September 1, 2015 is a day that will be remembered in Big South Conference history. Coastal Carolina University made their official announcement to accept a bid from the Sun Belt Conference to become their 12th member starting in the 2016-2017 school year; this decision will be finalized in 2017.
In this age of conference realignment in the NCAA, it’s questioned why a school would leave one conference to join another. “This decision was not a single sport decision,” says Karl Benson, the Sun Belt Conference commissioner.
It’s hard to tell how Longwood will come out of this due to its lack of a NCAA football team, but according to Troy Austin, the athletic director for Longwood, “[The Big South Conference] are technically split with regard to football and the rest of the conference sports.”
However, Troy also believes that “the energy of this conference will be men’s and women’s basketball.” With Longwood’s men’s basketball team making it to the conference semifinals for the first time last year, this focus on basketball could possibly benefit Longwood.
In a conversation with Kyle Kallander, the commissioner of the Big South Conference, Kallander says that he did not get a formal notification of the departure until an email was sent to him Monday, August 31. This was a day before the press conference saying Coastal Carolina was leaving, but Kallander says he had been aware of the discussions since April.
Coastal Carolina’s sudden departure leaves the Big South looking for ways to improve the conference with its biggest member leaving.
A large contribution that Coastal Carolina brought to the conference was their location for the conference basketball tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, as well as the title sponsor for the conference with VisitMyrtleBeach.com. However, last year might have been the last time.
A conference bylaw states that if a conference member leaves without proper notice, which is less than two years, it makes them ineligible to host a conference championship in that upcoming season. This school year, Coastal Carolina is slated to host five conference championships, leaving the conference to find a new location.
“We will be discussing that with membership over the next couple of weeks and make a decision at that point,” says Kallander.
So who will replace Coastal Carolina in the conference? The Big South has missed out on attempts to pull in schools like USC Upstate, so fans don’t know if any institution will come in to replace the void.
The first candidate may be the recently added Kennesaw State Owls. As of 2015, they are just in the conference as a football program.
“We don’t feel an urgent need to replace Coastal Carolina,” says Kallander. The conference currently has 10 members, and Kallander is content with that number. He adds, “We are always looking at the possibilities, and we always want to be proactive.”
With all the changes that are happening with NCAA Division I conferences, this causes concern for where the Big South will be in the upcoming years.
“I see us with more membership. I see us providing great athletic and academic opportunities for our student athletes,” says Kallander.
