Hhhmmm ok, but how does a FAU use this to eventually get to the next level ala UL?  I mean USM has had this motto for years, yet they are still no better than a 2nd or 3rd tier program.  They have a few upsets to their resume, but never enough success to get to another level. 

caveman99 said

Hhhmmm ok, but how does a FAU use this to eventually get to the next level ala UL?  I mean USM has had this motto for years, yet they are still no better than a 2nd or 3rd tier program.  They have a few upsets to their resume, but never enough success to get to another level.

It may never happen, that is true.

Hopefully you get an upset now and then, but the exposure is out there and the payday.

USF and UL were fortuante enough to be in place and performing well enought that when a confrence realingment came up they were fortuante to get into a BCS confrence.  That alone has helped USF get to where it is today. If they were still in the Belt or L'ville was still in CUSA they wouldnt be where they are/were today.

HS has has always said he'd like to move into a bigger confrence and that he wants FAU to be AVAILABLE for that and have the reputation and facilitis in place. Well the reputation is there, and hopefully the Facilites will come along soon.

Welcome to the board!

That makes sense, but I think the key to being wanted is all in the rep a Tier II school has.  Currently FAU has a good rep, if HS can start pulling in some upsets that makes everyone stand up and notice I think that would help.  Conferences are always looking around. 

caveman, to put the $800k for S.Carolina in perspective so you can understand what it means to us…our conference champion goes to the New Orleans Bowl.  The payout is listed at $375k.  That is based on ticket sales and we have very little tickets sales.  Our payout may actually be somewhere around $200k-$250k.  I am not sure of the exact payout numbers but you get the point.  You can see what this $800k payout can do for our program that has a very low athletic budget.  The other benefit is to see where we stand as a program and understand what it will take to get to the next level.  It also generates great interest for our fans because we don't want to play non-bcs teams every week.

I am actually looking forward to the Gamecocks because as you know we play the Huskers in week 1, but then have a bye for week 2.  This will allow us to see what we did right and what we did poorly vs a bcs team AND have an extra week to prepare before the S. Carolina game.  This bye week in between is huge and I hope it helps us prepare better.  Will it equate to a win vs the gamecocks?  Probably not.  But it should help us advance our program and prepare us for the rest of the season, and who knows what may happen with better preparation.