Into the Cougar's Den enter the Panthers.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,[3] extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the Western Hemisphere, after the jaguar.

Houston Cougars vs Georgia State Panthers
Saturday Sept 24th, 8 pm (EST)
Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX

TV: CSS (CSNa), DirecTV 643/ Dish 444

(09-23-2011 01:11 PM)panama Wrote:  Into the Cougar's Den enter the Panthers.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,[3] extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the Western Hemisphere, after the jaguar.

Houston Cougars vs Georgia State Panthers
Saturday Sept 24th, 8 pm (EST)
Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX

TV: CSS (CSNa), DirecTV 643/ Dish 444

Hope you guys bring some lube...

(09-23-2011 01:13 PM)PirateHeist Wrote:  

(09-23-2011 01:11 PM)panama Wrote:  Into the Cougar's Den enter the Panthers.

From Wikipedia:

Quote:The cougar (Puma concolor), also known as puma, mountain lion, mountain cat, catamount or panther, depending on the region, is a mammal of the family Felidae, native to the Americas. This large, solitary cat has the greatest range of any large wild terrestrial mammal in the Western Hemisphere,[3] extending from Yukon in Canada to the southern Andes of South America. An adaptable, generalist species, the cougar is found in every major American habitat type. It is the second heaviest cat in the Western Hemisphere, after the jaguar.

Houston Cougars vs Georgia State Panthers
Saturday Sept 24th, 8 pm (EST)
Robertson Stadium, Houston, TX

TV: CSS (CSNa), DirecTV 643/ Dish 444

Hope you guys bring some lube...

We have been suggesting KY on PantherTalk since Monday. Dont have much hope against a 9th year Senior, especially with the number of injuries we have. At least we will get a check and we should score more than the 7 points we scored against Alabama. Line is 37 pts.

GSU moves kickoff times in attempt to draw more fans
2:13 pm September 22, 2011, by Doug Roberson

In an attempt to improve attendance, Georgia State has moved back kickoff times for three of its remaining four home football games at the Georgia Dome.

The games against Murray State (Oct. 8), St. Francis (Nov. 5) and Campbell (Nov. 19) will start at 2 p.m. The game against South Alabama (Oct. 22) will keep its 3 p.m. kickoff time.

Attendance for the season-opener against Clark Atlanta surpassed 25,000, including thousands of students. The next game against Old Dominion had an announced attendance of more than 11,000, with perhaps hundreds of students attending. The poor attendance was attributed to numerous campus activities going on at the same time, including rush for sororities.

In an attempt to improve the spirit at the games, Georgia State is asking for fans to wear white to the game against Murray State. Free t-shirts will be given to the first 5,000 fans through the gates.

– Doug Roberson, AJC. Follow me on twitter @ajcgsu

(09-23-2011 02:17 PM)Saint3333 Wrote:  GSU moves kickoff times in attempt to draw more fans
2:13 pm September 22, 2011, by Doug Roberson

In an attempt to improve attendance, Georgia State has moved back kickoff times for three of its remaining four home football games at the Georgia Dome.

The games against Murray State (Oct. 8), St. Francis (Nov. 5) and Campbell (Nov. 19) will start at 2 p.m. The game against South Alabama (Oct. 22) will keep its 3 p.m. kickoff time.

Attendance for the season-opener against Clark Atlanta surpassed 25,000, including thousands of students. The next game against Old Dominion had an announced attendance of more than 11,000, with perhaps hundreds of students attending. The poor attendance was attributed to numerous campus activities going on at the same time, including rush for sororities.

In an attempt to improve the spirit at the games, Georgia State is asking for fans to wear white to the game against Murray State. Free t-shirts will be given to the first 5,000 fans through the gates.

– Doug Roberson, AJC. Follow me on twitter @ajcgsu

Lets see if it works. 2 pm isnt much of a change IMHO. I would take a hint from the fact that the two highest attended games we have ever had (26k and 30k) were on a Friday night at 7 this year and Thursday night at 7 last year.I would have made one of those remaining games a Saturday night game just to see what happens. As for noon starts, bad bad bad idea in Atlanta.

Panama,
You making the trip to Houston?

(09-23-2011 02:29 PM)billetingman1 Wrote:  Panama,
You making the trip to Houston?

Absolutely. Flying out with the spousal unit in the morning. Ironically my sister is a double degree Houston Cougar living in Dallas and is not going. LOL

(09-23-2011 02:47 PM)panama Wrote:  

(09-23-2011 02:29 PM)billetingman1 Wrote:  Panama,
You making the trip to Houston?

