Bryant University makes official its move to the Big South for football
SMITHFIELD — A second formal press conference in as many weeks served as another official welcome for Bryant into a new conference.
This one likely should have come first. Settling the future of the school’s football team allowed the remainder of its programs to snap into place. The Bulldogs will take to the gridiron in the Big South Conference in 2022 and face off against the America East in other sports.
Bryant athletic director Bill Smith engaged in opening conversations with Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander as early as late November. The Bulldogs were already a bit down the road with the America East — they'd been proposed as possible expansion candidates by the league during some internal meetings. But the lack of one-stop convenience offered by its longtime home in the Northeast Conference presented Bryant with a major challenge.
“We had to put the brakes on a little bit and put things on hold,” Smith said. “We could not make that move without first securing a home for football.”
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Thursday’s event at the school’s Bulldog Strength and Conditioning Center was appropriately located. That facility was one of several funded by the school and its boosters over the last two decades to arrive at this position. The Bulldogs count Campbell, Charleston Southern, Gardner-Webb, North Carolina A&T and former NEC rival Robert Morris among their new football foes.
“Bryant’s ascent from a regional university to a national destination school is taking a significant step forward today,” school president Ross Gittell said. “In joining the Big South Conference for football, the university will further build our presence from the Mid-Atlantic to a much broader region.”
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Bryant coach Chris Merritt was hired away from Miami prep power Christopher Columbus prior to the start of the 2019 season. The Bulldogs counted upward of 20 players on their roster from the Sunshine State last season — their recruiting reach had already expanded toward the Southeast. Bryant will offset extra travel costs through guarantee games with FBS programs, fundraising and additional administrative support.
“We’re going to continue to expand and exploit,” Merritt said. “We feel that our brand for this school and our brand for this program fits well with the academic students that we need to recruit to come to Bryant University who live in that region.”
Merritt was approached by Smith last fall after preliminary conversations with the league took place. He was all in favor of moving to a conference that has won an FCS playoff game in nine of the last 11 seasons. The Big South has produced five quarterfinalists and fielded a pair of league champions from the Northeast — past members Stony Brook and Monmouth.
“He lit up — big smile on his face,” Smith said. “He wanted to hit there recruiting already. This is an even greater opportunity for us to get down there, set a stake in the ground and start recruiting.”
The Big South offices are located in Charlotte and Bryant has at least one noteworthy local connection. Christine Katziff is a board of trustees member and a 1986 graduate — she serves as the chief audit executive at Bank of America. Gittell met with recent alumni in the area at a reception this week.
“It’s an outstanding institution committed to the academic success of its student-athletes,” Big South commissioner Kyle Kallander said. “And its football program is committed to competing at the highest level of FCS.”
The Bulldogs are locked into long-term home-and-home schedule commitments with Brown and the University of Rhode Island. They lost a guarantee game at Akron and steamed to a 34-17 win at Marist in 2021. Bryant will be forced to find multiple non-conference FCS games per year while also taking on the Bears and Rams.
“This gives us a great opportunity,” Merritt said. “New mountains to climb. Great challenges ahead. We’re looking forward to it and we expect to win.”
bkoch@providencejournal.com
On Twitter: @BillKoch25
This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: Bryant University makes official its move to the Big South for football
