SAC Expansion

[cneagle99]

Will the SAC now absorb the Bluegrass Mountain Conference? The BMC currently has 7 members, SCAD-Savannah (NAIA) and 6 SAC members. Emory & Henry is the 7th SAC member with swimming & diving. This will bring every school's D2 championship sports under the SAC banner.

SCAD-S can affiliate with the Appalachian Athletic Conference where their lacrosse teams are already affiliate members and SCAD-Atlanta is a full member.

The swimming championships are run in coordination with Conference Carolinas. I would imagine that eventually they will be handled the same way as field hockey and wrestling. The BMC has always been a conference in flux with schools coming and going. As swimming becomes more established I see the SAC taking over sponsorship. Similar situation as what happened with lacrosse.

[canadarican]

I said it in the other thread, but I tried telling yall it wasnt Barton or Erskine or (gag reflex) King or Maryville

[Tech Boys]

Will the SAC now absorb the Bluegrass Mountain Conference? The BMC currently has 7 members, SCAD-Savannah (NAIA) and 6 SAC members. Emory & Henry is the 7th SAC member with swimming & diving. This will bring every school's D2 championship sports under the SAC banner.

SCAD-S can affiliate with the Appalachian Athletic Conference where their lacrosse teams are already affiliate members and SCAD-Atlanta is a full member.

[Tech Boys]

I guess the E&H BOT had their meeting.

Emory & Henry College to Join South Atlantic Conference; Will Begin Competition in 2022-23

[boatcapt]

Middle of November...Any update on E&H??

[cneagle99]

When is this meeting scheduled to take place? Will the move to D2 vote be "just a formality"?

I do not know when the meeting is, but from all I am hearing it is a done deal--they are applying to D2 and the SAC and will be accepted to the conference provisional to acceptance to D2. I actually had E&H's president as a professor while at CN. He was also at Young Harris and Mars Hill prior to E&H.

[Tech Boys]

News article on E&H--doesn't say much other than Board of Trustees are meeting about it in November.

https://www.wjhl.com/sports/college-...n-two-by-2021/

When is this meeting scheduled to take place? Will the move to D2 vote be "just a formality"?

[cneagle99]

News article on E&H--doesn't say much other than Board of Trustees are meeting about it in November.

https://www.wjhl.com/sports/college-...n-two-by-2021/

[Chuck Bitner]

Nothing confirmed yet about Emory & Henry but a few of their coaches recently followed me on Twitter. That's pretty close to official, right?

[RedFromMI]

Based on information I've been told in the past, the SAC interest level in king is between zero and north greenville :)

King just got hit with a penalty for Men's Basketball - so compliance is an issue, and that would not sit well with the SAC.

[canadarican]

Looking at the schools on a map, it would seem to make more since if Lenoir-Rhyne was in the East, it is a bit of an outlier in the Western Division. To fix this when moving to 16 schools I would look for two more in the western area. One school with football and one without. There would be five possible football schools to choose from:

NAIA: Bluefield, Cumberlands, Pikeville & Union
D3: Maryville

Maryville would fit best geographically, but Cumberlands may be a better option as it has a slightly bigger enrollment than the rest.

For the non-football school, I would want to see King as it is geographically in the center, but other options would be Lees-McRae, Milligan and Montreat.

Based on information I've been told in the past, the SAC interest level in king is between zero and north greenville :)

[cneagle99]

EAST (PIEDMONT)-Anderson, Catawba, Coker, Limestone, Newberry, Queens, Wingate and Lenoir Rhyne
WEST (MOUNTAIN)-Carson-Newman, Emory & Henry, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill, Tusculum, Virginia-Wise

yep, make more sense in the east footprint

But to make that work, the conference footprint will need to shift to the west. As of now, LR would be in the western division.

[Ursidae]

Looking at the schools on a map, it would seem to make more since if Lenoir-Rhyne was in the East, it is a bit of an outlier in the Western Division. To fix this when moving to 16 schools I would look for two more in the western area. One school with football and one without. There would be five possible football schools to choose from:

NAIA: Bluefield, Cumberlands, Pikeville & Union
D3: Maryville

Maryville would fit best geographically, but Cumberlands may be a better option as it has a slightly bigger enrollment than the rest.

For the non-football school, I would want to see King as it is geographically in the center, but other options would be Lees-McRae, Milligan and Montreat.

EAST (PIEDMONT)-Anderson, Catawba, Coker, Limestone, Newberry, Queens, Wingate and Lenoir Rhyne
WEST (MOUNTAIN)-Carson-Newman, Emory & Henry, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill, Tusculum, Virginia-Wise

yep, make more sense in the east footprint

[cneagle99]

Pretty sure you are right.

Assume the divisions would be:

EAST (PIEDMONT)-Anderson, Catawba, Coker, Limestone, Newberry, Queens, Wingate
WEST (MOUNTAIN)-Carson-Newman, Emory & Henry, Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill, Tusculum, Virginia-Wise

Looking at the schools on a map, it would seem to make more since if Lenoir-Rhyne was in the East, it is a bit of an outlier in the Western Division. To fix this when moving to 16 schools I would look for two more in the western area. One school with football and one without. There would be five possible football schools to choose from:

NAIA: Bluefield, Cumberlands, Pikeville & Union
D3: Maryville

Maryville would fit best geographically, but Cumberlands may be a better option as it has a slightly bigger enrollment than the rest.

For the non-football school, I would want to see King as it is geographically in the center, but other options would be Lees-McRae, Milligan and Montreat.

[cneagle99]

Pretty sure you are right.

Assume the divisions would be:

EAST (PIEDMONT)-Anderson, Catawba, Coker, Limestone, Newberry, Queens, Wingate
WEST (MOUNTAIN)-Carson-Newman, Emory & Henry, Lenoir-Rhyne, Lincoln Memorial, Mars Hill, Tusculum, Virginia-Wise