Congratulations first off. When you first made the announcement to D-1 I noticed the similarities to UCF. I was around the league when UCF facilities and support was on par with other A-Sun schools. And they quickly blew by everyone. And today, good gosh that place is something else. I expect the same for KSU. With the HOPE Scholarship and Bright Futures in Florida it sets these schools up perfectly. Especially in Georgia, Atlanta kids aren't getting into UGA and GT as easily and GA Southern seems to far. Kennesaw will shortly be the 2nd biggest school in Georgia with the announcement of football and having a traditional campus(as opposed to GA State). You will see fraternities and sorities explode with football and new campus traditions. Excited for you guys. And with how well the state plays football, if you get a few Georgia and Georgia Tech leftovers(like UCF and USF have done with UF,FSU, Miami recruits), you can build a team quickly. So my question is.....how many more years in the A-Sun.

It took UCF about 3 to 4 years where they dominated the league in everything before they said this is too easy. I'm expecting KSU to do the same. Football will help the other sports. In ten years your basketball program will naturally advance with everything else. Not saying you will win league every year, but should be consistently in top 4. So where does this put your other programs league wise? Stay A-Sun in all sports and play football in another? Get out of the league in 5-10 years??

From my perspective, if you are 1-AA, SoCon looks like a natural fit. Could have great rivalries with UTC and GA Southern in conf and GA State in a non conference battle(and I hope you would play each other). And then if 10-15 years you are ready to go FBS (like UCF), do you make a push for Conf-USA?? Just asking opinions of where you see yourselves going in all sports football and basketball mainly. I think your baseball program will win in any league with the East Cobb players finding their way to KSU.

Congrats again. Exciting time at Kennesaw.

Great post, and good questions. I would anticipate that we will move all our sports wholesale to whichever conference football is going to be in. It just makes sense to compete in all sports in a new conference. It's not like we have a long-running historical attachment to the A-Sun. So I doubt that will be a factor. As far as how we compete in the A-Sun until then, I really couldn't speculate. We've done quite well considering how long we've been in the conference, especially with very good teams in baseball and girl's soccer, but I am not sure what impact, if any, the decision to move to football will have on basketball. Maybe I am wrong, but I don't think basketballers would much care unless they were excited by the idea of watching football games at the school. So I dunno how that will play out.

I sure hope we end up like UCF, but that might be a long-shot considering that they have the Orlando market to themselves and thus are guaranteed the support of that town plus local recruits. We are sharing with one established program and a new one in GState, albeit in a much larger city. Cobb County will be very important in that regard. The place is a football factory.

C-USA is a possibility, I suppose, but it's really way too early to speculate. Our first few years will be telling.

Someone else here will be able to explain this a whole lot better than I can, so please put me in my place if I'm wrong. But as far as I understand it, we will begin football in a separate conference. All other sports will be in the A-Sun due to contractual obligations, and once that contract expires, then you will see a move to a larger conference in which all sports will compete.

I keep reading that the Big East is an ultimate goal, maybe 10 years down the road. That conference wants in on the Atlanta market. I think KSU is better suited to football than Ga State and will be more successful in the long run. Regardless, I think there is room for both of them on the big stage.

Wish that 'Angel donor' would pop up that Mr. Papp spoke of, so they could get the program going quicker.

(09-16-2010 12:35 PM)Escalade2121 Wrote:  Someone else here will be able to explain this a whole lot better than I can, so please put me in my place if I'm wrong. But as far as I understand it, we will begin football in a separate conference. All other sports will be in the A-Sun due to contractual obligations, and once that contract expires, then you will see a move to a larger conference in which all sports will compete.

Yeah, I had wondered about that too. I am sure we will be enlightened regarding this at some point.

I am curious that all football-related chatter has stopped. I guess that the press conference wasn't exactly full of certainty and hopeful optimism.

(09-17-2010 10:08 AM)adamsputnik Wrote:  

(09-16-2010 12:35 PM)Escalade2121 Wrote:  Someone else here will be able to explain this a whole lot better than I can, so please put me in my place if I'm wrong. But as far as I understand it, we will begin football in a separate conference. All other sports will be in the A-Sun due to contractual obligations, and once that contract expires, then you will see a move to a larger conference in which all sports will compete.

Yeah, I had wondered about that too. I am sure we will be enlightened regarding this at some point.

I am curious that all football-related chatter has stopped. I guess that the press conference wasn't exactly full of certainty and hopeful optimism.

Haha adam you nailed my sentiments on the head. I thought the press conference was a little subdued. I know its VERY early in the process, but I didn't come out of that press conference with any more knowledge than what i already had, except the fact that they set the year at 2014 and not 2013 as I had previously heard. I think we've heard the last of KSU football for a few months. Next big thing we hear will probably be about a coach, could be wrong though. I expect these boards to be pretty much dead for another month or so until Ingle and the boys get the ball rolling.

First off, congrats...peckerheads. Secondly, KSU wouldn't have gone through all that hoopla, built the soccer stadium they built, etc... unless football was in the short term future. You'll be playing soon.

(09-18-2010 01:29 AM)Buccaneerlover Wrote:  First off, congrats...peckerheads. Secondly, KSU wouldn't have gone through all that hoopla, built the soccer stadium they built, etc... unless football was in the short term future. You'll be playing soon.

Any idea what conferences KSU is looking to join for football? The SoCon seems to be the best fit geographically, but I can't see all the small private schools eager to let a public school with almost 24,000 students in.

I think it's a little early to even discuss comparisons to UCF here. They are not as similar as you make it out to be. UCF did dominate for 3-4 years, but they were in the A-Sun for about 13 years (and they joined with an established I-AA football program already playing).

An announcement of fielding I-AA football 3 years from now does not guarantee dominance in the league. They still might exit at some point, but it's much more likely to be a Florida Atlantic or Georgia State type deal.... not all-sport dominance like UCF.

Will be interesting to see how it unfolds, but we're about 10 years away from the discussion I believe.

I would think the Big South would actually be the most logical destination outside the SoCon, which really is locked up with nine football programs. That is if the Kennesaw Football program were starting play in August of 2011. However, the FCS landscape maybe somewhat different in 2014. As many of you know, Appalachian State is considering a move to the FBS. If I am not mistaken, to they are in talks with Conference USA. However, they have delayed a decision pending a 17% North Carolina state budget cut to their university system. Georgia Southern as some of you may not know is now under new Academic leadership and is actively preparing ( http://www.insidestatesboro.com/index.ph...Itemid=142 )to move up to the FBS through a spiral development over the next few years of enhancements to Paulson Stadium around 2013-14 if they stay on track (hopefully ). This will I believe open up the SoCon to at least two additional programs. Presumably these would be well established programs. If the last two additions are any indication, then one has to wonder whether they would add two privates, or one private and one. public. I would make a stretch and say there is a case for Presbyterian College for the private, though yet another South Carolina school does nothing to expand the SoCon footprint. Too bad Mercer isn't prepared to offer a 62 scholarship program, they would be the perfect private addition to the conference, Georgia's only D1 private university, and a great counterpoint to Furman. This could be what would draw in KSU as the public institution, though they are both new programs. Another consideration is another Carolina school one year ahead of you guys who have broke ground on a new 15,000 seat (expandable to 40,000) stadium. UNC Charolate. Who does the 49er football program conference with ? My guess is the Big South Conference too. If so, the Big South starts looking more attractive for KSU. UNC Charolate, like KSU is a 20,000+ student institution with big plans for the future too. So how would the Big South stack up ?
Coastal Carolina
Liberty,
Presbyterian College
VMI,
Gardner Webb
Stoney Brook
Charleston Southern (YUK !)
-------------------------
plus
UNC Charolate
KSU
Thats not too bad, kind of mirrors the SoCon , and certainly more competitive than now, with the two the new additions. Nine football programs instead of seven would most likely provide for more than just the conference champion receiving a playoff bid. Nine teams provides for an eight game conference schedule, two ooc games and a payoff game.