What’s the long term SWAC Football goal
- Thread starter ggate
- Start date
westcoastaggie
Well-Known Member
FBS?
Blacknbengal
Well-Known Member
For these Chicken Georges, there is no long term goal. They want to keep doing what they have done for 150+ years and hope and pray something changes.
Blacknbengal
Well-Known Member
Where the REAL money is.
Earle
Well-Known Member
As I understand it, a FBS designation/elevation is among the considerations.
the band fan
Baseball Fan
make money - money buys all happiness
Bingo! FCS playoffs is aiming too low.
Mr. SWAC
F*** THE LAKERS!!!!!!
The SWAC's long-term goal should be moving up to FBS. Our current goals to position ourselves for such a move should be:
- Getting every school to buy into the plan.
- Renegotiate TV contacts for all other sports.
- Continue growing the SWAC brand.
- Raising the bar for more OOC wins.
- Each school should invest in facilities and media infrastructure upgrades across the board.
- Formulate a tiered TV broadcast structure for football (national, regional, and local deals).
- Take back control and marketing of our marquee/classic games.
- After #s 5-6 are complete, create SWAC TV Network.
- Increase ad revenue.
- Lobby NCAA for participation in FBS bowl games.
Loyaldawg90
Well-Known Member
Hope y’all understand it costs a lot of money to move up to FBS. You can’t just Nickel and Dime your way to it. And I’m almost certain half the swac don’t even have the resources to pay their coaches like FBS schools. Who’s head coach is making 300k? That would be the bare minimum in FBS would literally be laughed at. Sam Houston state HC is making $500k and he is FCS HC in the Southland
Attack Dog
Well-Known Member
I'm confused. I thought we were already working towards moving to FBS? Maybe it was wishful thinking, but I thought we had like a 10 year plan or something.
LAW DAWG
TSU LOVE
Repetition, something like those dead-horse Tennessee State threads that always pop up.
Journalist
Listen up maggots! And that's an order!
I'm guessing the proper number to look here is $23 million. That should be the floor for an FBS conference budget.
The two-smallest football-playing FBS budgets are Louisiana Tech's (nearly $25 million) and Louisiana-Monroe (nearly $16 million).
According to most recent available data from the Knight Foundation, Southern is only around $500K off of UL-Monroe, but made over a million more in revenue.
According to that recent data, PV, Southern, Alabama State, Texas Southern, Florida A&M are current and future SWAC members spending over $11 million on athletics.
The 2019 median FCS budget is $17,189,492.
Meanwhile Sam Houston State's budget is similar to Prairie View's, but SHSU's budget is nearly 75 percent in subsidies.
The head coaches at James Madison (425K) and ND State (380K) are making over $300K, for starters. However, those two schools have Group of Five sized budgets, with JMU budget in the $52 million range and ND State at $27 million range.
bjnt922
Well-Known Member
Our long term goal should be either moving up to FBS in 10 years or figuring out a way that we can have yearly participation in both the Celebration Bowl and the playoffs.Which would mean moving up both the SWAC Championship and Bayou Classic or convincing the powers that be to move the start of the FCS playoffs back a couple of weeks.
Journalist
Listen up maggots! And that's an order!
With how the conference is going to be after 2021, there could be an 8-3 SWAC team that doesn't win the division due to where those losses came. So the scenario of an at-large team does exist.
Sorry, but no way in hell Southern and Grambling is moving Bayou Classic ... and others in FCS have asked to move the playoffs back a week.
However, the best route is schools investing in the programs and increasing the budgets so sustain as an FBS. Then those "body bag" games have million-dollar paydays, which can go to improving your other programs in the athletics department. Each member should be committed to increasing their budgets by $10 million over the next 10 years.
If you cant find a way to win at the fcs level then you dont even need to be talking about fbs. Only a handful would be able to afford that anyways. And realistically, as long as the swac gets big crowds for big games and makes a lil bread that seems to be all that matters. Being competitive outside of the conference never seems to be a priority. If I was an AD, i'd be looking at whatever A&T has been doing. National championship caliber track team, only hbcu i've seen actually beat a ranked non hbcu as of lately too. Donations are pouring in there. As of now, they SHOULD be the prototype.
Earle
Well-Known Member
I believe hbcus should expand their efforts at corporate sponsorships and contributions. Take Southern, for instance, every corporate citizen in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area who contributes to LSU, should also be contributors to SU. I juist think we need to push a little harder.
