HBU to join Southland

1868Alumni · **Posted:** Fri Nov 18, 2011 11:39 pm

Feel like we could have done better:

http://www.chron.com/sports/college/art ... 277082.php

GoldilocksWasYummy · **Posted:** Sat Nov 19, 2011 5:29 pm

Welcome to the club HBU.

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Mon Nov 21, 2011 3:44 pm

Here's the official announcement. HBU joins on July 1, 2013:

http://www.southland.org/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=18400&ATCLID=205336618

Quote:

Houston Baptist University to Join Southland Conference on July 1, 2013
Huskies to begin new football program and plans new on-campus basketball arena
FRISCO, Texas – The Southland Conference and Houston Baptist University announced Monday that the institution will become the newest member of the NCAA Division I league. The university will become the 11th member of the Southland on July 1, 2013, and will then become eligible for conference championships and NCAA automatic bids in most of the league’s sports.

Houston Baptist, a private institution that rejoined NCAA Division I this year, announced last month it will start a football program that will compete at the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) level and. HBU’s football program will join the Southland in 2014, giving the league an all-time high of nine football teams.

Additionally, the university has plans to replace 48-year-old Sharp Gym, home of HBU basketball and volleyball, with a new multi-purpose Special Events Center on its campus in southwest Houston.

The HBU Huskies currently participates in 14 of the Southland’s 17 sponsored championships, including men’s sports basketball, baseball, cross country, golf, and indoor and outdoor track and field. On the women’s side, HBU sponsors basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, softball, indoor and outdoor track and field, and volleyball. HBU also sponsors men’s soccer, but the Southland does not offer a championship in the sport...

Bear Fan 101 · **Posted:** Tue Nov 22, 2011 11:54 am

http://www.chron.com/sports/college/article/HBU-will-play-football-join-Southland-Conference-2280640.php

Quote:

HBU will play football, join Southland Conference
By JUSTIN SCHNEEWIND, For the Chronicle
Updated 07:28 p.m., Monday, November 21, 2011

...That conference may be a growing conference.

"The way we refer to it is we're still open for business on the membership side of things," Burnett said after making HBU the Southland's 11th member. "This is a league that for the last six years has been a 12-member league. There's some interest in our league in returning to a 12-member league and perhaps look at other football-playing institutions."

The 12th member may come from a football-playing Division II school in need of a conference invitation in order to move into Division I.

"Right now, I think that we're gonna start to look at this conference, at least initially, as an 11-member configuration in the 2013-14 year, but I wouldn't be surprised if we move in a direction to pick up a 12th member," Burnett said.

While Southland officials realize they might have more work to do, HBU officials know they do.

"We're not where we need to be yet," Moniaci said. "We have teams that we have to start. We have sports that we have to start. We have facilities that we need to get built. We have money that we've got to raise. But I'll tell you this much, we're a lot further along than we were when we started this venture (from NAIA to NCAA) five years ago."

justin.schneewind@chron.com

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HBU to join Southland

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