Nearly five years after Longwood University made the jump from Division II to Division I athletics, the Lancers are still searching for a league to call their own. However, with the appointment of Brig. Gen. Patrick Finnegan as the 25th president of Longwood, coupled with the highly debatable NCAA tournament snub of Longwood's softball team last spring, a new pressure has been applied to the hunt for an athletic conference.
Last fall, the Lancers softball team finished with a 37-13 record including notable wins over #8 Georgia, #14 Hawaii, and a 13-5 record in road games. The season resulted in a Ratings Power Index (RPI), or overall season rating based on wins and strength of schedule, of 45 out of 289 teams. While the NCAA tournament takes the 64 best teams, members of the Longwood community believe that Longwood was left out due to their lack of a conference affiliation.
Longwood has decided it is time to respond. A push has been made by Longwood's athletics staff, the Lancer Lunatics (a student group promoting Longwood athletic events) and Finnegan to try and find a conference to call home. In the past three years, the Lancers have held a 40-44-3 record against the Big South conference, making it the goal of Longwood's conference pursuit. Longwood University's Director of Athletics Troy Austin stated, "I would say about 85 to 90 percent of our effort is devoted to the Big South, but there are still other conferences of our size that may not be as great a fit, but do present an opportunity, that I continue to reach out to their commissioners."
A conference would serve multiple benefits, first and foremost being the ability to compete for conference championships, as well as having conference standings to gauge success. Many conference affiliations also allow for an automatic NCAA tournament qualifying bid. "In the past, we've talked to the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, we've talked to the North East Conference, we've talked to the Atlantic Sun Conference," said Austin. "They are good fits for us because they have automatic bids to the NCAA tournament, but some may stretch us a bit in terms of distance of travel."
Furthermore, the ability to recruit would be enhanced with a conference in tow. Mike Gillian, head coach of Longwood's men's basketball team, said, "As you continue to get better you want to go after better players, better athletes, and go into a pool that is the Big South, the CAA, the Atlantic 10, and the first thing that those people use against you in the recruiting process is ‘They're not in the league, they're an independent'."
Finally, a bid to the Big South could potentially increase the motivation among student athletes to perform better, in both games and the classroom. When asked on his views of the Big South in terms of motivation, Gillian responded, "The motivation? If anything, it's a carrot that you can dangle in front of everybody and say ‘Hey, here's another reason.' We have so many good reasons now why you should push yourselves to your maximum, when you put that one out there, that's one more thing to help push you along to achieve your ultimate goals."
As of right now, there is no definite timeline for a bid into the Big South Conference. "For me, I don't look at close or relative position. I kind of look at it as black or white, either we're in or we're not," said Austin. "I talk to a bunch of different athletic directors, the president talks to other presidents, and we get feedback on how they feel about Longwood and how they would want us in. Neither of us take it as a fact that we're definitely in or we're definitely going to stay out, and that's in dealing with a lot of conferences."
With the recent shuffle of large teams such as Syracuse, Pittsburgh, and Texas A&M into new conferences, Longwood hopes to slip into the Big South when the effects of the conference shake- up trickles down. "We have long ago deserved to be in there [the Big South], have done everything on our part," Gillian said. "Now it becomes up to us to continue to show all of those other institutions in the league and the other presidents of those institutions that we don't only deserve it, but we belong."
