Asun conference football6/21/2023 ![]() ![]() Also in the league is one of the Gamecocks' oldest rivals in North Alabama, located just 146 miles away in Florence. JSU's new conference home features three schools closer than the nearest in the OVC, including Kennesaw State, which is just 85 miles from JSU's campus. The move to the ASUN is one that will allow the Gamecocks a better geographic fit than in the Ohio Valley Conference, where JSU is over 209 miles south of the closest school. The plan has worked and we are thankful for the visionary leadership of our Council to prioritize the student-athlete experience and the institutional value of being a member of the ASUN." The ASUN Presidents' Council set this process in place years ago when the Council members challenged the conference to be a great destination, and that would attract new member interest. ![]() To know that these three institutions have evaluated their options, and knowing each had multiple choices for conference affiliation and that they chose the ASUN is a great achievement. The ASUN works extremely hard to build options. Each institution owes it to the student body, the athletic department and the university community as a whole to do what is best for the university. Every institution will select the best option for conference affiliation from the available options. "The ASUN spent two years examining and defining its advantages and then presenting interested candidates with the option to join. "When a conference embarks on a mission to strengthen itself through expansion, it has to present a case for why membership with one conference would be more beneficial to the institution than membership in its current conference," ASUN Commissioner Ted Gumbart said. With the addition of Central Arkansas, Eastern Kentucky and Jacksonville State, the ASUN Conference expands its geographic footprint to seven states (Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia) and now features 12 of the top-80 media markets in the nation and seven of the top-50. When learning of the ASUN's plan to start football and the vision of Commissioner Ted Gumbart and the ASUN President's Council to build the premiere football conference in the FCS from the ground up, that was an opportunity that we as a University and Athletics Department wanted to be a part of." "Last fall, the ASUN Conference reached out to us to gauge Jacksonville State's interest in returning to the league that was our first conference home when we moved to Division I in 1995. ![]() "What a great day for Jacksonville State University and Gamecock Athletics," JSU Athletics Director Greg Seitz said. It will make the ASUN the 15 NCAA Division I conference to sponsor FCS Football. The addition of football gives the league something it didn't have when JSU left to join the OVC in 2003, allowing the Gamecocks to play football in the same conference as its other sports. The ASUN also announced its plans to add FCS football to the league's list of sponsored sports for the first time in the conference's 43-year history. "When the opportunity to discuss renewing our relationship with the ASUN Conference was presented to us, it was one we definitely were eager to explore, and we could not be more thrilled that it worked out the way it has and that Jacksonville State University will rejoin the conference that was so instrumental in our move to Division I over 25 years ago." "This is an exciting day for Jacksonville State University, for our student-athletes, for our alumni and for our fans," Jacksonville State President Dr, Don Killingsworth said. The ASUN announced on Friday an expansion that includes JSU, Eastern Kentucky and Central Arkansas and brings the league's membership to 12 teams. The Gamecocks will rejoin the ASUN - the league that was its first Division I conference home - after an 18-year stay in the Ohio Valley Conference that produced some of the most decorated years in JSU's storied history. Jacksonville State will bring its conference affiliation closer to home, with the Gamecocks announcing that the University will join the ASUN Conference beginning with the 2021-22 athletics season. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |