Really? This surprises me. They just added Oral Roberts, which doesn't have football, but they have had some good D1 basketball teams. I would expect that if they add another school, especially a D2 school that's moving up, they would want a football school.
I think that's the idea. HBU has announced plans to add football in the near future. I think it then becomes inevitable that they join the Southland. The SLC is looking to add teams in all sports and HBU is looking to get out of the awful Great West Conference.
HBU is not official right now. There is a visit scheduled on November 9, after which the SLC will make a decision.
My kats are going to beat the hell out of your kats!!! haha actually probably not but I will consider going to the game to watch my team get humiliated.
The Southland is going to be at HBU on the 9th, and I am not exactly sure if that will help or hurt us. Our gym is poor, and that is the "main" athletic facility on campus. Soccer field is good to ok, and the baseball field is probably below average (actual field is nice, but facility poor). The campus as a whole has made several improvements over the past few years, just not to most athletic facilities, which doesn't make sense to me. There has long been talks of the school buying back the leases which we own that are for the land adjacent to 59 (between Fondren and Beechnut), which is supposedly in process, but I have no idea. The $30 million dollar number has been thrown around as a potential cost to build a new gym/athletic facility. In case you don't know, HBU's President is Robert Sloan, formerly of Baylor. I do believe that he has the desire and ability to raise money for the athletic program, and it was on his watch that we made the move back to NCAA D1 athletics.
I think the Southland may put pressure on HBU to work to improve their facilities in the near future, but I don't think that will keep them out of the league. There are a lot of poor athletic facilities in the conference. I can't imagine that would preclude them from joining.
Where would HBU play football? Serious question because I don't know the answer. Are they looking to build or rent? TSU is going to be playing at the new Dynamo stadium. I doubt they'd be willing to take on a 3rd tennant.
Sheesh, finally someone responds to my subtle SWT trash talk! I didn't think it would be that hard to stir the pot just a little. I guess it's because no one reads this thread. Come on, I know there are some SWT alum here. DD? Googrux? Cannonball? What say you? I'm calling you out! Back away from the UT threads and come represent your REAL school!
Ya I don't understand all the UT fans that go to State... I cheer for Houston and State because my whole family went to Houston and I'm from there and State because that's where I sometimes go to class. Screw Austin and screw the longhorns is how I feel. But our team is pretty garbage at football. Basketball and baseball we will woop your ass though .
Basketball? When was the last time SWT was good at basketball? Have you missed the last decades worth of 20-win seasons from SHSU?
Last year ya'll were the 3 seed we were the 4 going into the Southland tournament, not a huge difference. I have no idea how many seniors we graduated though.
Do all the SWT teams get the same treatment in regards to being eligible for titles in the other sports or was it just football?
Speaking of basketball, I hope Willie Fritz hangs around for a few years like Bob Marlin did. The guys wins where ever he goes and if (when) Sam does well in the playoffs, he's probably going to get some attention from the bigger schools. I just hope he doesn't leave for a school that's about the same size as Sam like Marlin did (ULL). Still trying to figure that one out. He would have been the perfect fit at UH.
I, for the life of me, still don't know what Marlin was thinking. I can only figure he might have burned some bridges at Sam when he was being looked at for the UH job and others. Maybe they wanted a commitment from him he wasn't willing to give. Other than that, ULL? Seriously, Billy? Stay in Huntsville for another year and go back to the tournament. Then get that bigger job. ULL?
I think two things were at play for Marlin when he decided to leave. For one, he saw how much talent was leaving campus after that NCAA tournament run. Last year with the talent that remained (basically Gilberto Clavell and a bunch of mismatched pieces), they went 18-13 and never really settled on a rotation. He knew it was going to be at least another few years before this team was ready to be anywhere near that good again. The other thing was that ULL, although not much bigger in terms of program size and stature, was offering some things Sam couldn't and I'm not just talking about money (although he did get a nice raise). ULL plays in a nicer building (the Cajundome) and sells more tickets. Marlin was always outspoken about how frustrating it was that even his best teams at Sam had trouble drawing more than 1,000 people. ULL isn't exactly Duke in terms of selling out their building, but they're better. The other thing was a full coaching staff. During his time at Sam, Marlin was always working with two full-time assistants and a grad assistant. There simply wasn't enough money in the budget to hire a third full-time assistant. ULL gave him an opportunity to have three full-time assistants plus the grad assistant(s). I was disappointed when Marlin left not only because Sam was losing him, but also because it wasn't for a bigger job. But I really couldn't blame him for leaving. He had accomplished everything there is to reasonably accomplish at Sam. It was time to move on.
i want to say just football since they are already division 1 in the other sports (well, baseball and basketball), but i'm not 100% positive. the reason they are ineligible for football is because the roster limits are higher in division 1, so as they are moving up, they were allowed to add more players to the roster this year. and ima, i was taking a hiatus from posting here for a while, so i was only reading. i'll be there on the 19th to laugh at the cubkitties as we ruin your perfect season. hehehe.
SHSU beats Southeastern Louisiana 38-9. Just looking at the game summary, the Kats didn't appear to be in top form and yet this was a comfortable win. In other action, Central Arkansas beat Northwestern State 45-20, so unless the tiebreaker is something other than head-to-head results, that should wrap up the SLC title for SHSU. NSU can no longer catch the Kats, even with a win over them next week. UCA only has one loss, but the best they can do is tie the Bearkats conference record and they lost to them earlier this season.
Appears that all they've technically done is clinch a share of the title. Though, with their record they're all but guaranteed a playoff spot. Looks like it was a strange day. They ran well, but Flanders only had 14 yards in 18 carries.
