(01-05-2018 10:03 PM)Michael in Raleigh Wrote:  

(01-05-2018 09:54 PM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(01-05-2018 07:16 PM)ark30inf Wrote:  

(01-05-2018 06:25 PM)YNot Wrote:  

(01-05-2018 03:15 PM)bullet Wrote:  Also in most other sports you don't have 27 of the 130 members that have been added in the last 25 years (and 14 in the last dozen) when most of those are lower level programs that just happen to have a new label and scholarship limit.

I wonder how many FBS members would still qualify if they enforced the 15K minimum attendance rule. I haven't seen 2017 numbers yet, but last year there were at least 10 FBS programs under the minimum and another half dozen or so barely over.

If they increased the attendance minimum to 20K, you're looking at like 27 schools that wouldn't meet the cutoff. It's hard to argue that you should be part of the top level of college football if you can't average 20K home game attendance...let alone 15K.

When our own alumni adopt a P5 team they did not even attend because they are "relevant"...then that also is skewed due to the cartel's stranglehold.

No, that's just indicative of poor support by your fan base.

E.g., I work on the campus of an FCS school. We have 101 years of football tradition and have competed in the same conference for 84 years. We don't give a hoot about what the Big Power schools are doing, our alumni love our team and its traditions and rivalries.

That's what a true fan base looks like. A fan base that is only interested if it sees a path to your school being Alabama in 15 years is no fan base at all.

I guarantee you there are USF students who wear Gators or Seminoles gear around campus. It's that way at a lot of schools. App State, relative to its size and short history in FBS, has quite a lot of support and attendance. But, and I have admitting this, there are still quite a few who are UNC, Duke, or State fans "during basketball season." Ugh.

You don't have to guarantee that to me, I know it's true. When I was living in the USF dorms in the mid-1980s, there were far more Canes and Noles and Gators banners hanging in those rooms than USF banners. That's one reason we got a football team, to create more school unity and spirit.

But just because we do now have a team doesn't mean it's still not a problem. No honest USF supporter will deny that we have a fan base problem in all dimensions - size and degree of loyalty, and a big part of that is being the new kid on the block in an area that was saturated with supporters of established schools.