The Daily Times

Christopher Newport and I have always had a love/hate relationship.

I don’t have anything against the English seaman and privateer who led his ship the Susan Constant as well as the Godspeed and the Discovery to settle Jamestown, but the university named in his honor and I, well, it’s a place I love and hate.

We became truly acquainted beyond my basic knowledge of the institution’s existence when Maryville College joined the USA South as a football-only member.

I’ve made a few road trips over the last seven years up I-81 and I-95 trying to find a short way to reach Newport News, Va. from Maryville and there just isn’t one. Even for a self-proclaimed road-trip enthusiast like myself, who enjoys a good all-night drive to D.C. as a chance to clear the cobwebs from the brain, catch up on a good audio book and reinventory the all-night truck stops between hither and yon, Newport News is just a long way.

That first visit was an eye-opener. The difference between public schools playing Division III athletics and private schools has been a debate probably since the day after the NCAA created that division of collegiate play. Seeing it up close?

Wow!

POMOCO Stadium is not only an impressive facility for most D3s, heck even most D2 schools, it was just plain impressive from structure, to tail-gating, to the fans, right down to the state-of-the-art press box and a fully-funded staff that were not only helpful and thorough but had the time to be so.

But as that first game proceeded I saw the power behind the promise. It was a less than stellar outcome for the Scots despite one of the better efforts from a fairly talented MC squad that season.

The only thing that bothered me was the drive back home.

Since then I’ve kept an occasional eye on the USA South’s other sports standings and let’s face it, the Captains have been dominant with 13 of the 14 all sports trophies.

I wasn’t surprised when Maryville joined fellow Great South schools Piedmont and LaGrange in accepting an invitation to become full athletic members and leave the GSAC behind. It made sense from the perspective of competition. The new members’ men’s teams would be playing for automatic NCAA bids, something they didn’t have before, and the level of competition among the soon-to-be-former-GSAC women’s leaders would be raised.

The only thing that bothered me was the drive.

Geography hadn’t changed and CNU was still going to be an awful long haul to watch MC take on one of the South Region’s best in most sports. Not to say MC isn’t a power in its own right, but the Captains appear to be the next step up the power meter almost across the board as more than one Scots club has found out in first-round NCAA pairings.

But then Wednesday CNU announced it was seeking to leave the USA South and join the Capital Athletic Conference, which is to say a DC metro affiliation. CNU would stay for football for a few more seasons but was taking its bag of league titles and going north in every other sport.

It wasn’t a surprise but the answer to the running bet pool on how long would it take before it happened.

While no one has said outright, “We don’t want to drive 700 miles to play conference games in Georgia,” it had to be a concern. It certainly was a concern brought up by every one of the soon-to-be members when they discussed the plus-minus in their decisions.

It will be interesting to see the lone season of one big family and how the old powers and new powers shake out in the standings. It will be even more interesting to see if a Captain-less conference continues to push the quality of play amongst members without the superpower to chase in the years that follow.

Quite frankly I love the time I’ve spent so far on the CNU campus for games and media days and I hope to make it back a few times next season.

Except for the drive that is.

Marcus Fitzsimmons is sports editor at The Daily Times, who enjoys reading comments posted to this column at http://thedailytimes.com

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