belittle the Sun Belt conference teams, fanbases, and facilities. Reading their boards many of them think their teams and facilities our better than ours. They also would rather stay 1AA than move to the Sun Belt if invited. I don't understand their line of thinking. Are they really that naive to believe that their "stuff" is better or are they just saying it?

Over and Under on this not becoming a flame war?

(12-01-2011 04:05 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  belittle the Sun Belt conference teams, fanbases, and facilities. Reading their boards many of them think their teams and facilities our better than ours. They also would rather stay 1AA than move to the Sun Belt if invited. I don't understand their line of thinking. Are they really that naive to believe that their "stuff" is better or are they just saying it?

Example: Liberty fans??? Saying they could compete in the Sun Belt right now.

http://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewtopi...&start=250

Does anyone really care what they think ? Don't encourage them or the usual FCS posters will be here touting their greatness.

Who the f*** is Liberty? Who cares what they think and besides the Sun Belt wouldn't take them. They have absolutely no name recognition. Wait, I do recall their name, they get beat up by West Virginia from time to time.

This has been said countless times, on any given day a team can win. Alabama could lose to Louisiana-Monroe (which they did) or WKU could lose to Indiana State (which they did). Just because teams lose to FCS schools or schools that are considered beneath them doesn't mean the winning team can automatically join the FBS and compete. WKU was a good FCS team and made the up to FBS. It took them 3 years and the downfall of Troy, MTSU, FAU to rise to the top.

Liberty fans aren't the only ones. Most FCS fans have this delusional fantasy of competing right out of the gate in the FBS. See the Alabama State thread in the smack board if you want a taste of their delusions.

Well, I was bored so I just ran through the FCS Top 25. I assume that is the cream of the crop of the FCS (just a guess). The top 25 is a combined 2-22 against FBS programs. The two wins are from Top 3 teams who beat New Mexico (1-10) and Minnesota (3-9).

Take it for what it is worth.

(12-01-2011 04:05 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  belittle the Sun Belt conference teams, fanbases, and facilities. Reading their boards many of them think their teams and facilities our better than ours. They also would rather stay 1AA than move to the Sun Belt if invited. I don't understand their line of thinking. Are they really that naive to believe that their "stuff" is better or are they just saying it?

Looking at the WKU, Indiana State score is probably why some think that way. Like when UNT could not win a OC game but would win the SBC title every year.

(12-01-2011 04:28 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  

(12-01-2011 04:05 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  belittle the Sun Belt conference teams, fanbases, and facilities. Reading their boards many of them think their teams and facilities our better than ours. They also would rather stay 1AA than move to the Sun Belt if invited. I don't understand their line of thinking. Are they really that naive to believe that their "stuff" is better or are they just saying it?

Example: Liberty fans??? Saying they could compete in the Sun Belt right now.

http://www.flamefans.com/forums/viewtopi...&start=250

Them saying it doesn't make it so. Last year some GSU Panther fans were delusional enough to post comments about upsetting Alabama. Didn't quite happen, did it.

if you ever want a good laugh go over to anygivensaturday.com. those folks are the MOST dillusional of the bunch.

Its easy for a team to get amped up for one game. FCS teams are always looking to prove themselves against FBS teams.

One win means nada. If they can play a full FBS schedule and win, then so be it. Until then, they got no leg to stand on.

The fact that it took their top 25 teams to muster two wins this season is very telling. They take an occasional win against an FBS team and blow it out of proportion. When the Sun Belt starts beating SEC teams on a regular basis we can say we are as good, until then, we aren't...same goes for FCS and I don't mean a few teams that win on occasion.

(12-01-2011 06:40 PM)dchi72 Wrote:  Its easy for a team to get amped up for one game. FCS teams are always looking to prove themselves against FBS teams.

One win means nada. If they can play a full FBS schedule and win, then so be it. Until then, they got no leg to stand on.

First, they don't get that they've been scheduled so the team can get a win and coaches can use the game to fine tune the stuff from practice. Generally coaches go in expecting to run a basic set of plays with a few home run type plays just to get execution improved and to get the timing down while building confidence. Baylor does not approach playing an FCS the way they approach playing Texas. Barry Switzer once said a good coach can get a team fired up to play two, maybe three times a season and the rest of the games you just have to be better to win.

