university's academic and financial future.

 

[Ralph]

""I think that the greatest benefit is going to be the prestige and the perception, the value of the WKU brand," athletics director Wood Selig said."

If he actually believes this then why are they are going to the Sun Belt?

"Selig is sure the university has lost students and student-athletes because of the football team's classification. The Hilltoppers have faced I-A competition, with poor results in recent years..."

Guess it has nothing to do with the poor results huh?

"We don't anticipate playing Georgia and Auburn 12 times a year," he said.

Well then that maybe means you won't be 0-12...

"The Hilltoppers are working on scheduling series with Navy, Vanderbilt and Indiana, Selig said."

LOL!!!!

"One obstacle Western will face will be the attendance requirement. The NCAA says Division I-A teams must average 15,000 paid attendance for home football games. The Hilltoppers are averaging around 9,500 this season. There are plans to expand their Smith Stadium from 17,500 seats to 22,000."

Oh and that 9,500 this year they quote is unverified. Maybe they have "lost students and student-athletes because of the football team's classification." Maybe see you back in the CS in five years WKU? Best wishes until then...

Bowl game wishes and crystal ball dreams. :emlaugh:

 

[ROYAL BLUE]

subelt is a IA conference. none of their schools are IAA.

Western Kentucky is 1AA in football, but they are D-1 in all other sports in the SunBelt. Out of 13 schools in the SunBelt only 9 of them have football teams. JSU, SU, Gram, Tenn. St., and FAMU would be great additions to the SunBelt. The locations are perfect and we can play 4 money making HBCU games within the conference, therefore HBCU tradition would not be all lost. http://www.sunbeltsports.org/

 

[Fiyah]

Western Kentucky is 1AA in football, but they are D-1 in all other sports in the SunBelt. Out of 13 schools in the SunBelt only 9 of them have football teams. JSU, SU, Gram, Tenn. St., and FAMU would be great additions to the SunBelt. The locations are perfect and we can play 4 money making HBCU games within the conference, therefore HBCU tradition would not be all lost. http://www.sunbeltsports.org/

Hey......The Sunbelt does not sponsor 1AA football so for those schools you named they would have to move up to 1A football for them to join the Sunbelt conferance in that sport.

The Swac is 1A in all the other sports too.....

 

[Croft84]

He can't do anything since the Presidents run the Swac, Vowels is nothing but a office manager.

:shame:

 

[Tigerpride]

Western Kentucky is 1AA in football, but they are D-1 in all other sports in the SunBelt. Out of 13 schools in the SunBelt only 9 of them have football teams. JSU, SU, Gram, Tenn. St., and FAMU would be great additions to the SunBelt. The locations are perfect and we can play 4 money making HBCU games within the conference, therefore HBCU tradition would not be all lost. http://www.sunbeltsports.org/

Ummm, no we wouldn't. Who would want to be stuck playing them every week? I'll pass.

The entire Sunbelt needs to come back to 1-AA. If they are 1-A, certainly we can get 8 HBCU's to go 1-A.

 

[ROYAL BLUE]

Hey......The Sunbelt does not sponsor 1AA football so for those schools you named they would have to move up to 1A football for them to join the Sunbelt conferance in that sport.

The Swac is 1A in all the other sports too.....

I know the SunBelt doesn't sponsor 1AA football, but my point was that they currently have schools AFFILIATED with the SUNBELT that does not participate in FOOTBALL or are in a LOWER DIVISION. There are 4 schools with SUNBELT MEMBERSHIP in all other sports except football. My point was that if JSU, Gram, SU, Tenn. St. and FAMU have intentions of moving to D-1A, then they should join a conference that will allow them to have the option to move to the next level. The SunBelt conference is the ONLY conference that will allow you to do such IF you can't immediately make the move to D-1A in football. The SWAC and any 1AA conference doesn't give you that option. Again, I know the SunBelt doesn't sponsor 1AA football, but they will take A SCHOOL thats D-1 in all other sports if it makes sense for them. There is no such thing as D-1A in all other sports.....only D-1. Lastly, I know the SWAC has D-1 status in all other sports, but there is no vision to move the conference forward.

 

[ROYAL BLUE]

Ummm, no we wouldn't. Who would want to be stuck playing them every week? I'll pass.

The entire Sunbelt needs to come back to 1-AA. If they are 1-A, certainly we can get 8 HBCU's to go 1-A.

I agree that we can get 8 HBCU's to go but, I think it would be in our best interest to send the best 5 FIRST. Those 5 should make the move TOGETHER. Tell me how could this not work if we are in the SunBelt.

JSU VS TROY

JSU VS TENN. ST.

JSU VS MIDDLE TENN.

