From a source VERY close to the situation; Coastal Carolina received enough votes and will accept an offer to become the 12th member of the Sun Belt beginning in 2016-2017.

Who would have seen this coming 1 year ago? Football attendance and stadium size aside they are pretty impressive. Supposedly they committed to expanding their stadium to 26,000 by the time they are fully eligible in football.

If true...I would love to see this as a division split.

EAST

Appalachian State
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
South Alabama
Troy
Coastal

WEST

The inferior ASU
Idaho
ULL
ULM
NM State
Texas State

JTApps1 wrote:From a source VERY close to the situation; Coastal Carolina received enough votes and will accept an offer to become the 12th member of the Sun Belt beginning in 2016-2017. Football attendance and stadium size aside they are pretty impressive. Supposedly they committed to expanding their stadium to 26,000 by the time they are fully eligible in football.

I'm not a big fan of this decision, but "le résultat ne fait aucun doute." It had become a foregone conclusion after the visitations. The visiting committee had their minds on the beach. Surfside condo owners, Murrell's Inlet watering holes and the Coastal Grand Mall will eventually profit from the Sun Belt.

This won't lift the academic reputation of the conference. It will give ASU fans games within a reasonable drive.

JTApps1 wrote:From a source VERY close to the situation; Coastal Carolina received enough votes and will accept an offer to become the 12th member of the Sun Belt beginning in 2016-2017.

Who would have seen this coming 1 year ago? Football attendance and stadium size aside they are pretty impressive. Supposedly they committed to expanding their stadium to 26,000 by the time they are fully eligible in football.

If true, they will have a larger stadium than we do when they begin play.

Like the closer road games, not too bad I guess.

ya, but can they bring in more than 10,000 on a regular bases. Nothing against CC or EKU, but I don't understand whats the big hurry to bring them in, I know the SBC wants a championship game, but neither of these two are going anywhere, anytime soon. Why wouldn't we give them a list of criteria that must be met before an invitation is extended ie: 2 years back to back with football attendance averaging over 15,000, so we could find out how serious these guys really are about moving up. Basically what we have done is allowed them in, at their word they will make the necessary improvements. But the biggest problem is they are not football ready to move up, they have little support in the community, an alumi base that hasn't had time to grow in numbers, and of course they must expand the stadium, I thought we already had a program like that already, Georgia State. I think they are a real long term project, in terms of the money sports, and I don't think they are going to really contribute to the strength of the conference for many years to come.

moehler wrote:ya, but can they bring in more than 10,000 on a regular bases. Nothing against CC or EKU, but I don't understand whats the big hurry to bring them in, I know the SBC wants a championship game, but neither of these two are going anywhere, anytime soon. Why wouldn't we give them a list of criteria that must be met before an invitation is extended ie: 2 years back to back with football attendance averaging over 15,000, so we could find out how serious these guys really are about moving up. Basically what we have done is allowed them in, at their word they will make the necessary improvements. But the biggest problem is they are not football ready to move up, they have little support in the community, an alumi base that hasn't had time to grow in numbers, and of course they must expand the stadium, I thought we already had a program like that already, Georgia State. I think they are a real long term project, in terms of the money sports, and I don't think they are going to really contribute to the strength of the conference more many years to come.

Better scheduling/less travel for Olympic sports.

Great! I can bring this one back every year!

(NSFW)
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/A35KGD1CUAAwzpR.jpg

sadly, I got to agree wth you, this was done to find us a travel partner, and because of Olympic sports, for me those aren't strong enough reasons.

/\PP ST/\TE GRAD 09 wrote:If true...I would love to see this as a division split.

EAST

Appalachian State
Georgia Southern
Georgia State
South Alabama
Troy
Coastal

WEST

The inferior ASU
Idaho
ULL
ULM
NM State
Texas State

Pretty much has to be the split, I would think, at least based on current membership.

moehler wrote:sadly, I got to agree wth you, this was done to find us a travel partner, and because of Olympic sports, for me those aren't strong enough reasons.

Those seem to be the reasons. I'm not sold on CCU, but it will be nice to have an easy away game to get to. If the SBC has to get to 12, I just don't know what other options exist that are better and willing.

