Would you be happy with 8-4, if?

[AppStFan1]

We would have more money and thus recruit a larger area, have more money for coaches, etc in the AAC so I don't think we struggle if moving up. We would see more good players consider us. It is the same as now. Many thought we would go to the SBC and struggle but if you have an AD with vision and you do a good job of evaluating and recruiting the team will only get better with more resources.

How do you figure that we would have more money? The media payout for being in the AAC wouldn’t come close to covering the necessary increase neede to the overall athletic budget.

The payouts to the schools are bigger. I'm not saying it would move the needle a ton but we would benefit by being in the AAC. There is more money and we would be playing in a tougher league. Outside of Louisiana right now nobody is a threat to anyone good in OOC play.

As someone else pointed out about the bowl tie-ins the AAC has much better bowl tie-ins and that is another big reason to go. We would be more likely to face P5 teams in a bowl game. Had we been in the AAC and been the runner-up we would have gotten a better bowl than we did by being the SBC Champ.

The AAC is a step up and the one person at App who knows as much or more than anyone about what it could do for us, AD Doug Gillin, wants in it just as badly, maybe more, than I do.

[booneboy92]

The only way I MIGHT be able to deal with a consistent 8-4 in football, would be with a FULL conference membership. The talk of “football only” doesn’t interest me at all. I have a big enough personal issue with wrestling still being SOCON... even though wrestling is a different animal, and not sponsored by very many D1 conferences, period. If we “move up”, it shouldn’t be half-assed. If we’re not ready with (at least) all team sports, then I’m out. Fact of the matter is, when it comes to NY6 (our highest attainable goal for the time being, SBC or AAC), we can get there from here (DG said it himself).... Memphis beat Cincy twice, and we lost to GASO, ending with the same record... I really don’t believe if we had gone 13-0 that we would’ve been passed up, especially with the 2 P5 road wins. We lost to an inferior team at home, and Memphis beat an almost equally great team, two weeks in a row. I’m in no hurry to go anywhere, especially if the SBC continues to improve as a whole each year. Bottom line... I’ll take 10 win seasons over 8 wins for the foreseeable future, till we can get a full conference membership, and be competitive across the board...

[AppSt94]

We would have more money and thus recruit a larger area, have more money for coaches, etc in the AAC so I don't think we struggle if moving up. We would see more good players consider us. It is the same as now. Many thought we would go to the SBC and struggle but if you have an AD with vision and you do a good job of evaluating and recruiting the team will only get better with more resources.

How do you figure that we would have more money? The media payout for being in the AAC wouldn’t come close to covering the necessary increase neede to the overall athletic budget.

The payouts to the schools are bigger. I'm not saying it would move the needle a ton but we would benefit by being in the AAC. There is more money and we would be playing in a tougher league. Outside of Louisiana right now nobody is a threat to anyone good in OOC play.

As someone else pointed out about the bowl tie-ins the AAC has much better bowl tie-ins and that is another big reason to go. We would be more likely to face P5 teams in a bowl game. Had we been in the AAC and been the runner-up we would have gotten a better bowl than we did by being the SBC Champ.

The AAC is a step up and the one person at App who knows as much or more than anyone about what it could do for us, AD Doug Gillin, wants in it just as badly, maybe more, than I do.

We are currently a little north of $13 million short of the average budget for AAC teams. That can’t be made up with the increased media rights alone. There are also ancillary shortfalls that need to be addressed that are outside of the athletic department and University control. I understand that the AAC is the goal. No argument there. But we need the resources and facilities in place to get there. That is not a quick fix and we can’t build it and hope it comes.

[bigdaddyg]

Interesting takes but I wish I hadn’t said AAC as an example. The point of the thread is if we were in another tougher conference (any conference) would you accept 8-4 as a norm? I see lots of P5 schools who obviously reel in big bucks from affiliation but generally hover between 6-6 to maybe 8-4 seasons with basically little hope of ever really competing for a championship much less top 10 or even top 20 status. Most of those fan bases are used to it and if realistic are happy with 8-4 and an occasional upset of a big boy. Does Vanderbilt or Ole Miss really expect to win the SEC (without cheating)? If we stay in the Belt our competition will generally be easier and we have a great shot at 10+ wins per year but we also understand the reality and the ceiling unless we run the table.

