FBS transition - first year comparison

EastHallApp · Unread post by **EastHallApp** » Mon Dec 08, 2014 2:22 pm

I did a little research on this a while back and haven't had time to post. (Hat tip to AppGrad78 for posting some of these numbers in the Are We Marshall? thread a couple weeks ago).

I wanted to put App's first FBS season in some context. How do we compare to other programs that have moved up? I counted 25 programs that had made the jump from FCS to FBS. A few quick takeaways:

- Only 20% (5/25) had a winning record in their first FBS season (Marshall, Ga. Southern, App, Nevada, UTSA).

- Only two teams had better than a 7-5 record (Marshall, Ga. Southern).

-Only 16% (4/25) improved their win total from their last FCS season to their first FBS season.

- App was the first team ever to improve its win total by three games from its last FCS season to its first FBS season.

- Looking ahead to season 2, 59% (13/22) of teams increased the win totals from their first FBS year to their second. 23% (5/22) won the same number, while 18% won fewer in their second year than their first.

- Overall, still just 23% (5/22) finished with winning records in Year 2, with another 9% (2/22) finishing 6-6.

AppfaninCAALand · Unread post by **AppfaninCAALand** » Tue Dec 09, 2014 11:10 am

Interesting read, after 20 years of hoping for this move I'm so glad our first year didn't look like WKU or UMass.

Not to pick nits, but I actually think more than 25 teams have moved from FCS to FBS since the second I-AA demotion in '82-'83, which would make App's performance even more rare. I counted 27.

EastHallApp · Unread post by **EastHallApp** » Tue Dec 09, 2014 11:21 am

Could be - I was just combining my research (I originally only went back to 1990 out of sheer laziness) with 78's numbers. Here are the ones I included; if you can figure out who's missing, I'll add them:

Team 1st FBS year
Akron 1987
Lousiana Tech 1989
Nevada 1992
Arkansas State 1992
La.-Monroe 1994
North Texas 1995
UAB 1996
UCF 1996
Boise State 1996
Idaho 1997
Marshall 1997
MTSU 1999
Buffalo 1999
UConn 2000
Troy 2002
FIU 2005
FAU 2005
Western Ky. 2009
Texas St. 2012
UMass 2012
UTSA 2013
Georgia State 2013
Ga. Southern 2014
App State 2014
ODU 2014