SoCon Should Limit "Titles" to its True Members

It is stunning just how inept the Southern Conference has looked in the last year. In the 80s, it was considered the best football conference in The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-IAA. In the 90s, it was considered at least among the best, even after Marshall (or Marsha to their SoCon opponents) left for Division I.

Even after the name change to FCS, it has battled the Colonial Athletic Association for football supremacy. Now, it looks a lot more like the old SAC-8 from NAIA. And it's not just because Appalachian State and Georgia Southern are leaving.

It starts with that, in a sense, because SoCon leaders seemed under-prepared to deal with those inevitable departures. Conference officials came across as scrambling, in spite of the annual signs that those departures were a matter of "When" rather than "If".

This fall, the conference website actually listed these teams in its preseason rankings when they're not even eligible to win the league title! As noted by Jeff Hartsell of the Charleston Post and Courier, this was a bone-headed move of monumental proportions.

(I must say that I am rather please with the way Furman handled the preseason listings on its website furmanpaladins.com. See GSU or AppSt anywhere?).

But as long as we're on the subject, why is the Conference allowing Elon and Davidson to continue competing for titles?

GSU and ASU cannot--at least in football--because of a scholarship discrepancy as they move to FBS. To me, none of these teams should be eligible for a SoCon title, much less a mention on the league's preseason rankings. They shouldn't even be on the ballot.

There are probably a thousand reasons why the league is treating these teams as "equals" in spite of their departure, but none of those reasons make it right.

Sure, everyone knew that the two "big boys" would eventually take this route. But why should the league offer a chance at a championship to two teams that just chose to leave? Especially Davidson, who essentially blindsided the league office with their decision?

The SoCon coddled the Wildcats for years while they couldn't field a reasonably competitive football team. Then, they went out and got more non-football schools in an effort to make them feel that they were pretty enough, smart enough, and doggone it people liked them. Elon was a virtual unknown when the league took a chance and opened the door for them to make the move to competitive FCS football.

Those schools owe nothing to the SoCon for this; but the SoCon owes nothing to them, either. The league needs to move right now to re-brand and boost the schools that chose to stay or that have accepted the invitation to enter/return.

In fact, if I was John Iamarino, I would get Mercer, VMI, and East Tennessee onto the SoCon site as soon as possible. Why not list them in the standings as "ineligible" or "future" members? Play with the cards you're dealt, stop worrying about the discarded ones.

Sour grapes, here? Absolutely. If you don't want to be in the league, then don't let the door hit you...and  go through it as soon as possible. Teams have every right to do what's best for their athletic programs and move on to new territory. But conferences have an obligation to make the teams that stay their first and foremost priority.

To me, that means reserving championships for teams that will continue to be a part of the Southern Conference. The sooner they let go of the past, the better prepared the league will be for the future.

No matter what the logic or practical reasons, it will stink on ice if one of these teams gets a hollow trophy as a reward on their way out the door.

SoCon Becomes the Big East--Only Worse

We should have seen it coming. That's what Southern Conference fans are saying right now. It's too bad that the conference leadership isn't saying the same thing, and that they weren't paying attention prior to the crash.

There are two kinds of car accidents. The first is the one where you get blindsided, where the unexpected happens. A tire blows out, the brakes fail, or the car stalls on the railroad tracks. You can't see any of that coming, unless you're watching an old Abbot and Costello movie.

Then there's the second kind. You pull out without looking. You weren't paying attention. You saw the flashing lights and safety bars come down across the tracks, but you decided to weave through them before the train arrived. If you get hit in those circumstances, you've only got one person to blame.

Southern Conference commishioner John Iamarino sounds like an idealist caught off-guard by the freight train when he talks about the demise of the Southern Conference. Georgia Southern, Appalachian State, College of Charleston, Davidson, and Elon just ran him over like Denzel Washington in that ridiculous Unstoppable movie.

But Iamarino has no one to blame for himself, because he had plenty of warning that this train was coming. He simply chose to keep driving in spite of the flashing lights. This was no blindside. This was inevitable, and he did little or nothing to prepare for impact.

Georgia Southern and Appalachian State have talked for years about moving to the FBS. In fact, this has been the goal of our "friends" from Statesboro for more than 20 years, from the time they entered the SoCon. It wasn't new, and it wasn't news. The train was coming.

Davidson has talked for several years about getting into a stronger basketball league. If those three dominoes topple, then it would be inevitable that others would fall. So there really is no case for being surprised by College of Charleston or Elon.

Iamarino seemed to believe that geography, academic commitment and tradition would save the SoCon. In other words, he seemed to be mentally on a beach in Maui while his conference was turning into downtown Detroit.

If those things couldn't preserve the Big East or the Big 12 or the Big 10 as we know it, then why would we be foolish enough to think they would save the Southern Conference? No league values tradition more than the Big 10, and even they've abandoned that idealism. Could the FCS really be immune to the big money-grab?

The Commissioner and his people should have seen it, but they just weren't looking. If the departures were inevitable, he needed to spend his time scouring the southeast to pull in schools and athletic departments that could match what was leaving.

Instead, the SoCon is left with East Tennessee State and VMI, both of whom previously departed the conference. ETSU doesn't have a football team (yet) and they've never had a real football stadium. Just ask anyone who ever played in the "Mini-Dome".

VMI hasn't had a winning season in football in 32 years.

Mercer is a formidable candidate, but they are entering their first season of football and have yet to clearly define when they will begin scholarship football. There is now talk of UNC-Asheville as a basketball power to replace Davidson. Really? Are they even in the same neighborhood?

At the least, Iamarino should be booking a flight to Nashville and showing up at Belmont's door with flowers, nylons and a box of chocolates. This isn't about dignity anymore, but about survival.

The Commish can talk all he wants to about idealism in college athletics, but it doesn't change the fact that he's living in a Fool's Paradise. It's just no longer a reality, and perhaps it never was.

The train that hit the SoCon has been coming down the tracks for a long time, and Iamarino wasn't looking. He couldn't stop it, but he surely could've taken steps to minimize the damage. Instead, he chose to ignore the warnings.

Now, he is left to clean up the mess of the accident, and he has no one but himself to blame. But the rest of the schools and their fans are the ones who will suffer.