Transition

[Black Saturday]

Wouldn’t trade away the FCS years for anything.


Would never go back.


I love that this administration had the guts to go for it. We could have faltered, we still can. I’m just glad we are willing to take the risk.

Give credit and name the one's responsible for the jump.

[hapapp]

The name recognition of Wofford, Furman, and Elon, come on Hap that's a false narrative. Fans weren't coming to see those teams, they were coming to see App play. Our fans may have traveled more to away games, but that was the core 2-3k.

Another perk is the much improved schedule. Home games vs. Miami, Wake, Marshall, ECU, NC, SC, etc.

What false narrative? If I recall in that period we lost to Charleston Southern, NC A&T and Liberty.
We went 4-8 in our first year of transition and started 1-5 in the next year before winning our last six. From that point on we have been riding high in both FBS and the Belt.

[23Bison]

Who are the P5 teams the App has hosted? Have you had many ranked teams come to play with ya'll?

[hapapp]

Who are the P5 teams the App has hosted? Have you had many ranked teams come to play with ya'll?

Wake Forest and Miami thus far.

[23Bison]

Who are the P5 teams the App has hosted? Have you had many ranked teams come to play with ya'll?

Wake Forest and Miami thus far.

Ok cool. Have any on the schedule in upcoming years?

[hapapp]

We do have both UNC and South Carolina in the future.

[23Bison]

Hosting P5 schools was another thing that some fans don't think would ever happen even though Wyoming hosted Oregon a few years ago and Fresno St. had Minnesota come in for a visit. It probably won't happen all of the time but I would be willing to bet that maybe 1 every other year or so one would pay a visit. They think all we would be playing is E. Mich and say U of N. Texas for OOC games.

[Saint3333]

The name recognition of Wofford, Furman, and Elon, come on Hap that's a false narrative. Fans weren't coming to see those teams, they were coming to see App play. Our fans may have traveled more to away games, but that was the core 2-3k.

Another perk is the much improved schedule. Home games vs. Miami, Wake, Marshall, ECU, NC, SC, etc.

What false narrative? If I recall in that period we lost to Charleston Southern, NC A&T and Liberty.
We went 4-8 in our first year of transition and started 1-5 in the next year before winning our last six. From that point on we have been riding high in both FBS and the Belt.

Who said anything about the losses? The name recognition of former SOCon foes is the false narrative.

[appstatealum]

Hello everyone! I'm sure someone has asked before and I may have missed it but I have a question regarding your transition from FCS to FBS. You guys have had a lot of success in the Sunbelt especially as of late and I am wondering what your opinions are on the move. I'm sure its easy for you to answer that its been great with your current success but what about the seasons where maybe your record lacked some luster. I am an NDSU Bison fan and we are currently riding a 32 game win streak and are like 123-8 since 2011 I believe and counting FBS games with no losses to the FBS. This topic is coming up a lot lately and am just curious as to what your overall thoughts are. Especially in the early years of your transition.

It starts with culture and belief that you have something that no one else has. Most of us alumni and fans that were for the move recognized where the FCS was going and knew we had to make the move before it was too late. The believers knew we had a special culture at App State and knew if we could maintain that culture that we could compete at the FBS level. The fact that we have reached the Top 25 this early doesn’t surprise me, what does surprise me is the success we have had leading up to this point. I thought it would take 4-5 years of recruiting and staffing to get to the level where we are winning consecutive bowl games and conference titles, not one year.

What will always be constant at App State will be the fans, alumni, and the culture that we all believe in. It’s our job as donors, season ticket holders, and alumni to continue to uphold our culture and teach it to every new recruiting class, every new coach/staff, and every young student. Once they adopt and believe in the “Today, I give my all....” mantra, their is no ceiling to their potential. You can take that mantra to your workplace, your little league team, your family and your church....it won’t let you down.

Go App State!

[TurfMonkey]

The worst part is when people say, "Oh you're a fan? Didn't you guys
just move to D-1?"

[AppSt12]

These are all very intriguing statements and I thank you for it. The one big glaring issue if a move up was ever on the table is that we will never be able to compete for a national title again.

This was the #1 concern we had. But once you move up and get away from FCS ball...you finally learn that no one cares about FCS. Our minor bowl gamea get better ratings than the FCS title game...and simply being ranked in the top 25 is waaaaay more exposure than winning even 10 FCS titles. We used to boast of FCS success and look at the Massey ratings to see how we stacked up to FBS teams...but looking back on it, that was silly. NO ONE looks or cares about Massey Ratings. I hope NDSU moves up...I think they Montana and JMU are the only deserving candidates and I believe you guys would do awesome. You are already much better than 30 or so FBS programs.

[EastHallApp]

Hosting P5 schools was another thing that some fans don't think would ever happen even though Wyoming hosted Oregon a few years ago and Fresno St. had Minnesota come in for a visit. It probably won't happen all of the time but I would be willing to bet that maybe 1 every other year or so one would pay a visit. They think all we would be playing is E. Mich and say U of N. Texas for OOC games.

Probably the best thing our AD has done is being creative and opportunistic with scheduling. We had people on this board swearing up and down we would never get ECU to visit Boone- let alone any P5 - without expanding our stadium to 40,000.

Miami needed a game at the 11th hour and we negotiated a H&H for it. Wake is a natural fit. For UNC and South Carolina, we scheduled a modified 2-for-1. (In essence, a H&H plus a buy game for which we take a discounted payday.)

We’ve also scheduled good series with regional G5s ECU, Charlotte and Old Dominion, plus old SoCon rival Marshall.

Money games have gotten so expensive that for many P5s (those who don’t play in 70,000+ seat stadiums, anyway), it makes better economic sense to play H&H than to buy a standalone game.

