Previously a member of the Big South Conference, Coastal Carolina joins 11 other teams as the newest member of the Sun Belt Conference for the 2016-2017 sports season. Although the football team will not transition over until the 2018 season, the tennis programs will join their new conference immediately.
Any addition to an FBS conference is like the new kid at the lunch table. Will they fit in? What do we know about them? How will they affect the scene? Let's take a look at the new kid at the Sun Belt Tennis table: Coastal Carolina.
The 12 team conference now includes:
- South Alabama
- Troy
- Arkansas State
- Appalachian State
- Little Rock
- Georgia Southern
- Georgia State
- UL Lafayette
- UL Monroe
- UT Arlington
- Texas State
- Coastal Carolina
Four seniors are set to graduate from the men's program, so the Chanticleers are in the midst of a bit of a transition internally as well as externally. But they will retain their top player Vuk Velickovic. The women's program also lost two seniors, including Libby Scott, who played the top spot in both singles and doubles action last season.
Men's head coach Christopher Powers is amazed at the progress the athletic department has made.
"It is just phenomenal growth," Powers told HERO Sports. "Especially in the last 10 years, as far as facility, budgets, scholarships, everything."
Coastal's new tennis facility opened last year, and the Athletic Department is now switching to Under Armor; along with a new conference, just about everything will be pristine and top-of-the-line for the 2016-2017 season.
In the 2016 Sunbelt season, UT Arlington brought home the trophy after conference play for the men, and Georgia State won it all on the women's side; both teams defeated South Alabama in the final round of the Championships. Although head-to-head matches vary on any given day, there are a few matchups from the 2015-2016 season that may be worth taking a look at:
Women's
Georgia State (W) vs. South Carolina (W) : W: 4-3
Coastal Carolina (W) vs. South Carolina (W): L: 7-0
Georgia State (W) vs. Winthrop (W): W: 5-2
Coastal Carolina (W) vs. Winthrop (W): L: 5-2
Men's
Coastal Carolina (M): vs. Georgia Southern (M) W: 4-3
Georgia State (M) vs. Georgia Southern (M): W: 4-1
Georgia State (M) vs. Presbyterian (M): W: 6-1
Coastal Carolina (M) vs. Presbyterian (M): W: 5-2
If transitive property tells us anything, it's that the Chanticleers are an excellent fit to compete with existing Sun Belt teams; one may say the men more so than the women, but any given match day can breed different results depending on location, weather, date of match, etc. Tennis is a tricky sport. Teams train all season to prepare for the conference championships, and when a new team enters the fray, strategies change, mindsets alter, and momentum shifts.
Coastal Carolina's athletic reputation is on the rise. They won the 2016 NCAA D1 Baseball National Championship, and even before their first match appearance as a Sun Belt member, the school is becoming a household name.
"There is no added pressure from the program after the baseball victory or even from the Athletic Director because he knows we already put pressure on ourselves," Powers said. "We will keep doing our jobs, and we love the challenge."
The Chanticleers will strengthen this conference, but it remains to be seen if they can challenge teams like Georgia State and UT Atlington for tennis supremacy. We'll find out soon.
