Appy State Feasibility, Talking Conferences & The GSU impact

Conference Commissioner get on, they just get off feeling nautious

Appalachain State football announced yesterday that they will be exploring the feasibility of moving to the Football Bowl Subvision (FBS) in the near future (2014 by recent estimates).

This will be very interesting to see what their higher ups say about this considering they play in an extremely small community (under 15,000 according to most recent estimates) and an medium sized enrollment (17,000 students, of which 14,800 are undergraduate). They explored this back in 1997 and decided to stay put in FCS. This, in hindsight, was a great decision as they reeled off the most impressive win by an FCS opponent in that time span going into "The Big House" and rendering a shocking 34-32 victory. They then proceeded to win 3 consecutive FCS National Titles and were clearly a top tier FCS program. So why now?

I have my thoughts and have expressed them to various of my colleagues in college athletics. I believe we are starting to feel the winds of massive change that are blowing. Colorado and Nebraska leaving the Big 12 caused that conference to almost dissolve (it didn't but will play a 9 game conference schedule beginning next year). The WAC and Mountain West aren't exactly buddies after the shifting going out in that area of the U.S. and BYU decided to become independent in football.

My prediction: The Southern Conference (which App State was a part of) would certainly be interested in our presence in their conference. This would be a great thing for them, but a poor move on our part, in my opinion. Their has been rumbling that the WAC will make a run at the Texas schools including North Texas, UTEP and UT-San Antonio, which begins football in 2011 and is on our schedule. Their has been great debate about the long term feasibility of the schools in Louisana including Tulane, UL-Monroe and UL-Lafayette. I believe one or all of them could possibly drop down to FCS or lower based on financial constraints. When these changes happen (which could be as early as 2012) where will Georgia State be positioned? Are we ready to take the call? Will we have raised the money needed? I believe we have the administration, the coaching staff and the facilities to compete on this stage, it's all about the money.