SoCon Football Realignment

[Roundball]

I want W&M, Richmond, Elon, and CoC in the conference because I want Furman to play them and view them as our peers. K..simple as that.

These schools do not have to be in the Conference for Furman to play them. Why should we view any school that doesn't play FB as our peer?

Because football is the secondary sport to basketball. Basketball is money making sport in the SoCon.

[The Jackal]

I’m all for CofC to bolster the bball side of things. The goal of the SoCon should be to get an at large tourney bid and CofC helps. The same should be true of Fball. The SoCon has struggled to have more than one relevant team in then playoffs since App and GSU left. If adding any of these schools help I’m all for it.

No idea what “relevant team” in the playoffs means. If they make the Playoffs, they are a “relevant” Team.

SoCon has avg’d 1.33 At Large Playoff bids in the 24 Team Playoff Field since GaSou & Appy departed, including 4 in 2016…and getting completely hosed out of 3 in 2018.

Most peeps are acknowledging that the SoCon will have 2 this year with possibilities of 3…even 4 (FUBeAR says NFW to 4…5 worthy Teams, but only 2 or, maybe, 3 will get the call).

The only time the SoCon has failed to get at least 1 At-large bid in a 24 Team field was 2014…the year after the GaSou/Appy exit. Samford & WCU may have deserved bids that year, but perception, due to the departures & perceived weakness of new SoCon Teams, hurt their ’cases.’ With those not-so-new-now Teams winning/challenging for SoCon Championships and doing some good things OOC, that perception has subsided. Overall, top-to-bottom strength, is now reluctantly recognized, but we will need some strong SoCon Playoff (overcoming the stacked decks) performances to get to an expectation of being a 3 or 4 bid league.

Richmond & W&M…and NC A&T would help. Everyone recognizes E*Loan for the ‘posers’ they are.

Curious to know reasons for continuous disparagement of Elon. Is it mainly because they have so many students from NY NJ MA, and relatively few from NC?
Is it because they departed the SoCon so fast?
Is it because their academic and athletic renown seemingly increased so much over such a small time frame?
Is it their seemingly fortuitous location in the midst of the NC “big 4” and between the Triangle and the Triad?
None of the above?
What are the “reasons”?

I do not have an issue with Elon besides the fact that they are just sort of "meh."

Elon doesn't really excite folks, I think, because they aren't really excitable. As best I can tell, they don't have a natural football rival and really haven't stayed in one place long enough to develop one.

[tim]

When they were in the conference, I remember a thug football team with many game ejections and outright suspensions. Their pet name on the boards was fElon. They had one qb, a big sandy haired guy (Scott) whose off the field exploits were something else. He played baseball also and ended his career in the tourney with a big fight. All that has changed probably since the coach is long gone, they could make a good partner. I know they once hired a Davidson asst coach for basketball that didn't work out. Furman played in a recent preseason basketball tourney with them and they didn't look so good. Fairly recently, we had a good FCS playoff game with them and a regular season game also.

[Affirm]

When they were in the conference, I remember a thug football team with many game ejections and outright suspensions. Their pet name on the boards was fElon. They had one qb, a big sandy haired guy (Scott) whose off the field exploits were something else. He played baseball also and ended his career in the tourney with a big fight. All that has changed probably since the coach is long gone, they could make a good partner. I know they once hired a Davidson asst coach for basketball that didn't work out. Furman played in a recent preseason basketball tourney with them and they didn't look so good. Fairly recently, we had a good FCS playoff game with them and a regular season game also.

I attended that regular season game at Elon.
September 8, 2018.
Furman 7 - Elon 45
In regard to their reputation, it has apparently not been bad enough to keep them from getting OOC games in the last several years with Duke, Wake Forest, Vanderbilt, North Carolina, and Georgia Tech.