ASUMountaineer wrote:

moehler wrote:ya, but can they bring in more than 10,000 on a regular bases. Nothing against CC or EKU, but I don't understand whats the big hurry to bring them in, I know the SBC wants a championship game, but neither of these two are going anywhere, anytime soon. Why wouldn't we give them a list of criteria that must be met before an invitation is extended ie: 2 years back to back with football attendance averaging over 15,000, so we could find out how serious these guys really are about moving up. Basically what we have done is allowed them in, at their word they will make the necessary improvements. But the biggest problem is they are not football ready to move up, they have little support in the community, an alumi base that hasn't had time to grow in numbers, and of course they must expand the stadium, I thought we already had a program like that already, Georgia State. I think they are a real long term project, in terms of the money sports, and I don't think they are going to really contribute to the strength of the conference more many years to come.

Better scheduling/less travel for Olympic sports.

Exactly! This was as much about creating even numbers for Olympic sports as it was football. Clearly, in the short run Coastal adds strength to that side of the equation. Outside of football, they have had a more successful athletic program across the board than we have. No doubt, the challenge for them will be to build a competitive FBS program. My guess is they will put the resources forward (they already have a bigger athletic budget than we do) to accomplish that goal. If they can get to 15,000 in the seats on a regular basis, they will be the equal of most SBC programs.

hapapp wrote:

ASUMountaineer wrote:

moehler wrote:ya, but can they bring in more than 10,000 on a regular bases. Nothing against CC or EKU, but I don't understand whats the big hurry to bring them in, I know the SBC wants a championship game, but neither of these two are going anywhere, anytime soon. Why wouldn't we give them a list of criteria that must be met before an invitation is extended ie: 2 years back to back with football attendance averaging over 15,000, so we could find out how serious these guys really are about moving up. Basically what we have done is allowed them in, at their word they will make the necessary improvements. But the biggest problem is they are not football ready to move up, they have little support in the community, an alumi base that hasn't had time to grow in numbers, and of course they must expand the stadium, I thought we already had a program like that already, Georgia State. I think they are a real long term project, in terms of the money sports, and I don't think they are going to really contribute to the strength of the conference more many years to come.

Better scheduling/less travel for Olympic sports.

Exactly! This was as much about creating even numbers for Olympic sports as it was football. Clearly, in the short run Coastal adds strength to that side of the equation. Outside of football, they have had a more successful athletic program across the board than we have. No doubt, the challenge for them will be to build a competitive FBS program. My guess is they will put the resources forward (they already have a bigger athletic budget than we do) to accomplish that goal. If they can get to 15,000 in the seats on a regular basis, they will be the equal of most SBC programs.

No hap CCU does not trump us overall athletically, non-football. The SoCon Commish Cups bear me out.

ya, I'm not willing to go that far, they are clearly better in baseball, no question, soccer also, but I'll take us in any other sport

Richmond would have been sooooo much better. Benson sux. Should have worked harder to get a bigger, more established name and region. This is awful news.

ashugh wrote:Richmond would have been sooooo much better. Benson sux. Should have worked harder to get a bigger, more established name and region. This is awful news.

Google "Richmond, KY" and you'll see a sad rain cloud. They provide better Olympic sports than EKU, a better on-field football team than EKU, and a better road-destination than EKU. I don't care what they did in the 60's and 70's, I care what they did in the 2000's, and EKU is trending downward. Brooks Stadium (CCU) is built to expand. If they build that stadium up to just 18,000 and pack it out I'd be ecstatic. I'm not saying it's going to be easy for them but I think it is possible.

The Spiders, Man. The Spiders. I don't even know what school is in Richmond, KY, but I assume you do and it must be EKU. Richmond, VA, man.

Richmond has a tiny stadium located in a residential area and they have no interest in FBS football.The Sun Belt doesn't need a small private school anyway.

Richmond's stadium is the same size as Coastal's. This screams of desperation and is clearly the last scraping of the bottom of the barrel. Can't say I'm excited. JMU will rue the day.