The SoCon Spread

2026 SoCon Football Spring Preview Part 1: Sustaining vs. Maintaining So much of what we are seeing in mid-majors in basketball and FCS in football is all revolving around sustaining a winning culture within their current paradigm in which college athletics currently exists. That is also true for all now 10 Southern Conference members, as Tennessee Tech is slated to join the league in early July as the newest official member and will be ready to go when the 2026 campaign kicks off. Now its more about maintaining what you have within your program on a micro level in contrast to how it was in a bygone era, which saw a collective ability to sustain good winning cultures at multiple programs all at once, without having to worry about the transfer portal. In four out of the past six seasons, the SoCon has had just one participant in the FCS postseason, including each of the past two. Like basketball, the football gridiron is a place that has seen the ground shift beneath it in recent season...

With Montana State's 35-34 overtime win over Illinois State in the first-ever national title game played in Nashville, the 2025 FCS season has officially come to an end. In many ways, while there was much excitement for the product of FCS football itself, it was one that for the SoCon, was not one to be celebrated. The 2025 SoCon football season was one that saw the league take a step back. From how it started, beginning with a pair of losses to non-scholarship Presbyterian College in weeks two and three by Mercer and Furman, respectively, setting a bad tone for the league moving forward. The league can hopefully take some solace in the fact that the 2026 season will mark the first for Tennessee Tech as a league member, and that should at least provide some strength to the conference moving forward.  Following Furman's "almost" breakthrough in 2023, which saw the Paladins almost take down Montana in Missoula before losing a 35-28 overtime thriller, the league has seem...