This is like asking "who has the longest dick under 4 inches"?

(06-26-2013 01:42 PM)GoApps70 Wrote:  First depends on where you are in Charlotte as to how long it takes you to get to Boone.
It can take over an hour to go across Charlotte during drive time. Charlotte-Douglas Airport is on the Boone side.
Someone mentioned going up I-77 to Boone, but I normally never do that. Take I-85 over to Gastonia and
then take Hwy 321 North directly to Boone. Is four or six lanes all the way except for about a mile or two that
they are working on. I have driven it in an hour from the airport to Boone, but put down an extra half hour because it
normally takes longer. Kingsport, Tennessee airport has several daily flights. Some to several Florida cities and Atlanta. Greensboro Airport is available.

The TriCities airport (Kingsport/Bristol/Johnson City) is really only 60 miles (less as the crow flies), but the hairpin turns around Lake Watauga adds probably 30 additional minutes in travel time (could be dangerous with ice). I would expect football charters flying in would use this airport, but other sports would use either Charlotte or Greensboro.

(06-26-2013 07:18 PM)Lurker Above Wrote:  

(06-26-2013 01:28 AM)10miners Wrote:  I think App State and texas state will dominate the sun belt in football . Those 2 schools are ust ready to blow up. Both of them are in good recruiting locations and Texas St is already beating utep for some recruits in football.Now that they are D1 ,they should get some quality players I think.

I don't know much about App State . All I know is they had that upset against Michigan which put them on the map. Maybe some of the fans from that area could shed some light on them. Do you think they will affect your recruiting??

Neither. The answer is Georgia Southern

No disrespect to either Texas State or App State as I think they will competing for Sun Belt championships in two to four years, but the greatest potential lies in Statesboro, Georgia.

The state of Georgia consistently produces the 4th largest number of FBS recruits in the nation. Georgia Southern is now the 4th FBS school in Georgia and will walk into FBS as the third best football team in the state because Georgia State is not very good and just joined FBS themselves.

For those geographically challenged, the City of Atlanta is in North Georgia and Georgia Southern is the only Georgia FBS school south of Atlanta. A good number of 2 star and lower ranked 3 star recruits that live in small southern Georgia towns may be attracted to playing in Statesboro, which is a small town about 50 minutes away from historic Savannah, Georgia.

Georgia Southern is known as a party school with a good academic reputation and the female talent is abundant.

The sky is the limit for Georgia Southern, in my opinion.

Would agree with this: Ga Southern because of recruiting in Georgia. Southern Georgia as well as coastal S Carolina and the Florida Panhandle have a lot of smaller county high schools in lower classes (A, AA vs AAAAAA ) that get overlooked by recruiters. See a lot of similarity with Troy as far as recruiting, but think Troy will soon be outshone by South Alabama which is encroaching into much of Troy's natural space.

Appy St will have a lot of competition from ODU, Charlotte, and likely JMU. Very nice campus and stadium.

Think UTSA will outshine TSU simply because of San Antonio's media will predominate and rally that market around UTSA.

(06-26-2013 08:15 PM)NoDak Wrote:  

(06-26-2013 07:18 PM)Lurker Above Wrote:  

(06-26-2013 01:28 AM)10miners Wrote:  I think App State and texas state will dominate the sun belt in football . Those 2 schools are ust ready to blow up. Both of them are in good recruiting locations and Texas St is already beating utep for some recruits in football.Now that they are D1 ,they should get some quality players I think.

I don't know much about App State . All I know is they had that upset against Michigan which put them on the map. Maybe some of the fans from that area could shed some light on them. Do you think they will affect your recruiting??

Neither. The answer is Georgia Southern

No disrespect to either Texas State or App State as I think they will competing for Sun Belt championships in two to four years, but the greatest potential lies in Statesboro, Georgia.

The state of Georgia consistently produces the 4th largest number of FBS recruits in the nation. Georgia Southern is now the 4th FBS school in Georgia and will walk into FBS as the third best football team in the state because Georgia State is not very good and just joined FBS themselves.