[AppStFan1]

We would have more money and thus recruit a larger area, have more money for coaches, etc in the AAC so I don't think we struggle if moving up. We would see more good players consider us. It is the same as now. Many thought we would go to the SBC and struggle but if you have an AD with vision and you do a good job of evaluating and recruiting the team will only get better with more resources.

How do you figure that we would have more money? The media payout for being in the AAC wouldn’t come close to covering the necessary increase neede to the overall athletic budget.

The payouts to the schools are bigger. I'm not saying it would move the needle a ton but we would benefit by being in the AAC. There is more money and we would be playing in a tougher league. Outside of Louisiana right now nobody is a threat to anyone good in OOC play.

As someone else pointed out about the bowl tie-ins the AAC has much better bowl tie-ins and that is another big reason to go. We would be more likely to face P5 teams in a bowl game. Had we been in the AAC and been the runner-up we would have gotten a better bowl than we did by being the SBC Champ.

The AAC is a step up and the one person at App who knows as much or more than anyone about what it could do for us, AD Doug Gillin, wants in it just as badly, maybe more, than I do.

We are currently a little north of $13 million short of the average budget for AAC teams. That can’t be made up with the increased media rights alone. There are also ancillary shortfalls that need to be addressed that are outside of the athletic department and University control. I understand that the AAC is the goal. No argument there. But we need the resources and facilities in place to get there. That is not a quick fix and we can’t build it and hope it comes.

Oh yes those are good points and I figured we had to get there. It is not something I expect now or next year but was thinking we could perhaps get there by 2025-2030 range. Hopefully we can make those improvements. The day we moved up I was like okay this is fine for now but in 15-20 years we need to be in the AAC and seeing that is Gillin's goal was a relief. I know we are never a P5 program but I feel we eventually belong in the AAC with those schools. I know we can compete with them in football. It would be nice to see basketball and another 1-2 sports really step up and make us more attractive to those schools.

[AppSt94]

Interesting takes but I wish I hadn’t said AAC as an example. The point of the thread is if we were in another tougher conference (any conference) would you accept 8-4 as a norm? I see lots of P5 schools who obviously reel in big bucks from affiliation but generally hover between 6-6 to maybe 8-4 seasons with basically little hope of ever really competing for a championship much less top 10 or even top 20 status. Most of those fan bases are used to it and if realistic are happy with 8-4 and an occasional upset of a big boy. Does Vanderbilt or Ole Miss really expect to win the SEC (without cheating)? If we stay in the Belt our competition will generally be easier and we have a great shot at 10+ wins per year but we also understand the reality reand the ceiling unless we run the table.

So to answer your original question, there will come a day where we see a run of 8-4 seasons, regardless of the conference affiliation. I think that is is more important to be in a conference that generates fans through the turnstiles on a consistent basis. I want to be in a conference where the schedule gets us up to close to 30k season average.

[ncman071]

i think with our culture and tradition if we did it the right way in terms of recruiting and consistency, we could be very successful eventually in an upper tier conference. Personally, i dont want to go anywhere unless its a P5 or AAC. Other than that, I love the Sunbelt. Sunbelt took us in with open arms and we have had amazing season after amazing season...5 bowls, conference titles, its freaking crazy what we've accomplished. I think the Sunbelt is absolutely better than CUSA and the MAC top to bottom and I'm proud of our conference

[spacemonkey]

i think with our culture and tradition if we did it the right way in terms of recruiting and consistency, we could be very successful eventually in an upper tier conference. Personally, i dont want to go anywhere unless its a P5 or AAC. Other than that, I love the Sunbelt. Sunbelt took us in with open arms and we have had amazing season after amazing season...5 bowls, conference titles, its freaking crazy what we've accomplished. I think the Sunbelt is absolutely better than CUSA and the MAC top to bottom and I'm proud of our conference

If I were Sunbelt powers...I would change the scheduling agreement to have 4 divisional games. App, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Coastal, Troy. Have the 5th week blocked off for Cross division play with the two best teams playing at a neutral site say, Atlanta. Everyone else playing a cross division rival every year unless they are number one. This would leave the schedule more open for interesting OOC games. It would be great to have ECU, Marshall, Charlotte, Boise, and SEC away game near the end of the schedule. Each one of these games would be like a bowl game. We could play two FCS teams if we wanted (at Home) JMU, Montana, NDSU.

Our Schedule may look like this.

