Early pre-season predictions

[ekumaroons]

For anyone who spends time on AnyGivenSaturday.com, this convo has already started... but I thought it was time for an OVC-centric thread on the topic. So, who's gonna be who next year in the OVC Football race? I'll kick it off with some predictions, recently revised.

1. UT-Martin
2. Eastern Kentucky
2. Eastern Illinois
4. Jacksonville State
5. Tennessee State
6. Samford
7. Tennessee Tech
8. Murray State
9. Southeast Missouri
10. Austin Peay
(11. Morehead State)

[semoredhawks]

I'm guessing we will be better then 9th. Samuel had a pretty decent recruiting class.. We will be young, but improved. Our QB play should be improved quite a bit, but again it will be young. I'd say SEMO finishes between 4-6th..

[moreheadeagle]

There were some years that I swear that Morehead could've been middle of the pack in the OVC without scholarships. ;D I say next season we're better than APSU without them. Too bad we can't find out.

[warror90]

Can we not get Morehead back into the OVC? Is it because they are non-scholarship because they're out in football. What will it take for them to be back in and get to be scholarship football again?

[ekumaroons]

Perhaps moreheadeagle can shed some light on this... but it would take the administration and the board of regents agreeing to fund football at a competetive level. I would also expect that they would need some facility improvements too. To my knowledge, this discussion is not taking place at Morehead. I expect they will be watching Austin Peay very closely, though.

[ekumaroons]

moreheadeagle said:

There were some years that I swear that Morehead could've been middle of the pack in the OVC without scholarships. ;D I say next season we're better than APSU without them. Too bad we can't find out.

I just don't know about this... APSU played Western Kentucky tough last season. I'm not sure they'll be as bad as everyone expects.

[moreheadeagle]

ekumaroons said:

Perhaps moreheadeagle can shed some light on this... but it would take the administration and the board of regents agreeing to fund football at a competetive level. I would also expect that they would need some facility improvements too. To my knowledge, this discussion is not taking place at Morehead. I expect they will be watching Austin Peay very closely, though.

Trust me, there is a group of fans that want scholarships back. Our administration hasn't said anything about it but I wouldn't expect them to.
Here's what it would take:
$$$$ (Student fees of perhaps $60 a semester might do it. We have a football budget comparable to several OVC schools as far as opperating and recruitng budgets. The diference is scholly $$)

Facilities improvements. They're happening in the near future according to our AD on a radio show last year. There's been a master plan drawn up.

IMO dropping scholarships was a desperate move by a past administration that cared little about athletics and student life. Since then MSU hasn't been quite the same as far as student involvement and community support.

[eaglephil]

I think the current administration is very open to it and there's no telling what gets said behind closed doors. I think we'll be back in the OVC in football within 5 years. The biggest obstacle may not be money, it could be title 9 compliance.

[ekumaroons]

eaglephil said:

I think the current administration is very open to it and there's no telling what gets said behind closed doors. I think we'll be back in the OVC in football within 5 years. The biggest obstacle may not be money, it could be title 9 compliance.

Even though your new President is the same man that whacked football at ETSU?

[moreheadeagle]

Dr. Andrews (our pres.) was asked to stop a projected budget shortfall at ETSU without raising tuition or fees. The options we're cut football or some academic thing and obviously football would be the logical choice. The good news is that it fired up the alumni base so now they're getting football and new facilities.

I have to think that if MSU had cut football altogether then the alumni base would've gotted ticket off enough to get it back sooner rather than later.

[amoryte]

WELL..........I can tell you from someone who has a son going to UTM...........I like your choices............and I hope you are right about UTM being in the top ranking.