Now that UConn has fired Paul Pasqualoni the rumor mill will heat up around Rob Ambrose and our undefeated team. With 7 more games left in the regular season, an open date, and possibly 6 more weeks of activity in the playoffs (FCS title game is January 4) that means that this will be hanging over our program for as many as 3.5 months.

If you are Rob Ambrose, how do you deal with this internally with the team and externally with the media? If you are UConn do you wait for an FCS Coach to interview for your job until January 5, which is only 1 month before signing day on February 5? If you are Ambrose do you interview for the job while your team is still playing in the postseason?

Rob has never been shy in his comments about how much he loved UConn as his kids were both born there and his wife's best friends are still there. Wonder if he will be up front about his interest or if he will come out and say he is committed to our alma mater? Will Towson step up and add to the salary of our Alum Head Coach in an effort to keep him at Towson? How much can we afford to pay with so few season tickets sold, which I was told is less than 2,000 this season. Will the new AD and President make the commitment to investing more money into the Football Program when they just cut men's soccer last fall?

Now that colleges are firing coaches in the middle of the season it is becoming more and more like the NFL. These are unchartered waters to navigate and a lot to ask of our kids not to be distracted for the next 14 weeks. This is our best chance ever to win a national title in football and it could all go down the tubes if this is not handled the right way.

Make a commitment to move to the second tier and now "The General" has a challenge, add three years to the current contract and reevaluate once the transition to the next level takes place. If you play at Ravens Stadium you could get corporate sponsorship and suites for these companies, without the stadium in Baltimore we would have too much of a financial burden.

One thing is for sure... without moving up to the next level I'm sure "The General" would have an interest in taking a job like UConn. I don't see it happening though, Leonard was not brought here to stay status quo.

Gotta ask, where does the money come from to make this move you speak of? You never answered the question a month ago when we talked about it here. And just because we rent Ravens Stadium does not mean we'd get a cent of dollars from suite sales. It's a rental. You get nothing from suites as those, including my own, are sold on the Ravens dime with first right of refusal on all ticket sales. If we do not buy the tickets to events like the Army Navy game or Maryland vs WVU the suite goes dark. Same thing on the corporate sales as if we have a sponsor that conflicts with a Ravens sponsor we cannot bring our sponsor into that stadium, which actually means we lose a prorated portion of the already signed partnership. The only way we make cash is if we sell a load of tickets which is still a dream, not a reality. I'm hopeful this will change but our first crowd was over 60% students and band, none of which paid. Putting in more seats for students is great for atmosphere and school spirit but it does not pay the bills.

(09-30-2013 07:45 PM)TigerNation82 Wrote:  Gotta ask, where does the money come from to make this move you speak of? You never answered the question a month ago when we talked about it here. And just because we rent Ravens Stadium does not mean we'd get a cent of dollars from suite sales. It's a rental. You get nothing from suites as those, including my own, are sold on the Ravens dime with first right of refusal on all ticket sales. If we do not buy the tickets to events like the Army Navy game or Maryland vs WVU the suite goes dark. Same thing on the corporate sales as if we have a sponsor that conflicts with a Ravens sponsor we cannot bring our sponsor into that stadium, which actually means we lose a prorated portion of the already signed partnership. The only way we make cash is if we sell a load of tickets which is still a dream, not a reality. I'm hopeful this will change but our first crowd was over 60% students and band, none of which paid. Putting in more seats for students is great for atmosphere and school spirit but it does not pay the bills.

I answered the question you raised last month, we would play an ODU type schedule during a transition year. We get two years to increase the scholarships by an additional 22, a schedule like ODU is playing this year should bring in approximately 1.5 mill from the FBS schools, which more than covers the additional 22. Going forward we would play two BCS schools a year like most of the mid majors which would get us closer to 2 million per year. Of course fundraising would increase exponentially if we were to increase our visibility and upgrade to a better conference.

Towson is not going t commit t move the football program to FBS and move the rest of the athletic program to a new league just to keep Rob Ambrose. That's insane. Coaches come and go and if a better offer comes along for Ambrose's family he will take it and we will hire another coach who wants to build Towson up. That's the game and with our new AD he knows lots of coaches who could come in and do just fine. I know that Tim is close to June Jones and would jump at a chance to bring in a guy like Hal Mumme to be the next Had coach if Rob bumps up.

TigerNation,

I think we have an opportunity to market season tickets to average person who is not a Towson alum but has an interest in football if we played downtown. The tickets would be reasonably priced and the quality of product may surprise a few folks who never would of attended a Towson game. Add this to the fact that an alum such as myself or an opposing teams fan would most likely prefer to stay in the inner harbor and make a weekend of the event. I think we are limiting ourself to just marketing to the Towson Community and missing out on just the average football fan that would spend $100 for season tickets to see quality football downtown yet never attended Towson.

