(10-05-2012 02:15 AM)trojanblood Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:48 AM)MagNTX Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:34 AM)stAteNation Wrote:  Mario Cristobal had the opportunity to leave but didn't, so I commend that. But, now I just feel sorry for him. He has done a great job with that program and the fans do not appreciate it. That game tonight looked so bad on tv. It was so quiet I could here Malzahn yelling while we were on offense.

I hate to say it, but I'm glad they are leaving the conference. I don't care about markets. I want schools that have fan support.

You are telling me. I cannot believe they would be invited back to the sun belt after this year if they hadn't gotten the CUSA invite.

There's about 6 teams from the Sun Belt I would have thought to be above them. stAte certainly being one. MTSU, WKU, UL, Troy - I just don't get it.

Why can't you understand TROY. We have had success throughout NAIA, DIV II, DIV I-AA, and FBS. We have just made the right choices through out the years. How many years have we had down years in football? Maybe 1 in Div I-AA, and a couple in FBS? The point is there is nothing, "TO NOT GET", in this statement. We have and will always have a good program and we may have another bad season this year or in the future, but one thing is for sure, we will bounce back.....COUNT ON IT!

MARCH ON TROY!!!!

That's what I'm saying... Why FIU with all of the other teams in the Belt.
It seems Troy MTSU WKY stAte or UL would have been better options.

FIU does not need to be D1. They have no fan support and they finance their program on the backs of their students through fees.

(10-05-2012 02:15 AM)trojanblood Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:48 AM)MagNTX Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:34 AM)stAteNation Wrote:  Mario Cristobal had the opportunity to leave but didn't, so I commend that. But, now I just feel sorry for him. He has done a great job with that program and the fans do not appreciate it. That game tonight looked so bad on tv. It was so quiet I could here Malzahn yelling while we were on offense.

I hate to say it, but I'm glad they are leaving the conference. I don't care about markets. I want schools that have fan support.

You are telling me. I cannot believe they would be invited back to the sun belt after this year if they hadn't gotten the CUSA invite.

There's about 6 teams from the Sun Belt I would have thought to be above them. stAte certainly being one. MTSU, WKU, UL, Troy - I just don't get it.

Why can't you understand TROY. We have had success throughout NAIA, DIV II, DIV I-AA, and FBS. We have just made the right choices through out the years. How many years have we had down years in football? Maybe 1 in Div I-AA, and a couple in FBS? The point is there is nothing, "TO NOT GET", in this statement. We have and will always have a good program and we may have another bad season this year or in the future, but one thing is for sure, we will bounce back.....COUNT ON IT!

MARCH ON TROY!!!!

I would like to add that one of the reasons for consistency has been the same head coach for a good many years.....that there is a question with has LB out lived his years etc has come up last year when we frankly sucked it up......but overall a steady theme is not bad if the guy at the helm is a winner.....we have had that good fortune......also we are in Alabama where football is a religion......South Florida not quite so....lots of talent but lets face it even at the U when things go south the fans do not show.....And while Troy being a small town and a relative small 7500 approximate main campus there is not alot else to do or distract.....sure there are the wannabe Alabama and Auburn fans who can one get to and afford to go to Troy game thrown in there but over all we have had success which breeds more success.....

I am glad FIU is leaving, but am sad UNT is. Aside from the whole market bologna, I enjoyed interacting with some of the UNT fans in Hot Springs this past spring, and they have a passionate fan base for all their sports. FIU is just a complete joke. No fan support, no enthusiasm, and it makes not only the Sun Belt look bad, but all "mid-major" BCS football programs look bad. When the game was being broadcasted, they mentioned the Sun Belt quite a bit and for people outside our conference, that game is what represented Sun Belt football. It's a shame!

Let's hope the rest of the year, teams that play on Thursday nights have a better showing on TV!

(10-05-2012 12:47 AM)blunderbuss Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:34 AM)stAteNation Wrote:  Mario Cristobal had the opportunity to leave but didn't, so I commend that. But, now I just feel sorry for him. He has done a great job with that program and the fans do not appreciate it. That game tonight looked so bad on tv. It was so quiet I could here Malzahn yelling while we were on offense.

I hate to say it, but I'm glad they are leaving the conference. I don't care about markets. I want schools that have fan support.

THIS. Are you sure you don't want to take them back? Maybe each conference can make some trades?

