http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/c..._0227.html

Looks like we have had no progress with Football but lets hope the school gets some more funding to help the school continue to improve in all aspects.

It's because of D-I transition phase I believe. They just don't have the personnel right now to make sure both get the proper attention each endeavor deserves. With that said, they could hire some people, but I don't know the intracacies, mainly budget.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that KSU will need to be reclassified in order to get any substantial increase in state funding. There are 4 research universities in the state that get the highest level of funding: Georgia Medical College, GA Tech, Ga state and UGA. KSU will never even get close to that amount of funding because KSU does not really conduct much research and certainly not at the level of these schools. Essentially, the main purpose of those schools is to conduct research and teching engl 1101 to 18 yr ols is the secondary priority. Obviously, KSU is classified as a "state university" according to the board of regents and gets the funding that comes along with that. KSU could perhaps fight for the amount of funding that some of the other state universities get, but I think the difference would not be that great.

I could be wrong, but if KSU was able to get the board of regents to reclassify us to be a "regional university" then that would equal a lot more funding for us and would put us on a higher level that simply a "state university". There are only two regional universities in the state right now and both of them are in south georgia (valdosta state and ga southern). I think our goal has to be to work towards being reclassified as the only "regional university" in north georgia and get on the same level of funding as valdosta and ga southern.

As for football, unfortuantely I agree that it doesnt seem to be happening anytime soon. Yet, over the years I have come to expect that it will not happen for a long time. I agree that the transition to D1 probably means that the budget is simply not in anywhere near the shape it needs to be in for football. For a school like KSU, I think more people (both students and admin) need to be open to the idea of 1-aa as I still think that is the most realistic option for us in the immediate future.

I think the fact that Papp worked for the BoR prior to his hiring as President will help substantially. He knows the people there better than anyone I would guess. Many may have worked for him. We'll be at the top of the State University classification before long. Regional, that'd be a hard sell. Research, that'd be an even tougher sell but with all this nursing shortage and stuff, it could happen. Plus the WellStar connections (unfortuantely the main benefactor passed away) could help.

I'm not selling the university short yet larry.

I just wanted to note that when talking about funding it may be a good idea to distinguish between funding for athletics and funding for academics.

The reason being that the State of Georgia, unlike some states, does not assist/fund athletic programs.

Thus for example, as one poster seemingly alluded to above, the fact that Georgia State is a research university and Kennesaw State is not has no correlation to the amount of funding the schools receive for athletics. As both schools receive nothing.

I believe it could fund facilities with educational purposes though. See Convocation Center.

Last year KSU and three others (GA Southern, Valdosta and West GA) were grouped in a new group that allows these schools to charge slightly more for tuition than other compreshensive universities. (UGA, GA Tech GA Medical College and GA State still charge more tutition) So we charge more tutition than the other state schools but we are still behind with the suppport from the state. I too believe that having Dr. Papp will help us make in-roads in the budgeting we get at KSU but only time will tell.

To GA ST just posting on the general address of KSU
The statement about Football was because in the speech Dr. Papp stated we had made no progress on the Football front with donations.
All I have to say is that its amazing that GA ST does not play KSU in anything just because they want to pretend they are at a level above KSU. GA ST is in the same boat as KSU and we should be working on building a rivalry but GA ST believes ignoring KSU will make us go away.
Good luck getting Football over there and hope to see you guys on the field and hardwood soon.

KSUowl0003 Wrote:To GA ST just posting on the general address of KSU
The statement about Football was because in the speech Dr. Papp stated we had made no progress on the Football front with donations.
All I have to say is that its amazing that GA ST does not play KSU in anything just because they want to pretend they are at a level above KSU. GA ST is in the same boat as KSU and we should be working on building a rivalry but GA ST believes ignoring KSU will make us go away.
Good luck getting Football over there and hope to see you guys on the field and hardwood soon.

My comments weren't to Papp's address specifically. I was just noting that in general conversations about budgeting, funding, etc., it would be wise to distinguish between athletic funding and academic funding. My comment was to help clarify and understand better, not for critique or criticism.

As to the second part of your statements....Well I'm not going into detail because it wouldn't be appropriate for this topic. But to be short Georgia State has been DI since the 1960s. Granted we haven't made the best of it, and could have made decisions to put us in a better position, bet we aren't in the same boat.

If you are not UGA or GA Tech you are in the same boat......you might be able to make a case for Ga Southern but we are all tyring to make our mark in athletics.

So is the football issue pretty much dead or are they still trying?

Its not dead but they are looking for a lead donation of a large amount of money to get the program kick started. From everything I have read we need about 30 million to have everything but I would assume a 5 million dollar donation would get the ball rolling. They have already voted on increasing student fees. If they do the $105 increase per semester it should increase the athletic budget a couple million a year.

Its not dead but we need a friend of the univesity with a big checkbook to open it.

Is that 30 million figure because you guys need to build a stadium?

I imagine facilities are included in that estimate. Otherwise, it probably wouldn't be that high. Could be but I doubt it

My understanding is that the 30 million includes an on-campus stadium and scholarship football. I hope with all the HQs in Cobb we get a lead sponsor soon.

Gonna be tough to raise that money. To be honest, the key to raising the money is probably the basketball program. Kennesaw wins the conference tournament in the first couple of years of their full eligibility, and I bet the donations start pouring in....

How serious do you guys think KSU is about starting a program?

The reason I ask is because 30 million is a high figure; and with the economy being the way it is I think it's going to be difficult if not impossible to get that kind of money.

I think they would be more likely to raise that kind of money if they had a program. Then people/companies would donate because they actually would be to see the product of their donations.

We have plans to play at the Georgia Dome, until something can be done about building a stadium. And I know that until recently West Georgia played at a high school stadium. So has KSU considered an alternate facility?

I think that Kennesaw is looking for the big hit. I don't think our administration thinks in small terms. That is a good thing, but also can make waiting tough. I have been preaching patience on this board for a long time about football - it just doesn't happen overnight. We have a long way to go in our athletic department before it is ready for a football program...EVEN if we had the money, we are 4 years away from being ready to field a team. My guess is that we are looking at 2012 - 2015 before we field our first team. That will be best for the university as well, as we will be primed to take the next step up in notoriety.

I agree with that in order for football to be successful, we're going to have to be successful in basketball. We also need to bring in some big steady audiences to the games too.

I agree with the statement that KSU administration thinks big. I think it would be a mistake to go to a high school stadium and it would cause more imagine problems then waiting for our own stadium. I believe it is a mistake for GSU to use the Dome. If they are only bringing in 15k to 25k people in attendance that Dome is going to look like they only have 10k people in attendance on TV. Even when they dome has 50K in attendance it still looks empty. So to that point I am glad KSU is going to wait and do it right with an on campus stadium.

I have heard that we have quite donations of 3 million for Footall so I believe that the administration is serious about Football

KSUowl0003 Wrote:I have heard that we have quite donations of 3 million for Footall so I believe that the administration is serious about Football

If that's true, its not a bad start considering Georgia State's website says they only have around 1.2 million in donations up to this point. However, I know we also need about three times more than they do to start a program. I think the next big step is increasing the athletic fee according to the vote that passed. Does anyone know when they plan on implementing the $105 athletic fee increase?