Should the Sun Belt look North?

[spacemonkey]

it would be worth missing a basketball autobid for a football centric airport meeting. If ECU would admit they have been left out, this would be a great conference.

App
Marshall
ECU
Georgia Southern
Marshall
TRoy
Louisiana
Coastal
USM
One Florida School (Best Baseball school being left out.)
Middle Tennessee
Georgia State and Charlotte if they want to come along.

[AppSt12]

2 comments about this thread.

1. Wow
2. Whatever the opposite of shoot for the stars is....that is App States fan base




Man...I know we have to earn our way up....so I'm happy where we are now....but you guys "dream" of being in a league with Charlotte and ODU.....good lord. This must be the stay in FCS portion of the fan base. I'll be out of the country next 2 weeks and hate u cant read your justifications until I get back. But man. The media nor opponents could ever make our team feel smaller than our fans do. Yikes.

[TheAppalachianState]

2 comments about this thread.

1. Wow
2. Whatever the opposite of shoot for the stars is....that is App States fan base




Man...I know we have to earn our way up....so I'm happy where we are now....but you guys "dream" of being in a league with Charlotte and ODU.....good lord. This must be the stay in FCS portion of the fan base. I'll be out of the country next 2 weeks and hate u cant read your justifications until I get back. But man. The media nor opponents could ever make our team feel smaller than our fans do. Yikes.

I completely agree with this. Consistently being in the top 20 is possible for us, yet some people don’t want or can’t understand the AAC is the ideal conference that we should be considering ourselves getting into. Maybe it’s just some really want that short drive all the time rather than a better opponent *facepalm*

[SayYesToTheRock]

I completely agree with this. Consistently being in the top 20 is possible for us, yet some people don’t want or can’t understand the AAC is the ideal conference that we should be considering ourselves getting into. Maybe it’s just some really want that short drive all the time rather than a better opponent *facepalm*

There is more than one way to improve our current situation. Talking about one improvement doesn't mean the others can't happen.

Everyone in this thread would rather us join the AAC than be in the hypothetical conferences we're talking about. More money, better teams, etc. Could our football team compete in the AAC? Absolutely.

With that said, I don't see us being invited to the AAC anytime soon. Besides football, here's what they care about:

• Major media market

• Good basketball

• Heavy research focus

Are they misguided in prioritizing these things? Probably. But that doesn't change reality.

[TheAppalachianState]

I completely agree with this. Consistently being in the top 20 is possible for us, yet some people don’t want or can’t understand the AAC is the ideal conference that we should be considering ourselves getting into. Maybe it’s just some really want that short drive all the time rather than a better opponent *facepalm*

There is more than one way to improve our current situation. Talking about one improvement doesn't mean the others can't happen.

Everyone in this thread would rather us join the AAC than be in the hypothetical conferences we're talking about. More money, better teams, etc. Could our football team compete in the AAC? Absolutely.

With that said, I don't see us being invited to the AAC anytime soon. Besides football, here's what they care about:

• Major media market

• Good basketball

• Heavy research focus

Are they misguided in prioritizing these things? Probably. But that doesn't change reality.

Things can change quickly with how money talks. Some of the comments on here were very insightful on things I was unaware of, especially with predictions on our student base growing to 25-30k within the next 10 years. Ya just never can be sure, us being top 20 already??

[EastHallApp]

I completely agree with this. Consistently being in the top 20 is possible for us, yet some people don’t want or can’t understand the AAC is the ideal conference that we should be considering ourselves getting into. Maybe it’s just some really want that short drive all the time rather than a better opponent *facepalm*

There is more than one way to improve our current situation. Talking about one improvement doesn't mean the others can't happen.

Everyone in this thread would rather us join the AAC than be in the hypothetical conferences we're talking about. More money, better teams, etc. Could our football team compete in the AAC? Absolutely.

With that said, I don't see us being invited to the AAC anytime soon. Besides football, here's what they care about:

• Major media market

• Good basketball

• Heavy research focus

Are they misguided in prioritizing these things? Probably. But that doesn't change reality.

1) I agree that, shocking as this may be to some posters here, there is no indication that the AAC is interested in inviting App any time soon.

2) I'd rather position ourselves so that when the time comes that we do get that invite, or something like it, we're well-positioned to succeed - not just with the current football team, but in terms of facilities, donor base, ticket sales, overall athletics revenue, etc. And the fact is we just aren't close in those areas, let alone other sports.

I think a regional conference with shorter travel and more familiar opponents would be an ideal intermediate step to help us continue to grow.

[APPdiesel]

I don't get the desire to add south florida schools. I thought the mantra was to reduce the mileage between schools. The F_U's are nearly equidistant with LaLa & Monroe. Give me the Bama schools, Troy/UAB - even South Bama before the F_U's.

