Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

[89rabbit]

some interesting talk over on the Any Given Saturday Board:

http://www.anygivensaturday.com/foru...ead.php?t=2066


Some of the posters are talking about a Big South (5 teams) and Great West (5 teams in '06) union to keep the clock moving toward the auto bid.  Very interesting.  From our stand point who cares if we are flying east or west for our games.  

Go State!  ;D

[89rabbit]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

Chris Kelly wrote:

". . . the conference schedules would have GWFC playing one or two of the current Big South Teams a year. It would rotate year to year, and the current GWFC teams would still play each other year in and year out. For example, Cal Poly would still play everyone from the current GWFC, and then one or two teams a year from Big South. Helps with keeping 6 teams in conference and the clock moving toward an auto bid. It's another possibility out there for the GWFC"



Members of the Big South are:

Char. Southern - Buccaneers
Coastal Carolina - Chanticleers
Gardner Webb - Runnin' Bulldogs
Liberty - Flames
VMI - Keydets


Go State! ;D

[Texas_Jacks_Fan]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

Playing a couple Big South Schools would be great every year, I would much rather have VMI and Coastal Carolina on our schedule in place of UW-L or UM-R regardless if it helps the auto bid. Throw in the positives of an alliance between the schools with the NCAA and we may have a pretty good idea!!

[bisonguy]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

With a quick calculation, it looks like 2010 would be the earliest an autobid could be granted. Heckuva lot better than the timeframe of never with the current GWFC membership.

[jackmd]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

With a quick calculation, it looks like 2010 would be the earliest an autobid could be granted. Heckuva lot better than the timeframe of never with the current GWFC membership.  

Amen to that. The GWFC cannot stand alone and really means little when you look at the big picture. Any and all affiliations leading to playoff elegibility need to be considered.

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

Do you suppose Jerry Falwell will follow his Liberty Flames to Brookings? ;D

This seems like a possibilty and hope that there can be a GWFC and Big South accord. It certainly can not do any harm.

[91rabbit]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

SDSUFAN:

Only if he can meet you!

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

SDSUFAN:

Only if he can meet you!  

Thanks, I would like to meet him too. Jerry is my kind of guy, all hat and no cattle. ;D

[89rabbit]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

Highlights from a Forum story:

http://www.in-forum.com/articles/ind...451§ion=sports (sub. site, but it is free)

Great West talks merger
By Jeff Kolpack, The Forum
Published Thursday, August 04, 2005


The Great West Football Conference will be one school short of attaining automatic qualifier status for the Division I-AA playoffs. The Big South Conference has the same problem.

Does the solution involve a mixing of the two? The leagues had preliminary discussions about forming a merger for football only in an effort to be a bigger player in the postseason.

Any resolution, however, appears to be a long shot.

"It was just a very preliminary idea that we talked about," said Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander. "Whether or not it goes anywhere is speculative." . . .

"We talked about all of those possibilities," said Southern Utah athletic director Thomas Douple. "It's a possibility down the road."

But Douple said he was told the Big South athletic directors were not in favor of the setup.

Big South members rarely fly to games and the cost would be an issue, Kallander said.

"Just because we've floated an idea out there doesn't mean the membership is totally supportive of it," Kallander said.

The Great West appears in favor of it. The league won't be eligible for the automatic bid until 2008 when North Dakota State and South Dakota State complete their Division I reclassification periods.

"We would love it," said NDSU athletic director Gene Taylor. "There are a lot of positives. The negative is the cost of travel and I think we're a little more used to it in our conference."

The five Big South football schools come from a three-state area with the longest trip about a seven-hour bus ride between Virginia Military Institute and Charleston Southern, Kallander said.

Only Cal Poly vs. Cal Davis and NDSU vs. SDSU are bus trips in the Great West.

"As far as the Great West athletic directors, we want to keep all options available and look at every possibility," Douple said. . . .





Go State! ;D

[JBB]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

The geography for this move really favors NDSU/SDSU.  Our travel is about the same east or west.  We could be the schools that provided most of the inter-divisional competition.  That would be the cheapest.  

Considering Carson-Newman, Delta State and Tusculume have been in North Dakota recently it seems likely there is money enough for a game or two a year with these guys.  If Georgia Southern can go to SDSU so can Gardner Webb.

A while back Coastal Carolina pulled out of a game with NDSU for this season.  thats not a good sign for this league merger. But maybe the value of the auto-bid and some funding a la roger thomas and the travel grant could make this go?

[SDSUFAN]

Re: Great West + Big South = Auto Bid

This will be an interesting issue to watch. Cost of travel could be the obstacle. Gardner Webb, Carson Newman and Tusclume that JBB mentions were at one time members of the South Atlantic Conference in D2, and all church affliated schools with tuition bills equal to the Augustana Advantage. Gardner Webb surprising moved on to D1 and the other two continue as D2 schools with competitive football programs. Even with their limited offering of scholarships, they seem to put together good programs. Again its about location and availability of good student athletes. These schools as pointed out by JBB have recently come to Fargo and they seem to be interested in one game travel guarentees, but when travel becomes part of a home and home deal, they do not seem to be too interested.

You would hope the Big South budgets would allow more travel, but they may not.

I would like to see this merger happen but if it does not happen, travel costs could be the most likely major obstacle.