By Harry Minium
Old Dominion University's athletic future is no longer in doubt. All of the legal proceedings, the wildly speculative media stories and negotiations are finally finished.
On July 1, ODU becomes an official member of the Sun Belt Conference, along with James Madison, Southern Miss and Marshall, and that will have an immensely positive impact on most Monarch athletic teams.
When the move was first announced in October, I could not find anyone among ODU's fans, alumni or donors who wasn't enthusiastic about the move up. Now that it's official, it's been greeted with joy by everyone I've spoken to.
There are so many reasons why this move makes so much sense.
For the first time in a decade, we will have an in-state conference rival in JMU. Rivalries will instantly become torrid in football and men's and women's basketball.
The Sun Belt offers closer regional rivals, such as Coastal Carolina and Appalachian State, which will reduce missed class time, travel costs and allow our fans to travel to more road games.
As Athletic Director Wood Selig said in October when the move was announced: "We have heard the community loud and clear.
"The common theme has been a desire to be in a league with a more regional focus, with recognizable teams that are supported by great fans."
And that league is the Sun Belt.
The Sun Belt also has a lucrative contract with ESPN which calls for every football and men's and women's basketball game to be televised on an ESPN network.
No longer will you have to go to Facebook or Stadium to find games.
And while the Sun Belt offers significant advantages for most ODU athletic teams, it will have the biggest impact on the university's football program.
It's difficult to overstate what a huge step up this is for Ricky Rahne's Monarchs. The Sun Belt's East Division will become the nation's most powerful Group of 5 division this fall, with Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina, Marshall, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, James Madison and ODU.
Had ODU remained in Conference USA, I think the Monarchs would have contended for the league championship. That will be more difficult in the Sun Belt.
App State and Coastal are usually in or near the Top 25. JMU and Georgia Southern were both FCS powerhouses. Georgia State won its bowl game last season and Marshall, in my opinion, had the most storied history of any program in Conference USA.
I know many fans had aspirations of ODU joining the American Athletic Conference, but we are in a better place in the Sun Belt.
Rankings are always a precarious exercise, but two online rankings are telling.
The Bleacher Report ranked the Sun Belt the nation's sixth-best conference in 2021, ahead of the Pac-12, a Power 5 league.
Three Sun Belt teams – Appalachian State, Louisiana and Coastal Carolina – ranked among the top 50 in the final ESPN 2021 power rankings. The AAC was the only other Group of 5 league with three.
The football schedule ODU announced earlier this month is worth revisiting.
Home:
Friday, Sept. 2, Virginia Tech
Sept. 24, Arkansas State
Oct. 1, Liberty
Oct. 22, Georgia Southern
Nov. 5, Marshall
Nov. 12, James Madison
There was some hesitancy among the media, and perhaps Monarch fans, to embrace this schedule when it was previously announced because it wasn't absolutely certain where we would play.
Now, it's official, and if you're an ODU football fan, how can you not be psyched? It is by far the strongest in the university's history.
The Monarchs open with an ACC opponent that has the state's most popular and successful program. Remember ODU's 49-35 victory over Tech at old Foreman Field in 2018? I guarantee the will Hokies remember.
Liberty and Marshall were in bowl games last season and the rivalries with both schools have been spirited.
Georgia Southern is a renewal of the bitter FCS playoff rivalry that the Eagles once carried on with ODU.
Arkansas State isn't well known here but the Red Wolves have a storied football tradition. The Red Wolves saw their bowl streak end at nine consecutive seasons in 2020. In 2016, they upset Central Florida, 31-13, in the Cure Bowl.
JMU has been a perennial FCS playoff powerhouse and frankly, even though the teams haven't met since 2012, the rivalry with the Dukes never died. It lived on in social media.
Expect a ton of JMU fans at S.B. Ballard Stadium for what will be a memorable game.
There's not a gimme game on the home schedule. All six opponents have great names and solid football traditions.
Season tickets are going well, and that's likely because ODU eliminated seat membership requirements, which will lower what you pay for ticket across most of the tickets.
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE FOOTBALL SEASON TICKETS
The road schedule includes five games that are a short drive or a direct flight from Norfolk.
