Peach Belt returns to divisional format

The Peach Belt Conference (PBC) switched to a divisional format this season due to the addition of Georgia Southwestern University. The addition of the Georgia Southwestern Hurricanes bumped the total number of teams in the conference from 11 to 12 and therefore separated the PBC into two divisions: North and South.
GCSU is in the South division along with Augusta State University, Armstrong Atlantic University, Clayton State University, Columbus State University, and Georgia Southwestern. The North includes Lander University, University of North Carolina at Pembroke, University of South Carolina Aiken, University of South Carolina Upstate, Francis Marion University, and North Georgia College and State University.
The conference Athletic Directors have voted in the past and agreed that if the conference has 12 or more teams it will convert to a divisional format. The conference has not been in a divisional setup since Kennesaw State and North Florida were in the conference two years ago. Kennesaw left the PBC in 2005 to move NCAA Division One basketball.
Each Athletic Director votes on their preference with the approval of the university’s president. The vote to change the format has always been a close call.
“The vote has never been decisive,” athletic Director Stan Aldridge said. “It is always within one or two votes either way.”
In the voting to change the conference format Athletic Director voted against divisional play.
“I voted against the change to divisions,” Aldridge said. “The only valid way to determine a regular season champ is for each team to play each other twice and see who the best team is.”
Last year the conference was in an 11 team round robin. Each team played each other twice, including one game at home. In divisional play all teams play each other once and the teams in each division play each other twice. In the 2005-2006 season, the men’s basketball team claimed the regular season championship. This format is the most favored by the athletic staff at GCSU.
“I never have liked having the conference split into divisions,” men’s head coach Terry Sellers said. “The most fair thing is to let the teams play each other twice, each once at home.”
The divisions are determined geographically and in some instances by tradition. This seems to not work this year as the South division was 11-1 against North teams last Saturday. The men have only lost to one team in the North Division this year. They lost to Lander 67-53 on Jan. 6.  The women are undefeated against the North division.
“The divisions have been unbalanced for years,” women’s head coach John Carrick said. “The excuse to have the divisions this way is for travel, but the bottom line is that there are easier teams in the North and the northern schools would rather play them.”
The conference will return to the 11-team round robin format next as USC Upstate will be leaving the PBC for the NCAA Division One.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Jan 19 2007. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry