CSN So South: Big South Continues to Progress toward 2010 Opportunities

[CSN-info]

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CSN So South: Big South Continues to Progress toward 2010 Opportunities
By Myron Hosea, CSN So South Columnist

The last week of the 2009 season offered some good news and bad news for the Big South.

Heading into the games of November 21, many observers felt Liberty owned a legitimate shot at an at-large playoff berth. It would be the second for the Big South’s youthful football program and would be a great lead-in to the conference acquiring automatic qualifier status in 2010. And the Flames entered the game having not lost a league game since 2006.

So naturally, Stony Brook pulls the upset, which – yes, the bad news – ended another possibility for a playoff berth.

The good news from that same game, though, stems from the fact that another league team beat Liberty. Stony Brook was itself coming off an upset loss the week before to a different Big South team (Charleston Southern).

In short, the Big South elevated its competitive balance for the most part in 2009, raising the likelihood of quite a chase for that automatic berth in 2010.

Read more ... (http://www.championshipsubdivisionnews.com/index.php/2009/12/14/csn-so-south-big-south-continues-to-prog?blog=5)

[bigSfan89]

hey, I liked the tone of this article and appreciate the posting. really liked this quote -- " In short, the Big South elevated its competitive balance for the most part in 2009, raising the likelihood of quite a chase for that automatic berth in 2010." Go BIG South and CSU BUCS!!! Man its a long, long time until kickoff. Do you feel the pain???

[g-webb1994]

Liberty has the favorable schedule next fall.

[SumItUp]

Liberty has the favorable schedule next fall.

I agree. Liberty has a winnable FBS game against Ball State and will play Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb and Stony Brook in Williams Stadium. Liberty is also scheduled to go to JMU on September 25th, but it is possible that JMU may return to Lynchburg again next year. We're still waiting for the 2010 official schedule to be released. Hopefully, there will be another solid OOC FCS game added.

I expect the Big South to be much more competitive next year. With the playoffs expanding to 20 teams, the Big South could send an at-large team in addition to the new auto qualifier. It will be interesting. Only 263 days til kickoff. xthumbsupx