By this point I think we have already established, there aren't too many programs that would jump to CUSA when offered, at least right now. App State would be no different

(05-08-2012 12:55 PM)Tennessee_Eagle Wrote:  Maybe the June 1st date that has been referenced many a times on here is becoming a factor.

Think about it this way. Two schools (App and GS) are in considerations lets say. Both would like to remain in the same conference. Both have a chance to go deep into the playoffs or win a possible championship in 2012. Both could use some more time to move up. If the Sun Belt is truly not pushing for a champ game, why not wait one more year?

In theory the SBC could make a move and add them any time after the June 1st deadline and have them in 2014. It still locks the teams up, but leaves them time to win one last FCS title, and get the money in order for a move.

(05-08-2012 12:55 PM)Tennessee_Eagle Wrote:  Maybe the June 1st date that has been referenced many a times on here is becoming a factor.

Think about it this way. Two schools (App and GS) are in considerations lets say. Both would like to remain in the same conference. Both have a chance to go deep into the playoffs or win a possible championship in 2012. Both could use some more time to move up. If the Sun Belt is truly not pushing for a champ game, why not wait one more year?

I think this could be a factor, however, not because of the playoffs. Ga Southern may simply need another year to get their ducks in a row. The Sun Belt may not wish to bring in App as its 11th football team if the 12th doesn't come in at the same time. You can't have a conference championship game nor divisional play. So I could see how this may result in a delayed announcement (i.e. after June 1st).

(05-08-2012 01:00 PM)Panthersville Wrote:  ECU is still in CUSA, and now so is UNCC. The addition of GSU just gives you the "regional rivalries" that your board wanted. However, I don't get how you think that your admin settling for SBC would mean that it wouldn't move on to CUSA as soom as offered.

My point was two fold 1) a CUSA offer isn't coming unless they make a major change in their expansion criteria and 2) the Sun Belt with it's eastward shift could offer App what we need (regional rivalries).

I don't think it's settling. The Sunbelt with Ga State and potentially Ga Southern has changed. Thus Apps perspective has also changed to match what the Sun Belt has become.

(05-08-2012 01:28 PM)97App Wrote:  

(05-08-2012 01:00 PM)Panthersville Wrote:  ECU is still in CUSA, and now so is UNCC. The addition of GSU just gives you the "regional rivalries" that your board wanted. However, I don't get how you think that your admin settling for SBC would mean that it wouldn't move on to CUSA as soom as offered.

My point was two fold 1) a CUSA offer isn't coming unless they make a major change in their expansion criteria and 2) the Sun Belt with it's eastward shift could offer App what we need (regional rivalries).

I don't think it's settling. The Sunbelt with Ga State and potentially Ga Southern has changed. Thus Apps perspective has also changed to match what the Sun Belt has become.

THis whole thing started with you saying that Appy's "loyalty" was a reason to invite them. Glad to see you have backed off that.

Based on that letter, Appy didn't reach their primary goal, so now reaching a lesser goal, the SBC, would, by definition, be "settling".

so no C-USA no SB maybe the WAC?

Appy better take an offer if extended with or without Georgia Southern. I think we will see another and longer moratorium for all schools movement.

The only thing worse than trying to parse an AD's statement to find the hidden meanings is trying to break down something a recruit said.

FCS schools have until June 1 to notify of their intent to move to FBS for the 2014 season (transition in 2012 and 13).

The league has had a meeting but I took it be a "here is where we are" and "here is who has expressed interest" meeting.

The presidents and AD's will all be in the same place for a number of days at the spring meeting and most likely any serious contemplation of expansion will happen there. The membership will have had time to digest the interested schools and do some digging of their own.

While we tend to think of expansion as a commissioner driven matter, as the history of realignment has tended to unfold there is ample evidence that a significant part of the process often comes about when the president of a member school has some contact with a potential institution and reaches out to them or an interested school opens its process by reaching out to a president in the league that they know.

Just pulling stuff out of the air here, but for all we know there may be people reaching out to schools like College of Charleston or Coastal Carolina to be the second non-football school to make the divisions balance a bit better or UNC-Asheville or UNC-Greensboro to get App into a travel partner scenario to make them easier to deal with.

I don't think you can comfortably say the Sun Belt is done this year until June 2, 2012.

(05-08-2012 12:55 PM)Tennessee_Eagle Wrote:  Maybe the June 1st date that has been referenced many a times on here is becoming a factor.

Think about it this way. Two schools (App and GS) are in considerations lets say. Both would like to remain in the same conference. Both have a chance to go deep into the playoffs or win a possible championship in 2012. Both could use some more time to move up. If the Sun Belt is truly not pushing for a champ game, why not wait one more year?

App is just as ready now as we will by next year. At this point, every second that passes without an FBS announcement is hurting our fanbase. If we are assured that GaSo will, in fact, eventually make the move as well, it shouldn't matter if we go ahead without them.

Would it be wishful thinking to expect some SBC officials to be visiting Boone and the App State campus and facilities between now and the end of the month meeting?

I'm confident that if they see the place, they'll send the invite the next day.

(05-08-2012 01:48 PM)Panthersville Wrote:  THis whole thing started with you saying that Appy's "loyalty" was a reason to invite them. Glad to see you have backed off that.

Based on that letter, Appy didn't reach their primary goal, so now reaching a lesser goal, the SBC, would, by definition, be "settling".

As CUSA and the Sun Belt have changed so has our perspective. I'd say we're reaching for a different goal not necessarily "lesser". If you simply look at what they've done over the past few years I'd say the competition gap between CUSA and the Sun Belt has significantly closed even more so with expansion.

The loyalty comment was a point of interest at the end of my response to another post. I think you mistook what I meant. I said conference loyalty was a "positive we bring". I know it wouldn't even be on the table when making a decision on whom to invite. But as a fan I enjoy being able to experience rivalry games and compete against familiar opponents, that doesn't happen if you continually jump around. Rivalries are what make college sports great and rivalries develop over time - the longer they run the deeper and more intense they become.

Don't get me wrong I'm glad Charlie Cobb's our AD at App State. He's as good an AD as we could hope to have. I feel, he set himself up for seeming failure or ineptitude by making comments that insinuated it would be merely a formality that we'd be moving to C-USA with public comments made during the evaluation phase of the FBS move. When you entice your fanbase like that you dang well better know you can deliver. Public perception is that C-USA is a better football conference than the Sun Belt and it's true on the whole, but not as much as many college football fans and media think. With that stigma it makes for a hard sell though. The fact is App owns pieces of several television markets, but since the campus isn't located in a city it doesn't count. Not to be all sour grapes, but who's kidding who here, this whole television market thing is a bogus argument since no lower tier FBS or upper tier FCS school, much less a program yet to play a down (i.e. Charlotte), comes near to owning any major television market. Those claims can only be held by the "big time" BCS programs. App has as very solid fanbase in the western half of North Carolina and as such draws as well as any FCS program out there and more so than probably a third of FBS level programs. The Sun Belt's reputation has steadily increased the last few years and I hope it can continue to grow from within it's current conference borders and become a strong southeastern/midsouth regionalized conference with Appalachian included.

(05-08-2012 04:27 PM)pjc1979 Wrote:  Don't get me wrong I'm glad Charlie Cobb's our AD at App State. He's as good an AD as we could hope to have. I feel, he set himself up for seeming failure or ineptitude by making comments that insinuated it would be merely a formality that we'd be moving to C-USA with public comments made during the evaluation phase of the FBS move. When you entice your fanbase like that you dang well better know you can deliver. Public perception is that C-USA is a better football conference than the Sun Belt and it's true on the whole, but not as much as many college football fans and media think. With that stigma it makes for a hard sell though. The fact is App owns pieces of several television markets, but since the campus isn't located in a city it doesn't count. Not to be all sour grapes, but who's kidding who here, this whole television market thing is a bogus argument since no lower tier FBS or upper tier FCS school, much less a program yet to play a down (i.e. Charlotte), comes near to owning any major television market. Those claims can only be held by the "big time" BCS programs. App has as very solid fanbase in the western half of North Carolina and as such draws as well as any FCS program out there and more so than probably a third of FBS level programs. The Sun Belt's reputation has steadily increased the last few years and I hope it can continue to grow from within it's current conference borders and become a strong southeastern/midsouth regionalized conference with Appalachian included.

Don't know if I agree that Charlie is as good of an AD as we can get. He has done an adequate job, but nothing extraordinary. Considering the guy he followed was a complete bust there was no way he couldn't be successful. He did nothing that shouldn't already have been done. ASU was just so far behind the times it was easy for him to look like the smartest guy in the room. Most of the praise for our rise goes to Chancellor Peacock for establishing the vision and creating the environment, and the football program for making it happen. IMO, CC has been asleep at the wheel and caught totally off guard on what is driving this round of conference expansion. Him saying ASU needs to change its strategy in what we are presenting to potential confernce officials is essentially an admission as such. Some of us have been talking about the impact of TV markets on prospective conference additions for two years. I have been attempting to convince an ECU friend that all those great facilities, big attendance numbers and history of success can not over come the fact Greenville is in the 99th TV market in the country. That isn't good enough to get noticed by the Big East. At least not the old Big East. In this round of expansion shoring up markets took precedence over everything else. Once all the dust settles I think we'll see conferences begin to look at expanding their membership with programs outside those larger media markets.

