Some thoughts about moving up ---

[Saint3333]

Sounds like you believe we have a lot of fair weather fans.

[GoApps70]

If they do not care more about App State than that then they are not fans --- just visitors, so no big deal.

[ASU2012]

Sounds like you believe we have a lot of fair weather fans.

Would anyone argue that?

[Saint3333]

I would. The group I tailgate with and sit with are there win or lose and was there long before the threepeat, heck we were there before coach Moore.

Appalchian football isn't a sometimes thing, it is a all the time thing.

[AppinVA]

Count me in on NOT wanting to move up. I think its a terrible idea. In 4 seasons we will be the next Marshall. We already know ASU fans are extremely fair weather and if we lose on the field our home attendance will fall drastically. We lost 3 home games this season to FCS teams, I'm scared to see what the rock will look like in a few years. We can deny it all we want, but other than the hard cores on this board, many students and "fans" all have other schools to pull for, mostly in the ACC. I feel that a move to FCS will cause many to leave their Appalachian fan hood behind, as it could previously coexist in different divisions. Why fix whats not broken? I hope I'm terribly wrong.

Time to nut-up and make a choice. It will get mighty uncomfortable when we face the Chapel Hill campus in a bowl game, or host Duke or Wake Forest in Boone. If they want to still pull for the team they "grew up watching on television" instead of the team representing the place where they really grew up and became an adult, then good riddance.

Methinks I need to bring back the sage words of Big App.

[ASU2012]

I would. The group I tailgate with and sit with are there win or lose and was there long before the threepeat, heck we were there before coach Moore.

Appalchian football isn't a sometimes thing, it is a all the time thing.

Agreed, And that is definitely the case for most on these boards, I would assume. What about the other 15,000 that leave early when we are losing or dont even bother showing up to the games after a loss, those are the ones im worried about

[ASU2012]

Count me in on NOT wanting to move up. I think its a terrible idea. In 4 seasons we will be the next Marshall. We already know ASU fans are extremely fair weather and if we lose on the field our home attendance will fall drastically. We lost 3 home games this season to FCS teams, I'm scared to see what the rock will look like in a few years. We can deny it all we want, but other than the hard cores on this board, many students and "fans" all have other schools to pull for, mostly in the ACC. I feel that a move to FCS will cause many to leave their Appalachian fan hood behind, as it could previously coexist in different divisions. Why fix whats not broken? I hope I'm terribly wrong.

Time to nut-up and make a choice. It will get mighty uncomfortable when we face the Chapel Hill campus in a bowl game, or host Duke or Wake Forest in Boone. If they want to still pull for the team they "grew up watching on television" instead of the team representing the place where they really grew up and became an adult, then good riddance.

Methinks I need to bring back the sage words of Big App.

If we played Carolina at home I'd bet the stadium would be a 60/40 split.

I grew up a Wake Forest season ticket holder, so I know what its like to play away games at home. I'd 100% pull for ASU over WF any time now, but it would not be that way for most other students.

[Appersrule]

I agree. Their would be alot of blue or red in Boone if we ever hosted State or UNC. That would never happen though unless the state legislature got involved. They might play App but it would be in Raleigh and Chapel Hill.

[AppinVA]

Maybe for basketball, which is sad, but I think football would be an entirely different story. You don't yell your voice hoarse for your second favorite team.

[vegattk]

Sounds like you believe we have a lot of fair weather fans.

I know we have some fair weather fans.

Currently my family is a Yosef Club member. There are 7 of us (4 App grads) that go to EVERY single football game. As of now I'm not sure if it will dwindle to only 3 after this season....

The only reason they come is for "family' time" and to enjoy some football...

I'd consider them fair weather and I don't blame them...

[ASU2012]

Maybe for basketball, which is sad, but I think football would be an entirely different story. You don't yell your voice hoarse for your second favorite team.

Well I believe you are greatly mistaken, my friend.