For those geographically challenged, the City of Atlanta is in North Georgia and Georgia Southern is the only Georgia FBS school south of Atlanta. A good number of 2 star and lower ranked 3 star recruits that live in small southern Georgia towns may be attracted to playing in Statesboro, which is a small town about 50 minutes away from historic Savannah, Georgia.

Georgia Southern is known as a party school with a good academic reputation and the female talent is abundant.

The sky is the limit for Georgia Southern, in my opinion.

Would agree with this: Ga Southern because of recruiting in Georgia. Southern Georgia as well as coastal S Carolina and the Florida Panhandle have a lot of smaller county high schools in lower classes (A, AA vs AAAAAA ) that get overlooked by recruiters. See a lot of similarity with Troy as far as recruiting, but think Troy will soon be outshone by South Alabama which is encroaching into much of Troy's natural space.

Appy St will have a lot of competition from ODU, Charlotte, and likely JMU. Very nice campus and stadium.

Think UTSA will outshine TSU simply because of San Antonio's media will predominate and rally that market around UTSA.

Nice. There are some smart folks on these boards.

(06-26-2013 07:35 PM)redfan Wrote:  

(06-26-2013 07:48 AM)MG61 Wrote:  Why is there an interest in who will or won't do well in the Sun Belt ?

Why not?

It's summer. Not much else to debate...

My long-term forecast:

1. Arkansas State - only in-state competition is Arkansas
2/3. Louisiana, Troy - already proven themselves on the field, and still should have a clear advantage until the newbies get their sea legs
4. ULM - Has some ground to make up to catch Louisiana and Troy. May struggle in the future as new members develop.
5-6. Texas State, Georgia Southern - both in good areas for recruiting. Texas State has more competition but should have a deeper local talent pool.
7. Appalachian State - proven history at FCS, good fan support, could easily be #4 on this list in a few years
8-9. South Alabama, Georgia State - both in football rich markets, but a lack of history at FCS will be an obstacle in the near future. USA should have a higher ceiling without another FBS school in its backyard.
10. Idaho - seems to finally be putting money into facilities, but literally in a terrible position to compete due to geography
11. New Mexico State - will have difficulty getting off the mat without a sudden change in momentum.

(06-26-2013 09:56 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  My long-term forecast:
1. Arkansas State - only in-state competition is Arkansas

Imagine if, in response to a question as to which ape is more likely to dominate some remote island i am going to visit, i said "my pet chimp, because the only competition is King Kong"?

Nobody is going to dominate the Sun Belt, because all of the schools have such limited resources that they will be unable to distinguish themselves.

(06-27-2013 07:30 AM)quo vadis Wrote:  

(06-26-2013 09:56 PM)chargeradio Wrote:  My long-term forecast:
1. Arkansas State - only in-state competition is Arkansas

Imagine if, in response to a question as to which ape is more likely to dominate some remote island i am going to visit, i said "my pet chimp, because the only competition is King Kong"?

Nobody is going to dominate the Sun Belt, because all of the schools have such limited resources that they will be unable to distinguish themselves.

King Kong is Florida?

I'd say more upside is Texas State, because App is a pretty established program at this point. App's not all of a sudden going to find 30k more fans to show up to their games, but at the same time they have an extremely established, loyal, and intrenched fan base and their attendance isn't going to all of a sudden drop consistently below 20k either. My guess is long term it will settle somewhere in the 30-40k range. Texas State due to it's school size, location, and local recruits in the area has a lot of upside, but because they are not as established they have more risk involved. I don't see App being anything other than a consistently solid to very good G5 FBS program. Texas State could be anything from great to terrible long term and I couldn't say for sure which I'd lean towards.

