As previously said....great post.........I will say this about this conference....a little chip on the shoulder perhaps....but its not a terrible conference....and if it stays intact the conference will only get better with rivalries etc...........We live in the South and the football is still the big game in town....I promise the following...EVEN IF IT IS A RIVAL....That any SUNBELT team that makes it to one of the biggeys as to whatever they are calling the New Years games these days and of course the playoffs ......IF one of our teams makes it there....so will I if at all possible...with a t-shirt that says....Friends of.....SUCH AND SUCH team GO SBC!!!!! Cause lets face it.....If we any of us made it to such a game our travel crowds could use a few thousand who may not be fans but are fans for that day against any of the BAD GUYS,,,P5 squads.....besides what a heck of party.......Yep if that happens I will be there.....with a logo of my school on the shirt too but mostly there to support ANYONE who makes it that far.....

Hope others would join me.......
IF THIS HAPPENS.....Rules......Team color t-shirt of that team with phrase FRIENDS OF --------- Go SBC!!! and can have your teams logo....cause all of us will be getting them made locally....Heck I am counting on this happening within the next 3 years....and not necessarily Troy but I can always hope......

I think App had an "okay" first season, was really surprised by how well we turned around the football season in the second half, to finish 1st in total defense, and 3rd in offense, plus, beating ULL and Ark St away was a pleasant surprise. Basketball both men and women were a train wreck, but we expected that, two new coaches spending the whole year cleaning up the mess left by the last 2 coaches, good news is both coaches and their staffs are really good, and should have us competing for the SBC in a few years. Baseball, total disappointment, expected a lot more from this team, head coach has 2 years left on contract, better turn it around quickly. Couple of things that struck me about the SBC is, 1. they take their football much more seriously than the SC, no surprise, but the overall talent is much better than the SC, 2. One of reasons I wanted out of the SC was the lack of commitment by most of the SC schools towards improving their athletic facilities. I love it that the majority of the SBC schools have, or will be taking on major improvement projects for their facilities, in fact, I'm afraid that App is falling behind, we need to start some improvement projects within the next 3 years, or we are going to be in alot of trouble. I guess the only major negative I have is we still do not have a traveling partner, I know its not entirely the SBC fault (thanks JMU), but still App isn't going to just sit tight for the next 5 years with this current SBC lineup, just too costly, and difficult for us to deal with, they got to find us a partner within the next year, or I got a feeling we might start putting out feelers to see what else is out there.

(05-22-2015 11:38 AM)moehler Wrote:  I think App had an "okay" first season, was really surprised by how well we turned around the football season in the second half, to finish 1st in total defense, and 3rd in offense, plus, beating ULL and Ark St away was a pleasant surprise. Basketball both men and women were a train wreck, but we expected that, two new coaches spending the whole year cleaning up the mess left by the last 2 coaches, good news is both coaches and their staffs are really good, and should have us competing for the SBC in a few years. Baseball, total disappointment, expected a lot more from this team, head coach has 2 years left on contract, better turn it around quickly. Couple of things that struck me about the SBC is, 1. they take their football much more seriously than the SC, no surprise, but the overall talent is much better than the SC, 2. One of reasons I wanted out of the SC was the lack of commitment by most of the SC schools towards improving their athletic facilities. I love it that the majority of the SBC schools have, or will be taking on major improvement projects for their facilities, in fact, I'm afraid that App is falling behind, we need to start some improvement projects within the next 3 years, or we are going to be in alot of trouble. I guess the only major negative I have is we still do not have a traveling partner, I know its not entirely the SBC fault (thanks JMU), but still App isn't going to just sit tight for the next 5 years with this current SBC lineup, just too costly, and difficult for us to deal with, they got to find us a partner within the next year, or I got a feeling we might start putting out feelers to see what else is out there.

How many times are people going to have to explain to app state fans that you not having a travel partner hurts everyone else in the league but app state. If you had a travel partner we could play both on 1 road trip. Everyone in the conference would play both on 1 road trip. You would only go there 1 time a year. Before you complain about not having a travel partner try to comprehend what it means and that the rest of the conference is hurt by it on their road trips, not you.

(05-22-2015 12:54 PM)Louisiana99 Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 11:38 AM)moehler Wrote:  I think App had an "okay" first season, was really surprised by how well we turned around the football season in the second half, to finish 1st in total defense, and 3rd in offense, plus, beating ULL and Ark St away was a pleasant surprise. Basketball both men and women were a train wreck, but we expected that, two new coaches spending the whole year cleaning up the mess left by the last 2 coaches, good news is both coaches and their staffs are really good, and should have us competing for the SBC in a few years. Baseball, total disappointment, expected a lot more from this team, head coach has 2 years left on contract, better turn it around quickly. Couple of things that struck me about the SBC is, 1. they take their football much more seriously than the SC, no surprise, but the overall talent is much better than the SC, 2. One of reasons I wanted out of the SC was the lack of commitment by most of the SC schools towards improving their athletic facilities. I love it that the majority of the SBC schools have, or will be taking on major improvement projects for their facilities, in fact, I'm afraid that App is falling behind, we need to start some improvement projects within the next 3 years, or we are going to be in alot of trouble. I guess the only major negative I have is we still do not have a traveling partner, I know its not entirely the SBC fault (thanks JMU), but still App isn't going to just sit tight for the next 5 years with this current SBC lineup, just too costly, and difficult for us to deal with, they got to find us a partner within the next year, or I got a feeling we might start putting out feelers to see what else is out there.

How many times are people going to have to explain to app state fans that you not having a travel partner hurts everyone else in the league but app state. If you had a travel partner we could play both on 1 road trip. Everyone in the conference would play both on 1 road trip. You would only go there 1 time a year. Before you complain about not having a travel partner try to comprehend what it means and that the rest of the conference is hurt by it on their road trips, not you.

Bingo!!

I have a feeling the conference will be acting on a 12 th school-- at least for basketball -- before too long. I think once it is clear what UAB/CUSA does you will see the Belt do something

(05-22-2015 12:54 PM)Louisiana99 Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 11:38 AM)moehler Wrote:  I think App had an "okay" first season, was really surprised by how well we turned around the football season in the second half, to finish 1st in total defense, and 3rd in offense, plus, beating ULL and Ark St away was a pleasant surprise. Basketball both men and women were a train wreck, but we expected that, two new coaches spending the whole year cleaning up the mess left by the last 2 coaches, good news is both coaches and their staffs are really good, and should have us competing for the SBC in a few years. Baseball, total disappointment, expected a lot more from this team, head coach has 2 years left on contract, better turn it around quickly. Couple of things that struck me about the SBC is, 1. they take their football much more seriously than the SC, no surprise, but the overall talent is much better than the SC, 2. One of reasons I wanted out of the SC was the lack of commitment by most of the SC schools towards improving their athletic facilities. I love it that the majority of the SBC schools have, or will be taking on major improvement projects for their facilities, in fact, I'm afraid that App is falling behind, we need to start some improvement projects within the next 3 years, or we are going to be in alot of trouble. I guess the only major negative I have is we still do not have a traveling partner, I know its not entirely the SBC fault (thanks JMU), but still App isn't going to just sit tight for the next 5 years with this current SBC lineup, just too costly, and difficult for us to deal with, they got to find us a partner within the next year, or I got a feeling we might start putting out feelers to see what else is out there.

How many times are people going to have to explain to app state fans that you not having a travel partner hurts everyone else in the league but app state. If you had a travel partner we could play both on 1 road trip. Everyone in the conference would play both on 1 road trip. You would only go there 1 time a year. Before you complain about not having a travel partner try to comprehend what it means and that the rest of the conference is hurt by it on their road trips, not you.

Well, arguments could be made that the lack of a travel partner hurt App in next year's hoops schedule, since they couldn't slip in those in-state Tuesday games. It's not clear-cut, though. Would be nice to just give them a travel partner so that all scheduling could be as parallel as possible.