In all seriousness, the way CUSA chose to expand is sickening. I wish we could go Independent.

Karl Benson would like to talk to you about potentially joining a southern regional conference that has some pretty good fan bases and their football programs are on the rise.

Straight up trade, GA St from the SBC for ECU. The SBC will add Appy St as well to come along with ECU. That keeps ECU happy and brings in another program that gets good support.

I will ask you all this: does fan support what makes a team worthy of D 1 status? You can talk attendance smack if you wish, but games aren't won on the box score with the reported attendance figure. Our football team had been to back to back bowl games the last two years. Because we are having a bad year we shouldn't be FBS anymore? As soon as we win again the fans will be back. Yes there aren't that many, but they will be back. Have you seen the pictures of UM's attendance? Any sports program in South Florida has to deal with that. The Miami Dolphins could barely sell out their home opener...

I really don't want to make excuses because we deserved to lose, but we lost to two of the best Sun Belt teams with a true freshman QB making his first two career starts and our third string RB. Forgive us that our offense blows. Once we get Medlock and Rhodes back we will compete again. Assuming our team doesn't completely give up I think we will go 4-8 or 5-7. Should we get kicked out of FBS for that? Is it wrong to finance your program through athletic fees? It's not like they took us hostage to do so. As a student, I am glad they do. It helps us to be more competitive. It is the reason we have one of the largest athletic budgets in the Sun Belt.

I really believe FIU helped bring about more parity of the Belt. We defeated Troy in 2010 at their house and eventually won the Sun Belt title. Then we all know what happened last year. This is a new wave of competitiveness in the Belt. While other teams have improved, FIU has remained constant and slowly fell behind. We aren't the worst team in the Sun Belt, nor in the upper tier.

I just don't see any threads about FAU deserving to get kicked out of the FBS. I'm not going to say it is because they are staying in the Sun Belt, but that is the only difference between them and us, except we have had a better football team over the past few years.

Again, I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I would like to defend my school and the few solid fans we have. FIU really is a great school, don't let the lack of fan support last night fool you.

My biggest point, or counterpoint for that is this. The NCAA has regulations concerning what is expected from their DI-A teams. Attendance is one of those requirements. I did take a gander at what the results of bad attendance can be, and the first is a bowl ban and it goes from there. Unfortunately, the NCAA chooses not to enforce the rules and doesn't require schools to report actual butts in the seats. You can count season ticket holders, concession workers, even the band and football players themselves in the total attendance.

I don't think that FIU needs to be kicked out of FBS, but all teams should be expected to maintain some sort of minimum support, financially and fan support. Especially student support.

(10-05-2012 08:57 AM)Usajags Wrote:  My biggest point, or counterpoint for that is this. The NCAA has regulations concerning what is expected from their DI-A teams. Attendance is one of those requirements. I did take a gander at what the results of bad attendance can be, and the first is a bowl ban and it goes from there. Unfortunately, the NCAA chooses not to enforce the rules and doesn't require schools to report actual butts in the seats. You can count season ticket holders, concession workers, even the band and football players themselves in the total attendance.

I don't think that FIU needs to be kicked out of FBS, but all teams should be expected to maintain some sort of minimum support, financially and fan support. Especially student support.

That's fine and I agree. Except not every game is like last night. Last night was the worst, by far. Next week is homecoming and the students will be back.

I'm the first to admit FAU has a LONG way to go attendance-wise (and on the field for that matter). Still, the crowd at FIU last night was especially small. On TV, it looked like there was literally a few hundred people there. Plus, now you have 2 conferences watching you, so more people took notice last night. But to be fair, we've ALL had games like that, especially on weeknights, and especially when the team isn't playing well. Saying they should be kicked out of FBS because of it is silly. Last night's attendance doesn't show they shouldn't be an FBS program, but it does show that FIU isn't as far along as some of their fans would like to think they are.

The worst part for the conference is that we had made alot of strides to improve our image with the BCS wins and the great attendance showing at the ULM-Baylor game. Then it gets followed up with a very poorly attended game in south Florida. The stands were empty!!!

On a side note, watching a little of the ECU-UCF game last night, CBS was trying so hard not to show up into the stands that when the teams punted the camaras didn't follow the ball threw the air so you couldn't see the stands. Also if they were showing a shot from a field level camara, to keep the shot down they were nearly cutting off the heads of the players in the shot. I will give ESPN credit, they atleast showed the game with much better camara work, the background was just sad.

