[Sly Fox]

Here is the report:

Task Force Report to ETSU President

AGS Thread on Developments

It doesn't take long into the thread for the possibility of ETSU and CCU joining the SoCon to appear. But frankly, I think this might actually be what it takes to solidify the Big South by adding the Bucs and keeping the Chants.

[ATrain]

But would the Bucs settle for being associate members, or would we need to add them full time?

[Sly Fox]

ETSU would want full membership in whatever league took them. I say bring them on. They would help the league in mens hoops and they are a stroing enough school overall to warrant the expnding membership roster in the league.

Of course they still need to raise millions of dollars to build an outdoor stadium ($10-12M) and practice facility (around $1M) and scholarships (Mucho Dinero). But at least the door is open and it looks like there is enough momentum that this could happen rather quickly. Of course it would be awhile before they would hit the field.

[Libertine]

I'm certainly glad that they've already decided that, should they bring football back, they're ditching that awful dome they played in.

[PAmedic]

but do they even have any interest in the BSOUTH?

this was a SoCon team before, right? Memory failing

[WinthropEagleFan]

but do they even have any interest in the BSOUTH?

this was a SoCon team before, right? Memory failing

Yes, they were in the SoCon..and from everything I've heard, the parting between the SoCon and ETSU wasn't pretty, so I'm not sure they would be welcomed back. So for them, their only realistic options are the Big South and the OVC...

[bigsmooth]

the parting was ugly. i have a friend that is an ETSU alum and former football player and he told me it was not a pretty sight. ETSU is not happy in the A-Sun, and i think would be a great fit for the big south.

[ATrain]

Oh the poor A-SUN, they are losing members left and right...I say in exchange for GWU, ETSU and PC (A southern D-II stepping up that we grabbed before they did), we give them High Point, Radford and UNCA

[Sly Fox]

Its funny you mention it, because allegedly Radford has flirted with the A-Sun in recent years.

I've been following this for several months on the ETSU board and Buc Football site.

[Sly Fox]

And here is a story that slipped between the cracks from me this past week mentioning the Big South by name in the Johnson City fishwrap:

Football may land ETSU back in SoCon

By Kelly Hodge
Press Managing Sports Editor
khodge@johnsoncitypress.com

If football returns at East Tennessee State, it may very well lead the Bucs back to the Southern Conference.
Speaking at a Friday morning news conference on campus, university president Paul Stanton spelled out a number of steps for reinstatement of a football program by 2010 as blueprinted in a task force report. Fundraising will dictate the progress of those efforts, but if and when the program becomes viable, ETSU will begin plans to leave the Atlantic Sun Conference, said Stanton.

“It has to happen,” he said. “We believe the Atlantic Sun is the best conference for us at this time without football. We do know, though, that conference does not want scholarship football. I have already begun explorations with football conferences – the SoCon, the OVC, the Big South.

As time goes on, there might be others.

“We have to have a place to come down, and we want it to be the best place to come down.”

ETSU is in its second year in the Atlantic Sun after competing for a quarter-decade in the Southern. It was forced to make a move when it dropped football in 2003 for financial reasons.

Athletic director Dave Mullins says any new change of conference wouldn’t happen soon.

“We have a contract with the Atlantic Sun through June of 2011,” said Mullins, “and that date is very important in terms of conference stability. We’re committed to the Atlantic Sun. They’ve been very good to us and we enjoy our relationships with the other schools. But it’s not in the plans of the Atlantic Sun to sponsor football, so we’ll have to see where this decision takes us.

“It’s not just a matter of us saying where we want to be. We have to be invited into another conference, and it has to be a good fit.”

The SoCon would appear to be the logical fit, though hard feelings may linger among some members who were caught off guard by the abrupt nature of football’s demise here and the ensuing fallout. The venerable league, which boasts the back-to-back Division I-AA national champion in Appalachian State, has been playing football with eight teams since ETSU left.

Whether the Bucs would be welcomed back remains to be seen.

“They’ve been very deliberate in the selection of a new member,” said Mullins. “They’ve talked about a number of scenarios, not involving us. I don’t think any of us here were convinced (forcing ETSU out) was the best decision for the Southern Conference at the time, but the institutions made their decision and we accepted it.”

The task force sent small groups to App State, Furman and Wofford to discuss their football programs during its sixth-month research. Individual members also visited Austin Peay, which is getting back into the football business, and Coastal Carolina, which has been building up its program and has long been rumored to be headed to the Southern Conference.

Mullins helped gather much of the financial information the task force used to reach its conclusions. He says the overriding issues with football still revolve around money, plain and simple.

For starters, ETSU students have to vote in April to approve an athletic fee that will sustain the program from year to year, and the Board of Regents has to sign off on it. Then the community has to get on board in a big way.

A new stadium and support facilities, preferrably on campus, are estimated to cost up to $15 million, and it has to be up front.

“This is all about funding,” said Mullins. “We’ve put a process in place, and the students need to show overwhelming support to start with. The community says they believe in it, and they have to believe in it with their pocketbooks. Those who believe in the program have to step up and support us – and do it over a long period of time. That’s the challenge: if we want it bad enough, we have to make it happen.”

Football would change the dynamics of the ETSU athletic budget in many ways. One of the most significant, the task force noted, is gender equity.

The Title IX funding formula for scholarships is supposed to closely reflect the general student population, which at ETSU is about 60 percent female.

The eventual addition of 63 men’s scholarships for football would mean 95 women’s scholarships would be also need to be added, according to the report.

“It doubles men’s scholarships and almost doubles the number of women,” said Mullins. “We don’t have to do it all at once, just like we wouldn’t do the football scholarships all at once. We’ll phase them in, and it may take 6-8 years to reach a balance. It took us a decade to get where things are now.”

The task force report mentions swimming, rifle, rowing and field hockey as potential new women’s sports. It also recommends the hiring of a Title IX consultant to review the university’s gender-equity program.

All in all, it’s a big bite for a university still trying to raise money for a pharmacy school and an athletics facilities plan that was orginally estimated to be over $100 million.

“Our (annual athletics) budget is $6.7 million right now,” said Mullins. “It will take 4-5 million in new money to make football work. If you use 5 million at the outside, that’s an $11.7 million budget to do everything.

We’re not talking about just football numbers. We’re talking about the plan that’s already in place for all our sports, adding football at a championship level and adding more women’s opportunities at a championship level over time.

“There’s obviously a lot of work to be done.”

[ATrain]

Its funny you mention it, because allegedly Radford has flirted with the A-Sun in recent years.

I've been following this for several months on the ETSU board and Buc Football site.

Yes, I believe I read about Radford flirting with the A-Sun when I started LU...do you know what that was all about? Did someone in the league tick RU off that bad, or was it some institutional administration thing or what?

[Sly Fox]

Truth be told, they probably fit better in that league of likeminded schools. A few years ago the A-Sun was looking like a promising mens hoops league when ETSU joined them. It hasn't worked out quite that way and as a result RU hasn't been talking about that much lately.

[PAmedic]

sounds to me like ETSU is set on getting back to the SoCon - as I figured they would.

[Sly Fox]

The folks in Johnson City have a long tradition in the SoCon so that would explain the affinity. But the ugly nature in which they left and the economics involved make a SoCon reuinion not much more likely than the Big South or OVC.

I honestly believe we can make this work. Now if KK can get off his duff long enough to make a move now would be the perfect time.