Home - NC A&T
Away - Charlotte (all G5 games should be Home and Home)
Home - Wake Forest (All Small P5's should be Home and Home)
Away - Clemson (ONE buy game Each year)
Home - Coastal
Home - JMU (All FCS Home Games) Beating JMU will help our Strength
of Schedule over Texas State
Away - Troy
Home - Geogia Southern
Away - Georgia State
Home - Arkansas State (Not conference game just two teams decided to
play)
Away - Marshall (all G5 agreements should be Home and Home)
Home - Louisiana (lining up 1 thru 5) from other division

SunBelt Championship game - Two Highest rated teams from AP or Coaches. (I would be OK with the BCS algorithm to decide two)

We could Get 7 home games with this agreement and not hurt our Strength of schedule if we got the right teams. At least 7 every other year when the 1 thru 5 is Home. Also regional games that are interesting. JMU more interesting than Texas State. Boise State Home and Home. Marshall, FAU, Memphis, UCF, ECU, Charlotte, Wake, Vanderbilt, Maryland, Rutgers, Duke, Georgia Tech all Home and Home games. I think some of the independents would agree to play without a home and home. Liberty, NMSU, Army, UMASS.

We can still schedule SunBelt west...Just gives more flex with the schedule. It is like being Semi Independent.

I would do this with All Sports not just Football.

[NewApp]

We would have more money and thus recruit a larger area, have more money for coaches, etc in the AAC so I don't think we struggle if moving up. We would see more good players consider us. It is the same as now. Many thought we would go to the SBC and struggle but if you have an AD with vision and you do a good job of evaluating and recruiting the team will only get better with more resources.

How do you figure that we would have more money? The media payout for being in the AAC wouldn’t come close to covering the necessary increase neede to the overall athletic budget.

The payouts to the schools are bigger. I'm not saying it would move the needle a ton but we would benefit by being in the AAC. There is more money and we would be playing in a tougher league. Outside of Louisiana right now nobody is a threat to anyone good in OOC play.

As someone else pointed out about the bowl tie-ins the AAC has much better bowl tie-ins and that is another big reason to go. We would be more likely to face P5 teams in a bowl game. Had we been in the AAC and been the runner-up we would have gotten a better bowl than we did by being the SBC Champ.

The AAC is a step up and the one person at App who knows as much or more than anyone about what it could do for us, AD Doug Gillin, wants in it just as badly, maybe more, than I do.

Unless we ended up like ECU. But maybe worth a try, but there is no going back once we do.

[AppStFan1]

We would have more money and thus recruit a larger area, have more money for coaches, etc in the AAC so I don't think we struggle if moving up. We would see more good players consider us. It is the same as now. Many thought we would go to the SBC and struggle but if you have an AD with vision and you do a good job of evaluating and recruiting the team will only get better with more resources.

How do you figure that we would have more money? The media payout for being in the AAC wouldn’t come close to covering the necessary increase neede to the overall athletic budget.

The payouts to the schools are bigger. I'm not saying it would move the needle a ton but we would benefit by being in the AAC. There is more money and we would be playing in a tougher league. Outside of Louisiana right now nobody is a threat to anyone good in OOC play.

As someone else pointed out about the bowl tie-ins the AAC has much better bowl tie-ins and that is another big reason to go. We would be more likely to face P5 teams in a bowl game. Had we been in the AAC and been the runner-up we would have gotten a better bowl than we did by being the SBC Champ.

The AAC is a step up and the one person at App who knows as much or more than anyone about what it could do for us, AD Doug Gillin, wants in it just as badly, maybe more, than I do.

Unless we ended up like ECU. But maybe worth a try, but there is no going back once we do.

As long as we have an AD like DG we will be fine in the AAC. If we still had Laney as AD but the BOT forced us to move to the FBS we would struggle greatly in the SBC. It is seriously a miracle we did what we did with him as AD. So if we have a very good AD with vision who pours all he can into our school and making us better then I have no doubt we will not be like ECU. They have made some really crazy decisions over there. It all starts at the top and right now we have one of the best ADs in the business.

[NewApp]

Might hit an unlucky streak and get another Laney. Who knows? They are out there. But it might be worth a try,. I'd rather get our scholarships fully funded first. Then jump. Right now, except for the possible turnaround in Men's basket ball, we suck in most non football sports. Regardless, I'm an App fan for the rest of my life.

