[WinthropEagleFan]

Since some people on here had inquired on WinthropFans (RIP) in the past about WU & football, here's the latest:

Winthrop has a new president that is finishing his first year at the school, and one of his goals was to study the feasibility of football at WU and make a determination either way within his first year in Rock Hill. And in no big surprise, he presented his findings to the Board of Trustees last week and recommended that Winthrop not add football, primarily for budgetary & Title IX compliance (which is linked w/ budgetary) reasons. The Board (in turn) unanimously voted to not pursue a football program. A similar study (w/ a similar conclusion) was conducted 9 years ago by the old WU administration, though I don't think it got to Board of Trustees level of involvement. Either way, the football question has been put to rest for the foreseeable future in Rock HIll...

http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/ ... 90747.html

[Sly Fox]

Sorry to hear that for your sake, WEF. But it is far from surprising. With revenue from state sources in places like South Craolina getting tighter, it is getting tougher for some schools to justify the costs related to a football program.

[WinthropEagleFan]

And I haven't looked in the last few years, but there weren't any D1 programs that had football that had a female/male ratio as high as Winthrop's (which hovers around 70/30)....The Title IX challenges to adding football at WU would be massive without a major overhaul of the student demographics that currently apply/enroll at the school.

In a vacuum, I'd like to have a football program at Winthrop to support, but realistically, I just don't see a way for it to happen without some major donor footing the bill...and to my knowledge, that person doesn't exist at this time.

I am excited about what WU's new President has brought to the school so far, and a new AD starts in July (replacing the retiring Tom Hickman, who had that position for 20 years)...will be interesting to see how WU athletics evolves under new leadership (WU had the same president from 1989-2013 and the same AD from 1996-2016...so those two really helped WU get its facilities in order and transition the school from D1 newcomer to where it is now, though things did seem to plateau with the program as a whole about 5-6 years ago, so new blood is probably a good thing, assuming it is the right new blood).

[prototype]

You can always just root for the Flames... We'll accept you;)

[ballcoach15]

High Point is "thinking about" football, but they are probably years away from making a decision. I gathered this from a talk I had with their AD about 3 years ago.
Non football schools hurt the BSC.

[olldflame]

High Point is "thinking about" football, but they are probably years away from making a decision. I gathered this from a talk I had with their AD about 3 years ago.
Non football schools hurt the BSC.

As usually, you are making a statement of fact with absolutely nothing to support it. Please enlighten us as to how having schools like Winthrop and High Point hurt our conference.

It seems as if you don't even realize that this conference has only 4 full members with football programs. With Coastal leaving, the only reason the BSC qualifies for an autobid is the presence of associate football members Monmouth and Kennessaw State. If you think either one of them is going to become a full member anytime soon, you can think again. Zero interest from either at present. Campbell and High Point offer the best hope of current members adding scholarship football, but we are talking years away if ever there. There are a couple of D2 programs looking to move up, but that doesn't happen overnight either. Even if we could get to 6 full members with football, that doesn't cut it in sports like basketball and baseball. You need a bare minimum of 8, and 10-12 is really better.

[BJWilliams]

Not to mention...you're trying to use a conversation you had three YEARS ago, with a guy who...news flash...ISN'T EVEN THERE ANYMORE! Now, if you had had that conversation...say, a year ago, with the current AD, then that might hold a bit more weight.

[ballcoach15]

I do not follow HP enough to know who's there. I know they had a basketball player named John Brown. That's only name I know in High Point.

The BSC is one of the weakest conferences within NCAA considering all sports combined. In my opinion, all these non football schools contribute to BSC not being strong.

[BJWilliams]

I do not follow HP enough to know who's there. I know they had a basketball player named John Brown. That's only name I know in High Point.

The BSC is one of the weakest conferences within NCAA considering all sports combined. In my opinion, all these non football schools contribute to BSC not being strong.

And with that you pretty much torpedoed whatever credibility you tried to establish with your previous statement. Do you have any hard evidence to back your assertion that the Big South is as weak as you say?

[olldflame]

I do not follow HP enough to know who's there. I know they had a basketball player named John Brown. That's only name I know in High Point.

The BSC is one of the weakest conferences within NCAA considering all sports combined. In my opinion, all these non football schools contribute to BSC not being strong.

That is interesting, because 2 of the 3 weakest overall athletic programs in the conference, Presbyterian and Gardner-Webb are football schools, and Charleston Southern is not much better. In the Sasser Cup standings this year, Liberty was the only school in the top 6 which will have a football team participating for the conference championship next year.

Yeah, those non-football schools are really pulling them down.

Let's face it ballcoach, the key phrase in your post was "in my opinion", which clearly is all that matters to you. You have never wanted to be confused by the facts.