JSU VS FLORIDA

JSU VS SU

JSU VS ARKANSAS STATE

JSU VS GRAM

JSU VS LOUISIANA MONROE

JSU VS FAMU

JSU VS TEXAS

JSU VS ALCORN

 

[G-Man75]

I agree that we can get 8 HBCU's to go but, I think it would be in our best interest to send the best 5 FIRST. Those 5 should make the move TOGETHER. Tell me how could this not work if we are in the SunBelt.

JSU VS TROY- W

JSU VS TENN. ST. -W

JSU VS MIDDLE TENN. -L

JSU VS FLORIDA- L

JSU VS SU- W

JSU VS ARKANSAS STATE- W

JSU VS GRAM- L

JSU VS LOUISIANA MONROE- W

JSU VS FAMU- W

JSU VS TEXAS- L

JSU VS ALCORN -W

7-4 ain't bad.....

 

[Da_Sperm]

What conference is going to take 5 new members, much less 5 new members from a lower division? Do you realize the RISK the conference is taking.

Secondly, when you lump the so-called "BEST" HBCU football programs into one bucket, you will no longer have 5 good HBCU football programs.

 

[stefan565]

The bottom line is what type of product do you want to put on the field. If the SWAC was NAIA they would be able to recruit better players. Some players we can not get because of 1-AA requirements. That is why some of the HBCU schools that are NAIA are able to compete against us.

The SWAC has not competed well outside of its conference. Do you think that moving up to a higher level would make it compete any better?

We are not able to recruit as well as some of the other 1-AA conferences now.

Of course being NAIA we would not be able to schedule the one or two Money games a year.

It is a catch-22 situation. Better product or the Money.

We all know which way we will have to go to be able to survive.

 

[ROYAL BLUE]

What conference is going to take 5 new members, much less 5 new members from a lower division? Do you realize the RISK the conference is taking.

Secondly, when you lump the so-called "BEST" HBCU football programs into one bucket, you will no longer have 5 good HBCU football programs.

The SunBelt would take those 5 I mentioned and if you don't believe me then ask the commissioner of the SunBelt.....I did. The SunBelt is currently not looking to expand but, the commissioner told me if a school wants to join the conference then it would be no problem if their board approves. In other words we have to bring something to the table compared to whats already on the table. I did my research and found out that those 5 I named are better than half of the SunBelt. The commissioner also told me that he and Vowels are friends and the last time he checked everybody was SWAC happy. Secondly, when you leave the "BEST" HBCU football programs in a declining conference, you will no longer have 5 good HBCU football programs. The only way to progress is to move up. You can't go to heaven by staying on earth.

 

[stefan565]

The SunBelt would take those 5 I mentioned and if you don't believe me then ask the commissioner of the SunBelt.....I did. The SunBelt is currently not looking to expand but, the commissioner told me if a school wants to join the conference then it would be no problem if their board approves. In other words we have to bring something to the table compared to whats already on the table. I did my research and found out that those 5 I named are better than half of the SunBelt. The commissioner also told me that he and Vowels are friends and the last time he checked everybody was SWAC happy. Secondly, when you leave the "BEST" HBCU football programs in a declining conference, you will no longer have 5 good HBCU football programs. The only way to progress is to move up. You can't go to heaven by staying on earth.

Okay. Yea, I know the last woman that told me that she loved me really meant it.

I think that the commish was blowing smoke up your ***. We can agree to disagree. I would like to see those five SWAC schools make that move. The results will surely be interesting.

I wish your school well today as long as it is not playing mine.

:wavey:

 

[ROYAL BLUE]

I'm just glad to see Mo coach his azz off while staying healthy. We will see you in December. Oliver and Co. gone light dat azz up once again.:flamethro

BTW, if Gram and SU make the move it automatically increases their deal financially with NBC. Also with the SunBelt being headquartered in the NO, it makes it easy for the SunBelt to market the game. ULM and ULL fans will flock to the game in support of their conference members Gram and SU. This would work out perfect because now the game draws more interest throughout the nation due to D-1A affiliation. Gram and SU would PROBABLY receive an incentive due to increase in ratings.

 

[GRAM4LIFE]

:retard:

 

[ROYAL BLUE]

:retard:

There is nothing retarded about the marketing strategy I used. You know what bothers me is that we have so many narrow minded black people in the world its pitiful. If you would just sit back and look at the many accomplishments our people have achieved then you would know why I feel the way I do. I guess Dr. King was a retard for leading a perfectly planned boycott knowing black people didn't have options in transportation. Dude I can name several achievements that people like you would have considered pointless, but I won't. I just want to personally thank Mr. Ayers for believing that white folks in Mississippi would give in and award half a billion dollars to 3 black colleges. I guess he must have been a retard for even thinking such a thing.:idea:

 

[GRAM4LIFE]

:retard: