Charlotte's name is coming up as a possibility when and if a potential new league formed by a merger of Conference USA and the Mountain West eventually expands.
An ESPN.com report today reports that sources indicate the 49ers are a candidate to join the new 16-team league if it expands. And East Carolina chancellor Steve Ballard said Tuesday that Charlotte and Appalachian State would be a good fits for the league (which still hasn't been officially formed).
"We’d love to consider Appalachian State and Charlotte down the road in a few years," Ballard said at a news conference in Greenville, N.C., Tuesday. "Charlotte has to get (football) up and running. But Charlotte as a university has all kinds of advantages and would add basketball talent to the conference."
The new CUSA/MWC league would be tilted decidedly to the west, with East Carolina, Marshall and Alabama-Birmingham the only eastern schools. Ballard said the league could expand and divide into four regionally based divisions -- making the additions of schools such as Charlotte and Appalachian a logical option.
The 49ers, who begin playing football in 2013 and are now in the Atlantic 10 in other sports, will start as an FCS independent, but hope to move up to FBS at an undetermined time. Appalachian State recently announced it wants to move from FCS to FBS when the timing is right.
49ers athletics director Judy Rose has been unavailable for comment. Appalachian State athletics director Charlie Cobb said through a spokesman that the Mountaineers are looking at all available options.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
49ers, App State possibilities for new league?
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39 comments:
Charlotte will be terrible for about 10 years.
Just like USF and UConn?
Go troll somewhere else. You can build a winner quickly - Old Dominion made the FCS playoffs this year in their 3rd year of operation. And the 49ers have been able to land some guys that App St. and Wofford were recruiting (you may recall that App St won 3 national titles in a row and beat Michigan not too long ago). What will take 10 years is for the 49ers program to build up to the point where they can consider a move to FBS. I'm guessing that the 49ers first season in FBS will be 2025 or somewhere around there. So this story can't be looked at as anything more than speculation and fun. And yes, it is fun to think about where the football program could be in 5, 10, 15 or 20 years. When I was going to school there, the dream was having a football team at all. It took 20 years after I left, but it's here, and you will not be able to crush our enthusiasm. If you don't like the 49ers, don't post here.
Down to 563 days until kickoff. GO NINERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hey, it only took 7 years to go from non-Division I in basketball to the 1977 Final Four.
So, by my calculations, we should start reserving our seats to the Sugar Bowl soon! :D
I'd personally love to move out of the A10 and into the CUSAMWC ASAP, but my hunch is that a 24 team alliance will happen in stages . . . with Charlotte added late.
Excluding Charlotte, would I like to add UTSA and the Alamodome to my FBS conference? Absolutely. Georgia State and the Atlanta market? Sure. But right now there's no urgency to do so.
I imagine you'll see a 16 team CUSA/MWC grow to 20 teams and grow again to 24 teams. And if we get a head start of telling recruits that we've got an 'in' to FBS, we'll add a fairly nice roster to the conference in addition to nice facilities and a nice market.
Fingers crossed.
Is the ECU chancellor saying that they would consider App now and Charlotte a few years down the road, or consider both a few years down the road? The wording is a little confusing.
This would be a good move for the niners. The A10 is dragging the program down in all sport.
Going to the FCS playoffs and being a good FBS team are two totally different teams.
With regards to UConn and USF, once again, they are both a totally different situation than UNCC. Both weren't overnight success stories like everybody seems to think. Both have things going for them that UNCC doesn't. For UConn, they are perennial national contenders in basketball. That gives them instant credibility with recruits. USF has the luxury of being located in a high school football hotbed. I know there are some very good teams in North Carolina, but even then, the best players leave state or have UNC, NCSU, Duke, and ECU to choose from. They also have Clemson and USC down the road. Kids in Florida have UF, FSU and Miami in state, not nearly the number of teams that kids here have to choose from.
With regards to kids picking UNCC over App and Wofford, that makes more sense than you might think. Those three schools have very little in common, and will be attractive to different kinds of kids, not to mention that some kids don't care how good their team is, they just want to start right away. UNCC is an urban school in a big city. App State is a school 2+ hours from the nearest big city, on top of a mountain. Plenty of people don't want to go to school in the cold or be that far from the city setting they are used to. Not to mention, UNCC starters in many cases would be 2 or 3 years from starting there. Wofford is about the antithesis of UNCC. It is almost 100% white and a large number of students there come from wealthy families. I know UNCC has a good engineering program, but as a whole Wofford is a much, much harder school. It's a lot harder to hide or skirt by in a class with 10 kids than it is in a big lecture class. If I played offense, and was anything other than a big running back, I wouldn't even consider Wofford since they run a triple option, and never pass the ball.
Charlotte can succeed, but it's not as easy as snapping your fingers. If it was, I'm sure UNC would have already done it.
ECU has spoken up on behalf on Charlotte & App for sometime in C-USA meetings. The two schools most opposed to them joining were SMU & Memphis. Houston was opposed but not as vocal.
6:39 you know nothing about Charlotte's academics.....that is clear....much more valuable degree than Wofford's.
Charlotte will be FBS in WAYYYYY less than 10 years
anon 649 - I guess those teams still hold a grudge from us consistently finishing ahead of them in the conference each year! heeheehee.
anon 639 - You oughta look back and read all the naysayer comments that every new FBS program had to tolerate. South Florida was especially ridiculed for being a commuter school, too much competition, etc. UAB was another former conference mate that started a program without the university imploding. The quality of education comments were kind of ignorant and perhaps a little bit racist. The quality & number of advanced degrees at the masters/doctorate level is pretty impressive for a school our size. Nothing out of the ordinary for most large universities with high-level football.
Talk about 3 steps back for ECU...
6:52 Not so. My wife is a graduate of UNCC. She is over an organization of 6,000 people in New Jersey. She does quite well for herself. She also turned down a very very lucrative position in a western state.
He said they'd love to consider App now, and Charlotte a few years down the road. Its at the 21:45 mark of his interview.
8:49
I'm sorry but your comments are off base. Your Charlotte student sample size must be completely off base as well. I have friends working in NYC, Chicago, California, and everywhere in between. I even have some friends who are in places like Dubai. There UNC Charlotte degree's have served them very well. I also know very few Charlotte grads "selling cell phones", even in this non-entry level economy.
I'm excited about the possibilities of playing ECU again. To the commenter who said ECU "takes 3 steps back" - CUSA is a semi-relevant football conference and the Alliance conf. will be no different. In basketball it is significantly less relevant than the A10. I wouldn't call joining anything with Charlotte (a former conference mate, mind you) "3 steps back".
Charlotte, ECU, and ASU in a conference together would make for some fun trips on Saturday.
UNCC is not a consideration this go around. It will take 3 years minimum to create a decent FCS team, and that is a decent team, not a national championship contender. Then it will take two more years for FBS transition. Thats five years, and five years down the road, this conglomeration may not even exist.
Anon 10:50
Terry didn't pause when he said App and Charlotte. He means BOTH App and Charlotte could be considered later.
The average UNCC grad makes almost $15,000 a year more than the average App grad. UNCC is ranked 6th in the state in average salary. App is 18th. ECU is 12th.
The average uncc grad is 30 something years old, and retraining for a second career.
The trolls are pathetic. Charlotte is a sleeping giant of a program that will one day get going. That said, hard to be proud of program with such idiots as Judy Rose and Dubois on the bridge. Those two would make excellent cruise ship captains in Italy.
Charlotte must first start playing football and win. yes some schools have gotten their programs up and running in a short time you may/can too. But big city may not equal big college football. Also check Charlotte's history and is what N.C. school pulled you guys up from C.College ranks before you throw them under the bus
1st pot, 5:32 PM: Which sport? Bet you football blows past hoops in 4 years.
Chancellor Ballard was being polite to a specific question posed by a Charlotte reporter. The merged CUSA league begins in 2013. UNC Charlotte has yet to to field a team ready for competition. App. State has has some success on the 1AA level and is positioned for consideration in the Sunbelt Conference depending on which teams are plucked from that league this year to fill this new combined league. Old Dominion is similarly positiined as a new program in Tidewater Virginia. No doubt the landscape of college football is changing dramatically, with more changes ahead. If, as expected the BCS automatic bids are eliminated in 2014 -- the reason for teams to be in far-fetched leagues like the Big East in a desperate attempt to have access to a automatic BCS bid is eliminated. ---- And a shakeup migration will begin again. While its to take a snap shot in time and "dream," the reality is, things will look very different in 2 years.
I have degrees from both ASU and Charlotte. I liked them both, but ASU is the better school hands down. And, by the way, ASU is the ONLY NC University to win an NCAA Football Championship at ANY Level.
There are 5 FCS schools in the east that are basically FBS in everything but name and scholarships right now: App St, Georgia Southern, James Madison, Old Dominion, and Delaware. They have the fan support, facilities, and on-field performance to compete with the FBS non-AQs any day; they just have no place to go geographically. And I think Charlotte will be in that same place in a few years. Two more, Georgia State and Liberty, have delusions of this as well, but aren't quite there yet.
East Carolina, Marshall, Temple, and UAB are geographic outcasts from this new mega-conference. The best option for all would be for these four schools to unite with these 5 (or 8 counting UNCC, GaSt, and LU) FCS powers to form a new conference that would, in my opinion, become the dominate non-AQ conference in a few years. ECU and Marshall fans would probably view it as a step back (so would UAB and Temple fans if they had any), but it really would only a step back for a few tears and us the most sensible option.
Add non-football VCU and George Mason and it ain't a bad basketball conference either.
8:44......unless you majored in ski resort management, no way is Ap State the better school.I know first hand that some Ap students have been told by their Advisers AT APP to atleast go to Charlotte for grad school because the degrees there are more "valued" in the work force, so I call BS on that.
8:45......again, spew that BS somewhere else. BoA has more Charlotte alum at all levels than any other college, and its not even close. Also, Joe Price former longtime BoA Exec is a Charlotte grad and HUGE 49ers fans/season ticket holder.
8:09.....u not not of which you speak. Assuming you're speaking of Chapel Hill College. If so, Chapel Hill fought to CLOSE the doors of Charlotte College. Bonnie Cone and others fought to keep them open and eventually grew the school to the point that it agreed to merge with the UNC System (UNC-CH, NCSU and UNCG) in '63.
know
To whoever said Davidson is an adult daycare - thats ridiculous. I know we (Charlotte alums) don't like Davidson at all, but your statements are completely off base and I'm not going to support you saying things like that to make our student body/alums get grouped into the "uninformed" category. Davidson is an extremely difficult institution to get in to and many of their graduates leave and get great jobs and or go to very well known graduate programs. I don't like them at all, but I know what they're all about.
To the person who went to both Charlotte and App. I ask - did you get your undergrad at App and Grad at Charlotte? If so, you would think App is a "better school" or "better experience". Most graduate students feel that way about there undergrad as compared to their grad. This is because during your 4 year tenure at that institution you grow and develop so much as a person that you identify best with that institution and those people. I know this first hand.
All this arguing between APP, ECU, and Charlotte folks has me thinking this conference would be 10x better with all 3 in it. It is clear that there is a lot of rivalry potential.
I actually know more UNC-Chapel Hill grads who sell cell phones than UNC-Charlotte grads.
.....and Charlotte is ahead of all those others and as pointed out previously we are well ahead of most (including ASU and UNC-CH) in average salary.....and no its not because of this BS about "older" students either.
All I can add to this nonsense is:
Go Niners. By the way, I have two degrees from UNCC and satisfied with how they're doing academically. UNCC will be the largest school in the state within 10 years, let's wait and fight about who's number one then. Lastly, I hate, hate, hate the A10. Philly, NYC schools? Who cares.
7:22 AM Anon.
Hmmm. How is it that I have that garbage ECU degree and I was a VP at said bank. Trust me, if I caught you throwing any of those resumes in the trash, I would have your job right there along with them. All of those schools are good schools with educated and versed alumni.
On football, I hope they do join. That at least would help each school combat the ACC crowd we have to deal with.
"All this arguing between APP, ECU, and Charlotte folks has me thinking this conference would be 10x better with all 3 in it. It is clear that there is a lot of rivalry potential."
Hit the nail on the head
Not sure where these comments about UNCC being a better school than Wofford came from. ANY student at Wofford would be accepted at UNCC. On average, a large number of students at UNCC would not be accepted at Wofford. Don't believe me??? Average SAT at UNCC.....1,056..average SAT at Wofford 1,261. That is not even close. As for other metrics, Wofford sends a larger portion of graduates to graduate school, has smaller class sizes, and better financial resources. Not sure who came up with this comparison but, you may want to pick a fight you can win. If AVP boy wants to throw away resumes from a school like that, he won't make VP anytime soon.
why not a new league centered on VA, TN, NC, GA, SC, WV
What about Charlotte, ECU, ASU, Chattanooga, Georgia Southern, Old Dominion, George Mason, Marshall, Coastal Carolina, James Madison
Or extend a little further and try and get schools like alabama-birmingham and southern miss
In basketball add Davidson, Richmond and College of Charleston
Maybe there are a couple others in the region we could add to this.
I like regional rivalries. We could actually drive and see some games. We blew our chance at the big stage by taking this long to get football. And a conference USA that extends from one coast to the other is a horrible idea.
jen cooper - are you going to make me do this AGAIN?
One more time, for the uninitiated and amnesia victims...
-Melvin Watkins, 2 NCAA tourneys
-Bobby Lutz, 5 postseason tourneys
-Jeremy Gunn, soccer nat'l title game
-last 3 golf coaches, 5 NCAA tourneys
-last 4 women's hoops coaches, 3 postseason tourneys
Who are these people and what do they have in common?
They are all Charlotte 49ers coachs. All of them were hired by Judy Rose.
She is not an idiot.
You people are basing your name-calling of our AD on the fact that the men's hoops team hasn't been to a postseason tournament in 5 years. Of course, out of the other side of your mouth, you insist that the current men's hoops coach is a doomed, lifelong failure because the team hasn't made a tournament and you want the coach that didn't make any postseason tourneys the last 5 years back.
Y'all crack me up.
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