‘Get to the other side.’ EKU’s first year in new conference brings challenges and rewards.

On a hot Tuesday evening in June, dozens of Eastern Kentucky University fans and alumni gathered inside a pizza joint in Lexington to hear from the school’s athletic director and multiple head coaches. This week’s event was one of many stops on EKU’s Elevate Eastern Caravan, a fan function giving fans across Kentucky a chance to mingle with the people running Colonels athletics.

This summer’s tour is the first iteration since Eastern Kentucky completed its first year in the ASUN Conference. After 73 years in the Ohio Valley Conference, EKU changed leagues before the 2021-22 school year.

In the midst of a rapidly changing collegiate athletics landscape, EKU Athletic Director Matt Roan emphasized the importance of making his program more visible — which included changing conferences.

“When you talk about NIL and when you talk about markets, you talk about visibility. You talk about the number of people who have an interest in your program and how you can leverage those things,” Roan said before listing major cities that ASUN schools reside next to. For the 2022-2023 school year, the ASUN has members in Kentucky, Florida, Arkansas, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee and North Carolina. Being in a conference that covers a majority of the South allows for athletes to play in a broader variety of environments.

As exciting as being in a new conference can be, the transition has not necessarily been easy. Aside from the obvious challenges that come with playing a slate of new opponents for the first time, EKU had to figure out the logistics of traveling to new places while being ready to play.

“We were going to conference destinations for the very first time and so you don’t necessarily know where to eat, you don’t know where to stay, and you don’t know what transportation lines that you might use. … When you go to Fort Myers, Florida, having that become a habit and having the expectation that when you go there, you’re going to compete,” Roan said.

But as EKU continues to navigate its new home in the ASUN, its coaches are celebrating the small victories along the way.

“Fifteen wins is the most wins in several years,” women’s basketball head coach Greg Todd said. His team went 15-16 and beat No. 6 seeded Kennesaw State in the ASUN Tournament in the 2021-22 season. The Colonels had not won 15 games in a season since the 2015-16 team went 18-12.

Even though the EKU coaches are still figuring out how to guide their programs through new territory, the university is spending enough money to support their efforts in keeping the athletic department competitive. In 2020-21, EKU reported $17,180,598 in total athletic expenses to the U.S. Department of Education. Out of the fourteen schools in the ASUN for the 2022-2023 school year, EKU spent the fifth-highest amount on its athletic department last year.

“It’s just continuing to go to work and continuing to invest in our programs. Ultimately, we’ll turn that corner and be successful,” Roan said.

Multiple sports are on their way to turning that corner. Men’s basketball just landed its highest rated recruiting class ever. Football is returning 12 starters from last year’s 7-4 team. While EKU is still working through the logistics of a new conference, the leaders in its athletic department, such as men’s basketball head coach A.W. Hamilton, are sure that the Colonels will settle in soon enough. Hamilton’s team went 13-18 overall and 5-11 in ASUN play, one year after finishing 22-7 overall and 15-5 in the OVC.

“All the adversity we’re going through, the injuries, everything we went through — all of it’s temporary. We just got to get to the other side of it.”