SoCon's Fall

The SoCon has fallen on rough times. There is no debating this fact. The SoCon is ranked (according to RPIForecast as of 11:23 PM on Wednesday night) 29th in the country. They were 30th heading into today, and with a win over UT-Martin by Samford, the SoCon jumped up one spot.

So what has occurred? What has happened? Why has the SoCon fallen? The SoCon is as far away from 25th as they are from 31st. So it is not going to take a tremendously good performance for the SoCon to rise up.

In fact, the SoCon may be able to jump another spot simply by having Elon play Duke tomorrow on the road.

The real problem is that when College of Charleston joined the SoCon back in 1998, the Mocs were just a year removed from advancing to the Sweet Sixteen. Davidson has a basketball history, dating back before the 90s. ETSU had been a recent basketball power. That's four teams to anchor the SoCon basketball conference. It seemed perfect. It seemed like a wonderful recipe for success.

Finally, ETSU left the conference, the Mocs have gone through the worst stretch in their basketball history in recent years, and College of Charleston (despite reasonable success) has only advanced to one NCAA Tournament- none since 1999.

Now, the basketball powers are Wofford, College of Charleston, Davidson, and....well, who? It's probably still Chattanooga, as the only other team in recent years outside of Davidson and Wofford to advance to the NCAA Tournament. So let's say that Wofford has replaced ETSU. Which one has the stronger fan base? Seriously- does anyone really think I would have any trouble finding someone to write the Scanning the SoCon piece for ETSU if they were one of the top teams in the SoCon? No way. Yet, I can't find anyone willing to cover Wofford- the only team in the conference. Their coaching staff is good, their players are solid, but their fan base is really just, well, average.

College of Charleston and Davidson are still in very good shape, but the Cougars are leaving. The Mocs are really a sleeping giant- the fan base is ready to explode at the first sign of a reason to believe.

So what's going on? Can the SoCon come back? I'm not sure. Davidson is a nice anchor, but they can't do it alone. Elon seems like a growing basketball product, but they need to do stuff in the SoCon Tournament to prove they belong there. There are other programs that could rise.

The SoCon needs about three or four programs to anchor the conference on that are good most seasons. Until the SoCon gets there again, it will be a conference with an RPI in the mid-20s.

Would adding Mercer and ETSU help? Absolutely. Will the conference do that? I have no idea.

It's time to sit back and wait for the conference to watch the dominoes fall where they may. But the conference is down right now. No doubt about it.