(01-05-2017 01:13 PM)Chappy Wrote:  

(01-05-2017 01:00 PM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(01-05-2017 10:32 AM)Chappy Wrote:  I could see how one could argue that a school like Liberty, which drew 16,376 this year and 18,990 the year before, or Jacksonville State (17,576 and 20,598) could get up into the 20,000's by playing FBS competition every week, but how do you figure a Georgia State-Kennesaw State game would put 40,000 in the stands?

Georgia Southern has a much larger fan base and their game at Georgia State only drew 23,513, but Kennesaw State, who gets 6,000 at home games, is going to get 40,000 fans to show up in Atlanta?

Georgia Southern and Appalachian State were good adds. Both were rural, had winning cultures, and established football fan bases. Coastal Carolina it going to have a tough time. I don't know how they are going to get attendance up to 15K. It will be tough. The Sun Belt doesn't need to expand, but if they did, it would need to be with another school that can put 20K in the stands.

Marketz isn't driving the Sun Belt.

Someone wants to get the league's attention, they need to be reasonably proximate to the current league.
Either be an obvious addition because they win football games and sell tickets or be an obvious addition because they are going to bring hoops excellence or be an obvious addition because their overall program has shown the capacity to be very successful across multiple sports.

The current leadership (university presidents) don't care if your school is in a city of 1.3 million or 13,000, you have to fit what they are looking for. The people who wanted markets are gone.

Yup.