[AppStFan1]

Might hit an unlucky streak and get another Laney. Who knows? They are out there. But it might be worth a try,. I'd rather get our scholarships fully funded first. Then jump. Right now, except for the possible turnaround in Men's basket ball, we suck in most non football sports. Regardless, I'm an App fan for the rest of my life.

No question. We need to get fully funded and improve in some other sports. We really need 4-5 sports teams competing for titles. While football is the sport I care about most I hope we are competitive for league titles in at least track and field, wrestling, basketball, and baseball.

[Appstate88]

Might hit an unlucky streak and get another Laney. Who knows? They are out there. But it might be worth a try,. I'd rather get our scholarships fully funded first. Then jump. Right now, except for the possible turnaround in Men's basket ball, we suck in most non football sports. Regardless, I'm an App fan for the rest of my life.

No question. We need to get fully funded and improve in some other sports. We really need 4-5 sports teams competing for titles. While football is the sport I care about most I hope we are competitive for league titles in at least track and field, wrestling, basketball, and baseball.

Agree. We must give more and more importantly, get more of us giving something $$ to Yosef Club.

[NewApp]

Might hit an unlucky streak and get another Laney. Who knows? They are out there. But it might be worth a try,. I'd rather get our scholarships fully funded first. Then jump. Right now, except for the possible turnaround in Men's basket ball, we suck in most non football sports. Regardless, I'm an App fan for the rest of my life.

No question. We need to get fully funded and improve in some other sports. We really need 4-5 sports teams competing for titles. While football is the sport I care about most I hope we are competitive for league titles in at least track and field, wrestling, basketball, and baseball.

I agree totally but it’s going to be tough in Out Door Track and Field without a track. Running laps in the gym won’t cut it. Recruiters are using that against us as we speak and have been for a year or two already.

[asu66]

Might hit an unlucky streak and get another Laney. Who knows? They are out there. But it might be worth a try,. I'd rather get our scholarships fully funded first. Then jump. Right now, except for the possible turnaround in Men's basket ball, we suck in most non football sports. Regardless, I'm an App fan for the rest of my life.

No question. We need to get fully funded and improve in some other sports. We really need 4-5 sports teams competing for titles. While football is the sport I care about most I hope we are competitive for league titles in at least track and field, wrestling, basketball, and baseball.

Politically incorrect to ignore Title IX...Volleyball

[Yosef84]

i think with our culture and tradition if we did it the right way in terms of recruiting and consistency, we could be very successful eventually in an upper tier conference. Personally, i dont want to go anywhere unless its a P5 or AAC. Other than that, I love the Sunbelt. Sunbelt took us in with open arms and we have had amazing season after amazing season...5 bowls, conference titles, its freaking crazy what we've accomplished. I think the Sunbelt is absolutely better than CUSA and the MAC top to bottom and I'm proud of our conference

If I were Sunbelt powers...I would change the scheduling agreement to have 4 divisional games. App, Georgia State, Georgia Southern, Coastal, Troy. Have the 5th week blocked off for Cross division play with the two best teams playing at a neutral site say, Atlanta. Everyone else playing a cross division rival every year unless they are number one. This would leave the schedule more open for interesting OOC games. It would be great to have ECU, Marshall, Charlotte, Boise, and SEC away game near the end of the schedule. Each one of these games would be like a bowl game. We could play two FCS teams if we wanted (at Home) JMU, Montana, NDSU.

Our Schedule may look like this.

Home - NC A&T
Away - Charlotte (all G5 games should be Home and Home)
Home - Wake Forest (All Small P5's should be Home and Home)
Away - Clemson (ONE buy game Each year)
Home - Coastal
Home - JMU (All FCS Home Games) Beating JMU will help our Strength
of Schedule over Texas State
Away - Troy
Home - Geogia Southern
Away - Georgia State
Home - Arkansas State (Not conference game just two teams decided to
play)
Away - Marshall (all G5 agreements should be Home and Home)
Home - Louisiana (lining up 1 thru 5) from other division

SunBelt Championship game - Two Highest rated teams from AP or Coaches. (I would be OK with the BCS algorithm to decide two)

We could Get 7 home games with this agreement and not hurt our Strength of schedule if we got the right teams. At least 7 every other year when the 1 thru 5 is Home. Also regional games that are interesting. JMU more interesting than Texas State. Boise State Home and Home. Marshall, FAU, Memphis, UCF, ECU, Charlotte, Wake, Vanderbilt, Maryland, Rutgers, Duke, Georgia Tech all Home and Home games. I think some of the independents would agree to play without a home and home. Liberty, NMSU, Army, UMASS.

