Of the three schools coming from the FCS level who will be the best 5-7 years from now?

I think ODU will probably be the best of the three. They have significantly less in-state competition than Charlotte and UTSA, they're in a fairly large city with no professional sports competition, and they are in rich recruiting grounds.

I'm confident in the futures of both Charlotte and UTSA, I just think ODU will probably be a little more consistent in football.

We have even played a game yet, pretty hard to tell.

I think all three have great potential. The advantages for ODU have already been mentioned. Charlotte has a unique opportunity because they can dangle immediate impact playing time/become an instant legend type pitch to high quality recruits. Simple fact is that their greatest player in history is nobody. If I was a glory seeking 18 year old it might be interesting to have the opportunity to go down in history as the program's first great player.

UTSA is in a great city, seems to have great support, but has the toughest hill to climb IMO. That's nothing against them but its the same problem FIU and FAU face only against way more competition.

(07-29-2013 09:03 AM)banker Wrote:  UTSA is in a great city, seems to have great support, but has the toughest hill to climb IMO. That's nothing against them but its the same problem FIU and FAU face only against way more competition.

The Roadrunners' advantage is that people in San Antonio actually care about football. Even Miami has a tough time in south Florida.

kind of hard to tell about Charlotte since they haven't played a game yet

O D U! For more reasons than our run-away with this poll question!

We were undefeated for over 40 years!

I think all three will be successful in C-USA football. UTSA has the highest ceiling, in terms of fan base. It will be exciting to watch the meteoric growth of all three schools.

Wow! What a glowing endorsement of Old Dominion Football. I hope they live up to it, I'm confident that they will. But I voted for "Beep-Beep!!!"(UTSA) because of Larry Coker. Attitude is a reflection of leadership, & I have this feeling that the RoadRunners will be the first new member of the Conference USA "family" to up & show the most moxie early in their tenure.

ODU. It may be 74% student fee's but they do have a much bigger budget to outspend of the three.

(07-29-2013 09:18 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ODU. It may be 74% student fee's but they do have a much bigger budget to outspend the three.

lulz...........

(07-29-2013 09:18 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ODU. It may be 74% student fee's but they do have a much bigger budget to outspend of the three.

How much of that extra budget has to do with the fact they sponsor more sports and have a higher cost of attendance than Charlotte? Charlotte's should be upwards of $25 million by the time we add in all the new scholarships and coaching salaries for the sports we have to add.

I'm not so sure a higher budget really makes a difference when there isn't a profit to go along with it.

(07-29-2013 09:19 AM)VA49er Wrote:  

(07-29-2013 09:18 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ODU. It may be 74% student fee's but they do have a much bigger budget to outspend the three.

lulz...........

So you think their is no correlation between resources and success? Sure there are a few programs that can work miracles on duct tape and bubble gum but you look at the vast majority of successful ones and they are the best supported schools with the most money. ODU has a 35 million dollar budget. UNCC has a 20 million dollar one.

(07-29-2013 09:18 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ODU. It may be 74% student fee's but they do have a much bigger budget to outspend of the three.

Thanks... I think...?

But really, that percentage will be down once we're actually getting money from the conference(unlike the CAA) as well as additional donors.

(07-29-2013 09:31 AM)Niner National Wrote:  I'm not so sure a higher budget really makes a difference when there isn't a profit to go along with it.

How do you know the profit isn't invested back into their program, or at least the money they are collecting from students? It doesn't nessassarly have to be shown as profit, probably less useful to the program if it is and they aren't spending it on the program. They had a top 5 FCS paid coach from day 1. That's because they have a lot more money relative to that level and I'm sure it didn't just stop there. They probably paid the rest of their staff at a high level as well and other things that help you win like a higher recruiting budget, less pressure/quota to recruit a certain number of instate guys to save on out of state scholarships etc.

(07-29-2013 09:42 AM)Monarch_Pride Wrote:  

(07-29-2013 09:18 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  ODU. It may be 74% student fee's but they do have a much bigger budget to outspend of the three.

Thanks... I think...?

But really, that percentage will be down once we're actually getting money from the conference(unlike the CAA) as well as additional donors.

The difference in money you would get from CUSA is like 1 or 2 million I think. That's a small percentage.

(07-29-2013 08:46 AM)BleedsGreen33 Wrote:  Of the three schools coming from the FCS level who will be the best 5-7 years from now?

My guess is that Old Dominion will be stronger than the other two newbies. UT-San Antonio coached by CLC will be a better coached team than UNC-Charlotte. ODU will surprise some teams in CUSA. I'm picking them to win 4 conference games their inaugural year. UTSA will beat one (or maybe two, FIU) conference team and Charlotte, I predict none. And that is the way I see it.

(07-29-2013 09:45 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  The difference in money you would get from CUSA is like 1 or 2 million I think. That's a small percentage.

Yes, but we will also be upgrading the stadium. That will really inflate the budget, and the money won't be from student fees.

Before this thread is completely hijacked. I voted ODU for several reasons. No professional sports competition, they've proven they can build a good FCS program quickly, they've got a good fan based started to date and they've got access to a lot of quality football players in SE VA. Once ODU has a larger stadium and more ticket / donor revenue we'll see things take off.

BTW..... as far as the 74% subsidized number SJ keeps throwing out there. This is perfectly normal for an essentially brand new football program. That number will drop once FBS type of revenues really kick in.

I believe all 3 have some potential but I see ODU as having by far the highest ceiling of the 3.

(07-29-2013 09:50 AM)Monarch_Pride Wrote:  

(07-29-2013 09:45 AM)StillJonesing Wrote:  The difference in money you would get from CUSA is like 1 or 2 million I think. That's a small percentage.

Yes, but we will also be upgrading the stadium. That will really inflate the budget, and the money won't be from student fees.

Yeh, a bigger stadium will help with our budget, not just in ticket revenue, but more fans wanting tickets means more donations, more sponsorship etc.

It's a little known fact that ECU have a stadium that can fit 50,000. Their fans are much too humble to say as much though, but look it up, it's true.