ecumbh1999
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I Root For: East Carolina
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RE: All-Time C-USA football standings
(08-14-2013 07:44 PM)Freshy Wrote: (08-14-2013 06:32 PM)Billy Free Wrote: (08-14-2013 05:43 PM)ecumbh1999 Wrote: (08-14-2013 02:20 PM)Billy Free Wrote: (08-14-2013 01:57 PM)StillJonesing Wrote: Or you could actually grow your fanbase and budget.
It is kind of hard to grow a fanbase with Baton Rouge and Tuscaloosa just a few hours away. Most of our fanbase chooses to be "walmart SEC fans" over where they went to school or where they live. It is something we deal with on a daily basis. ECU, yes you compete with North Carolina and so on but we can both agree that is nowhere near the level of Alabama, LSU, and the SEC. It is a whole different world down here with that. Despite all those setbacks including our lack of market(which people love to throw in our face) or our lack of academics(that USM degree didnt seem to phase our governor, Chuck Schiana a mulit millionaire businessman or several military commanders including Jeff Hammond and Walter Yates). We simply win, we win football games. One season will never define who we are whether it is 12-2 or 0-12. I would rather have the respect of the college football world then sit here and be lectured by teams we have dominated over the years about what is wrong with our program and what it takes to get into a conference we were already in for 15 years. All these fans of schools that have left and go over to the AAC and talk about how they are so glad to have shed the excess baggage that was holding them back, just remember one thing, we are proven winners on the field and all the money or markets in the world will not change that. That is all our fans care about, so you can have your AAC(which is the exact same conference we were in last year plus Temple, Cinci, and Uconn, your not fooling anybody) and you can have your markets and all that other stuff, I will take winning all day everyday. Rant over.
Let me stop you right here. First, it not all the fans. Second, sorry Tulane fans, I'd happily trade you out for USM, and not even think about it.
As far as ECU goes, we have UNC, NC State, Wake, Duke, all in the same state, that's 4 other FBS schools (yes Charlotte and Happy Appy fans, I know you are moving up, I'm talking the past 30 years). Then with in a few hours drive we VT, UVa., South Carolina, Clemson as well. No, we don't have many SEC schools to deal with, but we have a shate load of ACC and other teams surrounding us. You don't have the market cornered in adversity. And, we wouldn't be filling a 50,000 seat stadium without a history of winning.
ECU and USM have a long history together and faced many of the same hardships in growing our schools and athletic programs. I have a ton of respect for USM. But, jeez lighten up Sally.
Your right, I didn't think it was possible for someone to get under my skin but jonesing accomplished that. ECU And USM have a good history together and hopefully that will continue one day.
Southern Miss has a total enrollment figure of 16,604, one third of whom actually attend class 85 miles away from the stadium, while ECU has an enrollment figure of something like 27,386. That translates into far more living alumni. You guys should have ~70% higher attendance on the basis of that number alone.
While Southern Miss enjoys legislative protection as one of Mississippi's Big Three universities, that status opens us up to political in-fighting. We are fighting a jealously protected health care program on one hand and a jealously protected engineering program on the other hand. Consequently, Southern Miss has neither the Medical School (and the expanded nursing and other health care programs that come with it) nor the Engineering Faculty (and the expanded mathematics and science programs that come with it) that ECU has. Consequently, we don't have the high-dollar donors that those types of professional programs tend to generate. You guys should have a higher athletic department budget than we do.
I'm not making excuses for us. We do have to do better if we want to compete. But to throw numbers and facts out there in a method that conveys disdain without listing the circumstances behind those numbers and facts is being deliberately deceptive.
Hey, at least some legislative protection, we have none. Every bit of growth, new programs has been hard fought, and still is. And, we have to fight for continued funding of the programs we have at decent levels. Charlotte fans know of what I speak. God forbid we EVER even think about asking to start of law school. Heads would explode in Chapel Hill and Raleigh.
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