SoCon today

[gofurman]

Furman.. well, yeah, we all saw that

Woff is tied 14-14 and KSU is on doorstep . EDIT - KSU up 21-14. I know it helps SoCon for Woff to win but I find myself pulling for KSU - even though I hate the owls

[purplehorse]

Wofford is down 28-14 and about to lose.

It confirms that the Southern Conference is down.

A wake up call for CCH who I truly believe thought we would beat AP and do better against an out-of-comference team vs say Wofford in the playoffs. No way Wofford would have beaten us as badly today as AP did.

[purplehorse]

Wow-how the landscape of FCS football has changed over the years. In the past we had 3 out of the 4 final teams. Today the conference does not have a team in the field of 16.

[gman]

SoCon football is a money pit, a sinking ship. The SoCon should put its main focus on basketball.

[fufanatic]

What I’m trying to figure out is just where the SoCon is today. Compared to the FBS, is the talent gap like NDSU is LSU and Clemson, the rest of the top 10 or so is like Penn State and Oklahoma, and we are in the Group of 5 like conference USA or are we a P5 conference that’s just been a little down like the PAC 12? I hope it’s the latter, but frankly I don’t watch enough FCS football to get a good sense. Plus there’s no real cross-conference matchups until the playoffs. And the league loses most of the prominent matchups. I’m hoping some of the FCS watchers on here can take off their purple-tinted glasses and give an honest assessment. Because honestly I will become less interested if the SoCon becomes like the Patriot League where you may win a conference title, but it’s a massacre most years in the playoffs.

[gman]

Interest in FCS football is terrible. The Bayou Classic drew three times the number of fans than the total number of fans for first round playoff games.

[fufanatic]

Interest in FCS football is terrible. The Bayou Classic drew three times the number of fans than the total number of fans for first round playoff games.

While that is pretty pathetic, I think it would only be fair to add those numbers to the total number of people watching on ESPN3, which we will never know. I had 3 other people watching with me. I bet it would be a more impressive number and more comparative to back in the day before every game was streamed.

[gman]

Interest in FCS football is terrible. The Bayou Classic drew three times the number of fans than the total number of fans for first round playoff games.

While that is pretty pathetic, I think it would only be fair to add those numbers to the total number of people watching on ESPN3, which we will never know. I had 3 other people watching with me. I bet it would be a more impressive number and more comparative to back in the day before every game was streamed.

Another 1,000 people watching the games on ESPN3 does not pay the bills. Butts in seats is the only thing that counts. Locally, the Furman game went up against the Clemson game. Add in the delays and the terrible play and there might have been less than a 50 people that watched the entire game.

[The Jackal]

What I’m trying to figure out is just where the SoCon is today. Compared to the FBS, is the talent gap like NDSU is LSU and Clemson, the rest of the top 10 or so is like Penn State and Oklahoma, and we are in the Group of 5 like conference USA or are we a P5 conference that’s just been a little down like the PAC 12? I hope it’s the latter, but frankly I don’t watch enough FCS football to get a good sense. Plus there’s no real cross-conference matchups until the playoffs. And the league loses most of the prominent matchups. I’m hoping some of the FCS watchers on here can take off their purple-tinted glasses and give an honest assessment. Because honestly I will become less interested if the SoCon becomes like the Patriot League where you may win a conference title, but it’s a massacre most years in the playoffs.

It has long been my opinion that FCS schools largely have access to the same athletes in recruiting. There is probably more competition for those athletes in the South, where there are exponentially more football programs, giving rise to more competition.

Like most smaller college ball, where teams don't have access to gorillas along the offensive and defensive lines, the game becomes more "specialist" centric. Most of the nation's top teams have strong QB play. While true, there are some freshmen who step into a QB role and the train keeps running, most of those instances involve stacked offenses - a freshman QB surrounded by very good veteran plays (this would be NDSU this season).

The difference that I see from this year and last year for Furman is simply consistency. A lot of that has to do with the QB position. Last season, we had a redshirt senior under center. This season, we've just had freshmen.

We as fans have to give these guys time. Ideally, we wouldn't have had a bare cupboard at the QB position and could have let Sisson and Grainger develop on the practice field instead of in games. It is what it is, though.

