With UTEP leaving the WAC to head to Conference USA, the WAC will be hitting the Sun Belt hard. There going to take NTexas, Layfatte (i know I spelt it wrong, I have no clue how to). The sunbelt could be headed back down to 1-AA. We better hope two things:1.It doesn't happen till the 2007 season but realistically it could happen by 2006 and two, we better get a on campus stadium because nobody else is going to pick us up playing at Lockhart. If we build a dome our basketball team would improve with recruiting and become respectable and we could recruit South Florida's finest football players. If the owls can be one or two games above .500 with a dome in the works the big east would look at us as a serious program but more realistically the MAC would be a solid pickup. All this talk and were haven't even played a 1a schedule yet.aloha.

Why would losing NTexas and UL make the SunBelt an automatic candidate for 1-AA?
The thread below mention the affirmation between the remaining members of the SB. Any type of Big East invite is LIGHT years away. The short waiting list will not include FAU for quit some time.

We cannot control any of the movements from other teams so we need to get our house in order. Football recruiting will improve with this move to D1-A. The on-campus stadium will also help.

The talent was there this past season. But do you think the basketball team would have played better in a Dome?

With all the talk about the NCAA requirements and attendance issues it is one reason why the sunbelt would go back to 1AA, secondly, New Mexico State is leaving, Arkansas State is too I believe, N.Texas, Layfette will most likelyt be out, that is a tough pill to swallow. The sunbelt has been talked about a lot heading to 1AA and these factors do not help. The attendance requirements were not even brought up at the BCS meeting, possibly in june meetings.

The basketball team can't be worse so a dome can only help with recruiting. Does a 17 year old kid want to play in a 5,000 seat stadium or a 40,000 seat stadium and with the football team going 1A its only more name recognition to help with recruiting. A good coach would help too, how many games did we lose by less then five and how many OT games? Matt Doherty would be solid, he was almost went to James Madison and pulled his name when St.Johns threw him in the mix of candidates. The guy is not afraid of going to a small school and would use us as stepping zone to get back to the bigtime.

The big east is not light years away. They?re still looking for football schools and with Notre Dame saying adios most likely there going to be looking for someone hard in the near future, while UCF is more of an obvious choice for a Florida school they will want someone to battle USF. Our baseball team is solid, soccer, softball, swimming the football will be there. I feel the most determent factor will be an on campus stadium. Look at UConn they were the worst team in the country three years ago and now with a 40,000-seat stadium this year they were getting top 25 votes. It doesn't take long to make a program respectable (Univ. Florida Basketball? Miami football, first championship in 82'? Even Florida football only won a few games in the late 70's. FSU basketball has become respectable, a top 25 team in one year with good recruits and a new coach).

With the athletes that are bread in Florida the only thing you need is solid coaching and facilities. The school is in Boca if you didn't notice, the money is there, and coach schnell has ties all over the football world, its only a matter of a short time. I'm calling it now, anyone who reads this. THE YEAR THERE IS A STADIUM ON CAMPUS WE WILL BE A TOP 25 TEAM. IT WILL BE IMPOSSIBLE NOT TO ACHIEVE THE RESULTS WITH THE ATHLETES THAT RESIDE HERE AND ATTAINABLE COACHES. If you?re coach were do you want to be? in the sticks at Clemson or on the beaches of Boca with your family?
I'm making the call. Justin Dirico class of 02'

Interesting topics discussed all over the internet.

The IA landscape is very convoluted and with the defection of UTEP to CUSA, things have gotten very interesting in the WAC and Sun Belt conferences. La. Tech is the only institution in the WAC with a Central time zone, and is losing money in droves with the current WAC configuration, thought to get even worse with the defection of UTEP.

Now, the Presidents of both UNT and WKU have expressed their "solidarity" letter to SBC. This may or may not be the case, but it appears more and more likely that, unless the WAC can bring in 3 or 4 "eastern" teams from the SBC, neither school will bolt, thus remaining in the Belt.

New Mexico St. and Utah St. are moving to the WAC. Those are OLD news, my friend. In fact, the main reason both our schools, FIU and FAU, will join the SBC so soon is precisely due to those actions already taken by them earlier. There's no indication whatsoever that Arkansas St. is leaving anywhere, at least not yet.

The WAC, now in meetings, have already made some statements that they want to get team(s) from the Sun Belt earlier this morning. Based on the earlier release, they want to get One (1) team from either Idaho, UNT, or Louisiana-Lafayette. Late this afternoon, though, there seems they might explore the possibility of adding up to 4 teams, presumabley from the Sun Belt…This COULD kill the SBC. However, both UNT and UL's leaders have already gone on record saying they wouldn't go by themselves, besides the "solidarity" pledge by UNT president to staying put in the Belt. Idaho is the logic school to leave for the WAC, if not for obvious geographic reasons.