Road:
Sept. 10, at East Carolina
Sept. 17, at Virginia
Oct. 15, at Coastal Carolina
Oct. 29, at Georgia State
Nov. 19, at Appalachian State
Nov. 26, at South Alabama
The Sun Belt is full of great destinations, and ODU plays at three this fall: Atlanta, Boone, North Carolina and Conway, South Carolina, just a few miles away from Myrtle Beach.
As Dr. Selig said, it's a fan-friendly league.
Fortunately, Rahne returns 19 starters from the team that won its last five games to earn a bowl bid for the first time since 2016. He's had three very good recruiting classes and beefed up his coaching staff with the hiring of offensive coordinator Dave Patenaude.
ODU Athletic Director Wood Selig at Sun Belt Announcement in October
It's good that ODU renovated S.B. Ballard Stadium in 2019 because new facilities are going up everywhere in the Sun Belt.
Georgia State plays in the old Turner Field, former home of the Atlanta Braves, which the university renovated into a football facility.
App State's Kidd Brewer Stadium recently underwent a $50 million renovation and expansion.
Louisiana recently expanded Cajun Field to seat 41,426.
The Sun Belt has also seen a plethora of new and renovated basketball facilities. JMU opened a new arena this past season, Louisiana renovated the CajunDome Arena and Georgia State will open an $85 million, 7,000-seat facility next season.
Moving to the Sun Belt isn't as much of a move up for men's and women's basketball but still offers a ton of advantages.
Travel won't be quite as difficult. There is only one school in Texas as opposed to four in Conference USA, meaning no longer will teams sometimes take two trips to Texas.
The Sun Belt and Conference USA have generally been comparable in men's basketball RPI and NET ratings, but as has been the case in Conference USA, ODU will have by far the best fan base in the Sun Belt.
ODU led Conference USA in attendance in spite of finishing 13-19 this past season.
ODU and JMU have not played women's basketball in years and that will become an instant rivalry.
The biggest advantage for both programs is that no longer will they have to venture to Frisco, Texas, to play in the conference tournament.
The Sun Belt tournaments are held on successive weeks in Pensacola, Florida, far closer to Norfolk than the Dallas area. I like Dallas, but where would you rather be? In North Texas or next to Pensacola Beach with its sugar-white beaches on the Gulf of Mexico?
Sun Belt Commissioner Keith Gill
The Sun Belt is equal to a Power 5 conference in baseball and will be a major challenge for coach Chris Finwood's program.
By and large, Sun Belt schools have much better baseball facilities than other mid-major leagues. That makes raising the funds necessary to renovate the Bud Metheny Ballpark all the more critical.
The Sun Belt has five schools ranked among the top 50 in the NCAA NET baseball rankings – No. 19 Georgia Southern, No. 38 Coastal Carolina, No. 40 Texas State; No. 44 Troy and No. 50 South Alabama. No other mid-major league has more than two. And Southern Miss, which joins the Sun Belt next season, is 30th.
ODU's defending Conference USA women's soccer team will be moving from a one-bid league to another but again, travel and a higher TV profile make this a positive move. South Alabama is the defending league champion.
Men's soccer isn't yet sponsored by the Sun Belt, but a move is afoot to put together a soccer league that would include members from Power 5 leagues and put the Monarchs in a very competitive league, including 2020 College Cup Champion Marshall.
ODU fields Power 5 level teams in men's and women's tennis and will find the Sun Belt to be comparable to Conference USA. The same will largely be true in men's and women's golf.
ODU's women's volleyball team will join a Sun Belt East Division that has been dominated by Coastal Carolina and South Alabama, which was 25-7 last season.
Field hockey will continue to compete in the Big East and women's lacrosse and rowing in the AAC. Men's swimming will compete in the CCSA while a destination for women's swimming has yet to be determined.
One final thought: I've met with Sun Belt officials, and they are impressive, especially commissioner Keith Gill, who was second in command of the Atlantic 10 before taking over the Sun Belt.
I'll let Dr. Selig say it for me:
"The Sun Belt is a very well-run conference that has seen a slow but steady rise.
"They haven't tried to stake claims to anything they can't back up. They know who they are. The schools are very like-minded and they support their athletic programs at a high level, high enough to be nationally prominent."
The theme the ODU marketing department is using to promote the Sun Belt is this is a "New Dawn, New Day."
Couldn't have said it better myself.