The University of South Alabama to add football as part of their athletics program.

http://www.usajaguars.com/ViewArticle.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=8300&ATCLID=1349218

BOARD OF TRUSTEES VOTES TO ADD NCAA FOOTBALL
Courtesy: South Alabama
            Release: 12/06/2007

Courtesy: South Alabama
University of South Alabama


Board of Trustees Resolution



Preliminary Timeline

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MOBILE, Ala. – The University of South Alabama Board of Trustees approved the addition of football to the intercollegiate athletic program at its regularly-scheduled meeting on Thursday. The decision came after a recommendation from USA President Gordon Moulton based on input from student, faculty, alumni and community groups.


The intention is that the Jaguars will field a team in 2009 with a full transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision by 2013. USA is a charter member of the Sun Belt Conference.



In conjunction with the football announcement, the Board also approved the addition of a 200-member marching band program for the Department of Music.



“This effort is really about the students and alumni, and bringing them closer to the University,” said Moulton.  “We also believe this will strengthen our already close relationship with the community”



The University of South Alabama over the past four decades has grown from a startup urban institution to a comprehensive university with an ever-increasing traditional and residential student body. Throughout the maturing of the institution to its present status as one of Alabama’s fastest growing universities, the issue of NCAA-sanctioned intercollegiate football has arisen at numerous junctures.



In 1999, not long after the current administration began, the University responded to requests from some of its constituencies and conducted a formal analysis of the football issue. USA, with the assistance of external consultants, undertook a comprehensive review of the costs and benefits of such a program and gauged community interest through various means, including a season ticket drive. At the time, the University and its board of trustees determined the timing was not right for the addition of NCAA-sanctioned football. As an offshoot of the 1999 process, a club football program was developed at the University.



The football issue again arose this summer and was independently fueled by the Student Government Association, The Vanguard student newspaper and a group named “Students who Stand.” During the fall semester, a petition was arranged and over 2,500 signatures were presented to Moulton at the basketball home opener on Nov. 11.



“This is an historic day for the University of South Alabama and our athletics department,” Director of Athletics Joe Gottfried said. “With the future of intercollegiate athletics driven by football, we are excited as we enter a new era. College football will have a major impact on our athletics program, our university, Mobile and the surrounding communities.



“I want to thank President Moulton and Board of Trustees for their vision to establish football at our institution.”



“This is a good day for the Sun Belt Conference,” Commissioner Wright Waters said. “We are prepared to do whatever we can to help South Alabama, including with scheduling. As soon as they get their Division I-A certification, they will walk in automatically as our 10th football member.”



The Jaguars will begin their schedule at Ladd-Peebles Stadium in downtown Mobile in the fall of 2009. The 40,000-seat facility is home to the GMAC Bowl and the Senior Bowl, plus numerous high school football games each year.

South Alabama used to have football in the 1990s if I'm not mistaken. I think they were D-II. I guess they dropped it and are now bringing it back.

GO OWLS!!!

I already posted this in the SBC area

Here is another playoff division team thinking of making the jump to the Bowl Championship level:

Link: Ga. Southern studies potential move to Div. I

Florida Gulf Coast (Fort Myers) has talked, informally, about football from time to time. However, a start-up program would not be moving into I-A for quite some time, even without the moratorium. Actually, over there, a very high quality I-AA football program might work just fine...

Bytor said

Here is another playoff division team thinking of making the jump to the Bowl Championship level:

Link: Ga. Southern studies potential move to Div. I

Georgia Southern makes sense. They have had tremendous success at the 1-AA level and they have the fan base to support the move to 1-A. They would be a great addition to a growing Sunbelt Conference. It probably won't happen any time soon, if at all, but it would be a nice fit for the SBC.

GO OWLS!!!

grayowl said

Florida Gulf Coast (Fort Myers) has talked, informally, about football from time to time. However, a start-up program would not be moving into I-A for quite some time, even without the moratorium. Actually, over there, a very high quality I-AA football program might work just fine…

That is the first that I have heard of Florida Gulf Coast thinking about football. I see them on par with the likes of Jacksonville. They probably would have to be a 1-AA non-scholarship program. Although, maybe they could be 1-AA scholarship, but definitely not 1-A.

GO OWLS!!!

Is GSU ready for the next big step?

Adam Van Brimmer | Sunday, December 9, 2007 at 12:30 am

STATESBORO - Sam Baker first crunched the numbers almost a decade ago.

Georgia Southern's athletics director printed out the NCAA requirements for schools competing at the Division I-A level and those for I-AA members. He laid the sheets of paper side by side. He pulled out a calculator and a pencil and went to work.

Baker's done it several times since, with each NCAA rule change. He's come to the same conclusion every time.

"It's going to be a quantum leap," Baker said.

Georgia Southern announced two weeks ago it would commission a study to see how quantum. The study results won't be available until late next year. The school has yet to hire a consulting firm to do the report, which could take six months or more to complete.

Speculation will help pass that time. Most GSU fans already see the Eagles playing in a Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) league, be it the Southeastern Conference or the Sun Belt. Some are counting the days to the team's first Bowl Championship Series appearance.

The Eagles' faithful can't help but see their program as the next Troy, Boise State or Marshall of the FBS landscape.

Baker smiles and shakes his head at the comparisons. Again, he knows approximately what the numbers will look like, and he knows something else: Every institution is different.