[AppinVA]

Maybe for basketball, which is sad, but I think football would be an entirely different story. You don't yell your voice hoarse for your second favorite team.

Well I believe you are greatly mistaken, my friend.

I'd love to see the day where UNC-CH visits KBS (MBS, by then?). We will have arrived. They're not coming to play a Sun Belt team trying to gain traction in 2016. To get them here (citing precedent), we will need to be successful on the FBS level, which means to produce a track record similar to that of ECU -- multiple bowl wins, ranked teams, etc. By 2025, if we are doing that, loyalty will not be an issue, or at least the issue you think it could be.

[asutrnr81]

Let me make this statement first....I am going to attend ASU football games PERIOD.

Now...when I look left into the corner of the stadium where the "visiting" team fans sit...I hardly ever see more than a couple of Hundred fans from the "other" team there. While when I look around the stadium....I see 25K+ ASU fans....

I think is it irresponsible to think that less of us would attend if we were playing Central Michigan than if we were playing The Citadel!

(Central Michigan used for example purposes only!)

Go APPS!

[JCline0429]

Sounds like you believe we have a lot of fair weather fans.

From some comments made on this board at times, he's probably right. It's been so long since we had reason to have fair weathered fans, we won't know until some time in the future.

[JCline0429]

Count me in on NOT wanting to move up. I think its a terrible idea. In 4 seasons we will be the next Marshall. We already know ASU fans are extremely fair weather and if we lose on the field our home attendance will fall drastically. We lost 3 home games this season to FCS teams, I'm scared to see what the rock will look like in a few years. We can deny it all we want, but other than the hard cores on this board, many students and "fans" all have other schools to pull for, mostly in the ACC. I feel that a move to FCS will cause many to leave their Appalachian fan hood behind, as it could previously coexist in different divisions. Why fix whats not broken? I hope I'm terribly wrong.

Time to nut-up and make a choice. It will get mighty uncomfortable when we face the Chapel Hill campus in a bowl game, or host Duke or Wake Forest in Boone. If they want to still pull for the team they "grew up watching on television" instead of the team representing the place where they really grew up and became an adult, then good riddance.

.

You mean like what happened to an extent when the Heels came to Holmes?

[JCline0429]

Maybe for basketball, which is sad, but I think football would be an entirely different story. You don't yell your voice hoarse for your second favorite team.

Well I believe you are greatly mistaken, my friend.

I'd love to see the day where UNC-CH visits KBS (MBS, by then?). We will have arrived. They're not coming to play a Sun Belt team trying to gain traction in 2016. To get them here (citing precedent), we will need to be successful on the FBS level, which means to produce a track record similar to that of ECU -- multiple bowl wins, ranked teams, etc. By 2025, if we are doing that, loyalty will not be an issue, or at least the issue you think it could be.

I'm not an ECU fan, but you have to hand it to them, they are less than .500 since joining FBS, but they always had a strong following. Better in some years than others, though. Of course thousands come to ECU games for the party sometimes more than the game. There are many fans still tailgating while the game is going on.

[AppinVA]

Count me in on NOT wanting to move up. I think its a terrible idea. In 4 seasons we will be the next Marshall. We already know ASU fans are extremely fair weather and if we lose on the field our home attendance will fall drastically. We lost 3 home games this season to FCS teams, I'm scared to see what the rock will look like in a few years. We can deny it all we want, but other than the hard cores on this board, many students and "fans" all have other schools to pull for, mostly in the ACC. I feel that a move to FCS will cause many to leave their Appalachian fan hood behind, as it could previously coexist in different divisions. Why fix whats not broken? I hope I'm terribly wrong.

Time to nut-up and make a choice. It will get mighty uncomfortable when we face the Chapel Hill campus in a bowl game, or host Duke or Wake Forest in Boone. If they want to still pull for the team they "grew up watching on television" instead of the team representing the place where they really grew up and became an adult, then good riddance.

