Should ETSU Think About Leaving the Southern Conference?

It’s been a good home. But can the Buccaneers athletic program grow there?

I love the Southern Conference.

I have for generations, since as a boy in Transylvania County, North Carolina I was introduced to the conference when Furman beat South Carolina on the gridiron in 1982.

Furman’s 28–23 victory was called “Cock Shock ‘82.” It was one of four straight victories the Paladins enjoyed against Division I-A football teams.

Chattanooga had a nationally ranked basketball program. After winning the state championship for the hometown Brevard Blue Devils, quarterback Kenny Edwards signed with Western Carolina, who themselves would play for a Division I-AA football championship the following year.

It seemed every season a SoCon football team would beat an Atlantic Coast Conference team and/or play for the Division I-AA national championship.

By the 1990s, ETSU basketball was being talked about nationally as a Final Four contender and The Citadel went to the 1990 College World Series.

But a lot has changed since those halcyon days of yore.

True, as recently as the late teens SoCon basketball teams were earning national rankings and the league nearly received two bids to the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament when UNCG was supposedly the last team out.