Absolutely. Flying out with the spousal unit in the morning. Ironically my sister is a double degree Houston Cougar living in Dallas and is not going. LOL

Have a safe trip! Robertson is a great atmosphere on game day! Lots of tailgating!

(09-23-2011 02:49 PM)billetingman1 Wrote:  

(09-23-2011 02:47 PM)panama Wrote:  

(09-23-2011 02:29 PM)billetingman1 Wrote:  Panama,
You making the trip to Houston?

Absolutely. Flying out with the spousal unit in the morning. Ironically my sister is a double degree Houston Cougar living in Dallas and is not going. LOL

Have a safe trip! Robertson is a great atmosphere on game day! Lots of tailgating!

Should be a blast, My wife is from South Texas so she is excited about going home.

Per the AJC, Aarons Inc CEO R.Charles Loudermilk has made a donation of $1 million to GSU towards a new weightlifting facility.

More details as they become available..

http://www.georgiastatesports.com/ViewAr...M_ID=12700

Quote:ATLANTA-- Georgia State Director of Athletics Cheryl L. Levick announced Tuesday the addition of sand volleyball as the 10th women's sport and 19th varsity program at GSU, beginning competition in the spring of 2013.

The team will be headed by current Panthers indoor volleyball coach Tami Audia.

Named an Emerging Sport by the NCAA, sand volleyball will be played for the first time at the varsity level in the spring of 2012 by approximately 15-20 schools. An estimated 30-40 more are in the decision-making process to join the Panthers for the 2013 season.

Georgia State has begun the recruiting process for their inaugural team and will be welcoming its first student athletes in the fall of 2012.

"It's exciting to know that we're on the forefront at Georgia State," says Levick. "There is a strong interest to add another sport and sand volleyball is very popular. We want GSU to be one of the premier programs, and we're working very hard behind the scenes every day to make that happen."

GSU will compete in a state-of-the-art sand complex, to be built behind the current GSU Sports Arena on the corner of Piedmont Avenue and Decatur Street on campus. The venue will feature three full sand courts and seating for 1,250 fans.

"We are thrilled to be starting a sand volleyball program at GSU," says Audia. "We are certain that with great support from our athletic department, we will be making GSU a top destination for the sport."

Joining Audia as Assistant Sand Coach is former Panther volleyball standout Beth Van Fleet, who brings eight years of pro beach volleyball experience to the staff. Van Fleet competed in over 80 Association of Volleyball Professionals tournaments from 2003-10 and is widely known throughout the sand volleyball community.

Prior to beginning her sand career, Van Fleet piled up 1,177 kills at Georgia State from 1995-98, the fourth-highest total in school history.

"I know that we have the ingredients to be successful here at GSU and I can't wait to develop a strong sand volleyball tradition," says Van Fleet.

According to the American Volleyball Coaches Association, an estimated 300,000 young women under the age of 18 are competing in the sport, predominantly at the club level.

The NCAA requires 40 participating institutions for sand volleyball to earn full NCAA sponsorship and a national championship. Additional schools in the southeast who have fielded a sand team include Florida State, College of Charleston, Mercer, Jacksonville and UAB.

Georgia State may distribute four full scholarships for the inaugural 2012-13 season, per NCAA rules.

"We really want to be successful in sand volleyball," Levick says. "It is (coach Audia's) goal, and mine, to have outstanding volleyball year-round at Georgia State University."

Things are moving fast so..


*cough cough*

Intercollegiate Athletics
P.O. Box 3975
Atlanta, GA 30302-3975



....just saying

From PantherTalk.com:

Quote:Georgia State football has reaped tangible benefits including more school spirit, a huge increase in donations and bringing disconnected alumni back to campus wearing blue and white. The campus continues to grow as new on campus dorms have been opened in two out of the last three years.

The next logical step was a serious upgrade in our athletic facilities. The football team led by head coach Bill Curry already play in the Georgia Dome and this Spring opened a state of the art practice facility located on 188 Martin Luther King Drive, just blocks from campus.

Georgia State athletics released their 2010-11 Annual report to Panther Athletic Club members and it included projections of the new Georgia State Sports Arena, an in town baseball facility and an in town softball facility. We give you an exclusive first look at all three beginning with the Georgia State Sports Arena.

Quote:This 5,000 seat Arena will feature the court turned 90 degrees (instead of entering the Arena at the basket end, you’ll enter on the sidelines). Their will also be [by my count], 12 luxury box suites and seating behind the goals [presumably for students].

In the day and time when athletic departments across the country are preparing for their close up, Georgia State athletics is not sitting and watching. Our leadership is preparing our development team to have tangible images in speaking with donors and prospective donors. This is a great time to be a Panther!

Quote:Many of us Georgia State fans have been waiting a long time to see plans for a new Panthersville on or near campus. Those who recently received the 2010-2011 Georgia State Athletics Annual Report were given a look at some pictures of the proposed renovations to the Sports Arena as well as artist renderings of a new baseball and softball field located downtown. Ryan covered the Sports Arena in Part 1 of this series and now we’ll be looking at the drawings for the baseball and softball fields.

The Georgia State Baseball program has turned into an expected perennial winner under Head Coach Greg Frady. In his first five seasons as Head Coach the team has made the CAA Championship tournament in four out of five seasons including a current run of 3 straight. This run also includes a CAA Championship and a trip to the NCAA Regionals in 2010. This program has outgrown the current field at Panthersville. They are deserving of a quality Division 1 baseball stadium and the Georgia State Administration is going to make that happen. The following image is an artist rendering of the proposed new Georgia State Baseball stadium.

Quote:This is obviously a sketch drawing but we here at PantherTalk believe the drawing to be accurate to the desired end product. The only caveat would be the backdrop and any last minute changes they make to the stadium. The backdrop will obviously depend on the exact location of the field (which is not final to our knowledge) but rest assured the backdrop will be the skyscrapers of Atlanta and now we’re talking a real baseball stadium. Let’s take a look at a few more of the important features I notice.

It appears the outfield wall will be constructed of a fence material that will allow students and people who may be walking by to have a view of the field. This is a great idea. After seeing the quality baseball on the field, eventually people will want a closer look and start buying tickets. I don’t think the artist would go out of his way to make the fence see-through if this wasn’t in the plans.
Full baseline stadium seating. The current field only has seating between the dugouts equivalent to most county recreational fields. This will increase seating capacity, which I believe will be needed for this program down the road, and it will give the stadium a more “big league” feel.
Real below playing surface dugouts. Again, this goes a long way in giving the stadium a professional feel.
Covered seating between 1st and 3rd base. This will be much appreciated and will reduce those half faced sun burns (the right side if you’re wondering) we’re used to getting during a 1:00 Sunday game in April and May.
Fully integrated and enclosed press box. Completes the stadium and appears to allow for more press rooms. I can’t help but to wonder if there may be a suite or four on the ends of that enclosure.
Something I just noticed after having seen this image over the past few days, if you look down the right field foul line past 3rd base it looks like there is a building with field access. This could be a field house containing indoor hitting and pitching facilities with an attached equipment house as well.
Now that we’ve covered the baseball field it’s time to talk about the new field for the current CAA Champions, Georgia State Softball.

Quote:After looking at the rendering of the softball stadium, it appears all of the same features used on the baseball field will be repeated for Softball including an attached indoor field houe/equipment house. All of the same benefits will apply here.

With Georgia being consistently a top 5 state in producing baseball talent there is no reason Georgia State cannot be a national power in baseball, in such a way that Georgia Tech and Georgia are able to remain in the upper echelon of college baseball. These new facilities will overall strengthen the programs, bring in better talent and increase fan and student attendance. I hope to see a fundraising campaign soon rolled out in an effort to raise the capital needed to produce the amazing facilities shown above.

We would love to hear your comments and questions on the above photos!

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/georgia-...00986.html

Quote:Georgia State law school earns No. 1 ranking

By Laura Diamond
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

10:57 a.m. Friday, October 14, 2011
The law school at Georgia State University was ranked as the best value in the nation for the second consecutive year by preLaw magazine. The magazine calculated the rankings using bar passage rates, employment rates, average debt after graduation and other factors. The study ranked University of Georgia's law school as No. 5. The following schools rounded out the top five: Brigham Young University, Florida State University and University of North Carolina.

GSU Gaining Media Speed

To go along with the excellent GSU sports reporting done on Panther Talk (http://www.PantherTalk.com), GSU now has a Scout site (http://georgiastate.scout.com/)

(10-24-2011 08:03 PM)panama Wrote:  GSU Gaining Media Speed

To go along with the excellent GSU sports reporting done on Panther Talk (http://www.PantherTalk.com), GSU now has a Scout site (http://georgiastate.scout.com/)

I'll look that up. I just dumped cuse and spitt from my favorite forums. I already saved Charlotte to replace one. I'll do GSU for the other. Right now I get most of my info fro the CAAzone board.