.

You mean like what happened to an extent when the Heels came to Holmes?

Different sport, which I did admit it to be a bigger problem with basketball, and a different era.

[AppinVA]

Maybe for basketball, which is sad, but I think football would be an entirely different story. You don't yell your voice hoarse for your second favorite team.

Well I believe you are greatly mistaken, my friend.

I'd love to see the day where UNC-CH visits KBS (MBS, by then?). We will have arrived. They're not coming to play a Sun Belt team trying to gain traction in 2016. To get them here (citing precedent), we will need to be successful on the FBS level, which means to produce a track record similar to that of ECU -- multiple bowl wins, ranked teams, etc. By 2025, if we are doing that, loyalty will not be an issue, or at least the issue you think it could be.

I'm not an ECU fan, but you have to hand it to them, they are less than .500 since joining FBS, but they always had a strong following. Better in some years than others, though. Of course thousands come to ECU games for the party sometimes more than the game. There are many fans still tailgating while the game is going on.

ECU has been in the FBS, or whatever they have called it over the years, since the mid 1960s. Thousands now come to ASU for the party atmosphere, and weve had eight years of strong following, so i do think we compare well with any fanbase in the state.
I have no way of knowing this, as I make it a point to get to my seat for the band's pregame, but I have read on the board that we have some fans that like to attend extended tailgating festivities. Their loss.

[Black Saturday]

I thought this article has some relevance to this discussion. It's all about money. APP is well under the radar and at the moment. IMO, We try to claw our way up over time or the song remains the same.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/college-f ... 22604.html


College Football: Why Pressure to Win Is Even Bigger Now
By Mark Koba | CNBC – Sat, Dec 1, 2012 5:59 PM EST.. .
.
@cnbc on Twitter..

The regular college football season wraps up on Saturday, but the biggest buzz in recent weeks has been the dizzying number of teams switching conferences.

Higher profile schools like West Virginia, Missouri and Syracuse are changing to bigger conferences, while even lower-tier programs like San Diego State, Temple and Houston are joining the rush.


Why the move? Simply put, it's the money.


More than 30 colleges have switched conferences since May of 2011 and the big reason is the cash and exposure from college football television networks. For a cash strapped school like the University of Maryland, leaving the ACC for the larger Big Ten means bigger money-some $15-20 million a year extra.

If fans are lost on who's moving where, and as old rivalries die, it may be reflected in attendance. This year, game attendance was down some 2 percent from 2011's record year.

But the biggest impact of conference switching, say analysts, is the overwhelming pressure to win-to win now and win big.


"It's the new economics of the the power conferences with all this re-alignment," said Mark Conrad, who teaches sports business at Fordham University. "Coaches will have a much shorter leash when it comes to winning."

Conrad noted that Auburn football coach Gene Chizik was fired last month after a 3-9 season this year- but just two years removed from winning a national championship.

"These coaches are going to be gone much sooner than in the past if they don't win and they'll be under so much pressure to recruit the best players, and the players will have to perform well," Conrad added. "The competition is going to be fierce."

The money and power associated with college football is enormous. The combined revenue for the 15 richest college football programs topped $1 billion in 2010-with the University of Texas at the head of the list taking in $95.7 million.

And even lesser football powers benefit. For example, every school in the Big Ten, like Iowa and Indiana, will reportedly receive some $25 million this year-topping the $22.8 million they got in 2011. And about $8 million of the $25 million comes from the Big Ten Network, which televises each conference game on cable outlets across the country.

Though re-aligning is nothing new its history shows how money and TV are tied together. Analysts point to the Supreme Court decision in 1984 that allowed colleges to form their own television networks without NCAA approval, and it slowly started the switching in and out as the growing pot of money became an enticement.

