The inevitable juggernaut of Georgia State football

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by GAVol

I'm 50/50 on going up for the game. I'm actually an alum.

You're an alumnus, you're an insatiable sports fan, and yet you're 50/50 on going to the first football game in your alma mater's history? WTH?

Tickets start at something like fifteen bucks. Go.

[AppalachianHiker]

Shorter is good, but their best player was drafted last year & they are gonna miss him. Also, even though it's GSU's first game, you know they will be talented. I mean it's DI football athletes, so they have to be good. Plenty of talent in ATL to go around too.

Go Hawks

[VolunteerHillbilly]

If Mercer would ever restore football, I'd be at the first game and then some.

[First&Tenn]

Originally Posted by VolunteerHillbilly

If Mercer would ever restore football, I'd be at the first game and then some.

I feel that way about ETSU...

[tigervol9802]

I assume they are 1-AA?

I have no problem with them playing Bama. It's trickle-down economics in college football. I read an article about it maybe 5 or 6 years ago but can't find it now. It explains the situation beautifully.

[VolInsider]

Originally Posted by First&Tenn

I feel that way about ETSU...

QFT

[jsc1973]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

Bill Curry probably had to pull some favors to make it happen.

Nah. The way Bammers are, they still feel like they owe him one for all those losses to Auburn on his watch in the 1980s. When they got the chance to schedule Curry's new team, they jumped on it.

The sad part is that Saban actually whined about Georgia State scheduling a bye week before Alabama. Nevermind that there are high schools in Alabama that could probably give the Tide a better game than Georgia State will.

I see GSU has Campbell on the schedule. You would have to live out there and see Campbell to realize how hilarious it is that a school would play Campbell and Alabama in the same season. Until a few years ago, Campbell played basketball in a 650-seat gym and didn't have a football team.

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by tigervol9802

I assume they are 1-AA?

I have no problem with them playing Bama. It's trickle-down economics in college football. I read an article about it maybe 5 or 6 years ago but can't find it now. It explains the situation beautifully.

I understand how the system works, and how within that system it's actually good for GSU to get their ass kicked in by Alabama. But I would argue that any system in which a defending national champion gets to play not only a I-AA team, but a I-AA team in its very first season, and still get to count it as a win is a broken system. It's not a contest in any meaningful sense of the word. There are probably high school teams that could beat GSU this year.

[Vercingetorix]

Originally Posted by jsc1973

Nah. The way Bammers are, they still feel like they owe him one for all those losses to Auburn on his watch in the 1980s. When they got the chance to schedule Curry's new team, they jumped on it.

The sad part is that Saban actually whined about Georgia State scheduling a bye week before Alabama. Nevermind that there are high schools in Alabama that could probably give the Tide a better game than Georgia State will.

I see GSU has Campbell on the schedule. You would have to live out there and see Campbell to realize how hilarious it is that a school would play Campbell and Alabama in the same season. Until a few years ago, Campbell played basketball in a 650-seat gym and didn't have a football team.

If payback for Curry is seriously Bama's motivation for playing that game, then that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard. That's like getting "revenge" on an old enemy by sneaking into his terminally ill grandmother's hospital room and pulling the plug on her ventilator.

[jsc1973]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

If payback for Curry is seriously Bama's motivation for playing that game, then that's about the dumbest thing I've ever heard.

It's Alabama. Do we need to say more?

[GAVol]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

You're an alumnus, you're an insatiable sports fan, and yet you're 50/50 on going to the first football game in your alma mater's history? WTH?

Tickets start at something like fifteen bucks. Go.

If I didn't have to be in Savannah at lunchtime on Thursday, the decision would be easy.

[Vercingetorix]

Well, yeah, I can see how that would be a long-arsed day. GoToMeeting.com?

Technology is supposed to have solved all this crap by now.

[orangesox]

Originally Posted by Vercingetorix

The sad thing is that not only can that game exist and Alabama get credited with a win for it, but given the existing football system, GSU probably regards it as a coup to get the exposure and the paycheck. Bill Curry probably had to pull some favors to make it happen.

We laugh now, but in 2013 we have South Alabama on our schedule. That will be their first season as a full fledged member of division I-A. Last year was the first time they ever even fielded a team.

[jsc1973]

Originally Posted by orangesox

We laugh now, but in 2013 we have South Alabama on our schedule. That will be their first season as a full fledged member of division I-A. Last year was the first time they ever even fielded a team.

There's a huge difference between playing a team that's in its fifth year of existence and one in its first year. By that time, they'll have already graduated their first recruiting class.

Georgia Southern went 15-0 in its fourth year, and Florida Atlantic went 11-3 in its third. South Alabama may not have the same success, but there's no reason a start-up program can't achieve respectability in a few years if they know what they're doing.

If Bama had scheduled Georgia State for 2014, there wouldn't be anything like this backlash.

[the.one.the.only]

how do they go from just starting a football team to D1 in 4 years? There's schools winning titles in 1-AA that haven't moved up yet. anyone know the criteria from moving up? or down even.