Southern Conference determined to rebuild league's football brand - Charleston Post Courier

After surviving the realignment that roiled NCAA Division I athletics in recent years, the SoCon has turned its attention to rebuilding its football brand, one that once had the league known as “the SEC of Division I-AA. ” That label recalls the SoCon’s glory years, when Appalachian State won three straight national titles from 2005-2007, Georgia Southern took championships in 1999 and 2000, and the league received multiple playoff bids in 13 of 16 seasons from... SoCon champion Chattanooga was the only team to make the 24-team FCS playoffs last year, just the third time since 1998 that the league sent only one team to the playoffs. “I feel like it’s time to make that commitment to re-establish ourselves as a preeminent conference in FCS,” said Iamarino, who is in his ninth year at the league’s helm. Last year, for example, SoCon teams went 2-7 against the Big South, and lost to other FCS squads such as South Carolina State and Jacksonville State. “We’ve got to represent and win games out of conference,” said Huesman, whose team lost by 26-23 to Jacksonville State of the Ohio Valley Conference. Source: www.postandcourier.com