It's WKU, not WKY.

(10-05-2012 06:57 AM)MagNTX Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 02:15 AM)trojanblood Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:48 AM)MagNTX Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 12:34 AM)stAteNation Wrote:  Mario Cristobal had the opportunity to leave but didn't, so I commend that. But, now I just feel sorry for him. He has done a great job with that program and the fans do not appreciate it. That game tonight looked so bad on tv. It was so quiet I could here Malzahn yelling while we were on offense.

I hate to say it, but I'm glad they are leaving the conference. I don't care about markets. I want schools that have fan support.

You are telling me. I cannot believe they would be invited back to the sun belt after this year if they hadn't gotten the CUSA invite.

There's about 6 teams from the Sun Belt I would have thought to be above them. stAte certainly being one. MTSU, WKU, UL, Troy - I just don't get it.

Why can't you understand TROY. We have had success throughout NAIA, DIV II, DIV I-AA, and FBS. We have just made the right choices through out the years. How many years have we had down years in football? Maybe 1 in Div I-AA, and a couple in FBS? The point is there is nothing, "TO NOT GET", in this statement. We have and will always have a good program and we may have another bad season this year or in the future, but one thing is for sure, we will bounce back.....COUNT ON IT!

MARCH ON TROY!!!!

That's what I'm saying... Why FIU with all of the other teams in the Belt.
It seems Troy MTSU WKY stAte or UL would have been better options.

(10-05-2012 08:30 AM)Fish Wrote:  I will ask you all this: does fan support what makes a team worthy of D 1 status? You can talk attendance smack if you wish, but games aren't won on the box score with the reported attendance figure. Our football team had been to back to back bowl games the last two years. Because we are having a bad year we shouldn't be FBS anymore? As soon as we win again the fans will be back. Yes there aren't that many, but they will be back. Have you seen the pictures of UM's attendance? Any sports program in South Florida has to deal with that. The Miami Dolphins could barely sell out their home opener...

I really don't want to make excuses because we deserved to lose, but we lost to two of the best Sun Belt teams with a true freshman QB making his first two career starts and our third string RB. Forgive us that our offense blows. Once we get Medlock and Rhodes back we will compete again. Assuming our team doesn't completely give up I think we will go 4-8 or 5-7. Should we get kicked out of FBS for that? Is it wrong to finance your program through athletic fees? It's not like they took us hostage to do so. As a student, I am glad they do. It helps us to be more competitive. It is the reason we have one of the largest athletic budgets in the Sun Belt.

I really believe FIU helped bring about more parity of the Belt. We defeated Troy in 2010 at their house and eventually won the Sun Belt title. Then we all know what happened last year. This is a new wave of competitiveness in the Belt. While other teams have improved, FIU has remained constant and slowly fell behind. We aren't the worst team in the Sun Belt, nor in the upper tier.

I just don't see any threads about FAU deserving to get kicked out of the FBS. I'm not going to say it is because they are staying in the Sun Belt, but that is the only difference between them and us, except we have had a better football team over the past few years.

Again, I don't want to sound like a whiner, but I would like to defend my school and the few solid fans we have. FIU really is a great school, don't let the lack of fan support last night fool you.

Attendance can be very important, at FIU, you are recruiting against a lot of out of state teams. Many of those teams will be able to point to all their screaming fans, and near sell outs every single week. FIU has to hope the recruits dont watch Thursday Night Football.

Not to mention, the only way an out of state bowl takes FIU is if they literally have no other choice.

There are no excuses for last night's attendance. You can talk all you want about South Florida being a tough market, and that FIU's 2012 season is going poorly. Fact is, FIU is a huge university that has been to 2 bowl games in a row, with a head coach that has gotten a good deal of national attention, turned down a good Big East HC job, for what i am certain was a lot more $ than he is making at FIU. Bottom line, anyone associated with FIU should feel badly about the attendance at a nationally televised game. I am no hater, and i wish FIU well in CUSA, but, seriously, it didn't look like there were 3 to 4 K at that game. No matter your conference affiliation, you have to do better. The university marketing department has a big job on their hands.

I've been to FIU for every game the Cajuns have played there. And, I've never seen more than 8000 or so in the stands, regardless of what attendance was announced.