Second, the players on the FBS team are going in expecting that they aren't going to need to work hard and should get an easy win, while the FCS school's players see it as their chance to prove they belong in FBS.

Look at the FCS playoffs right now only two teams have an FBS win, Sam Houston beat New Mexico and gave up 45 points to a team that has a second best offensive performance of 28 points and averaged 9.9 points per game vs. FBS teams. NDSU beat Minnesota. The Gophers also lost to New Mexico State who has four wins, the other three? New Mexico (see above), Idaho (2-9) and Fresno State (4-8).

(12-01-2011 04:05 PM)MT FAN Wrote:  belittle the Sun Belt conference teams, fanbases, and facilities. Reading their boards many of them think their teams and facilities our better than ours. They also would rather stay 1AA than move to the Sun Belt if invited. I don't understand their line of thinking. Are they really that naive to believe that their "stuff" is better or are they just saying it?

I do think many of the FCS fans, true or not, think that after one or two winning seasons in the FCS they could simply jump to the FBS and win the SBC Championship, especially if they had the same number of scholarships.

The reason for this is media perception in my mind. The Media talks down about the SBC all season long and some FCS fans read into this thinking that they are better.

There has only been one Dominant FCS team to make the jump and that was Marshall. Every other teams has been middle of the pack for the most part. Boise and WKU were prime examples of this, each having won only one Championship at the FCS level.

FCS success has very little to do with success in the FBS but if a team makes the jump in the middle of a dynasty run like Georgia Southern had in 98-2001 and App State had from 05-08 then it would give them a much better boost.

Personally, I think GSU could make the jump next season and come pretty close to a .500 record over the first two seasons. Our facilities and athletic budget is too low to sustain the level of support it would require but I think we could find a way to make it and stay competitive.

There is a core group of GSU fans that do not want to make the jump because they enjoy winning and enjoy the playoff experience and the chance at a national championship. Many of them would change their mind if the FBS went to a 8-16 team playoff format where the SBC/MAC conferences got auto bids for the conference champions.

I would love to see GSU make the jump (With App State) and start playing Troy and MTSU again every year but sadly I know we are barely in the top 10 of most SBC fans list and I could assume the commish as well. Maybe in the next 10 years, with a new Athletic Director for GSU and after our stadium expansion in a couple of years we'll get an offer, but i'm not expecting one and I will love and support my team either way.

Fans always believe that their team is better than it is. Part of being a fan. Before the first game of the year half the fans believe that their team could probably beat LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State and Texas on consecutive weekends. Then reality sets in somewhat.
Right now you could take the Sagarin ratings (a piece of crap I know, but used for emphasis) and say that the top 4 Sun Belt teams are better than the bottom of the SEC. Wouldn't be true (maybe), but you could argue that. In fact you could say that about my school also, but certainly not true.
No one should get upset that a bunch of FCS fans are espousing some stupid things. You know that the Sun Belt is better than the MAC, the WAC, and has, I believe, a winning record against the C-USA this year. The Sun Belt is a conference that they know of. That's one reason they mention it. I bet half of them could not name half of the teams in the WAC, and a good percentage would not even know what the WAC is.

GaSouthern, that was a very well-thought out and level headed post. I gave you rep points because I think you deserved 'em for your contribution there. I wish we had more FCS fans on here that were as realistic as you and our App State posters.

It's simply jealousy. Now let's move onto a more important topic.

(12-02-2011 02:17 PM)JoeJag Wrote:  It's simply jealousy.

More often than not I don't think so.

I love seeing former rivals like Troy and MTSU upset the big dog BCS schools and when they do i'm cheering for them rather than being angry. Don't get me wrong, I want nothing more than to even up our record against Troy because they are one of the few teams we have a losing record against. But hey, I even pulled for App State to win against Michigan and the hate between GSU and App is about as bad as it gets.

One thing that I actually was jealous of was the "viewership" last year during the N.O. Bowl game. The fact that it recieved more viewers than the FCS National Championship Game was enough to make my decision to go FBS set in stone. Being a mid-level Georgia Southern Booster there is not much I can do to influence any actual decision makers though.


As far as perception, post like this don't help anything IMO...
http://www.ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=536752