Savannah State joining MEAC

[DSUrocks07]

the other question is who is leaving???
The CIAA Commish has intimated that he is talking a D1 school
who is thinking about dropping back to D2.

Winston-Salem State has already announced they are dropping back to D2 and the CIAA. NC Central is on track to move up.

Yeah WSSU is going back to the CIAA, the talk is that there's ANOTHER Division 1 looking to drop down as well.

[ASUMountaineer]

Savannah state is preeeeeeeetty bad... i saw them play at mcneese this past year and we pounded them like 56-0? i mean we had a good team but you just dont dominate like that unless the other team is that bad. welcome to the meac...

Ehh, that's not necessarily true. ASU beat WoCo 70-24 in 2008 and WoCo was #3 in the country (IIRC). However, with that said, SSU is bad.

[DSUrocks07]

The actual terms of the stipulations are what I'm most interested in, because I'm going to find it ironic if the MEAC is going to hold SSU to a standard that some of the current members of the conference aren't even meeting.

Found an old article from NCCU's announcement of moving to D-1 back in 2005.

In September, consultant Andrew Fellingham told the committee investigating the move that, based on 2004 expenses, moving to the MEAC would require an annual athletic budget of $5.4 million.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=2227001

so maybe this is a hint of what the conference office is thinking in regards to budget requirements.

[dbackjon]

Winston-Salem State has already announced they are dropping back to D2 and the CIAA. NC Central is on track to move up.

Yeah WSSU is going back to the CIAA, the talk is that there's ANOTHER Division 1 looking to drop down as well.

Howard in that bad of shape?

[DSUrocks07]

Yeah WSSU is going back to the CIAA, the talk is that there's ANOTHER Division 1 looking to drop down as well.

Howard in that bad of shape?

Meh...they are a-ok financially, Howard has to largest endowment of all the MEAC schools ($500 million+), its just a question of whether they would want to continue to spend as much on athletics when they aren't having the success or notoriety they are looking for. With their facilities and fan support, they could drop down to the CIAA and nothing much would change, in fact some of their alumni would probably see it as a lateral move...or a net positive.

[dbackjon]

That is quite an endowment...

So poor facilities and fan support? Both men's basketball and football have been in the dumps lately.

[Fresno St. Alum]

so the press release by the MEAC about wanting to get to 14 is all lies and SSU is being brought in to cover the future loss of Howard?

[GA St. MBB Fan]

I'm happy for Savannah State...hopefully being in a conference and having something to play for will help their recruiting and turn the program around. Also this must be great for their travel expenses...especially in basketball...but how does playing in the MEAC and playing a MEAC conference schedule in football effect game contracts they may have entered into in future seasons?...They play Georgia State this fall.

[UAalum72]

They won't play a MEAC schedule until 2011. It may not help their travel expenses because now they'll have to play FCS schools up the eastern seaboard instead of D-II schools in Georgia. But at least they may get more home games.

[GA St. MBB Fan]

They won't play a MEAC schedule until 2011. It may not help their travel expenses because now they'll have to play FCS schools up the eastern seaboard instead of D-II schools in Georgia. But at least they may get more home games.

Yeah I just saw this thread...viewtopic.php?f=4&t=13712&view=unread#unread" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; ...after I posted that comment.