We can talk about FIU having a tough year, etc, but the bottom line is, they have no fan support for ANY sport. I don't say that to offense, I say that as a matter of fact.

I will pass no judgment on whether FIU should be FBS or in CUSA or anything like that. I think the folks I've run into at FIU are great and I'll miss the trips down there.

I've got two more....hoops and baseball. I look forward to them.

But fan support? Nix. And, by the way, FAU, you really don't have room to be throwing stones. Your fan support is only marginally better.

(10-05-2012 10:42 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  I've been to FIU for every game the Cajuns have played there. And, I've never seen more than 8000 or so in the stands, regardless of what attendance was announced.

But fan support? Nix. And, by the way, FAU, you really don't have room to be throwing stones. Your fan support is only marginally better.

I dont EVER talk attendance smack, because as you say I have no leg to stand on. With FAU's current season, and last years 1-11 I could probably see us having the same amount as FIU did last night.

The difference between the 2 right now is Student Support. FAU DOES get 3K-6K students every game.

(10-05-2012 10:42 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  But fan support? Nix. And, by the way, FAU, you really don't have room to be throwing stones. Your fan support is only marginally better.

That's unneccessary. How did we get dragged into this conversation. Have you seen a single FAU fan here throwing stones?? However, I will point out that our basketball attendance has become MUCH better over the past few seasons. It is certainly much better than FIU basketball support.

By the way, you should be giving the same advice to every single member of this conference. I've watched plenty of FAU road games against SBC teams and I've witnessed many a small crowd (I remember especially small crowds in UNT, ULM, WKU, and MTSU in particular from years past). FIU's crowd was an embarrassment last night, but don't try to make this a South Florida problem. EVERY Sun Belt school has been through this at some point.

(10-05-2012 10:49 AM)OwlFamily Wrote:  

(10-05-2012 10:42 AM)BirdofParadise Wrote:  I've been to FIU for every game the Cajuns have played there. And, I've never seen more than 8000 or so in the stands, regardless of what attendance was announced.

But fan support? Nix. And, by the way, FAU, you really don't have room to be throwing stones. Your fan support is only marginally better.

I dont EVER talk attendance smack, because as you say I have no leg to stand on. With FAU's current season, and last years 1-11 I could probably see us having the same amount as FIU did last night.

The difference between the 2 right now is Student Support. FAU DOES get 3K-6K students every game.

Agreed. FAU student support has been much stronger in football and basketball. I can't speak for baseball since I haven't been to a college baseball game in almost a decade.

FBS is the only spot in the entire NCAA universe where attendance is a factor and I think it is ridiculous and probably not defensible in court.

If the 50,000 students are willing to kick an average of $280 a year into the program via fees and increased student loan debt, that's not my business.

Low attendance carries its own penalties. Bowl committees see it. The TV execs see it, recruits see it, potential regular students see it, potential fans see it. All those carry lost opportunity costs.

For the record, the young football genius, hot name in coaching is now 2-16 in seasons when T Y Hilton isn't on the roster.

I understand the football world thinks he's the next Urban Meyer or something but I thought last year, and think this year, he's the next Rickey Bustle or Steve Roberts and like them all he holds is one shared title.

(10-05-2012 11:02 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  FBS is the only spot in the entire NCAA universe where attendance is a factor and I think it is ridiculous and probably not defensible in court.

If the 50,000 students are willing to kick an average of $280 a year into the program via fees and increased student loan debt, that's not my business.

Low attendance carries its own penalties. Bowl committees see it. The TV execs see it, recruits see it, potential regular students see it, potential fans see it. All those carry lost opportunity costs.

For the record, the young football genius, hot name in coaching is now 2-16 in seasons when T Y Hilton isn't on the roster.

I understand the football world thinks he's the next Urban Meyer or something but I thought last year, and think this year, he's the next Rickey Bustle or Steve Roberts and like them all he holds is one shared title.

You would know better than I, but why does the SBC even have weeknight games at very low-attendance programs ?

Is that an ESPN thing ?

Did FIU admin do anything to promote the game being on national TV ?

It cannot be good for the conference. With MLB off last night, that game was probably in a lot of sports bars across the country. I'm embarrassed for them (and us).

There was a decent showing of stAte fans by the way. Did stAte have half the crowd ?