(10-24-2011 09:16 PM)mikeinsec127 Wrote:  

(10-24-2011 08:03 PM)panama Wrote:  GSU Gaining Media Speed

To go along with the excellent GSU sports reporting done on Panther Talk (http://www.PantherTalk.com), GSU now has a Scout site (http://georgiastate.scout.com/)

I'll look that up. I just dumped cuse and spitt from my favorite forums. I already saved Charlotte to replace one. I'll do GSU for the other. Right now I get most of my info fro the CAAzone board.

Panther Talk front page has the most info

(10-24-2011 08:03 PM)panama Wrote:  GSU Gaining Media Speed

To go along with the excellent GSU sports reporting done on Panther Talk (http://www.PantherTalk.com), GSU now has a Scout site (http://georgiastate.scout.com/)

....so, panama, when do we get the honor of your presence over at Panthersville?

GSU 2010-2011 Athletic Budget Numbers In...

$22,678,186

http://atlanta.sbnation.com/georgia-st-p...e-football

Why Georgia State Football Makes Sense For Conference USA
by Ben Moore • Nov 2, 2011 9:57 AM EDT

While nearly every non AQ school in America is putting on its best makeup and prom dress, hoping for a date in the latest conference expansion carousel, I'm convinced that Conference USA should look no further than Georgia State to fill the upcoming gap in their Eastern division.



Georgia State football has played a total of 19 games. The Panthers are 8-11 in those games (including losses to Alabama and Houston). The team has 69 freshmen or sophomores on their roster of nearly 107 players, so they've experienced growing pains like any other young football team in their second season of existence.
"So, I thought you were going to convince me that Georgia State deserves to join a better conference?"

Conference USA and the Mountain West have announced a merger that would currently include 14 teams for football only. This conglomerate does not boast a single Top 10 media market, and the highest profile program is likely either San Diego State or East Carolina. Not exactly the ammunition you need to sell advertisers.

Georgia State University boats 179,000 alumni, 33,000 students (who bankroll nearly 90% of the football program's budget) and have a President determined to make Georgia State a national name academically. The University received more applications in the years since adding football in 2009 than they had prior five years combined. Football helps.

The Panthers enjoy facilities that would put them on par with nearly every Conference USA school. Georgia State football is lead by a nationally recognized head coach in Bill Curry and is one of only six NCAA programs that play in an NFL facility in the Georgia Dome. Director of Athletic Cheryl Levick has discussed that the Panthers will continue to play in the Dome:

Quote:We love the Georgia Dome. It is our home, it is within walking distance [from campus]....we are very happy with playing in the Georgia Dome. It’s also a huge recruiting advantage. High school players love coming to the Dome, playing in a pro setting, it’s been a real advantage for us.

Levick has already made mention of plans that include expanding their football facility to include a state of the art football only strength and conditioning center, one that already has a donor wanting to pick up $1 million of the tab, and an indoor practice facility. Budget projections for the athletic program are expected to approach $23 million in 2012. Few football programs at the FCS level discuss such things or have budgets of this size.

So why now? Is this talk premature?

On Tuesday, Big East Presidents met and agreed to invite six schools to their conference, including three from Conference USA in SMU and Houston out of the Western division and Central Florida in the Eastern division. As most sports fan know, timing is everything. The conference just lost the Dallas, Houston and Orlando markets, which represent No. 5, 10 and 19, respectively. CUSA desperately needs a Top 10 market to maintain attractiveness for television contracts and bowl tie ins.

The league boasts seven bowl tie ins with the Liberty, Hawai'i, Armed Forces, Beef O'Bradys, New Orleans, Military and TicketCity. These bowl tie ins are subject to change over the coming years as the new BCS system is implemented, potentially sending ripples down the non-BCS bowls.

Conference expansion is primarily about eyeballs as the leagues need television contract revenue. The SEC signed a $2.25 billion contract in 2009. So what about CUSA's, you may ask? The league has a current deal set to expire in 2016 with Fox Sports networks that pays an estimated $1.2 million per year to its members schools.

Georgia State is the best option to replace Central Florida, because in many ways, the Panthers are following UCF's model. Utilize student fees to build the program in its infancy while building fan base and donor support while the University experiences explosive growth (the last two Freshman classes at GSU have eclipsed 3000 students and the school is expected to increase its total student populous to 35,000 by 2013). Atlanta is ranked as the No. 9 DMA for television and radio.

While the conference expansion carousel keeps spinning and may produce some nauseousness, I'm convinced that Conference USA should pick up the phone and call Georgia State President Mark Becker.