(05-22-2015 04:39 PM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 12:54 PM)Louisiana99 Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 11:38 AM)moehler Wrote:  I think App had an "okay" first season, was really surprised by how well we turned around the football season in the second half, to finish 1st in total defense, and 3rd in offense, plus, beating ULL and Ark St away was a pleasant surprise. Basketball both men and women were a train wreck, but we expected that, two new coaches spending the whole year cleaning up the mess left by the last 2 coaches, good news is both coaches and their staffs are really good, and should have us competing for the SBC in a few years. Baseball, total disappointment, expected a lot more from this team, head coach has 2 years left on contract, better turn it around quickly. Couple of things that struck me about the SBC is, 1. they take their football much more seriously than the SC, no surprise, but the overall talent is much better than the SC, 2. One of reasons I wanted out of the SC was the lack of commitment by most of the SC schools towards improving their athletic facilities. I love it that the majority of the SBC schools have, or will be taking on major improvement projects for their facilities, in fact, I'm afraid that App is falling behind, we need to start some improvement projects within the next 3 years, or we are going to be in alot of trouble. I guess the only major negative I have is we still do not have a traveling partner, I know its not entirely the SBC fault (thanks JMU), but still App isn't going to just sit tight for the next 5 years with this current SBC lineup, just too costly, and difficult for us to deal with, they got to find us a partner within the next year, or I got a feeling we might start putting out feelers to see what else is out there.

How many times are people going to have to explain to app state fans that you not having a travel partner hurts everyone else in the league but app state. If you had a travel partner we could play both on 1 road trip. Everyone in the conference would play both on 1 road trip. You would only go there 1 time a year. Before you complain about not having a travel partner try to comprehend what it means and that the rest of the conference is hurt by it on their road trips, not you.

Well, arguments could be made that the lack of a travel partner hurt App in next year's hoops schedule, since they couldn't slip in those in-state Tuesday games. It's not clear-cut, though. Would be nice to just give them a travel partner so that all scheduling could be as parallel as possible.

It's not "their" travel partner, they don't share a plane with another team, they don't split the gas. This isn't hard to comprehend, have Ulm as our travel partner does nothing for us... Whoever plays us on Tuesday can go to ulm on Saturday. I have never given to shts who our travel partner is because it doesn't affect us, it affects the teams traveling to us. This isn't hard to understand.

Very happy to be in the Belt and looking forward to putting this transistion in our rear view mirror. We should have made the jump in the early 2000's but didn't have the leadership in place to make it happen. The SmallCon is on a slow train to irrelevancy and now I don't have to care. Thanks to all for the warm welcome and let's get year 2 underway!

(05-22-2015 04:49 PM)Louisiana99 Wrote:  It's not "their" travel partner, they don't share a plane with another team, they don't split the gas. This isn't hard to comprehend, have Ulm as our travel partner does nothing for us... Whoever plays us on Tuesday can go to ulm on Saturday. I have never given to shts who our travel partner is because it doesn't affect us, it affects the teams traveling to us. This isn't hard to understand.

Did you even read my post, or just see "travel partner" and assume you needed to say the same thing we've seen a million times? The concept of travel partners affects scheduling. Some App fans feel that scheduling for men's hoops next season is not set up in their favor. This setup is a direct result of there not being a nearby team associated with App. Adding a team would allow for more similarity in scheduling among all teams. That's the only point I wanted to make.

(05-22-2015 05:26 PM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 04:49 PM)Louisiana99 Wrote:  It's not "their" travel partner, they don't share a plane with another team, they don't split the gas. This isn't hard to comprehend, have Ulm as our travel partner does nothing for us... Whoever plays us on Tuesday can go to ulm on Saturday. I have never given to shts who our travel partner is because it doesn't affect us, it affects the teams traveling to us. This isn't hard to understand.

Did you even read my post, or just see "travel partner" and assume you needed to say the same thing we've seen a million times? The concept of travel partners affects scheduling. Some App fans feel that scheduling for men's hoops next season is not set up in their favor. This setup is a direct result of there not being a nearby team associated with App. Adding a team would allow for more similarity in scheduling among all teams. That's the only point I wanted to make.

