ODU looking to bail C-USA?

[GrayEagle]

On 3/5/2018 at 9:49 PM, Arkstfan said:

AState's priority is aligning with Alabama schools. It's our core recruiting base. We are 140 miles closer to Birmingham than Dallas and 50 miles closer to Florence, AL than Texarkana

I looked at last year's AState roster and found that there were only eight from Alabama as opposed to fourteen from Texas.  So it doesn't seem that distance is that large a factor.  In fact, if it were, wouldn't most of your out-of-state players be from Tennessee or Missouri?  I believe that there were only four from Tennessee and a couple from Missouri. 

As the only other FSB university in Arkansas, your core base is (and should be) Arkansas.  I didn't count them but you have a lot of players from your home state.  Certainly more than Alabama, Texas or any other state by far.

Location is not Arkansas State's forte.  The only close FBS school is Memphis.  Even the University of Arkansas is across the state with a detour through Little Rock.  So, whatever conference you're in, many of your nearest opponents aren't going to be.  Your attendance is good; seemingly regardless of the opponent.  You seem capable of going either east or west.  Unless interest wanes, I think that AState should just go with the flow.  Transportation costs could be a strong factor should you consider realigning or changing conferences.

[Arkstfan]

11 hours ago, GrayEagle said:

I looked at last year's AState roster and found that there were only eight from Alabama as opposed to fourteen from Texas.  So it doesn't seem that distance is that large a factor.  In fact, if it were, wouldn't most of your out-of-state players be from Tennessee or Missouri?  I believe that there were only four from Tennessee and a couple from Missouri. 

As the only other FSB university in Arkansas, your core base is (and should be) Arkansas.  I didn't count them but you have a lot of players from your home state.  Certainly more than Alabama, Texas or any other state by far.

Location is not Arkansas State's forte.  The only close FBS school is Memphis.  Even the University of Arkansas is across the state with a detour through Little Rock.  So, whatever conference you're in, many of your nearest opponents aren't going to be.  Your attendance is good; seemingly regardless of the opponent.  You seem capable of going either east or west.  Unless interest wanes, I think that AState should just go with the flow.  Transportation costs could be a strong factor should you consider realigning or changing conferences.

Anderson is going to Texas more and Alabama less but our best teams, the best players were from Alabama.

2012 team was 18 from Alabama, 6 from Texas. They went 10-3

The closest G5 is Memphis and the closest P5 is Ole Miss. Sort of like the South Alabama situation where the nearest P5 is LSU.

Edited March 12, 2018 by Arkstfan