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Topic: Rising South

Topic: Rising South

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Mike Johnson
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Member Since: 11/11/2004
Location: North Canton, OH
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Rising South

Posted: 10/12/2014 10:15:49 AM

MAC schools are located in states with populations that are stagnant or low growth.

By contrast the South continues to grow robustly. And it just so happens that southern states, in particular FL,GA and TX, are growing their 1-A/FBS football programs. FIU, FAU, USF, GA State, GA Southern, TX-San Antonio, TX State all have joined the FBS ranks.

Some high school players in those southern states will continue choosing to play far from home. But most? It seems reasonable to expect that most will want to play close to home. For MAC schools, that expectation could lead to an even greater challenge to bring in the quality players needed to compete more effectively against non-MAC opponents.

As Jeff McKinney pointed out yesterday during a tailgate chat, even Virginia's Old Dominion has risen remarkably fast. Ditto Alabama's South Alabama.

Even the Big 10/14 soon could find it increasingly difficult to persuade high school standouts in southern states to venture north to Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, etc.

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TWT
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/12/2014 11:28:05 AM

I checked Charlotte's recruiting class the other day and found some of their commits had MAC West offers. The new schools in the South will limit the amount of FBS level players a MAC school can successfully land from Florida and Georgia. That is why winning the in-state MAC recruiting battles is more important than ever and that is what we are doing with Solich. Marshall is going to be the school the most impacted because of their reliance on GA, NC, VA and FL for players. Old Dominion is moving so fast they are getting kids over Virginia and Wake Forest to stay home at Virginia Beach. MAC schools do play the Big Ten a lot which should help recruiting NJ and MD now those are Big Ten states. It may be recruiting suicide for Ohio to leave the MAC for the AAC and give up the strong in-state presence. Ouellette's family in Western Ohio can watch him play almost everywhere on the road in the MAC within a few hour drive.

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OhioCatFan
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Location: Athens, OH
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/12/2014 3:56:42 PM

Uncle Wes wrote:

. . . It may be recruiting suicide for Ohio to leave the MAC for the AAC and give up the strong in-state presence. Ouellette's family in Western Ohio can watch him play almost everywhere on the road in the MAC within a few hour drive.

A does not follow B. What difference does it make what conference OHIO is in in terms of recruiting the Buckeye State? Ouellette wouldn't have come here if his family couldn't see him play in as many games close to their home? I doubt that was a factor at all. The only possible difference I could see is that if we were in a conference with fewer Ohio schools we might have more separation and actually recruit the state better.

The only BLSS Certified Hypocrite on BA

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BobcatSports
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/12/2014 4:03:00 PM

Really Wes suicidal for OHIO to leave the MAC for the AAC? OHIO leaving for any other conference is "duh"lose-tional. We ain't going anywhere!

Pataskala
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/12/2014 6:27:50 PM

The Dispatch had an article (I think it was part of a series) on recruiting last week. One thing they mentioned is that elite QBs tend to stay near home, so a lot of schools that aren't nearby don't bother with them much. I think that's why the two- or three-star QBs usually wind up so far away from home; the nearby schools won't have a slot for them. The same didn't hold true for RBs. As I remember, the average distance from home for an elite QB was about 350 miles while it was more than 500 miles for a RB. I couldn't find the article online today in the Dispatch's archives.

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GoCats105
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Location: Seattle, WA
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 7:43:08 AM

It's not like this is new information. There's a reason that the national championship has been won by a southern school every single year since 2005. If we want to get real technical, cold weather schools have won only two national titles since the turn of the century (if you count Oklahoma as a cold weather school in 2000 and Ohio State in 2002). But it isn't until recently that an impact has been made at the smaller schools.

Personally I think UTSA is on the brink of becoming the next great college football team. There's a lot to like about that program right now. I don't know why people are so shocked about Mississippi State and Ole Miss being this good. Literally every other team in the SEC was replacing their starting QB except Auburn. The two Mississippi schools have stockpiled talent over the past 2-3 years and are now experienced.

Ohio69
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 8:31:40 AM

Mike Johnson wrote:

Agree with this post. I figure there will be far less questioning of spending on football and athletics in general at the Southern schools. If Arkansas State, North Texas, Charlotte, Old Dominion and etc. have the same facilities and same/better crowds than the MAC, why would a kid leave the region?

