CIAA vs MEAC vs SWAC

[GoVSUTrojans]

Since this is the "off-season" I thought I would throw this out there.

Let's say you are a HS student and you had to choose between CIAA, MEAC or SWAC. Where would you go today?

Me personally I would say the CIAA because first football like no other sports doesn't care about the school you go to. If you are an NFL player, they will find you. Secondly I have a chance to win a D2 championship and not some ESPN Celebration Bowl trophy. Also in my opinion the conference competition is about the same.

Interested to hear what others think.

[canadarican]

I'd say CIAA because I think the CIAA is more competitive in their division than the MEAC and SWAC are in FCS. CIAA schools have a chance to actually compete in playoffs and for a national championship than either of the other two, despite all the experts on twitter and facebook telling me that Jackson State and Florida A&M can compete with any FCS school and the Sun Belt lol.

[LegalRam]

Depends on a few things.

1) It's more likely that a HS kid would get a full ride to a MEAC or SWAC school then a CIAA school. To go for free to a CIAA school you'd probably need to be able to get partial atheltic and partial academic.
2) When is the HS kid projected to start seeing playing time? If the kid can compete for playing time as an under classman at a CIAA school versus having to wait until a RS Junior at a MEAC or SWAC school then I might suggest they go the CIAA route.
3) Chance to compete for something of value. If it's picking between a bottom feeder CIAA school versus a bottom feeder SWAC/MEAC school then to me it's all the same. At that point I'd probably just be picking based off of best scholarship offer and academic program for my major.
4) If it's a playoff caliber team like Bowie versus lets say Del State or Mississippi Valley then I'd probably pick Bowie, assuming the scholarship offer is the same.
5) If we are talking SC State or Jackson State versus Albany State or Bowie, then that I would lean towards the MEAC or SWAC. The FCS school would give you a slight edge up on getting to the NFL, and the gameday experience would be better as both schools have good fanbases that attend games. Really the ability to play for a national championship would be the only thing to make me give one of the SIAC or CIAA schools a second chance thought.

[canadarican]

Depends on a few things.

1) It's more likely that a HS kid would get a full ride to a MEAC or SWAC school then a CIAA school. To go for free to a CIAA school you'd probably need to be able to get partial atheltic and partial academic.
2) When is the HS kid projected to start seeing playing time? If the kid can compete for playing time as an under classman at a CIAA school versus having to wait until a RS Junior at a MEAC or SWAC school then I might suggest they go the CIAA route.
3) Chance to compete for something of value. If it's picking between a bottom feeder CIAA school versus a bottom feeder SWAC/MEAC school then to me it's all the same. At that point I'd probably just be picking based off of best scholarship offer and academic program for my major.
4) If it's a playoff caliber team like Bowie versus lets say Del State or Mississippi Valley then I'd probably pick Bowie, assuming the scholarship offer is the same.
5) If we are talking SC State or Jackson State versus Albany State or Bowie, then that I would lean towards the MEAC or SWAC. The FCS school would give you a slight edge up on getting to the NFL, and the gameday experience would be better as both schools have good fanbases that attend games. Really the ability to play for a national championship would be the only thing to make me give one of the SIAC or CIAA schools a second chance thought.

Absolutely spot on. The only place I would even slightly disagree? I'd rather go to Bowie or Albany over JSU....because I think Albany and Bowie would have beaten JSU this year (and a lot of people don't like that I think that and immediately say I'm hating). Massay has JSU as the 63rd best FCS team this past season. They went 11-2 against a schedule that wasn't in the top 100 of SOS per Massey. They played 3 teams ranked in the top 80 of FCS (South Carolina State at 76, Tennessee State at 74 and Florida A&M at 65). That takes nothing away from what they accomplished in recruiting, I am strictly talking on the field between the lines. I don't think JSU would've been in the top 4 of the GSC honestly.