By LANCE FLEMING
ACU Athletics Media Relations
ABILENE -- The long-awaited breakup of the Lone Star Conference has begun, but contrary to some reports and the thoughts and opinions of some fans and onlookers it's not the end of the venerable conference.
With the recent announcement that East Central University, Southeastern Oklahoma State University and Southwestern Oklahoma State University are leaving the league at the end of the 2011-12 year, along with the possible departure of both Northeastern State University and the University of Central Oklahoma, it might appear as if troubling days await the 79-year-old league. But nothing could be further from the truth, according to ACU director of athletics
Jared Mosley.
Mosley instead sees the impending departure of those five schools as a "major opportunity" for the remaining schools in the LSC.
"Over the last several years, there has been a growing desire by a majority of the membership to invest additional resources and time in increasing the visibility, quality and national reputation of the Lone Star Conference in our desire to be the premier conference in all of Division II," Mosley said. "Every institution must look at their options regarding conference affiliation and the impact that it can have on competitiveness, funding, geography, etc., and make decisions that are in their best interest."
East Central, Southeastern Oklahoma and Southwestern Oklahoma are reportedly set to join Arkansas Tech, Southern Arkansas, Arkansas-Monticello, Henderson State, Harding and Ouachita Baptist in an as-of-yet unnamed league that would begin play in August 2012.
UCO and Northeastern are both eyeing membership into the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association (MIAA) as are Lindenwood (Mo.) and the University of Nebraska-Kearney. With Lincoln (Mo.) set to return to the MIAA this year, the addition of those four schools to the league would make the MIAA at 16-team league.
If the five schools leave, the LSC will be left with 11 schools — nine in Texas, one in New Mexico and one in Oklahoma. Nine of the remaining schools play football, with Texas Woman's University and Cameron University the two that don't have football.
Other published reports have ENMU looking at its options — possibly a move to the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference — while Cameron is reportedly considering a move of its own to the Heartland Conference, a league that doesn't offer football.
In some quarters a stripped-down Lone Star Conference has been left for dead, but a closer look at the numbers reveals that the league could be stronger moving forward.
Since 2000 the league has awarded 158 league championships and only 32 of those have gone to the five schools who have either announced they are leaving or have applied for membership in another conference. Northeastern State has won 15 titles and UCO 14 since 2000, while Southeastern Oklahoma State has three titles, but none since a 2003 baseball championship.
Of those 32 championships won by the defecting schools, 13 have come in either men's or women's golf. They've combined to win just five titles in the so-called "major sports" of football, men's and women's basketball and baseball. East Central has never won an LSC title, while Southwestern Oklahoma State has just one, a 1997 men's golf championship.
Cameron has five LSC championships since 2000, while Eastern New Mexico hasn't won a title in the 21st Century and Texas Woman's has never won an LSC championship.
Meanwhile, the programs that have been the league's lynchpins since 2000 – Abilene Christian, West Texas A&M and Midwestern State – have combined to win 103 league championships with ACU taking home 57 league championships, followed by 26 for West Texas A&M and 20 for Midwestern State.
And with those schools still on board – as well as Angelo State, Texas A&M-Kingsville, Tarleton State and charter member Texas A&M-Commerce – the league can step up plans to aggressively market the conference through increased membership fees, which will in turn give the league a chance to make a run at a regional television deal among other ventures.
"The departure of several institutions from the LSC allows everyone involved to seek athletic affiliations that best fit their institutions," Mosley said. "I know that those of us at ACU are very excited about the possibilities that await those of us still committed to the LSC and believe we can now move forward with a solid group of like-minded institutions. We are now in a position to initiate some new and exciting strategies and untapped potential that currently lies in each of the markets represented within the LSC."
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NOTE: Jared Mosley just completed his sixth year as the director of athletics at Abilene Christian University. He also recently completed his fourth team on the NCAA Division II Tennis Committee (2008-10 as its chairman). He's also serving a four-year term on the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Executive Committee (through 2011), and he's also the LSC liaison to the league's baseball coaches (2010-present) after serving as the league's liaison to basketball coaches from 2004-09. He also serves on the LSC Strategic Planning Committee that worked to draft the conference's first strategic plan, one that outlined the conference's desire to become the premier conference in NCAA Division II athletics.