Last Edited: 10/13/2014 8:32:08 AM by Ohio69

Can somebody hit a pull up jumper for me?.....

SouthernCat
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 9:34:21 AM

Ohio69 wrote:

Mike Johnson wrote:

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=2054...

Charlotte has nice facilities and the base to expand their stadium as needed.

OU_Country
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 9:42:09 AM

SouthernCat wrote:

Ohio69 wrote:

Mike Johnson wrote:

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=2054...

Charlotte has nice facilities and the base to expand their stadium as needed.

That is quite a nice looking stadium and surrounding area!

cc-cat
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 9:55:21 AM

SouthernCat wrote:

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=2054...

Charlotte has nice facilities and the base to expand their stadium as needed.

And it helps to have big money on hand:

Richardson Field and every third building is named after a Belk

GoCats105
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 10:13:57 AM

SouthernCat wrote:

Ohio69 wrote:

Mike Johnson wrote:

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=2054...

Charlotte has nice facilities and the base to expand their stadium as needed.

Color me impressed. It looks like they built that with the idea that if the program grows, the stadium can be expanded. I like it a lot.

The capacity is only listed at 15,314. It looks bigger than that. I would imagine expansion will definitely happen at some point.

Last Edited: 10/13/2014 10:19:53 AM by GoCats105

Jeff McKinney
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 2:02:34 PM

The reasons for the ascendancy of Southern football:

* The end of segregation around 1970. Black players who used to come up to Michigan State, Ohio State, Syracuse, etc., are now staying in their own footprint.
* Population trends. Growth of population in the South due to climate and economics. Larger pool of talent to choose from.
* Climate.
* Money available for development. Hard for the Rust Belt to compete with growing, progressive areas of the South. Corporate presence has exploded in the South since the 1960s.
* Local recruiting base is the best in the nation. Some interesting data was put out recently regarding percentage of HS seniors going on to play different levels of college football. At the top of this list for HS seniors going on to play Div. I football were states like Florida, Georgia, Texas, Mississippi. Up north, Ohio and Pennsylvania are still pretty competitive with these southern states, but the figures for states like Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, etc. are demoralizing. The Upper Midwest excels in I-AA, Div. II and Div. III football. Among the reasons is that the local talent base there fits in these divisions rather than Div. I.
* The culture of the South reveres football. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, football is very big but it's not on the level of a quasi-religion like in the South.

Do you notice that schools in the South can build a competitive Div. I program--from scratch--in about three or four years? That's astonishing. Would NOT happen up north. And you don't see it happening.

I don't see any chance that these trends will be reversed in the future. If anything, the disparity between North and South will grow larger.

TWT
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/13/2014 5:43:07 PM

Jeff McKinney wrote:

* Money available for development. Hard for the Rust Belt to compete with growing, progressive areas of the South. Corporate presence has exploded in the South since the 1960s.

The history behind that explosion stems from the aftermath of reconstruction and southern democrats getting a lot of infrastructure built and particularly the decision to put the majority of the military bases in the South. With the rise of the defense industrial complex after WWII and the telecom boom that is where the corporate presence increased. The other big economic factor was the transition to a service economy with many of those new jobs in the South. Also Southern Pride led to better historical preservation of sites by state legislatures. Midwest cities are coming back but progress is slow always in gentrification. If it takes 100 years to build city to prominence it can take 100 years to bring it back.

Last Edited: 10/13/2014 5:43:59 PM by TWT

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SouthernCat
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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/14/2014 8:50:31 AM

cc cat wrote:

SouthernCat wrote:

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=2054...

Charlotte has nice facilities and the base to expand their stadium as needed.

And it helps to have big money on hand:

Richardson Field and every third building is named after a Belk

My goal is to find a collegiate track in North Carolina not named after Irwin Belk. I've been pretty unsuccessful.

cc-cat
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Location: matthews, NC
Post Count: 3,947

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RE: Rising South

Posted: 10/14/2014 11:04:01 AM

SouthernCat wrote:

cc cat wrote:

SouthernCat wrote:

http://www.charlotte49ers.com/PhotoAlbum.dbml?ATCLID=2054...

Charlotte has nice facilities and the base to expand their stadium as needed.

And it helps to have big money on hand:

Richardson Field and every third building is named after a Belk

My goal is to find a collegiate track in North Carolina not named after Irwin Belk. I've been pretty unsuccessful.

They are everywhere - but any idea why Bowling Green?

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