[youwouldno]

What I’m trying to figure out is just where the SoCon is today. Compared to the FBS, is the talent gap like NDSU is LSU and Clemson, the rest of the top 10 or so is like Penn State and Oklahoma, and we are in the Group of 5 like conference USA or are we a P5 conference that’s just been a little down like the PAC 12? I hope it’s the latter, but frankly I don’t watch enough FCS football to get a good sense. Plus there’s no real cross-conference matchups until the playoffs. And the league loses most of the prominent matchups. I’m hoping some of the FCS watchers on here can take off their purple-tinted glasses and give an honest assessment. Because honestly I will become less interested if the SoCon becomes like the Patriot League where you may win a conference title, but it’s a massacre most years in the playoffs.

Statistically, the difference between the top FCS conferences and the SoCon is approximately the difference between the SEC and the Mountain West, or the Big 12 and the Sun Belt. So, it's a huge difference . . . the MVFC for instance has 6-7 teams (out of 10) better than anyone in the SoCon.

The days of the SoCon being a power conference are over, 100%. I didn't expect it to get quite this bad, but right now there's no reason to think SoCon teams will be nationally relevant except for rare, one-off exceptions.

[gman]

It's official. Sadly, at least nationally, the Big South is now better than the SoCon in football.

[The Jackal]

I still ask myself whether the SoCon needs to look to expand.

If the conference wants to be a "basketball conference," then I think it needs to start making that a priority. If it wants to stay competitive in football, then make that a priority.

What I've noticed is that this conference needs some life breathed back into it. Would it make sense to poach some programs from the OVC and Big South? Would the conference increase its visibility by adding some competitive football programs?

I think the SoCon needs to figure out if it wants to live in the past or look to the future.

[tim]

If the SOCON pulls in schools that we can't compete with , then we are a 3rd or fourth place finisher in the conference at best and a non playoff participant. That's what the last few years would have been like had Appy or GSU stayed. No rings, no playoffs but yeah probably somewhat of an increase in attendance in certain games but more of a downer than I feel right now. The pendulum can swing the other way nationally, it certainly has in Basketball.

[youwouldno]

I still ask myself whether the SoCon needs to look to expand.

If the conference wants to be a "basketball conference," then I think it needs to start making that a priority. If it wants to stay competitive in football, then make that a priority.

What I've noticed is that this conference needs some life breathed back into it. Would it make sense to poach some programs from the OVC and Big South? Would the conference increase its visibility by adding some competitive football programs?

I think the SoCon needs to figure out if it wants to live in the past or look to the future.

This is just completely out of touch with reality. For one thing, there are zero FCS programs within the SoCon's geographic footprint (or anywhere else for that matter) that (1) would actually make a material difference to the conference's football strength and (2) would have any interest in joining. Since the SoCon has tanked as a football league, what incentive is there for another program to join, especially if it's not really a great fit in other respects?

But even that is a moot point because the conference would not abandon the round-robin schedule permitted by having 9 football-playing members.

Which brings us to the next issue: since the SoCon is now a basketball conference, it would be insane to sacrifice basketball in order to boost up FCS football. So now the bar is insanely high - somehow finding programs that would improve football while holding basketball at least steady (and be interested). Hint: no such program exists. And even if it did, adding more members dilutes the amount of NCAA money that each program receives, which indirectly would hurt the ability of the conference to compete.

The only realistic path to such dual improvement is VMI leaving (again). They are horrible in both sports and so it would be super easy to upgrade when replacing them.

There is also a fringe argument to be made that the SoCon should add 2 basketball-only schools in an effort to make multi-bid scenarios more plausible. But there is only one obvious target for such a move (Belmont), and the most likely outcome would be negative for existing members (fewer NCAA appearances and less money distributed). Something along those lines may get more consideration if the conference maintains its newfound strength for an extended period.

[apaladin]

Interest in FCS football is terrible. The Bayou Classic drew three times the number of fans than the total number of fans for first round playoff games.

While that is pretty pathetic, I think it would only be fair to add those numbers to the total number of people watching on ESPN3, which we will never know. I had 3 other people watching with me. I bet it would be a more impressive number and more comparative to back in the day before every game was streamed.

Another 1,000 people watching the games on ESPN3 does not pay the bills. Butts in seats is the only thing that counts. Locally, the Furman game went up against the Clemson game. Add in the delays and the terrible play and there might have been less than a 50 people that watched the entire game.

The Bayou Classic is FCS but it's still comparing apples to oranges, not the same but no one can deny interest is down except a few places.