Blacknbengal
Well-Known Member
That's not true. Georgia St couldn't win at a FCS level, but once they moved up, they caught fire. Same could be said about a few other schools like ULL and others.
Journalist
Listen up maggots! And that's an order!
Why people think winning at the FCS is the end all be all?
If winning at the FCS was so good, why all them other schools left for FBS? Still can’t get a straight answer on that one.
In_The_662
Deeeeep In The Delta.....
Yeah.... yall FCS Playoff lovers can prosper on Facebook but that dumb mess won't fly over here at ALL with a very knowledge crew of posters who KNOW the FCS playoffs are a money loser
In_The_662
Deeeeep In The Delta.....
This is gonna be a big hurdle because every time someone suggest this on here/Facebook, the attack dogs come out telling you to mind your business while being happy with crumbs and making excuses
Mr. SWAC
F*** THE LAKERS!!!!!!
It's pretty much impossible for just 1 HBCU to move up to FBS alone, but moving up as a conference can be done. There is strength in numbers. The problems that Bama St. and FAMU faced had a lot to do with not having the money to sustain themselves as an independent, and not to mention no FBS conferences were offering up memberships to them either. The entry fee to join as a new member would cripple their operating budgets and quickly reduce them to bottom-feeder status. Mounting debt would force them to still take money games against the same teams they would've been playing in FCS, but they're fans/alumni would demand that they keep their HBCU rivalries alive.
But as a conference, 1) there's no entry fee for being a new conference member, 2) you only have to win 6 games in order to become bowl eligible (just win your conference games and you're in there), 3) now multiple teams are playing in multiple bowl games getting paid money. Split the sum amongst the other conference members and we're all growing our budgets, 4) attendance-wise the conference will be fine (15k+ avg. requirement met even though a lot of current FBS teams are failing to meet that mark). 5) Even scheduling would be a breeze. 8 conference games and 4 OOC games, and now because you too are FBS you can schedule a home and home with P5 if you wanted. Imaging AAMU/ASU playing a Tennessee or UGA at home, or JSU/Alcorn playing Ole Miss or LSU at home. And you're still playing your in conference games. Revenue would not be hard to find. Now, you can pay your coaches more competitive salaries.
It should be no secret that a few schools in the SWAC already have/had FBS in there sights (FAMU, JSU, and Bama St.) based on past attempts and/or current expectations. Some other schools in the SWAC haven't expressed interest but could make the jump if they seriously committed (SU, PVAMU, Alcorn, AAMU, and GSU). Each school has a few things they'd need to improve upon. I think the largest jumps would have to be made by the remaining 4 (TxSU, UAPB, MVSU, and BCU) because of the financial strain they would have to endure, but like I said before there's strength in numbers.
Now's not the time to be flat-footed and maintain the status quo. People are ready for a move like this. If we formulate a plan now and work towards it as a collective, we'll get there in 10 years. Don't be caught looking stupid when FAMU or JSU announces that they plan to leave the SWAC in the next 5 years. Deion already has it the scenario written into his contract. Think about it.
The better question is, how many of them WEREN'T at LEAST competitive at the FCS level, and then moved up to be super successful? It doesn't happen. Georgia Southern, App State, Marshall, Coastal, etc all were competitive at the FCS level before moving up.
Journalist
Listen up maggots! And that's an order!
Not all were national powers prior to moving up to FBS. However, they all saw the move up as a way to better market and grow their schools. Coastal is an outlier because they put their program in the hands of a billionaire who bankrolled this move-up for them for the most part.
However, why would you leave the pond where you're a big dog to go to another pond where you're lower on the food chain? Maybe that pond you were in wasn't good enough for the tastes?
Like I said earlier, of the soon-to-be 12 members ... only Prairie View, Southern, Alabama State, Texas Southern and FAMU were spending over $11 million on athletics. Also, of that group, only PV was spending over the current FCS median budget amounts. Two of those schools — Alabama State and FAMU — made an attempt to move up in the past.
If enough of us (about 8) can raise individual budgets to the low $20 million range, then we can go up to FBS hand-in-hand as a group ... get those deals, bowl game tie-ins and what not, and continue to build as a home for others that are willing to make the move past the initial group of 8.
Last edited: