I don't know of that's a fair criticism of the Atlantic Sun for that era. Yes, they had Troy, UCF, and FAU. It would be years before Georgia State began play at any level. Jacksonville State would still have been ill-equipped to move to FBS. There were serious doubts as to whether JSU woul even remain open thanks to Alabama's idiot governor Fob James.

The only way I see the A-Sun could have pulled it off is if all of App State, Georgia State, Coastal Carolina, and Georgia Southern would have been ready to go in that time frame:

UCF, FAU, GaSo, GaSt, CCU, App St, Troy

That only gives the A-Sun seven programs. The final piece would have been to flip FIU and Middle Tennessee from the Sun Belt to the A-Sun.

The only downside is that this would have given the Atlantic Sun 18 members for the 2002-03 campaign, only 9 of which played football. Even if you toss out Belmont (joined 2001) and Gardner-Webb (joined 2002), that still a 16-team league.

If the Atlantic Sun had successfully kicked off then, the irony is that it would have had little impact in Sun Belt football prior to 2003, when Middle Tennessee began play, as it was largely the Big West refugees. It is quite possible the Sun Belt could have been snuffed out as a football league by 2005 as only Louisiana, ULM, Arkansas State, and North Texas remained; presumably one or more of them would be a candidate to replace UCF in the Alantic Sun (not to mention possibly accelerated upgrades at Western Kentucky or South Alabama).