(06-27-2013 09:45 AM)b0ndsj0ns Wrote:  I'd say more upside is Texas State, because App is a pretty established program at this point. App's not all of a sudden going to find 30k more fans to show up to their games, but at the same time they have an extremely established, loyal, and intrenched fan base and their attendance isn't going to all of a sudden drop consistently below 20k either. My guess is long term it will settle somewhere in the 30-40k range. Texas State due to it's school size, location, and local recruits in the area has a lot of upside, but because they are not as established they have more risk involved. I don't see App being anything other than a consistently solid to very good G5 FBS program. Texas State could be anything from great to terrible long term and I couldn't say for sure which I'd lean towards.

Texas State is the next Eastern Michigan. There are already 12 teams in Texas and they are in the lowest profile league. They are in the Austin metro area. The kids often go to Austin to party. The only good news for Texas State is that they are in a league with Georgia State who will probably be even worse. Georgia State plays in the Falcons stadium and is within a mile of the Georgia Tech campus. Both would have been far better off in FCS.

Appalachian is the one with a wide variation. They could become an East Carolina or they could sink with the move up like Marshall did when they did a smaller move up from the MAC to CUSA.

I love when people chime in on App that 1) have never been there on gameday or 2) Marshall fans that think App hasn't changed since the mid-90's.

I look forward to signing some home and homes with FBS programs. People are going to be surprised at the tailgate atmosphere, facilities, and quality of program they will be facing.

App averages more fans 28k a game than any Belt or MAC school and 60% of CUSA schools. Our self generated revenue is also very strong compared to our new peers.

(06-27-2013 10:21 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  I love when people chime in on App that 1) have never been there on gameday or 2) Marshall fans that think App hasn't changed since the mid-90's.

I look forward to signing some home and homes with FBS programs. People are going to be surprised at the tailgate atmosphere, facilities, and quality of program they will be facing.

App averages more fans 28k a game than any Belt or MAC school and 60% of CUSA schools. Our self generated revenue is also very strong compared to our new peers.

The question is what happens to that when they go from being one of the top 5 programs in their division to one of the bottom ones.

We don't plan on being at the bottom very long.

(06-27-2013 12:00 PM)Saint3333 Wrote:  We don't plan on being at the bottom very long.

Noone does.

(06-27-2013 10:21 AM)Saint3333 Wrote:  I love when people chime in on App that 1) have never been there on gameday or 2) Marshall fans that think App hasn't changed since the mid-90's.

I look forward to signing some home and homes with FBS programs. People are going to be surprised at the tailgate atmosphere, facilities, and quality of program they will be facing.

App averages more fans 28k a game than any Belt or MAC school and 60% of CUSA schools. Our self generated revenue is also very strong compared to our new peers.

I would say that number is closer to 75% FWIW.

(06-27-2013 12:14 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(06-27-2013 12:00 PM)Saint3333 Wrote:  We don't plan on being at the bottom very long.

Noone does.

Hooray for Noone.

Who is Noone?



Oh yeah! He doesn't care.

(06-27-2013 08:58 PM)AppinVA Wrote:  

(06-27-2013 12:14 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(06-27-2013 12:00 PM)Saint3333 Wrote:  We don't plan on being at the bottom very long.

Noone does.

Hooray for Noone.

Would Noone be from Boone?

Boone,NC ranked #23 Smartest City in America
http://venturebeat.com/2013/06/25/smarte...n-america/

We will just let some of our smart people figure out how to win.
Don't worry about us, worry about your teams.
Everyone thinks they will win. We are pretty sure of it, whether right away or eventually.
The only Division 1 football team with a better winning record in the last eight or ten years is Boise State by a couple of wins.
Not trying to sound conceited, but know our people will try something different if what they first do doesn't work.
Truthfully hope it is hard because it would mean even bigger achievement and subsequent rewards.

Well I'm glad I found this good read....lots of hilarious perceptions, good observations, and recognition. There are some of you who know what your talking about and then there are others that you can tell have blinders on and just don't have a clue. All in All, App State and TXST appreciate the acknowledgement (good or bad), especially when we haven't stepped into a Bowl Game just yet.

With all that said I think there are two more teams you need to pay attention to and that's South Alabama and Georgia Southern. Sun Belt Conference is going to be thorn the side of others moving forward. Again thanks and best of luck to everyone and their teams.