The Big South Needs to Make a Western Pennsylvania Push
With the departure of Monmouth and Hampton, it may be time for the Big South to build around Robert Morris
The past couple weeks, talks of Monmouth and Hampton leaving for the Big South for the CAA have gained significant speed. The departures of both schools comes amid Kennesaw State and North Alabama’s departure to the upstart ASUN Conference.
Now the Big South is in limbo as they have only five football members, one below the number needed for FCS Playoff automatic qualifying status. Options are limited as now a move from schools in their geographic peer conferences like the Big South now seem like a lateral move.
The Big South can save its automatic spot in the playoffs by adding the NEC’s two Western Pennsylvania schools in Saint Francis and Duquesne, who are currently geographic outliers in the Northeast Conference. The closest football-playing NEC member to Duquesne and Saint Francis is over 300 miles away, while Robert Morris will lose the closest thing they have had to a travel partner in the Big South if Monmouth departs.
While Saint Francis is a full member of the Northeast Conference, they can house their Olympic sports in the Horizon League as Robert Morris does. The Horizon League is at an uneven 11 schools after UIC is expected to leave for the Missouri Valley Conference.
The pitch to bring Saint Francis and Duquesne to the Big South as football-only members is an easy one as all three schools are less than 100 miles apart from one another. Additionally, reuniting these regional rivalries figures to boost attendance figures for all three schools. Rivalries are key in a conference where the schools have limited histories against one another like in the Big South.
Travel for the schools is not ideal, but manageable as the furthest trip would be 654 miles to Charleston. However, The games against the other Western Pennsylvania schools offsets the trips to the Southern heart of the conference.
At this point in this realignment period, the Big South is one of four conferences fighting for their FCS football life, with the others being the Southland, ASUN, MEAC and OVC. The Big South Poaching from one of these conferences is unlikely as they are essentially lateral moves.
Their best chance at remaining above six football-playing schools is to create a Western Pennsylvania bloc. The move will create not only stability for both parties, but also provide Saint Francis and Duquesne better competition and more chances for at-large bids in the FCS playoffs. The Big South needs to act soon though, before they become a casualty of this round of realignment.