They looked pretty good against #16 Butler yesterday. I wouldn't sell this program short at all from becoming a dominant force in the A-Sun.

http://www.naplesnews.com/news/2007/dec/...utlasts-f/

Sounds like it was a great game to be at.

thanks for the support. We've had an up and down season so far. Hopefully we can get things back on track once the conference season starts.

Remember how well Kennesaw started their first year in division one? They were winning the conference until about February, and hit the wall. Gulf Coast played well, I hope you guys can keep it up but remember where your at. It'll take you guys time.

Buccaneerlover Wrote:Remember how well Kennesaw started their first year in division one?

Probation. Best of luck to overcome but it is just killer.

Nick M Wrote:

Buccaneerlover Wrote:Remember how well Kennesaw started their first year in division one?

Probation. Best of luck to overcome but it is just killer.

As I understand the reason for the probationary period is because as a D2 school, the standard for recruting players is less stringent. In theory it prevents a team from "loading" up with talent that may not qualify under D1 recruting standards, thus gaining an unfair advantage over existing D1 schools.

Is this anyone else's understanding?
Thanks,
BucDoctor

Buccaneerlover Wrote:Remember how well Kennesaw started their first year in division one? They were winning the conference until about February, and hit the wall. Gulf Coast played well, I hope you guys can keep it up but remember where your at. It'll take you guys time.

Yeah exactly. The 2nd time they played everyone our coaches had it figured out.

Buccaneerlover Wrote:Remember how well Kennesaw started their first year in division one? They were winning the conference until about February, and hit the wall. Gulf Coast played well, I hope you guys can keep it up but remember where your at. It'll take you guys time.

I agree that we're not there yet. I personally don't expect this team to be in contention for the conference title this year. However, I do think that we will be competitive in every game, and possibly finish somewhere in the middle of the pack.

I agree. You get 2 games with UNF, Stetson, & Kennesaw. So that right there should be a large boost to the win column. Especially the UNF/Stetson games.

I was looking up enrollment figures for Division 1-A universities in Florida and decided to look up FGCU. Acccording to Wikipedia, the current enrollment is over 8,300 students. Over the next five years, the undergraduate enrollment is expected to hit the 15,000 mark. That's impressive for a school that only started classes about ten years ago. FGCU is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

bucdoctor---
That's exactly why they make you go through a transitional phase. It's not probation, you're just ineligible for postseason competition. Also, you can fast track certain sports (see KSU soccer).
I think the depth issue, as well as playing a much more physical style of the game will hurt FGCU down the stretch.
And I agree wholeheartedly with UCF, I fully expect Gulf Coast to be in the Sun Belt by 2015, playing football. At the rate the Florida schools are being built and adding football, they could just about all go in and form their own conference...

UCFGoldenKnights#1 Wrote:I was looking up enrollment figures for Division 1-A universities in Florida and decided to look up FGCU. Acccording to Wikipedia, the current enrollment is over 8,300 students. Over the next five years, the undergraduate enrollment is expected to hit the 15,000 mark. That's impressive for a school that only started classes about ten years ago. FGCU is definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Buccaneerlover Wrote:And I agree wholeheartedly with UCF, I fully expect Gulf Coast to be in the Sun Belt by 2015, playing football.

I don't know if I'd quite go that far. I'd say it's more likely that they'd reach the Sun Belt by 2020. FGCU has a lot of work ahead of them. Aside from the obvious need to get a football team started, they need to hit the attendance minimum to gain 1-A membership (Is the minimum still 15,000 per home game? I'm not sure). They'll need to drum up support for the program, which is a tough task for a school that's so new partly because their alumni base isn't very big.

But, like I said, FGCU is worth keeping an eye on. It sounds like this school is setting itself up to grow to a pretty big size. If their predicted growth rate in the Wikipedia article holds true over the next decade, they would have an enrollment of approximately 22,000 by the year 2018.

Funny I even remember Miami being an upstart program at one point.
An all Florida conference someday ? Huh.

Florida
Florida State
Miami
UCF
Gulf Coast
South Florida
Well these could form half a football conference anyway.
Add Stetson, North, Jacksonville for baseball and BB. Probably another out there somewhere.

The top ones could play independents the rest of the season. Or they take in Georgia, Ga Tech, Southern and Kennesaw for a GA-Fl super conference someday.
Stranger things have happened.

JWBUC Wrote:Funny I even remember Miami being an upstart program at one point.
An all Florida conference someday ? Huh.

Florida
Florida State
Miami
UCF
Gulf Coast
South Florida
Well these could form half a football conference anyway.
Add Stetson, North, Jacksonville for baseball and BB. Probably another out there somewhere.

The top ones could play independents the rest of the season. Or they take in Georgia, Ga Tech, Southern and Kennesaw for a GA-Fl super conference someday.
Stranger things have happened.

An all-Florida conference is an intriguing idea, in my opinion, but we all know it'll never happen. UF will not leave the SEC as long as it is the biggest moneymaker in college sports. I could see the SEC possibly dropping a member to make room for FSU or Miami (FL). If that happened, you'd have room in the ACC for a new member from Florida, and the Big East would probably have room as well. But I can't envision a scenario where we could ever see UF, FSU, UM, UCF, USF, FGCU, and any other Floridian universities all in one conference.