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First let me state this is my first time I have joined the board. I have enjoyed many of the regulars for the past several years, You kept me up to date on many topics including news from Carson-Newman (class 0f '78). Now my news. My grandson choose Erskine over 2 smaller division I and several D2 schools. He is enjoying being part of the restart of Erskine football after nearly 60 years.This past Saturday was homecoming and the football coaches had an open practice and scrimmage. A tradition was started by the team by the way they enter the field. Great to see the young men on the field and making us even more excited for kick off next fall. There was a lot of talk about Erskine football and the future in the SAC. Seems almost all are already counting down to joining the SAC and in 2024 Anderson joining. After all my chatter, my question is this; is this addition to the SAC something being talked about at the other members of this just dreams and wishes on our part. I understand the SAC has had a wild ride in the past when it comes to adding members. After hearing the talk Saturday evening, the ideal sounds great to me. Anything to share?
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No, I have not heard anything specifically about Erskine. Everyone has been very tight lipped about the expansion other than there is one coming within the next few years.
The most informative public information came during the press conference when Limestone was admitted. Britz said that 13 was not an ideal number of members, but the conference was committed to continue to grow. He indicated that in 2-3 years (so 2021-2022) the conference was looking to be at 14 members and by 4-6 years (2023-2025) to be at 16 members, but that 16 was the cap.
As far as I am aware there has been no public discussion as to who those three members will be. When we were at nine football members it was easy to say that Erskine, Barton and one other either NAIA, D3 or D2 (Chowan, North Greenville, Shorter) football playing school would be the targets with Erskine and Barton being the pair to move together in the 2023-2025 range.
With the public announcement by Coker that they were studying adding football the focus turned to Erskine and Barton and a nonfootball school as the third option (King was the main focus of speculation within my circles). Now that Anderson is adding football I'm not sure what is going on and haven't talked about it with my buddies yet. If Anderson and Coker (who publicly announces the study unless you are adding football?) both add football then the conference football membership would be at 11 (which is a terrible number unless you have an independent scheduling partner).
I for one wouldn't want more than 12 football schools and 14 seems like an odd number to fall at (though some of the FBS conferences are there). But I suppose that it is a possibility. However, I would point to UNC-Pembroke's somewhat strange move to join the MEC as an expectation on their part that the local opportunities to fill a full schedule was drying up so they joined a conference with pretty far travel. To me, that would seem that the SAC is going to have an even number of teams so that most weeks are unavailable for non-conference games.
If they only take Barton or Erskine, I would have to says signs point to Barton as they have a scheduling alliance agreement in place starting next year (I have no idea why Erskine does not). I believe, and I could be wrong, that Erskine is only playing Catawba and Newberry from the SAC next year. So it seems like Barton may have a leg up on a one-to-one comparison.
There are also rumblings that several SAC schools have been approached and rebuffed offers to leave the conference, but that does not mean that if the offer isn't right that a school (or two) may ultimately move in the next five years. If that happens it throws all our guesses out the window. While the SAC has been a pretty stable conference, anything is possible.
That being said, I would be shocked if the schools did not already have talks with the SAC prior to adding football and that it wasn't already known whether they would be offered membership or not. So, if the word on campus at Erskine is that they are joining the SAC then it is probably true. -
Thanks for the update. On some things the SAC has been a little slow or a step behind but never boring. Until Saturday I hadn't heard anything about Anderson. But then again here at the coast all we get is junk about the red chickens, the fake green chickens and the stripped kitty-cats. I still am having trouble wearing burgundy and gold, I look much better in orange and blue. Talons Up! Again thanks, anyone else hear or have any ideals?Comment
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