Affirm wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 8:41 pm
FUATT wrote: ↑Wed Apr 09, 2025 8:20 pm
I think we should not delineate between football and basketball. You should become a member in both if joining.
But, when the the P2 Plus Clemson, FSU and a few others break off and do their own thing, it's all going to reset. You could see some of the the remaining ACC Schools like Duke/Wake etc. merge into Big East for Hoops. The whole shooting match could realign.
This will probably all happen between 2030 and 2036 and I hope when this game of musical chairs happens Furman does not get caught without a good chair.
Your first paragraph does not seem to be supported AT ALL by the “But, when …” and the “…between 2030 and 2036 …” paragraphs. (Tell me if you can explain otherwise.). I fully agree with your latter 2. I do not necessarily agree with your first paragraph.
And how many current D1 schools will be able to get “a good chair” as you call it?
Why should we expect that Furman would be able to get a so-called “good chair” any easier than the presumably very large number of schools who will be unable to get a get “a good chair”.
I think, for the time being, it would be best for the league to have the same football and basketball members as much as possible. That's my view.
I also think that what makes sense for Furman is to:
1. Play D1 scholarship Football against similar sized schools that invest similarly to us. Right now SoCon is best choice. But in the future, I do not want to see us slip to a non scholarship league. I'd rather play in a league with W&M, Samford, Elon, Richmond, Wofford, etc. than play with Davidson, Presbyterian, and Stetson unless they are willing to go scholarship
2. Play D1 Basketball in a league with an NCAA tournament autobid
3. Have a good home for our other sports, particularly Soccer, Golf and Tennis, Lax, Softball and VB.
4. Have as geographically tight leagues as possible. Ideally, we would stick to SC, NC, TN and GA but can accept Samford and W&M/Richmond. But once we start traveling outside a certain radius and get into hotel stays which really drives costs and hurts our competitive ability.
I'd love to see our Football end up - when all the changes happen - in a competitive league of small publics and privates - Richmond, W&M, VMI, Citadel, Elon, Wofford, Samford, Furman, Davidson (if they go scholly). That would be cool.