Seems with the Big East commissioner asked to resign because they couldn't get a good TV package with the "big market" teams they had taken in, that conferences should realize now that it's good teams, not good markets that make the big difference.

(05-09-2012 10:58 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  Seems with the Big East commissioner asked to resign because they couldn't get a good TV package with the "big market" teams they had taken in, that conferences should realize now that it's good teams, not good markets that make the big difference.

I actually disagree with this. All the tv package not playing out as hoped proves is that their model with the programs they recruited was not enough.

I don't think it would have played out any differently had they taken traditionally stronger, smaller market teams. From the television networks side in the first scenario they're being sold a bunch of television sets in hopes that the teams put out a good product. In the scenario with stronger programs with no market the television execs will see it as an even bigger gamble as they don't have much of a market to begin with if they're success suffers from an increase in competition, now you have bad football without the television sets.

I just think the Big East was fighting an uphill battle no matter their tactic and despite the outcome, I still think they made the more prudent decision with regards to chasing the television contract. Now perhaps they should have said screw the television contract, let's build the best football conference we can and hope ten years from now we can renegotiate, but it's all about the here and now in college football these days.

Hadn't seen this here, so I though I would share:

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/20...ealignment

"...it was something of a surprise when ASU athletic director Charlie Cobb issued a letter Tuesday night laying out the Mountaineers' current conference realignment state, mentioning Conference USA as something of a priority over the Sun Belt (Yahoo! Sports' Graham Watson reported State hasn't even been in touch with the Sun Belt)."

That report by Graham Watson yesterday?:
"Received additional confirmation this morning that Appalachian State and the Sun Belt have never spoken in case that rumor was still around."

(05-10-2012 08:50 AM)Panthersville Wrote:  Hadn't seen this here, so I though I would share:

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/20...ealignment

"...it was something of a surprise when ASU athletic director Charlie Cobb issued a letter Tuesday night laying out the Mountaineers' current conference realignment state, mentioning Conference USA as something of a priority over the Sun Belt (Yahoo! Sports' Graham Watson reported State hasn't even been in touch with the Sun Belt)."

That report by Graham Watson yesterday?:
"Received additional confirmation this morning that Appalachian State and the Sun Belt have never spoken in case that rumor was still around."

I heard him say he's spoken to App on the radio myself. Is this guy even a real journalist?

Same here, listened to it live.

sorry for being a bit lazy, but i didn't want to read through pages of various threads. it sounds like the app state to the sbc rumor was nothing more than that? just the other day, you all were saying they were going to be added soon. This has to be frustrating for app fans. JMU has been relatively unmentioned by any media and when they are, its more speculative than definitive. If we had a "solid rumor" come out and then be false, I think the JMU fanbase would collectively commit suicide from the frustration.

(05-11-2012 09:57 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  sorry for being a bit lazy, but i didn't want to read through pages of various threads. it sounds like the app state to the sbc rumor was nothing more than that? just the other day, you all were saying they were going to be added soon. This has to be frustrating for app fans. JMU has been relatively unmentioned by any media and when they are, its more speculative than definitive. If we had a "solid rumor" come out and then be false, I think the JMU fanbase would collectively commit suicide from the frustration.

It wasn't a rumor. This is a case of the App president covering his ass because they didn't get in CUSA or the BELT.

(05-11-2012 10:05 AM)statefanatic Wrote:  

(05-11-2012 09:57 AM)Dukes09 Wrote:  sorry for being a bit lazy, but i didn't want to read through pages of various threads. it sounds like the app state to the sbc rumor was nothing more than that? just the other day, you all were saying they were going to be added soon. This has to be frustrating for app fans. JMU has been relatively unmentioned by any media and when they are, its more speculative than definitive. If we had a "solid rumor" come out and then be false, I think the JMU fanbase would collectively commit suicide from the frustration.

It wasn't a rumor. This is a case of the App president covering his ass because they didn't get in CUSA or the BELT.

and why didn't they get into the belt? I thought there was a thread the other day saying that he had a reliable source that is right 90% of the time, telling him that App will get an invite. Was it just the 10% wrong in this case?