Like Grift, I am ambivalent about anything political lately. So let’s talk I-AA football.
To tell you the truth, I know very little about championship division football other than they have a playoff and that Appalachian State is a lot better than the two teams I’ve seen them play on TV. I know Georgia Southern was really good for a while and gave Georgia a hard time a few years ago in a game that was supposed to be a snoozer. I also know that Georgia State will announce its intention to start a football program today (watch it live here at 2 p.m.).
I’d suggest reading Tony Barnhart’s column for some more background. I agree with everything he wrote there, but am curious where they’ll actually play games (Barnhart thinks they should play in the Georgia Dome).
I’d like to add another suggestion to Tony’s list: schedule a lot of Thursday night games. Virginia Tech schedules a lot of Thursday games, which has garnered its program national exposure which it wouldn’t have received if it had to compete with 40 other games going on at the same time. Often, Virginia Tech and its opponent will be the only bowl division teams playing on a Thursday. I’m not going to skip watching a Tennessee game on TV to watch playoff division football (just as I don’t expect Georgia or Georgia Tech fans would skip watching their games), but I’d go to some games if I could take MARTA to them after work on a Thursday.
GSU will probably go through a few 0-11 seasons at first, but there’s enough talent in this state (even after UGA, GT, and Southern have had their shots) for them to put together a watchable team if they go about this the right way. It’s not unrealistic to think that in four or five years the games could be more fun to watch than Falcons games.
I’m excited about the possibility of having a I-AA team here for what I think would be the same reasons I’d be excited if there was a minor league baseball team in the city. I hope they get it right.
I am feeling your political ambivalence, and I love this move by GSU. I plan on giving a small amount of money to whatever football support fund they develop. Of course, I won’t be skipping any UGA home games for this new team (even those against the meekest of directional Louisiana teams).
Actually the Mountain West has a game of the week on Thursday nights (though their on VS. pr CSTV, so most don’t see them), And, though I know it’s OTP and not in ATL, the Braves’ AAA team will play in Gwinnett next years.
If you read Georgia Daily Digest everyday like you are supposed to — you would know that Valdosta State won the Division II Football Championship this year. http://www.valdostadailytimes.com/sports/local_story_110015652.html
This move kind of baffles me. There’s been this feeling that Patton is totally out of touch with what’s actually going on at GSU. This is one example. The vast majority of GSU students and alumni do not give a rat’s ass about our school’s sporting prospects. A number of us think a football team will damage the culture of the school.
Moreover, this isn’t the first time this has been tried. Our old charter team didn’t do so well. Ask Aaron Weiss about it. He played safety.
But what do we expect from Patton. He’s the one that wants to overhaul Decatur st. for no reason. He’s the one that wanted to annex woodruff park. He’s the one that let the theatre program evaporate entirely and yet he can’t seem to ensure that there’s adequate parking.
I’m not GSU alum, so I can only write about from the perspective of someone who wouldn’t mind catching a Thursday night I-AA football game on my way home from work.
The club Aaron played for was, for all intents and purposes, an intramural league. Sure, they played against some JV squads from Clemson, etc. But it was operating on a $5,000 annual budget. I don’t mention that to knock them, but only to say its existence doesn’t really prove anything positive or negative about a potential GSU football team that will have a multi-million dollar operating budget. It only really proves there is a base of people who will probably try out to be walk-ons.
The word you mentioned is “culture,” and that’s the root of this. For better or for worse, GSU appears to want to change its culture from a commuter school to a more standard liberal arts campus. They’ve already built a decent amount of on-campus housing. Varsity football is the centerpiece sport at most traditional southern liberal arts campuses, and so it is a logical step to me if that type of culture change is the ultimate goal.
Dr. Patton is a smart guy. He knows how loud the call has been for football at GSU. (I’m personally not a fan of the idea)
For years, he’s answered the question about football the same way: The last time a university established a new team, the school went bankrupt and the president got fired. Therefore, no football.
And he did have a very good point. Even well-established programs are remarkably expensive, and some have even come under heavy criticism for the amount of money they take away from academic programs. Not that schools should have any real focus on academics, but I digress.
In any case, I don’t believe it to be any coincidence that the new football program at Ga State is being announced in the same year Dr. Patton is retiring. Like I said, he’s a smart guy. He’s leaving that financial mess up to someone else.
It’s possible that’s the case at some schools, but in the case of Tennessee and Georgia for example, all athletic department funding is kept totally separate from academics precisely because they want to avoid that sort of criticism.
Of course, Tennessee and Georgia have a much bigger base of donors than GSU will have, so it will be interesting to see how they work that out.
He knows how loud the call has been for football at GSU
That’s my point, though. I haven’t taken a poll but in seven years studying at GSU I never witnessed a push for a football team. I witnessed a few starry eyed freshmen that really wanted to go to some other school lament the fact that we lacked a team but they tended to get over it pretty quickly.
Most GSU students and alum simply don’t care and of those that do I’ve met more that are opposed to it than favor it.
The push to transform GSU into a more traditional school has not really come from the student body or the alumni. It has come from the board of regents and the administrative leadership.
There’s been a growing contingent the past few years in the student body that have called for a football program.
Now… I say growing, but that still doesn’t say a whole lot. From all that I saw, they were more loud than they were big.
When they took a poll on the subject, I told them I would no longer give to the University if they were to start a football program. The results of the poll came out showing a majority of respondents would do the opposite that I would do.
So whoever said they would start donating money to the University — they’re welcome to do it. I’m no longer so inclined.
I was unaware of this poll but I still feel that a major football program would damage the culture of the school.
The team I played for at GSU was an intramural league team with hopes and dreams of developing into a real program. While we only played a few school, eight, we did start a small buzz with a few students. I left the school shortly there after but I did keep in touch with some of the players. They keep the program going and now its going to be a I-AA team just like the alum who started it.
I also know that Patton did state he would have a program only after he left the school.