http://www.al.com/birminghamnews/stories/index.ssf?/base/sports/1200388539273030.xml&coll=2

It looks like they're talking very seriously about making the move. If they so move up the SBC would be the most logical place for them to go. Soon there will be enough teams for an ex-ASun football conference.

Be nice to split the Sun Belt in two divisions and have a championship game.

Finally UAB could have a rival!

Lm77 said

Soon there will be enough teams for an ex-ASun football conference.

yep…could even possibly add Samford to the mix at some point in time…

I think Samford just dropped basketball, so I doubt we will see football.

Troy and Jax State had what was arguably the most heated rivalry in college football through the '90s, but when Troy moved up, it just died.

UAB plays Jax State now.

Jax State hired Troy's former A.D. as a consultant to make I-A suggestions. It sounds like the coaches are stretching the I-A truth a bit. South Alabama can actually start a I-A team before Jax State because USA is starting from scratch (and has access to a decent size stadium). There is no moratorium for USA.

Jax State recruiters selling stadium upgrade, possible jump to I-A football

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

There's putting the cart before the horse and there's getting a stable full of horses to pull that cart. Jacksonville State University head football coach Jack Crowe and his assistants are working on the latter and in doing so, at least one recruit may have done the former.

Hoover High offensive lineman Matt Jones has committed to Jax State for next season, with the proviso that worries almost every Division I-AA coach: If an SEC or ACC team doesn't come in late and sweep him off his feet.

Jones told The Birmingham News that he was excited about Jacksonville's planned move from the Football Championship Subdivision - I-AA - to the Football Bowl Subdivision - I-A - in 2009. What the high school seniors have been told, Crowe said, is that there's a chance a planned stadium upgrade could be done by 2009 and the movers and shakers at JSU are very interested in leaving the FCS behind. The recruits aren't being promised certainty, he said.
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The possible move up to join the big boys, or at least the bigger boys such as Troy and Florida Atlantic and UAB, could happen, but not until 2011 at the earliest. The NCAA placed a four-year moratorium on new Division I-A football teams last year, just before the JSU board of trustees called for a study that could lead to such a move for the Gamecocks.

A report on the future of the football program is expected to be presented at the next board meeting in a couple of weeks.

"We're telling them that our board of trustees has made an application for Division I," Crowe said, "and playing in our upgraded stadium is part of it. The best projection for the stadium is that it could be done in 2009. I don't think anybody knows for sure, but that's what's been said (to recruits)."

A lot has been said about Jacksonville State making the move that Troy did and that South Alabama will in a couple of years. JSU football coaches are hearing about it, too, in living rooms across the state as they try to persuade youngsters and their families to join the Gamecocks.

"I just sat down with a kid," Crowe said Monday afternoon after leaving an East Alabama high school, "and he said it was between us and two Division I-A schools. He said the only reason he wouldn't go to Jacksonville State is that it's not Division (I-A).

"This was a highly recruited guy and it's down to Sun Belt and Conference USA schools and us. I gave him every reason to go to Jacksonville State and only one reason not to. That one - going to a Division (I-A) school - is a perception issue. You have to deal with perception the best way you can."

Crowe said he gets calls from recruits who chose a "bigger" school but in hindsight wish they had picked JSU. "Some have called and said, `I made a wrong decision.' They chose based on their perception and they were not happy with the reality of it."

The Jax State board may decide not to invest the extra money in moving away from the FCS, but the perception of a lot of interested parties is that the horses are ready to get hitched to that cart. News staff writer Mike Perrin covers state colleges. Write him at [email protected]. Check out Perrin's blog at Perrin's Press Box - al.com - al.com

BMarkey said

I think Samford just dropped basketball, so I doubt we will see football.

Troy and Jax State had what was arguably the most heated rivalry in college football through the '90s, but when Troy moved up, it just died.

UAB plays Jax State now.

Jax State hired Troy's former A.D. as a consultant to make I-A suggestions. It sounds like the coaches are stretching the I-A truth a bit. South Alabama can actually start a I-A team before Jax State because USA is starting from scratch (and has access to a decent size stadium). There is no moratorium for USA.

I actually know a guy that played football at Samford.  They haven't dropped basketball.  He says that they are much more of a basketball school then a football school.  In fact they just opened a new basketball arena this season.  They are moving to the Southern Conference though, which is extremely tough.  they'll be competing with App. State, Wofford, Georgia Southern, and Furman.  They won't be winning many football games any time soon.

BMarkey said

"I think Samford just dropped basketball…"

still going strong:

http://samfordsports.cstv.com/sports/m-baskbl/samf-m-baskbl-body.html

My mistake. Sorry.

I was thinking of Birmingham Southern, which did not drop basketball, but is downgrading to D-III. Its players were allowed to transfer to I-A schools without penalty.

BMarkey said

My mistake. Sorry.

I was thinking of Birmingham Southern, which did not drop basketball, but is downgrading to D-III. Its players were allowed to transfer to I-A schools without penalty.

the thing i dont get about DIII schools is that they say they dont give scholarships, but they have so many stipends, its like the same thing!?