I don't think it's a "desire". If a geographic realignment happens the FX's will be in the east. There's really no way around it. Comparing the FX's to Texas State and ULM, if you've got to play two crappy programs at least you get better access to south Florida recruits.

*FAU wasn't crappy this year but they'll fall off with Lane gone.

[EastHallApp]

I don't get the desire to add south florida schools. I thought the mantra was to reduce the mileage between schools. The F_U's are nearly equidistant with LaLa & Monroe. Give me the Bama schools, Troy/UAB - even South Bama before the F_U's.

I don't think it's a "desire". If a geographic realignment happens the FX's will be in the east. There's really no way around it. Comparing the FX's to Texas State and ULM, if you've got to play two crappy programs at least you get better access to south Florida recruits.

*FAU wasn't crappy this year but they'll fall off with Lane gone.

Good points, plus with FAU hiring Taggart (and Butch Davis at FIU), I'm not so sure either will go back to their cellar dwellar status that soon. Both can pay decently well, they obviously have the recruiting base you mention, and it would seem from recent hires that they're trying to make a commitment to football.

The travel distance is a reasonable point, but I think the other factors outweigh that. Plus it's Miami; at least you can fly directly there rather than having to take a long bus ride from the airport.

Having those teams in the league probably also gives you a better shot at a South Florida bowl tie-in, which I would consider another positive.

[APPdiesel]

All that said, we don't need to be too quick to jump at realignment. Outside of 3 teams the Sunbelt is bad but we were still in the NY6 conversation. I realize we have history with Marshall and we could bike to Charlotte but which of the perspective newbies is better than Louisiana?

Trading a good opponent 10 hours away for a mediocre one 5 hours away might not be the best move to make at this point.

[EastHallApp]

All that said, we don't need to be too quick to jump at realignment. Outside of 3 teams the Sunbelt is bad but we were still in the NY6 conversation. I realize we have history with Marshall and we could bike to Charlotte but which of the perspective newbies is better than Louisiana?

Trading a good opponent 10 hours away for a mediocre one 5 hours away might not be the best move to make at this point.

Yeah but that varies year to year, especially at this level. They've had one good season in the past five. Before that they had a few good years under Hudspeth (much of which was later vacated) and a bunch of bad-to-mediocre before that.

If you're going to say FAU will drop off with Kiffin leaving, I think you have to acknowledge the same possibility once Napier leaves ULL (and you know he will soon).

[yosef13]

All that said, we don't need to be too quick to jump at realignment. Outside of 3 teams the Sunbelt is bad but we were still in the NY6 conversation. I realize we have history with Marshall and we could bike to Charlotte but which of the perspective newbies is better than Louisiana?

Trading a good opponent 10 hours away for a mediocre one 5 hours away might not be the best move to make at this point.

If those mediocre opponents 5 hours away bring a few thousand fans to Boone, and the good opponents 10 hours away bring a few hundred, it might be a move we can't afford not to make.

[APPdiesel]

All that said, we don't need to be too quick to jump at realignment. Outside of 3 teams the Sunbelt is bad but we were still in the NY6 conversation. I realize we have history with Marshall and we could bike to Charlotte but which of the perspective newbies is better than Louisiana?

Trading a good opponent 10 hours away for a mediocre one 5 hours away might not be the best move to make at this point.

Yeah but that varies year to year, especially at this level. They've had one good season in the past five. Before that they had a few good years under Hudspeth (much of which was later vacated) and a bunch of bad-to-mediocre before that.

If you're going to say FAU will drop off with Kiffin leaving, I think you have to acknowledge the same possibility once Napier leaves ULL (and you know he will soon).

Louisiana is trending up. Marshal and WKU are trending down. Sure anything could change but we could fall off too. If we ever do realign away from Louisiana we need to keep playing them.

[hotrod2001]

I completely agree with this. Consistently being in the top 20 is possible for us, yet some people don’t want or can’t understand the AAC is the ideal conference that we should be considering ourselves getting into. Maybe it’s just some really want that short drive all the time rather than a better opponent *facepalm*

There is more than one way to improve our current situation. Talking about one improvement doesn't mean the others can't happen.

Everyone in this thread would rather us join the AAC than be in the hypothetical conferences we're talking about. More money, better teams, etc. Could our football team compete in the AAC? Absolutely.

With that said, I don't see us being invited to the AAC anytime soon. Besides football, here's what they care about:

• Major media market

• Good basketball

• Heavy research focus

Are they misguided in prioritizing these things? Probably. But that doesn't change reality.

Well lets give them a nice dose of reality and black out BOA Stadium next year when we play them. Beat them and really drive the point home. Like I've said, show them we own Charlotte's footprint despite our location and it could go a long way.