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Post by brandon on Mar 8, 2023 16:34:27 GMT -6
I'm not allowed to say who I've been talking to for the past couple of days, so please don't ask.
But after a couple of Steaks, smoked chicken and Alabama white sauce, I've pieced together some info I think we can, at the very least, use for conversation.
YES, We are planning on building a stadium... but not until money starts coming in.... remember, we don't draw any conference or NCAA money until the end of this fiscal year. And we need some people backing what we WILL fall short on.
YES, we have FBS aspirations. We would have been content in FCS but the Red Hens changed that.
We have talked to the SoCon, Southland, CUSA, Sun Belt, (and to my surprise) the AAC. (Only for help.)
If the SoCon extends an invite, we WILL take it. But as of this moment, only Chattanooga, ETSU, Western Carolina, and The Citadel want to expand.
UNA officials do not think the ASUN/WAC will go FBS.
The Sun Belt has been in close contact with UNA since the beginning. Apparently both Troy and South Alabama have been helping and advocating for UNA to eventually get invited to the Sun Belt...
Mike Lane is the reason the baseball stadium hasn't moved to Cox Creek...................(use your own heads for that one.)
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Post by mtc13 on Mar 8, 2023 18:29:25 GMT -6
I'm not allowed to say who I've been talking to for the past couple of days, so please don't ask. But after a couple of Steaks, smoked chicken and Alabama white sauce, I've pieced together some info I think we can, at the very least, use for conversation. YES, We are planning on building a stadium... but not until money starts coming in.... remember, we don't draw any conference or NCAA money until the end of this fiscal year. And we need some people backing what we WILL fall short on. YES, we have FBS aspirations. We would have been content in FCS but the Red Hens changed that. We have talked to the SoCon, Southland, CUSA, Sun Belt, (and to my surprise) the AAC. (Only for help.) If the SoCon extends an invite, we WILL take it. But as of this moment, only Chattanooga, ETSU, Western Carolina, and The Citadel want to expand. UNA officials do not think the ASUN/WAC will go FBS. The Sun Belt has been in close contact with UNA since the beginning. Apparently both Troy and South Alabama have been helping and advocating for UNA to eventually get invited to the Sun Belt... Mike Lane is the reason the baseball stadium hasn't moved to Cox Creek...................(use your own heads for that one.) Well, the baseball field is named after him.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 8, 2023 20:27:50 GMT -6
One of the times when stay in your Lane doesn’t apply? Would love to be in conference with Troy and South Alabama. We are going to recruit against them anyways, might as well go head to head. Road games wouldn’t be a terrible challenge. Chance to create some new rivalries. Sun Belt is stacked with 14 teams right now. Pretty solid and really a strong league. Disappointing to read WAC/ASUN FBS football league doesn’t appear to be an option for FBS route. Thanks Brandon for the information, stadium news alone was worth the post.
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Post by unalions on Mar 8, 2023 23:09:23 GMT -6
Now I’m wanting steaks and smoked chicken with Alabama white sauce!
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Post by unafied on Mar 9, 2023 7:13:35 GMT -6
One of the times when stay in your Lane doesn’t apply? Would love to be in conference with Troy and South Alabama. We are going to recruit against them anyways, might as well go head to head. Road games wouldn’t be a terrible challenge. Chance to create some new rivalries. Sun Belt is stacked with 14 teams right now. Pretty solid and really a strong league. Disappointing to read WAC/ASUN FBS football league doesn’t appear to be an option for FBS route. Thanks Brandon for the information, stadium news alone was worth the post. I can't even begin to imagine how mad the chickens would be if we jumped them to the Sun Belt. They want to renew that rivalry with Troy so bad. While I think we'd fit into the Sun Belt map nicely, I don't think we have a chance at that UNTIL we build a stadium and prove we will pack it out every week. At the moment JSU's stadium is bigger, nicer, and they have higher attendance. If I'm being objective, they would likely be the choice today if the SBC needed to add a school. Of course, Kennesaw State will be an option too, if they expand their stadium and Georgia State were to join the AAC. I think the SoCon could be interested if there is a private school found to pair with us. It seems they take the balanced public/private number VERY seriously over there. I thought Campbell had potential, but they joined the CAA. Maybe a non-football school could come along. That would actually be the best solution, since I think they have 9 in football now and 11 would be awkward. But yeah, we MUST figure out the stadium situation. Winning some games would certainly make us more attractive, too.
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Post by tuna85 on Mar 9, 2023 8:15:00 GMT -6
...but not until money starts coming in.... remember, we don't draw any conference or NCAA money until the end of this fiscal year. And we need some people backing what we WILL...
Yeah, but this has been the ongoing excuse since we were shown what an expected stadium would look like 4 years ago. Why do we have to wait on NCAA money? Why do we have to wait on the big money donors? Why can't we just go ahead and start raising money? Encourage Joe and Jane fan. Encourage Joe and Jane alum. Have fund raisers. Start! What kind of seed money would there be now if we started four years ago? What am I missing?
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 9, 2023 16:27:50 GMT -6
Four years ago we didn’t have people in the athletic administration that were capable. I do not mean that as disrespectful, but we still operated like a smaller athletic program. I had lunch with a client in Cullman this week and he graduated from Appalachian State. He said attendance in his first year was around 7,000….sound familiar? By the time he graduated they had more than doubled. I told him I am an alumni of North Alabama and that we have something in common. He said Kitts is doing it at North Alabama too, slower, but likely due to some other reasons….I concurred. Maybe we should get Michigan on our football schedule too? Hopefully this season in football will cause some excitement….winning does that type of thing. Winning week one in the kickoff would erase the stench from last season. Beating a good Chattanooga program would definitely open a lot of eyes. Time to put the cart back in its rightful place, but lots to look forward too for us North Alabama fans….feels different than last year doesn’t it?
