GROWING DAY
ASUN set to expand membership by three during Friday morning announcement
The ASUN Conference is set to expand. League officials sent notice that there will be a “major announcement” Friday morning.
That announcement may be the worstkept secret in college sports — Central Arkansas, Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky are set to join the conference for the 2021 academic year.
The official word will be announced by ASUN commissioner Ted Gumbart at 11 a.m. The announcement will be streamed on ESPN+.
While the ASUN has been tight-lipped about the developments, the three schools expected to join the conference have all addressed it in one way or another.
Central Arkansas athletic director Brad Teague confirmed his university’s move to the Arkansas Democrat-gazette two weeks ago. Meanwhile, Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky were outed by accident earlier this week.
On Monday, the Eastern Kentucky athletic department accidentally posted the game plan for the three schools becoming official members of the ASUN beginning July 1. The athletic department has since deleted the webpage, but Kentucky Sports Radio captured a screen shot of the page and linked it with its story.
The addition of the three schools — Central Arkansas from the Southland Conference, and Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky from the Ohio Valley Conference — would give the ASUN 12 members. The move will allow the conference to break into two divisions for all sports and allow the programs to limit travel.
The biggest change may come on the football field.
The three new programs, along with Kennesaw State and North Alabama,
would give the ASUN everything it would need to form its own Football Championship Subdivision conference. Two other programs — Liberty and Stetson — also play football, though Liberty is playing in the Football Bowl Subdivision, while Stetson is part of the non-scholarship Pioneer Football League.
The question would be, will the ASUN try to create the football conference for 2021? In order to have an automatic bid to the FCS playoffs, a conference must have six programs. However, at this point, a sixth football program joining the ASUN does not appear imminent.
The Kennesaw State and North Alabama football programs are currently affiliated with the Big South Conference, which has an agreement with the ASUN that
any affiliated football-playing schools will have a place to play if needed.
If Central Arkansas, Jacksonville State and Eastern Kentucky follow that route, the Big South could quickly become one of the best conferences in FCS. Two other programs — Robert Morris and North Carolina A&T — have also announced they are joining the Big South. Robert Morris will play as a conference member in the upcoming spring schedule,
while North Carolina A&T will become an official member July 1.
If all the teams play as part of the Big South, it would give the conference four teams ranked in the top 25, based on last fall’s preseason poll. Kennesaw State was ranked 10th, with Central Arkansas 11th, North Carolina A&T 19th and Monmouth 23rd. Jacksonville State, Charleston Southern and Eastern Kentucky all received votes.