We can still schedule SunBelt west...Just gives more flex with the schedule. It is like being Semi Independent.

I would do this with All Sports not just Football.

Why would your fantasy schedule include TWO FCS teams? Both of those are good FCS teams, but only one counts towards bowl eligibility. That would be crazy and I can't imagine folks being happy with that. Also, wouldn't having the two best cross-divisional teams playing in a mid season game just increase the chance of having teams playing twice during the year, not to mention the huge problems it would create by having a mid season "variable game" on everyone's schedule. I can't see this working at all.

[NewApp]

If we go AAC, we may have to settle for a couple 8-4's or less. ECU has sucked in there so far and they ruled their previous conference to an extent.

[bigdaddyg]

Based on the reaction a good number of people have had on this board to Satterfield’s slow start as HC, hiring of Ted Roof (aka giving up too many points in early games this past season), and the meltdown after back to back losses to The Stink; I would predict we can’t handle loosing more than a game or 2 a year in any conference. What if we lose to Wake Forest and Wisconsin next season? How much love would Coach Clark still get might be a better question.

Your highlighted comment is exactly what I was looking for (sort of). We have been accustomed to being in the penthouse of the conference, lately winning about 10 games per year, undefeated in our bowl games and now we are considered a top 25 team. There are not many schools who achieve those lofty results in any conference. Some of the responses so far have gotten off track. IF we move to any more challenging conference (assuming that the Belt remains about like it is now) and the norm for us becomes an 8-4 regular season will we be okay with that. Maybe the word happy wasn't the way to go. I'm sure that the folks at Wake want to go unbeaten and win the NC every year but if they go 8-4 every season I am sure that nobody is screaming for a coaching change.

[AppStFan1]

Might hit an unlucky streak and get another Laney. Who knows? They are out there. But it might be worth a try,. I'd rather get our scholarships fully funded first. Then jump. Right now, except for the possible turnaround in Men's basket ball, we suck in most non football sports. Regardless, I'm an App fan for the rest of my life.

No question. We need to get fully funded and improve in some other sports. We really need 4-5 sports teams competing for titles. While football is the sport I care about most I hope we are competitive for league titles in at least track and field, wrestling, basketball, and baseball.

Politically incorrect to ignore Title IX...Volleyball

Those are my favorite sports and the ones who get the most publicity but Volleyball is also a good one. What I would rather do is get rid of the sports that we have no business playing like golf and put more money in field hockey and volleyball for women and add some to say track and wrestling.

[AppStFan1]

Based on the reaction a good number of people have had on this board to Satterfield’s slow start as HC, hiring of Ted Roof (aka giving up too many points in early games this past season), and the meltdown after back to back losses to The Stink; I would predict we can’t handle loosing more than a game or 2 a year in any conference. What if we lose to Wake Forest and Wisconsin next season? How much love would Coach Clark still get might be a better question.

Your highlighted comment is exactly what I was looking for (sort of). We have been accustomed to being in the penthouse of the conference, lately winning about 10 games per year, undefeated in our bowl games and now we are considered a top 25 team. There are not many schools who achieve those lofty results in any conference. Some of the responses so far have gotten off track. IF we move to any more challenging conference (assuming that the Belt remains about like it is now) and the norm for us becomes an 8-4 regular season will we be okay with that. Maybe the word happy wasn't the way to go. I'm sure that the folks at Wake want to go unbeaten and win the NC every year but if they go 8-4 every season I am sure that nobody is screaming for a coaching change.

I would be okay with 8-4 in a bigger conference but the AAC is the biggest we are going to go. We would be able to recruit a bigger area and get better players in the AAC. I am sure we would have some 8-4 and 7-5 seasons but there is no reason why we could never win 10-12 games in the AAC. In fact, I'm thinking we may just go 8-4 or so in the SBC in 2021 unless Baldwin is the real deal like people believe. Every team is going to have a down year here and there. However, if we are getting better and better players like the recruiting websites are saying I don't think we should accept a huge fall off at any time. There are about 10-15 teams who are top 25 every year in FBS, FCS, etc and I hope we are a top 5-10 G5 team every year. I think we all know that 13-1 just can't happen every year but we should never accept 7-5 every year either.