(Read More: MLB Players Also Fear the 'Fiscal Cliff')

And this recent overwhelming rush to jump conferences primarily comes from the current crush of college football television networks-and contracts with ESPN. Nearly every major and minor college football conference resigned or signed a new television deal in the last five years. The Pac 12's new TV deal is expected to pay each member some $22 million a year for the next five years.

That kind of money has left deals like the five year $38 million contract Notre Dame signed with NBC in 1991, pretty much in the dust, say experts.

"These universities are looking beyond tradition and into markets where they are more likely to have alumni and more eyeballs on television sets and get more revenue from TV and sources like mobile and tablet platforms," said Exavier Pope, an entertainment and sports attorney and principal owner of The Pope Firm.


While there is the money, there's something else when it comes to re-alignment, said Robert Boland, professor at NYU at the Tisch Center for Hospitality, Tourism and Sports. That's the cache for a college moving to a conference with a higher profile in sports and academics.

"Schools can increase their own perception with a new conference," Boland said. "Boston College liked being associated with Duke and North Carolina in the ACC. It's a chance to be associated with upper echelon schools."

But with all the money and prestige comes an arms race, say analysts. As more money comes in more has to be spent on upgrading facilities and coaches salaries.

It cost Auburn University $11 million to fire Chizik and his assistant coaches as part of a buyout. And they'll have to pay something close to that for a new coaching staff for next year. Maryland has to pay the ACC a $50 million fee to leave.

And as teams are expected to play in better conferences, the question is will they be as good as their new rivals.

(Read More: How Much Money Do You Need to Be Happy?)

"The level of play could suffer from this," Mark Conrad said. "Many of the colleges that switched conferences might not be able to compete with some of the better college teams. They will be outclassed for years."

Also suffering in the realignment as teams move, are the lesser regarded conferences, said Exavier Pope.

"The big winners in all this are the Big Ten, Pac 12 and SEC," said Pope. "But other conferences are regulated to a secondary status and trying to catch up. For instance the Big East is replacing stronger members who left with weaker ones and they (Big East) will likely get surpassed by a conference like the MAC."

Despite the concerns over which college team can hold its own and how much it may cost to keep or fire a coach-and whether a team like San Diego State will enjoy the cross country trip to play Connecticut-the college football re-alignment bubble won't burst anytime soon.

In fact in may just be getting started, said Robert Boland.

"This isn't even close to reaching a saturation point," Boland said. "Right now, all the money suggests it's going to keep happening for a long time."

[asumike83]

You could be right but I just don't see why 7 of 10 FBS Sun Belt teams averaged less than 20K. Were all those 7 less than .500?

That is true but there are a couple of things to think about in regards to SBC attendance. First, we should compare it to where we are currently. 7 of 10 current SBC schools averaged under 20K, true. On the other hand, 8 of 8 SoCon schools not named Appalachian State averaged under 20K and 6 averaged under 10K.

It also important to look at what is happening in the Sun Belt. Of the 7 teams averaging under 20K, 4 (FIU, FAU, MTSU, UNT) are on their way out the door. IF the rumors of ASU/GSU going to the SBC are true then 3 of the 4 teams coming in to replace them would likely put 20K fans in the stands every week.

Texas State averaged 19K this year. With a newly renovated stadium and their first year of bowl eligibility coming in 2013, I'd be very surprised if they were not in the 20's. Their facility is top-notch:
http://www.txstatebobcats.com/images/20 ... m_2012.jpg

GSU averaged 19K this year and has expansion on the way. Of course, the conference line-ups change every day but with that potential group, that would be 6 of 10 who put 20K in the stands every week.

I don't say that to suggest that we will be "big time" if we go to the Sun Belt. Whether FCS or non-AQ FBS, we are the "have-nots". However, there is no question that we would be playing teams with much better fan support than we currently do. As it stands now, our players get to go on the road and play a conference opponent in front of 20,000 fans once every two years. If that line-up were to hold, we'd play in that kind of environment 2-3 times a year in conference.