[hapapp]

The name recognition of Wofford, Furman, and Elon, come on Hap that's a false narrative. Fans weren't coming to see those teams, they were coming to see App play. Our fans may have traveled more to away games, but that was the core 2-3k.

Another perk is the much improved schedule. Home games vs. Miami, Wake, Marshall, ECU, NC, SC, etc.

What false narrative? If I recall in that period we lost to Charleston Southern, NC A&T and Liberty.
We went 4-8 in our first year of transition and started 1-5 in the next year before winning our last six. From that point on we have been riding high in both FBS and the Belt.

Who said anything about the losses? The name recognition of former SOCon foes is the false narrative.

I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about in reference to my original post. Please go back and read my original post and the one that followed mine. I believe you meant to respond to that post, not mine.

[EastHallApp]

These are all very intriguing statements and I thank you for it. The one big glaring issue if a move up was ever on the table is that we will never be able to compete for a national title again.

Looking back, I actually think it makes it easier that we won those titles before we moved up. Sort of a been there, done that thing.

The first title we won, I was almost in disbelief. The second one was nearly as good - back to back, wow!

By the third one, I remember telling my friend “I hope we blow them out tonight, I don’t feel like having to stress.” And we did, and it was great... but it was starting to feel routine by that point.

You guys have won SO many, I can’t imagine it’s quite the thrill it used to be, even if few would admit it.

Also, I never went to any of our title games, but I’ve been to three of our bowl games and bowl week is just an awesome excuse to vacation and party.

[AppUSMC]

I just had this conversation with one of your fans in Orlando about how I’d like to see our two programs play each other and y’all need to move up. FCS is a shell of what it used to be.

I was on the fence leaning towards moving up. I’m proud of our FCS days, but... I’d NEVER want to go back to FCS. period. It’s SO much better now.

[AppSt94]

Hello everyone! I'm sure someone has asked before and I may have missed it but I have a question regarding your transition from FCS to FBS. You guys have had a lot of success in the Sunbelt especially as of late and I am wondering what your opinions are on the move. I'm sure its easy for you to answer that its been great with your current success but what about the seasons where maybe your record lacked some luster. I am an NDSU Bison fan and we are currently riding a 32 game win streak and are like 123-8 since 2011 I believe and counting FBS games with no losses to the FBS. This topic is coming up a lot lately and am just curious as to what your overall thoughts are. Especially in the early years of your transition.

To me, a positive transition begins and ends with culture. Culture of the administration, staff, coaches, players, students and fans. You have to embrace who you are before you start and maintain that through the process. There will be peaks and valleys that have to be approached in the same manner.

[23Bison]

Culture and tradition are two things that NDSU does not have a lack of. We pride ourselves on culture and tradition.

[WASU 93]

Hosting P5 schools was another thing that some fans don't think would ever happen even though Wyoming hosted Oregon a few years ago and Fresno St. had Minnesota come in for a visit. It probably won't happen all of the time but I would be willing to bet that maybe 1 every other year or so one would pay a visit. They think all we would be playing is E. Mich and say U of N. Texas for OOC games.

Some of the P5's were straight up (Miami because they needed to add a game, Wake Forest due to their size and proximity), some were 2 for 1's and another agreement is a 2 for 1, with a 4th game in the Panthers' Stadium in Charlotte.

I think the only question for NDSU is your home stadium. You seat about 19,000 in the Fargo Dome and it looks like the seating is packed to the rafters. You will probably need 25K to 30K minimum to host a P5. I'm sure that is being addressed in the discussion.

[23Bison]

There was some talk about possible dome renovations and maybe getting to 23k but in some ways it would be more cost effective to maybe build new. The stadium aspect is an issue that would have to be hashed out. We are currently trying to get enough funding to break ground on our $40 mill indoor practice facility this coming spring.

[APP93]

These are all very intriguing statements and I thank you for it. The one big glaring issue if a move up was ever on the table is that we will never be able to compete for a national title again.

Looking back, I actually think it makes it easier that we won those titles before we moved up. Sort of a been there, done that thing.

The first title we won, I was almost in disbelief. The second one was nearly as good - back to back, wow!

By the third one, I remember telling my friend “I hope we blow them out tonight, I don’t feel like having to stress.” And we did, and it was great... but it was starting to feel routine by that point.

You guys have won SO many, I can’t imagine it’s quite the thrill it used to be, even if few would admit it.

Also, I never went to any of our title games, but I’ve been to three of our bowl games and bowl week is just an awesome excuse to vacation and party.

In the late 90's, I remember going back to games and having discussions with friends about moving up so the program could grow... but we all agreed that until we won a natty we shouldn't as we still had work to do at the FCS level, we wanted the program to validate the move up. We already had great tradition and were well respected and had great success with multiple conference titles, but seemed to always flame out in the playoffs.

After our run of 3 straight and beating Michigan those same friends and I all agreed it was time and that we did everything we wanted to do at the FCS level.

The quick success we have had at the FBS level is a direct correlation to out FCS success, I truly believe that as fact. We paid are dues.

I look at some start up programs who do a few years at FCS and then jump right to FBS and I'm thinking they are doing in wrong. Build the program, a winning culture, get the fan base behind you and the program will grow organically...Ga. Southern is a rival of ours, but I have tremendous respect for their program. They have won multiple conference titles (including their first year in the Sun Belt) and have 6 FCS nattys, so another example of a program doing it the right way. I dont get how a program could have an FCS losing record and still want to move to FBS...to me that's not how you build a winning culture.

I loved Apps FCS years, would not trade them for anything. A friend of mine at the SC game tailgate said he thought that game was the biggest in program history because a potential NY6 was at stake...I quickly told him no way, biggest game in program history was the 2005 national championship. Win that game and it changes the direction of the program, everyone there or watching at home on TV knew it.