The SoCon Spread

Furman and William & Mary to battle for a second-straight season for the first time to open a season since 1972 (photo courtesy of Furman Athletics) At one time, William & Mary and Furman were big rivals in the Southern Conference, as the Tribe were members of the SoCon from 1936-76 before leaving to join the then Yankee Conference, which is now known as the Coastal Athletic Association. After serving loyally as a member through different conference membership changes throughout the years, including four name changes, going from the Yankee Conference-Atlantic 10-Colonial Athletic Association-Coastal Athletic Association--it's now time for the Tribe to bid farewell to the only league affiliation they've known since leaving the SoCon some five decades ago. The 2025 season will mark the final one for the Tribe as a league member.  The CAA as it is currently known, was founded in 2005, with several of those members having departed in recent seasons. Richmond, Delaware, Jame...

Chattanooga quarterback Luke Schomburg (photo courtesy of UTC Athletics) Chattanooga (7-5, 5-3 SoCon) Chattanooga enters the2025 season with just five returning starters, which along with Samford is least among SoCon teams heading into the 2025 campaign. Despite so few holdovers from a talented, yet snakebitten team from a year ago, the Mocs find themselves picked by the league's head coaches to once again compete for the Southern Conference title, as the Mocs were picked to finish second behind Mercer in the preseason poll.  Coaches can't vote for their own team in the preseason polls, however, the Mocs were the recipients of two out of the possible eight first-place votes. With that said and with a quarterback battle that is in the process of being settled during fall camp, what we do about the Mocs is that they have been a consistent winner under Wright, but more often than not, they have failed to take that next step to a SoCon title or to an FCS Playoff bid.  The 2025 sea...

  GREENVILLE, S.C.—Late last month the Southern Conference coaches, media and student-athletes convened in Greenville, S.C., to talk all things SoCon football, as the league and commissioner Michael Cross, who enters his third football season in a leadership role, outlined a power-point to drive home the SoCon’s continued dedication to changing the narrative from a national perspective, while also emphasizing an outdated playoff and preseason ranking process that has be to the league’s detriment in recent years, while the old system has at the same time benefitted comparable leagues. It’s certainly an interesting time to be an FCS football fan, with some power leagues seeming to change with each season— cough cough…the CAA …while the SoCon remains unique and old-school in its approach, sticking to a round-robin conference play process, which many feel hurts the league when it comes to selection Sunday in late November, but it makes for one hell of a competitive regular-season rac...