Also, the attendance requirement, while still alive, is widely thought to be either eliminated or somewhat "relaxed" in the August meetings. Obviously, this fact has repercussions to both our institutions, particularly short term, in our quest to attain IA membership in 2006.

So, my point is, that while a lot of things are up in the air for the SBC, that it is not quite "doom and gloom" yet. Anything can happen, but I can say that most knowledgeable posters in the SBC, and even in La. Tech, are saying the SBC is TODAY much stronger than just a couple of weeks ago, perhaps dealing with more leverage than La. Tech and WAC, if the "solidarity" pledge is followed as stated.

Let's see what happens, but it is in our interest for the moment, that the Sun Belt comes out of this issue ahead.

I agree with FIUfanatic on his post about the apparent "defections" of teams away form the SB. A lot can happen before any of the teams move back to D1-AA. The main thing being the schools haven't even addressed the Attendance issue yet. If it was so solid from the NCAA's standpoint then why is it even back on the table AGAIN?
It may not happen, my friend.

Basketball: Do I think Coach Green could have done a better job with the players he had. Probably! Should they have won more games. Certainly, they lost a few heartbreakers in the final seconds. Would a Dome or 40,000 arena had helped. No. Why? The fans don't come out. Put a good product on the court and they will come. The schools you mentioned had losing records in their 40,000 stadiums too. It's all about the product on the floor.

Football: The fans and attendanec didn't help the UCONN Huskies get votes for rankings. The players did. They had a decent team with some young players on it. The returners had a good year. Your arguement about needing a stadium and we will be ranked?
We finished up at the #4 ranking in the NATION last year!!!! Our returners had a GREAT year. That was playing in front of 5000 people at Lockhart. These guys can win in front of Mother Teresa's School for the Blind on any given Saturday. The talent is definetly there. The school need to get the on-campus stadium for more support. On the flip side of the arguement is Troy State. They increased their stadium last year and still didn't have a great year.

The Big East invite: The schoo(FAU)l is very young. Only 3 full years of playing football. The BE would probably look to raid one of the ACC or even SEC schools if they decide to expand anytime soon. Maybe even the MAC schools. My phrase about "light year" is simply saying that any invite within the next 7 years does not seem likely for FAU. Contracts are in place with the new schools and the existing schools have to make their intentions known in their new conferences.
Can it happen? Sure. Will it? Not Likely.

I agree that FAU need to recruit with the big boys soon. That will happen now that we are in D1-A. But we cannot forget that we have already won on the field last year with minumal support from the fans. This team will win. They cannot qualify for the playoffs for another two years. They will have a true squad of 4 year players again for the SunBelt schools to contend with. A stadium will only help with the recruits. But the existing players will not play any less aggressive because of the lack of a stadium.
These things takes time.

Let's keep up this school spirit Dirico. It helps.

Go Owls!

There has been to much talk and lot's of rumors about the new aligments of C-USA, WAC, etc., and the SBC losing teams I've lost interest in following this topic due to the fact, it's hard to decipher what the facts actually are. And we can't worry about what may or may not happen, if for some reason the SBC get's raided by the other conferences and the remaining teams are force to go 1-AA because of attendance, again something we have no way of knowing what will come of the attendance issue, hopefully it will be repeeled. I can probably say that FAU will do what ever it can to retain a 1-A status - that was the plan all along, just happen sooner then expected. Going back to 1-AA will not be a good option for FAU, period, it will be detrimental to this program with the effect felt for many years. Players are currently being recruited with the intentions of being at the 1-A level.

Getting a stadium on campus is absolutely a big piece of the puzzle with us moving up to D-1A and must happen to help ensure that the fan base keeps growing. It's a matter of given the program an identity, a home which in turn will help with community, student and current alumni's to support. The stadium will happen, it's just a matter of time. The time table is for us to be in our own stadium for the 2007 season where Howard will be able to coach the team for one year before retiring in 2008.

This team has the athletes & talent to compete and with us moving to 1-A the recruiting has already been ungraded and will continue to improve. A successful program is built from the ground up and time, we have a coaching staff that IMO has already established the nessesary groung work and is starting to reep some of the benefits - it even may have caught Howard by supprise on how quick it took hold (look at Miami and how Howard re-built that teams from the ground up). You built something on a solid foundation and it will have continued success and will handle any down years it will encounter, which will happen.

This team is on the right track and support will come, it just takes time to build a fan base that will grow with this team on a yearly bases - you can't build lasting success over night unfortunetely. All we can do is spread the word on FAU Football and what a great product we have on the field.

Go Owls!!

I agree.