Steve Orsini hired June Jones and no thanks we don't need to go back to a finesse passing offense ever!!! Where did I insinuate moving to tier two was to appease Coach Ambrose? We will move due to the fact that the landscape is changing and what you know as fcs football won't exist in the same form as we currently know it...you need to plan ahead and not be reactive. Keep an eye on JMU in the very near future and ask yourself if you really want to play in a conference with the new replacement being Elon? The choice is obvious for most that have watched this program elevate over the past 3 years.

(09-30-2013 10:43 PM)LoneStar Wrote:  Steve Orsini hired June Jones and no thanks we don't need to go back to a finesse passing offense ever!!! Where did I insinuate moving to tier two was to appease Coach Ambrose? We will move due to the fact that the landscape is changing and what you know as fcs football won't exist in the same form as we currently know it...you need to plan ahead and not be reactive. Keep an eye on JMU in the very near future and ask yourself if you really want to play in a conference with the new replacement being Elon? The choice is obvious for most that have watched this program elevate over the past 3 years.

It's going to happen sooner than later, with or without Rob Ambrose. And it's way, way, way too early to know if UConn has any interest in him. They might keep Weist if he does well. But the fan base wants a big name, something to re-energize the program. That's not RA.

Moving to FBS is not going to happen anytime soon around Towson. I was listening to XM College Sports Today and the host was talking about the new cost of attendance stipends that the FBS schools will be paying out. could be as high as another $4,000 per kid x 85 kids = $340,000 annually to be able to compete in recruiting. As a comparison that is more cash than we have ever made in a season of gate receipts for football. I think paying college kids to play is a joke. Stuff like that will be hard for us to manage based on trends even with a 5-0 team. I mean we are 5-0 and #3 in the nation and we cannot sell out our 11,700 seat stadium for a game in great weather. Noon start of not, that is not a good omen. It's nice to have 4,000 plus students show up but in order to start being a viable program in terms of moving up we have to sell tickets and bring in the dollars needed to support the program. No revenue = no move up. ODU made the move and they were selling out their stadium in year #1 of the program. Georgia State was just stupid in moving up as they have not won a game in two years.

(10-04-2013 06:05 PM)TigerNation82 Wrote:  Moving to FBS is not going to happen anytime soon around Towson. I was listening to XM College Sports Today and the host was talking about the new cost of attendance stipends that the FBS schools will be paying out. could be as high as another $4,000 per kid x 85 kids = $340,000 annually to be able to compete in recruiting. As a comparison that is more cash than we have ever made in a season of gate receipts for football. I think paying college kids to play is a joke. Stuff like that will be hard for us to manage based on trends even with a 5-0 team. I mean we are 5-0 and #3 in the nation and we cannot sell out our 11,700 seat stadium for a game in great weather. Noon start of not, that is not a good omen. It's nice to have 4,000 plus students show up but in order to start being a viable program in terms of moving up we have to sell tickets and bring in the dollars needed to support the program. No revenue = no move up. ODU made the move and they were selling out their stadium in year #1 of the program. Georgia State was just stupid in moving up as they have not won a game in two years.

The stipends will be the BCS or Tier One level and not FBS. I'm not so sure the scholarship level will be 85 for tier two, I see no reason they couldn't split the difference between the current 63 for FCS and 85 in FBS. Tier 3 current FCS reducing to 40-45. I've heard this kind of scenario being kicked around with a playoff system at each tier. Say we were to jump to 75 scholarships in the next tier, the fact that we could play two BCS schools per year would take care of the transition. If we had to expand the stadium on campus then I would be in agreement with you that we couldn't come up with the funds. But a tier two FBS , not BCS tier 1 is clearly the direction we are headed. I don't see us dropping down to the tier 3 status which is where fcs teams will land if they stay put.

You are wrong about the stipends as that is a Division I proposal for all sports and not something specific to football. The Sun Belt and Mountain West are not going backwards from 85 scholarships to help FCS schools move up so it will be 85 full rides or +22 from where we are now along with a lot of other cash for everything else involved with moving the whole department to another league with more travel. Read the JMU report end to end as I did and explain any logic that says that we should spend upwards of 6m a year on football or where the support will come from. I bleed black and gold but I have no desire to see us do something that is pathologically idiotic. I'd rather play at a level where we can win.

I haven't read the whole plan but JMU is taking their time in making this move so it's not imminent as much as it's inevitible. They aren't just jumping into this because nobody really knows what FBS and FCS is going to be like in the future. I won't believe any of this stuff about tiers until it's official.