Tonight, if my memory holds true, marks two years since we have won a Sunbelt Championship in any sport. Are we in a state of overall decline? Just going through the inevitable dry spell? Are we in over our heads? I have to admit that I am concerned that we are sliding backwards, or at best treading water , while others surge ahead.What should our expectations be? And why?

Our expectations should be to win a conference championship every year in every sport. We should not jump off the ledge when we don't. We also should not push the coach off the ledge when we don't.

Stonewall wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 11:22 am

Tonight, if my memory holds true, marks two years since we have won a Sunbelt Championship in any sport. Are we in a state of overall decline? Just going through the inevitable dry spell? Are we in over our heads? I have to admit that I am concerned that we are sliding backwards, or at best treading water , while others surge ahead.What should our expectations be? And why?

So far, I think it's just a dry spell. I wouldn't say other teams are "surging ahead" as much as the conference has just gotten a lot stronger. The newbies are playing really well. Marshall and JMU showed out in football. Marshall, JMU, and Southern Miss all had really strong seasons in men's basketball, and JMU, Southern Miss, and ODU were in the top 5 in women's basketball too. The teams that have been in the Sun Belt for a while have been pretty consistent compared to years past. Now, will App step up and regain dominance? That remains to be seen.

The expectation should be to win championships, but as long as App is at least in the conversation every year, I'd say that's acceptable. You can't win everything all the time.

We haven't really been competitive in anything except football. Yes, we have the miracle run to the MBB title a couple of years ago, but we are mostly just an average program in the Sun Belt. I think it's more noticeable because football hasn't met expectations lately. Wrestling is the outlier, a consistently good team, but outside the Belt.

As for expectations, I believe we should expect to be in contention for a conference championship in every sport we field every year. We're not going to win them all, but if that isn't our expectation then we don't need to be fielding a team in that sport.

Realize that wrestling is not a Sunbelt sport. However, we have won in the conference we are assigned to. I take that as winning a conference championship.

This is actually something people on here discussed a lot during the transition. Would ALL of our sports be able to keep up in the sunbelt or just football?

I think we are seeing our answer to this. Our whole athletic program has a lot of work to do to get to the point of challenging for championships everywhere.

This is where the money comes in. This is where time comes in. We need time. It's just not a simple fix.

Are there any other sports than football?

Black Saturday wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:08 pm

Are there any other sports than football?

The answer to that question will pretty much tell us our chances of moving up in the other sports. Are we driven by football only? Can we afford to excel at the other sports? Are we content with where we are in the other sports? I sure don't see many complaints on here about anything but football and the occasional BB comment.

bcoach wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:21 pm

Black Saturday wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:08 pm

Are there any other sports than football?

The answer to that question will pretty much tell us our chances of moving up in the other sports. Are we driven by football only? Can we afford to excel at the other sports? Are we content with where we are in the other sports? I sure don't see many complaints on here about anything but football and the occasional BB comment.

What are we going to “move up” too? I understand that this seems like a goal, but this isn’t likely a reality. The grown up table has a finite number of seats and there are quite a few programs that are more likely to get relegated to our level than there are that are likely to get promoted from our peers, if any.

Just curious ...as l do not follow...how is Stink doing in other sports? I seem to remember that they were decent in baseball last year maybe.
Not sure how their funding levels compare to ours (individual club, corporate sponsors and how much is funded throughstate )
Maybe a large factor is money...and being able to pay market for coaches in other sports.

App State isn't fully funded in all 16 sports -- so why would you think you can honestly be competitive in all 16 sports....Olympic sports don't all give out the full NCAA allotment of scholarships. (And if someone tells you different it's a lie) -- The higher ups like to disguise this with that in-state - out of state verbiage. Other schools don't care if your from Mars - you get what the NCAA allows.

This is not including the budgets in each sport are so embarrassing compared to other SBC schools.

Have some common sense -- freeze this thread.

DenverOfTheEast wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:44 pm

App State isn't fully funded in all 16 sports -- so why would you think you can honestly be competitive in all 16 sports....Olympic sports don't all give out the full NCAA allotment of scholarships. (And if someone tells you different it's a lie) -- The higher ups like to disguise this with that in-state - out of state verbiage. Other schools don't care if your from Mars - you get what the NCAA allows.

This is not including the budgets in each sport are so embarrassing compared to other SBC schools.

Have some common sense -- freeze this thread.

If we field the sport then we should expect it to be competitive. If it isn't, and can't be properly funded then it shouldn't be fielded.

Our first SBC championship was Women's Indoor Track in 2015.
Since then:
2016 Football, Women's XC
2017 Football, Men's XC
2018 Football, Women's XC
2019 Football, Men's XC
2021 Men's Basketball

DenverOfTheEast wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 1:44 pm

App State isn't fully funded in all 16 sports -- so why would you think you can honestly be competitive in all 16 sports....Olympic sports don't all give out the full NCAA allotment of scholarships. (And if someone tells you different it's a lie) -- The higher ups like to disguise this with that in-state - out of state verbiage. Other schools don't care if your from Mars - you get what the NCAA allows.

This is not including the budgets in each sport are so embarrassing compared to other SBC schools.

Have some common sense -- freeze this thread.

"App isn't fully funded in all 16 sports." False; they are this year as we were told in our AFAA board meeting 2 weeks ago.

Not a sport sponsored by the Sun Belt, but the wrestling team, who is #20 in the nation, secured the SoCon team championship, along with two individual champions. The Mountaineers produced 8 finalists in the ten weight classes.

This is in addition to already securing the regular season title.

6 wrestlers are expected to represent at the NCAA individual championships, if I’m not mistaken.

PoplarHillApp wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 06, 2023 2:38 pm

Not a sport sponsored by the Sun Belt, but the wrestling team, who is #20 in the nation, secured the SoCon team championship, along with two individual champions. The Mountaineers produced 8 finalists in the ten weight classes.

This is in addition to already securing the regular season title.

6 wrestlers are expected to represent at the NCAA individual championships, if I’m not mistaken.

I thought it was 3 individual champions.

You are right, it is 3 individual champions....

Smith - 125 lbs.
Milner - 149 lbs. (4 time champ).
Askey - 157 lbs.

Interesting that the SoCon configured a conference when they didn't have enough teams .Sunbelt did the same for soccer and beach volleyball , but not wrestling...

Maybe one other negative consideration to add is we also eliminated sports so that we could reallocate towards other sports.

It is really disappointing to not have a soccer team now that our conference is a premier soccer conference.

Prebasketball we are 4th in the Bubas Cup standings (best overall athletic program). We tend to slide after the winter and spring sports.
https://sunbeltsports.org/sports/2022/1 ... bubas.aspx

9th 2022
8th 2021

Couldn't find 2019 and 2020

7th 2018
9th 2017
5th 2016
7th 2015