(07-05-2021 05:03 PM)SammyH Wrote:  

(07-05-2021 03:09 PM)NMSUPistolPete Wrote:  

(07-05-2021 02:20 PM)SammyH Wrote:  

(07-03-2021 11:16 AM)BlueDragon Wrote:  

(07-02-2021 05:18 PM)SammyH Wrote:  Unlike the WAC, the Southland is a good FCS football conference. SHSU is a football school, not a basketball school. That’s it. That is what’s so great about the Southland, sir.

UCA is a consistent Top 10 team and has made the playoffs three times in the past five years. Southeastern Louisiana and Nicholls have been good sustainably over the past 5 years. McNeese State is a historic program that holds high standing the subdivision. Incarnate Word has a conference title recently and is an up and coming program.

Instead of that we’re playing Big Lie flunkies and D2 move ups.

Better not see any complaining from Sam fans when the playoff committee won’t give us home games! Our schedule is going to stink.

Yes, it was such a GOOD Conference that the Texas 4 plus UCA was tired carrying all the weight of the dead beats. UCA is thrilled to be shed of the SLC. UIW and Houston Baptist football facilities wouldn’t even be considered GOOD for 4A High Schools. Neither program could draw flies with dead carcasses even in large metro areas. Neither program will be any different a decade from now. There is a reason the WAC snubbed UIW.

Oh yes D2 Flunkie trashed SFA in Nacogdoches.

And, Lousiana schools can’t even afford to repair main campus buildings much less enhance their Athletics. I knew a Nicholls Athlete and she told me that have to be pimped out a couple times a month for fundraising. She transferred. Football facilities are atrocious.

You are very short sighted if you believe this conference was going to be viable moving forward.

I never called Tarleton a “D2 Flunkie”. If you’re transitioning to D1, you’re not exactly a “D2 Flunkie”. I do have to ask though, is there something in the trophy case up at TSU commemorating that win over SFA? I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bunch brag about a win over SFA as I have from Tarleton fans. That program has won 14 conference games in the last five years. What’s next, an “Almost beat McNeese in 2021” plaque?

I get it, the LA schools don’t spend much. But maybe Nicholls isn’t the best example to use, considering they’re in the midst of building an $8 million end zone complex.

You can say whatever you want about the Louisiana schools. But you still won’t convince me and others in the SHSU fanbase that replacing longtime rivals and similar institutions for a hodgepodge group of Western schools is a good thing. And you definitely won’t convince me that the WAC is a better option than the ASUN, who had interest in the Texas 4. And don’t even start with the WAC/FBS talk, because that’s not happening any time soon.

Yeah, but under the currently FBS bylaws, it will NEVER happen being part of the ASUN. The only route into the FBS runs though the WAC or the other G5 conferences. A move to the ASUN from the Southland would be strictly a lateral football move.

It absolutely could happen. If the Sun Belt or CUSA needed to add a school, they could invite SHSU, or any WAC/ASUN program for that matter, to join the FBS. So the WAC isn’t the only way to FBS play, although they’re certainly trying to make it seem as if it’s the quickest way. The problem? None of these schools (Sam included) are even CLOSE to FBS ready and shouldn’t even be running these feasibility studies. I don’t exactly know how the “FBS Golden Ticket” works, but if I were the other G5 conferences I’d want no part of the WAC as a whole in the FBS.

SHSU is an FCS school with FCS facilities in an FCS town with an FCS level fanbase. There’s a good chance things will change within the next 10-15 years but right now we’re not ready to go FBS, and in all likelihood won’t be ready for another a decade plus. No offense, but I don’t want to be the next NMSU or Idaho or ULM, in an impossible arms race with subpar facilities and zero chance of winning anything.

The ASUN would’ve been a step up competition wise at the FCS level, so it wouldn’t be a “lateral move” from the Southland. It would’ve been a nice step up in the level that best suits SHSU (for right now). FBS is cool, makes more money for sure and brings in a bit more attention on the local level. But I’m of the opinion that we should cross that bridge when we get there, because the feasibility test will say the same thing it said in 2007: facilities need improvement and attendance isn’t quite good enough.

Sammy, I will say this,

in 2002, Southwest Texas State was an FCS school in an FCS town. They had no division 1 success, they had 20k students, less than $10m budget and a 15k stadium that wasn't filled.

Three years later (2005), they had a new president and AD, a name change, and winning football team. It changed the culture and pushed the fanbase to call fo FBS. They made a stated goal and started getting their ducks in row. If not for the FBS moratorium, I think they would have moved up sooner.

By 2012 (only 10 years), they had 35k students, a freshly expanded 30k stadium, a healthy athletic fee (25m). They beat University of Houston and played host to a Big XII team in San Marcos. Media coverage improved. Everything is better except the performance on the field.

If you go to the SBC board you'll find similar stories from App, Coastal, and GA Southern except their teams are winning.

Sam Houston won't be Texas A&M. You won't have 100k in the stands, but you could be Coastal Carolina (hosting College Gameday) or Northern Illinois (NY6 bowl) Both teams with smaller stadiums under 20k and national recognition. With a stated goal of FBS, they can get new people to open the checkbook.