‘The SEC of the FCS?’ Conference-switching Eastern Kentucky has big goals for ASUN.
Eastern Kentucky men’s basketball coach A.W. Hamilton has given each of the Colonels assistant coaches a summer homework assignment.
As of midnight July 1, EKU departs its long-standing home in the Ohio Valley Conference after 73 years and becomes a newly minted member of the ASUN Conference.
“I’ve broken up the (new) league and given each of my coaches teams and (assigned) them to do scouting reports,” Hamilton said. “It’s a whole new game for us in conference play.”
Actually, it’s a whole new day for Eastern Kentucky University sports.
Moving out of the OVC and into the ASUN takes Eastern from a league with teams centered in Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Illinois and Missouri and into a more-Southern-based conference with teams in Florida, Georgia, Alabama, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.
The ASUN schools are “in states that are growing,” said Eastern Kentucky Athletics Director Matt Roan. “It is in a part of the country, a region, the southeast, that is really growing. That introduces our brand, the programs we offer ... to a whole new set of students — hopefully, students that will choose (to attend) EKU.”
Eastern is making the move to the ASUN along with fellow-Ohio Valley Conference expatriate Jacksonville State and the Southland Conference’s Central Arkansas.
Thanks to the ultra-successful Roy Kidd era and its two national championships, Eastern had the most football tradition in the OVC. Jacksonville State has been the best football program in the OVC in the past decade.
Central Arkansas has made the Football Championship Subdivision playoffs three times since 2016.
The hope is that this infusion of pigskin proficiency will form a core that will allow the ASUN to build a football league that eventually morphs into “the SEC, if you will, of the FCS,” Roan said.
As important as the football component will be to the new ASUN, Roan said any perception that Eastern has made “a football move” is incorrect.
In the 2020-21 school year, Roan notes that the ASUN put two teams into each of the NCAA baseball (Jacksonville, Liberty) and softball (Kennesaw State, Liberty) tournaments.
“It was a two-bid league in both,” Roan said. “That’s a huge thing for us.”
As a men’s basketball league, the ASUN’s Florida Gulf Coast made a Cinderella run to the NCAA Tournament round of 16 in 2013 and Liberty, as a 12 seed, upset the SEC’s Mississippi State in the 2019 tourney.
“We made this move because we are convinced it was best for all our programs,” Roan said.
Whether Eastern can maintain its long-running intrastate rivalries with fellow-founding OVC members Morehead State and Murray State will be determined.
Geography would seem to dictate that it will be far easier for Eastern to continue to regularly play Morehead State (66.7 miles from the EKU campus) than Murray State (295 miles).
For those who value in-state rivalries, it is a little concerning that Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky are apparently having difficulty scheduling a men’s basketball game for 2021-22. Both Hamilton and Eagles Coach Preston Spradlin say they are committed to maintaining the Colonels-Eagles rivalry long-term.
“We are playing (Morehead State) in women’s basketball,” Roan said. “We are playing them in baseball. ... And we have every intention of being able to play (the Morehead men’s basketball) game continuously moving forward.”
Roan acknowledges that Murray’s distance from Richmond may make it difficult for the Colonels and the Racers to continue to play annually.
“But, for us, as long as our fans have an interest in playing that (Murray State) game, whether it is football, basketball, baseball, softball, volleyball, soccer, you name it, if we can make it work within reason, we would certainly love to,” Roan said.
In joining the ASUN, EKU will gain annual men’s basketball games against Bellarmine in Louisville’s historic Freedom Hall. As long as Scott Davenport is the Knights coach, Bellearmine is going to continue to earn considerable media coverage in our state’s largest media market.
“It is certainly not lost on us that Louisville is our commonwealth’s major metropolitan area,” Roan said. “For us, with as many alumni as we have in Jefferson County, to be able to go and play there, I think it is going to be great.”
Said Hamilton: “We get to go to Louisville and play in Freedom Hall — what a great experience. I want to continue to recruit Louisville kids. I can say, ‘Once a year, we go to Louisville and play.’”
As of Thursday, it is out with the old and in with the new for Eastern Kentucky Colonels sports.
“Everything about this is forward-thinking,” Roan said of the conference switch. “For us, if we are focused on the last 73 years instead of our next 73, shame on us.”
New-look conferences
As of Thursday, this is the conference composition in the ASUN and the OVC:
ASUN
Bellarmine
Central Arkansas
Eastern Kentucky
Florida Gulf Coast
Jacksonville (Fla.)
Jacksonville State (Ala.)
Kennesaw State
Liberty
Lipscomb
North Alabama
North Florida
Stetson
OVC
Austin Peay
Belmont
Eastern Illinois
Morehead State
Murray State
Southeast Missouri State
Southern Illinois-Edwardsville
Tennessee-Martin
Tennessee State
Tennessee Tech