The hidden factors

From an NCAA standpoint, all that separates Georgia Southern from Georgia are 27 scholarships, one varsity sports program and seven football games against FBS competition.

Division I-A schools must award a minimum of 76.5 football scholarships, 13.5 more than GSU is allowed to give at the Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA) level.

The Eagles also would have to offer at least 13.5 more to female student-athletes across its programs to stay in line with gender-equity requirements.

Georgia Southern would also need to add a team. The FBS schools must offer at least 16 sports, one more than the Eagles have now. GSU would add a women's program, putting to use some of those 13.5 scholarships.

The NCAA also requires FBS programs to play 60 percent of their games - eight in a 12-game schedule - against their peers and play five of those at home. GSU currently plays one FBS game a year: Colorado State in 2007, Georgia in 2008. The Eagles have never played a FBS opponent in Paulson Stadium.

Sounds simple, except doing the minimums listed likely won't make the Eagles competitive, in football or any other sports.

GSU will have to add 22 football scholarships - and, in turn, 22 more scholarships through its women's programs - for its football team to have a chance at the next level.

And the Eagles will have to leave the geographically compact Southern Conference for a league that offers FBS football to ensure they meet the scheduling requirement.

That means increased travel costs - for all 16 programs, not just football.

"Joe Blow off the street overlooks all that," said Lee Moon, the AD at Marshall when the school left the Southern Conference for the Mid-American Conference in the mid-1990s. "A lot of the big boosters get mad because they want you to have the highest profile. They wanted us to play Notre Dame from day one. But it's not that easy."

And if it wasn't easy for Marshall, every would-be FBS member will find it difficult. Marshall possessed mid-major resources, from financial support to facilities, before making the move.

And the school's travel costs actually went down because Marshall could bus to all the MAC schools while its teams flew to some Southern Conference campuses.

Still, the Thundering Herd won five MAC titles in its first six years in the league and eventually left the league for Conference USA.

Moon acknowledges Marshall was the exception to the rule. Other schools that moved up in the 1990s struggled - and continue to do so.

Northeast Louisiana, now known as Louisiana Monroe, reclassified in 1994. The football team has had 13 losing seasons in the 14 years since. The Warhawks upset Alabama this fall but still finished with a 6-6 record.

Middle Tennessee State is another cautionary tale. The school moved up in 1998, a year after expanding its football stadium from approximately 15,000 seats to 31,788.

The Blue Tide has yet to sell out a football game. Only two games drew a crowd of more than 20,000 this season, and one was against Atlantic Coast Conference member Virginia.

"You have to have all the things going in the right direction," Moon said. "And it's a tough deal for the athletic director because all of them have a percentage of boosters who are passionate but not reasonable. And to be able to tactfully tell them 'We are who we are' is tough."


Risk versus reward

Troy moved from the Division II ranks to I-AA in 1993 with a model in mind.

"We wanted to be the Georgia Southern of Alabama," said then-AD Johnny Williams.

Troy and GSU share a similar cross section. Both are located in small towns and rural areas; both exist in the shadow of two in-state football factories with long histories; and both are isolated in the far regions of their states.

The similarities go deeper. Troy played in a cozy, 17,500-seat facility similar to Paulson Stadium. Williams lacked deep-pocketed donors. Almost every Trojan fan was either an Alabama, Auburn or Florida State fan first.

Troy went undefeated its first season of I-AA competition and finished the regular season ranked No. 1. The Trojans made the playoffs six of the next seven years.

And in 1998, the school launched its own feasibility study.

"The recommendation was not to go," Williams said. "But the (Board of Regents) went in and said, 'No, we're going to make this move.'"

Fortunately for Williams, the glamour of Division I-A appealed to sponsors and alumni. Money poured in. The school renovated the stadium, bumping it up to 30,000 seats and adding luxury boxes.

Williams found that he could expand Troy's marketing reach from a 25-mile radius as a I-AA school to 100 miles at the I-A level.

"You looked at the raw data, and there was not enough there to do what we needed to do. It was scary," Williams said. "But our support doubled from people we never targeted before."

Troy attracted attention with its schedule, playing Miami, Nebraska and Mississippi State in its first season as a I-A school and more heavyweights - Kansas State, Missouri, Arkansas, Minnesota, Virginia, Louisiana State, South Carolina, Florida State, Georgia Tech, Georgia - in the years to come.

This fall, Troy defeated Oklahoma State on its home field in an ESPN Thursday night game.

Troy's fans still might root for Alabama, Auburn and FSU, but now they're Trojans fans first.

"I-A is a pretty good deal … if you get there," Williams said. "But the numbers can be daunting."

As Baker well knows. And Georgia Southern's fans will soon find out.


Reach reporter Adam Van Brimmer at [email protected] or 652-0733.

BMarkey said

Is GSU ready for the next big step?

Looks like they have a little work to do. Helps you appreciate how much FAU went through to get us to this point.

But once they get there, I imagine they'll be able to sell the school well. Georgia Southern is a nice-looking place:

grayowl said

Florida Gulf Coast (Fort Myers) has talked, informally, about football from time to time. However, a start-up program would not be moving into I-A for quite some time, even without the moratorium. Actually, over there, a very high quality I-AA football program might work just fine…

FGCU has only been around since 1991. It really cannot support a football team at this point.

I think UNF could support a football team… I know they've been talking about it. They're also in north Florida and the community is much more supportive of football in northern Florida for various reasons we've discussed before.