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Post by semosupporter on Jan 26, 2024 7:32:37 GMT -6
Let me give you something to think about. I'm a life long SEMO fan. I was here when we transitioned from DII to DI. Much like you SEMO was a DII powerhouse and competing for a National Championship every year. We had huge rowdy crowds. Our first year in the OVC we were decent and led the conference in attendance at around 5000 a game. We had the same coach we had in DII but after that first year our teams started slowly getting worse and worse. The main reason why, recruiting. Generally speaking no player want's to go to a team that can't play in the NCAA tournament. Unless you have something else to, legally, lure recruits to your program your going to suffer until the transitioning period is over. It's not really fair to blame your coaches at this point because the playing field isn't level. It's stacked against you. Is it fair, hell no, but that's the current rules. What killed SEMO was we had a President that wouldn't fund the program properly to compete at the DI level. Just hope your President is smarter than that. I know it's hard but you just need to be patient until you have a level playing field. One thing I can guarantee you is that EVERY school that is recruiting against you for a player is reminding them about the no NCAA tournament rule. G/L
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Post by eagle87 on Jan 26, 2024 8:22:46 GMT -6
Let me give you something to think about. I'm a life long SEMO fan. I was here when we transitioned from DII to DI. Much like you SEMO was a DII powerhouse and competing for a National Championship every year. We had huge rowdy crowds. Our first year in the OVC we were decent and led the conference in attendance at around 5000 a game. We had the same coach we had in DII but after that first year our teams started slowly getting worse and worse. The main reason why, recruiting. Generally speaking no player want's to go to a team that can't play in the NCAA tournament. Unless you have something else to, legally, lure recruits to your program you’re going to suffer until the transitioning period is over. It's not really fair to blame your coaches at this point because the playing field isn't level. It's stacked against you. Is it fair, hell no, but that's the current rules. What killed SEMO was we had a President that wouldn't fund the program properly to compete at the DI level. Just hope your President is smarter than that. I know it's hard but you just need to be patient until you have a level playing field. One thing I can guarantee you is that EVERY school that is recruiting against you for a player is reminding them about the no NCAA tournament rule. G/L You are 100% correct. Plus losing kids to the portal when they are your better players is yet another obstacle for transition teams now. I just watched the replay of last nights game and the ESPN commentators said over and over that we are right on the edge of breaking out. Literally 1 or 2 plays have cost of 6 losses in close games. I truly believe we will be a contender most years once we get that even playing field in recruiting. |
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Post by letsgoeagles on Jan 26, 2024 12:01:19 GMT -6
No question that the "odds are heavily stacked against you" when transitioning to D1. Particularly now with the NIL and the portal. But once we get out of jail the task remains hard but the playing field becomes more even, particularly with your conference teams. I see so many positives that will be coming from USI that brings me a lot of hope and confidence. We should bottle up the second year of this message board and put it in a time capsule and open it ten years from now...I think we will all get a good laugh out of it.  |
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Post by eagle87 on Jan 26, 2024 12:07:01 GMT -6
True. Things will be different after our 4 year prison sentence. Not many teams can recruit well when 95% of the players won’t return your call after they find out you can’t play post season. The NCAA is just a sadistic organization the way they treat transition teams. Even now we are competing hard, but 10 years from now we will be winning,not just competing.
While watching the replay of the game, one thing jumped out at me. The national ESPN commentator said USI will be a force soon in the OVC. He said the SEA is a beautiful facility and we will get better talent after transition. I agree with him.
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Post by Screagle1214 on Feb 5, 2024 14:54:04 GMT -6
Thank you for your insight and posting this.
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Post by eagle87 on Feb 5, 2024 15:44:23 GMT -6
Attachment DeletedHere is why it’s hard to transition in today’s environment guys. Our best player, Swope, had two years of eligibility left and could have made us a good team this year. Of course he wanted to go somewhere where he could have a chance to play post season. Unless ISU has a collapse I think they have a great shot of making it. I can’t blame him for wanting that, but it is the very reason we are having a hard time recruiting and retaining top talent. This 4 year ban is just a death sentence on recruiting. I sure hope it gets easier as we can at least tell a high school recruit they can possibly play their last two years in postseason.
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Post by shorthaircut on Feb 5, 2024 16:32:17 GMT -6
View AttachmentHere is why it’s hard to transition in today’s environment guys. Our best player, Swope, had two years of eligibility left and could have made us a good team this year. Of course he wanted to go somewhere where he could have a chance to play post season. Unless ISU has a collapse I think they have a great shot of making it. I can’t blame him for wanting that, but it is the very reason we are having a hard time recruiting and retaining top talent. This 4 year ban is just a death sentence on recruiting. I sure hope it gets easier as we can at least tell a high school recruit they can possibly play their last two years in postseason. I doubt he would have stuck around 4 years regardless as his skills have proven to be superior to this league. The transfer portal will continue be the issue pre and post transition, but every team in this league will face the same and thus leveling things out. |
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Post by eagle87 on Feb 5, 2024 17:07:18 GMT -6
View AttachmentHere is why it’s hard to transition in today’s environment guys. Our best player, Swope, had two years of eligibility left and could have made us a good team this year. Of course he wanted to go somewhere where he could have a chance to play post season. Unless ISU has a collapse I think they have a great shot of making it. I can’t blame him for wanting that, but it is the very reason we are having a hard time recruiting and retaining top talent. This 4 year ban is just a death sentence on recruiting. I sure hope it gets easier as we can at least tell a high school recruit they can possibly play their last two years in postseason. I doubt he would have stuck around 4 years regardless as his skills have proven to be superior to this league. The transfer portal will continue be the issue pre and post transition, but every team in this league will face the same and thus leveling things out. Agree with you, but that’s just another hurdle we are facing during transition. If the old rules on transfers were still in place, he would have had to sit out this year and also lost 1 year of playing eligibility. That would greatly reduce the chances of him transferring because he could have only gotten one more season instead of two. Both transition jail and unlimited transfer rule just make it really hard on any mid…but even harder on teams like us because we can’t replace a player of his caliber during transition. Other mids CAN. |
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Post by eagle87 on Mar 1, 2024 13:44:32 GMT -6
Before we all find a cliff to jump off because our men are having a terrible year, just to put it in perspective of how hard these transition days are for everyone on the men’s side…look at Bellarmine. They are in year 4 of transition, which most agree is easier than year 2 and they are 8-22. Yep, same identical record as USI. The conference they are in is basically identical to ours in terms of strength…rated just 2 spots ahead of us. They have what many perceive as an outstanding coach and staff and have the luxury of being in a metro area over 1 million…which should be a huge advantage for kids coming from across the country and from urban areas. Yet here they are with the same record as us…our worst by the way since 1975. I’m not making excuses for us, just merely pointing out how tough it is to transition at this time. The NCAA is surely not helping make it easy on any of us by putting the 4 year ban on. And things like NIL and the portal haven’t really helped us, as a matter of fact the portal has hurt us with a few better players wanting to move up the food chain to higher rated teams. Don’t get me wrong, I’m NOT OK with losing, I’m just trying to put things in perspective.
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