Not too sure if anyone will see this or not, but after reading several posts over on the http://www.ninernation.net website, I wanted to respond to the 49ers fans who are clearly frustrated at the slow-pace of football progress, and one of them compared the possible 5-year time delay with the much quicker transition times made by South Alabama, Western Kentucky, and one or two others.

USA and WKU both have a FBS-level conference-affiliation waiting for them. There's nothing to negotiate, no one to persuade. They just have to step forward, and they're in. Also, at least in the case of South Alabama, there is already a decent, semi-convenient, 41,000-seat stadium available for their immediate use. The stadium (Ladd-Peebles) has been the home of the Senior Bowl for over 50 years. It is not NFL-quality but it is not a dump, either. WKU has a much smaller venue-- they're going to have to work just to get it up to 25,000. But still, at least there's no institutional arguments over where to put the damn thing-- it's already there.

I am sure that for many UNCC fans (sorry, I have just always thought of y'all that way since the Sun Belt days and the '77 F4) these comparisons will be no excuse for the way that their university-leadership has been dragging its feet on this. In one sense, it is frustrating to me, too, because I think they would be an ideal addition to C-USA. But adding I-A football is a huge, HUGE undertaking under any scenario. When the stadium is non-existent, and no (I-A) conference is waiting in the wings, it just takes time.