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The Big South is looking for members. I'm sure several schools were talked to. Personally, I'm a fan of the English soccer format with promotion and relegation and taking the individual wishes of the school out of the equation.Comment
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The link is about swimming because my son is a swimmer so that is what I follow and where I saw it.Comment
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There've also been rumors about Lincoln Memorial... what's your take on them?Comment
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That school bamboozles me. It's in the middle of a cornfield in east TN but has a fully functioning med, vet, and law school. I'd say based on those alone the school is probably in a good position to make the jump to D1 financially. In terms of athletics, I will say that basketball completely dominates that school and the stadium is incredible - grant it LR, who has a very middling basketball program, consistently has double LMU's attendance. I don't believe they have the community support to go D1 (not their fault, just a school in the middle of nowhere) and I don't think the rest of the sports are in a good position to be able to compete at all. So financially and facility wise they probably could go D1, program-wise they shouldn't.Comment
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I just can't see this. Queens is landlocked in the middle of one of the most expensive neighborhoods in Charlotte, so unless they are ready to drop a crazy amount of money there isn't much physical space to grow.
Charlotte continues to boom, but it's not exaclty void of higher education opportunities. Queens will never compete with Davidson academically and UNCC continues to ballon in size. Add to that schools like JCSU and Belmont Abbey right outside the city. Then Winthrop is pretty much right across the border. Also, add into that all of the colleges within an hour and the national ranked universities in NC and SC.
Queens best hope will be to try and follow the path of Elon and High Point, but the benefit those schools had was the ability to physically grow. Elon was in the middle of the country and High Point was surrounded by cheap property they could buy up. Only way Queens will be able to grow is if they start buying random plots of land across Charlotte and try to go for some satellite campus approach.
Let's not even talk about who will support this team athletically. Basketball already will have college competition from Davidson and UNCC, not to account for all the people who'd rather stay home and watch ACC basketball. Let's also not forget that Queens is right outside of uptown which means they have to compete with an NBA team. Davidson has been able to build a fan base of people who live north of Charlotte and want a quick easy option to see a game. Queens is in the middle of a neighborhood that is close to uptown and the people in that neighborhood can easily afford prime seats to the Hornets games when they want their basketball fix.
Swimming might be the one sport that they will be able to compete in, but is that worth the move up? They aren't even close to competing for track team championships in D2, so no way will they just turnaround and become a competitor if they move up to D1.
If they do move up hopefully for their sake they will at least go with the ASUN. Moving to the Big South Conference, which finds itelf on life support every few years, would be a huge waste.Comment
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What someone told me about LMU is a few years ago they tried to make the jump, but either couldn't or didn't receive a conference invite. I don't know that for 150% fact but that's what two folks told me. I'll see what I can find out.Originally posted by BEARS View PostComment
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Queens would be actually in a better position to move to D1 in terms of getting the required invite if they actually had football, but a few years ago just after they moved from Conference Carolinas to the SAC they ran a study on whether to add football but declined. But they might look at that again paired with a potential D1 move IF they have enough deep pockets to add the sport. They would be the third smallest D1 program (just shy of 1700 students) if they make the leap.
Location in Charlotte does give them an advantage in that travel in/out of the city is easy (good interstates and airport hub for AA). As far as sports they might be somewhat competitive in D1 with include men's basketball (but the jump would certainly make it harder), swimming, T/F and women's lax. Men's lax is a 15-20 ranked team in D2 and would have to step up their game for D1 big time.
LMU is basically one sport at a level that might be competitive from the beginning at D1 - men's basketball. They do not have the attraction of football for a D1 conference, but have a basically billionaire supporter behind the program. They suffer greatly from their location for D1 travel for almost all conferences. Campus is close to an hour off of the nearest interstates (I-75 and I-81 near its intersection with I-40) and there is no large airport nearby. They want to be D1 badly, but so far no conference has been forthcoming with an invite.Comment
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In reference to Queens, I will believe it when I see it. I was told that when they made the move from Conference Carolinas to the SAC, they were telling everyone that they were doing so because they were adding football, not because CC was mandating that schools move towards the NCAA recommended number of scholarships for all athletic programs at that time. Even though they were very very financially secure, after the move, Queens said the decision was made not the add football because of the overall cost. HummmmmComment
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Something tells me that the price of land for a football stadium in Myers Park is not cheap.Comment
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One good thing about their location is that if they ever did add D2 or FCS level football they could use Memorial Stadium for their home games.Originally posted by BEARS View PostComment
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