excuse my ignorance, but why large enrollments are so important for the development of a football program?

• Wakeforest  / 6,800
• U Miami    / 11,000
• Vanderbilt / 12,000

I can go on……..

NîTE said

excuse my ignorance, but why large enrollments are so important for the development of a football program?

• Wakeforest  / 6,800
• U Miami    / 11,000
• Vanderbilt / 12,000

I can go on……..

Alumni, Student involvment, Athletic Fees paid for by students, attendance by students, etc.

I am not saying the student body size is all that matters but look up the average attendance of the schools you just listed.  Look up the stadium size (not Miami, doesn't really count).

App State is just not going to become a big time program due to student body size, geographical location, etc.  Thats my opinion.

walty12 said

NîTE said

excuse my ignorance, but why large enrollments are so important for the development of a football program?

• Wakeforest  / 6,800
• U Miami    / 11,000
• Vanderbilt / 12,000

I can go on……..

Alumni, Student involvment, Athletic Fees paid for by students, attendance by students, etc.

I am not saying the student body size is all that matters but look up the average attendance of the schools you just listed.  Look up the stadium size (not Miami, doesn't really count).

App State is just not going to become a big time program due to student body size, geographical location, etc.  Thats my opinion.

I'll add a bit to this thread, since both FIU and FAU suck this year,  :'(

Generally, if you look at the top 25 programs, they share three things in common.

1. They are a public institution.
2. The have a relatively large enrollment/compounding alumni base.
3. They have an on campus stadium.

There may be some exceptions, such as student body size (hence Notre Dame). But generally speaking, top football programs have at least one of these three requisites. Similarly, the stronger they support these points, the stronger the program. Its not the 80s and 90s anymore. The economics of college football has changed, and these three things are priority criteria.

That is why both FIU and FAU's future looks so bright. Appalachian State has all of these three elements, and frankly I think they would do well in Sunbelt. However, because they barely meet these thresholds, its doubtful they would ever graduate from the Sunbelt. Ten years from now, they'd still likely be there whereas I envision both FAU and FIU being in the Big East.

I'm glad NiteOwl made those three distinct examples, because they very well support my theory.

1. Public Institution (NONE - WForest, UMiami and Vandy all PRIVATE)
2. Large enrollment (NONE - WForest approx 5k students, UMiami & Vandy approx 12k)
3. On Campus Stadium (TWO - WForest & Vandy)

As you can see, none of these schools generally fully support these qualifiers whereas both FIU and FAU pass this requisites with flying colors. The inevitable will eventually happen, we're just all so impatient!!!

And to further Don Quijote's argument, those three schools fancy themselves as high class academic institutions, more so than athletic programs. Miami would be the only one that's borderline on that statement but they are still a very well respected academic institution. Wake and Vandy are happy being at the bottom of the SEC/ACC in football but at the top of the heap when it comes to degree value. Those two aren't gunning for National Titles and Miami, they aren't going to get there again really (not any time soon anyway), once they made the decision not to build a stadium on campus, things changed. The facilities are too great for them to make up against an FSU, UF, Bama, OSU, UGA…whoever, they can't compete.