Thank you for trying to make our point. We will just have to wait and see how much of a disadvantage it will be to have 10 opponents at home with a game off to rest up for us. Regardless, finishing in the middle of the pack with our talent this year was nothing short of a miracle. Can't wait for Coach Fox's 2nd season!

(05-22-2015 05:26 PM)Pounce FTW Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 04:49 PM)Louisiana99 Wrote:  It's not "their" travel partner, they don't share a plane with another team, they don't split the gas. This isn't hard to comprehend, have Ulm as our travel partner does nothing for us... Whoever plays us on Tuesday can go to ulm on Saturday. I have never given to shts who our travel partner is because it doesn't affect us, it affects the teams traveling to us. This isn't hard to understand.

Did you even read my post, or just see "travel partner" and assume you needed to say the same thing we've seen a million times? The concept of travel partners affects scheduling. Some App fans feel that scheduling for men's hoops next season is not set up in their favor. This setup is a direct result of there not being a nearby team associated with App. Adding a team would allow for more similarity in scheduling among all teams. That's the only point I wanted to make.

They feel that way because they don't understand what a travel partner is, them not having one makes it harder on everyone else who has to go way out to Boone fck Egypt for 1 game. They didn't have a travel partner last year and their schedule didn't fall the way it did this year. It's just the way it fell, if their travel partner is further they would be the first leg of the road trip leaving the possibility of the schedule falling the exact same way. It sucks more for us than them... And why do they keep bringing up travel partners and their travel cost in the same discussion? That had zero to do with their travel cost. Every time app travels this year, they will go to places with travel partners... App will never have to go play app.

It is becoming clear that the 12th team is more of a need for basketball than for football, especially if as expected deregulation of the champ game passes. I think news is coming within the next month on this issue

(05-21-2015 08:08 PM)GaSoEagle Wrote:  2. Little things like having 4 umpires for baseball games (the SoCon some years we were there only had 2), giving coaches a great deal of say in decisions about their particular sport, and teams being supportive of other conference schools in bowls or regionals are welcomed changes from some of our experience in our former conference.

Critical in today's tournament play as AState was able to appeal a missed bag and erase two Georgia State runs.

I am so happy GS and App joined the Sun Belt. If we can hold our teams together and get real $$ on our next TV contract we will be a force to be reckoned with!

(05-22-2015 08:33 AM)JCGSU Wrote:  

(05-22-2015 08:20 AM)EigenEagle Wrote:  I think there's no longer even a sliver of doubt that we are where we belong. I feel good about the league (at least football-wise) going forward with the current permanent membership

We should have moved up years ago.

No doubt. I still to this day can not wrap my head around how our previous leadership and so many of our fans were so short sighted about moving up and so down on the Sun Belt. Oh the days when our own AD and majority of our fans were dead certain this conference was going to fold and ALL the team would be forced back to I-AA. Ironically, while this conference continues to grow and get better every year the SoCon has slipped to I believe fourth when it comes to football. Absolutely no telling where we would be if we would have capitalized on the momentum of the 99-00 NC's and made the jump. I guess we will know in another 15 years that were wasted toiling in a dying division of football.

We might lose one or two teams but there is still a few solid FCS programs that can fill the spots. Once the door is closed on moving up and membership is really stable this conference will only be closing the gap on everyone else instead of catching up and being beat back down with instability. If the Sun Belt were a stock I would be buying all I could right now.

You should check out the FCS conference results for 2014. I'm pretty sure the SoCon dropped down to 10th.

Ga Southern and App were great additions to Sun Belt. Ga Southern accolades: Ga Southern award http://g5conferencenews.blogspot.com/

(05-24-2015 02:59 PM)baruna falls Wrote:  Ga Southern and App were great additions to Sun Belt. Ga Southern accolades: Ga Southern award http://g5conferencenews.blogspot.com/

Nice! Thanks for posting!

I'm delighted to have APP and GS in our conference. It's funny how many of the fans came into the SBC with their hackles raised and also refreshing how they've both embraced and supported Sun Belt Conference PRIDE in just one year. Yeah, this isn't little league... we do pull for each other when circumstances allow.

Again, welcome to the SBC, my new friends and HOPEFULLY long-time present and future conference brethren.