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Post by unalions on Mar 9, 2023 17:20:19 GMT -6
Update from D1.ticker:
The “single-sport WAC-ASUN football conference has an uphill climb ahead with little support in the NCAA governance structure at the moment,” per Fox Sports/Connect’s Fischer, who adds: “D1 Board will discuss next month but unlikely to act until this summer at the earliest."
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Post by brandon on Mar 9, 2023 19:25:00 GMT -6
Update from D1.ticker: The “single-sport WAC-ASUN football conference has an uphill climb ahead with little support in the NCAA governance structure at the moment,” per Fox Sports/Connect’s Fischer, who adds: “D1 Board will discuss next month but unlikely to act until this summer at the earliest." That's at the FBS level... It can operate as a single sport conference at the FCS level. What I'm told, is if the committee approves this for FBS, afterwards there will likely be a hold of any more FCS to FBS schools foe the foreseeable future.
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Post by brandon on Mar 9, 2023 19:29:59 GMT -6
...but not until money starts coming in.... remember, we don't draw any conference or NCAA money until the end of this fiscal year. And we need some people backing what we WILL... Yeah, but this has been the ongoing excuse since we were shown what an expected stadium would look like 4 years ago. Why do we have to wait on NCAA money? Why do we have to wait on the big money donors? Why can't we just go ahead and start raising money? Encourage Joe and Jane fan. Encourage Joe and Jane alum. Have fund raisers. Start! What kind of seed money would there be now if we started four years ago? What am I missing? To my understanding it's not the Athletic department or even Kitts. It's the BOT. Apparently they have set benchmarks for the athletic department to go by before they can build anything. Part of the agreement to move to D1 was to build and upgrade academic facilities, which they are still building. After they get done, we can start building new athletic facilities.
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Post by tuna85 on Mar 10, 2023 8:04:17 GMT -6
...but not until money starts coming in.... remember, we don't draw any conference or NCAA money until the end of this fiscal year. And we need some people backing what we WILL... Yeah, but this has been the ongoing excuse since we were shown what an expected stadium would look like 4 years ago. Why do we have to wait on NCAA money? Why do we have to wait on the big money donors? Why can't we just go ahead and start raising money? Encourage Joe and Jane fan. Encourage Joe and Jane alum. Have fund raisers. Start! What kind of seed money would there be now if we started four years ago? What am I missing? To my understanding it's not the Athletic department or even Kitts. It's the BOT. Apparently they have set benchmarks for the athletic department to go by before they can build anything. Part of the agreement to move to D1 was to build and upgrade academic facilities, which they are still building. After they get done, we can start building new athletic facilities. Well that's news. Would sure be nice to have a bit of transparency on this agreement. I'm sure the BOT & Admin have plans for the future growth of the university. Not to sure why they aren't sharing those plans and engaging people. Yes, I know there are things like the 1830 and so forth but what, specifically, will it be going to? i.e. hey we need $750,000 to finish the new computer lab extension and the goal to have these funds by Nov 30, 2023. Put it out there: what is planned, what is needed. When is it needed? What are these benchmarks?
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Post by unafied on Mar 10, 2023 9:09:52 GMT -6
To my understanding it's not the Athletic department or even Kitts. It's the BOT. Apparently they have set benchmarks for the athletic department to go by before they can build anything. Part of the agreement to move to D1 was to build and upgrade academic facilities, which they are still building. After they get done, we can start building new athletic facilities. Well that's news. Would sure be nice to have a bit of transparency on this agreement. I'm sure the BOT & Admin have plans for the future growth of the university. Not to sure why they aren't sharing those plans and engaging people. Yes, I know there are things like the 1830 and so forth but what, specifically, will it be going to? i.e. hey we need $750,000 to finish the new computer lab extension and the goal to have these funds by Nov 30, 2023. Put it out there: what is planned, what is needed. When is it needed? What are these benchmarks? Very true (actually they're posting on Twitter that today is coincidentally Giving Day). The secrecy is extremely frustrating, and I think it's a symptom of the BOT probably still approaching things as if we're a small-time D2 school. I have doubts that the Shoals area is even ready for us to be big time, but at some point, you have to "dress for the job you want". If I make a donation today, I plan to tell them to earmark half of it for a new football stadium, and the other half for some purple and GOLD uniforms. Maybe gold is an extra cost and that's why we are now purple and white.
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Post by tuna85 on Mar 10, 2023 10:42:32 GMT -6
Well that's news. Would sure be nice to have a bit of transparency on this agreement. I'm sure the BOT & Admin have plans for the future growth of the university. Not to sure why they aren't sharing those plans and engaging people. Yes, I know there are things like the 1830 and so forth but what, specifically, will it be going to? i.e. hey we need $750,000 to finish the new computer lab extension and the goal to have these funds by Nov 30, 2023. Put it out there: what is planned, what is needed. When is it needed? What are these benchmarks? Very true (actually they're posting on Twitter that today is coincidentally Giving Day). The secrecy is extremely frustrating, and I think it's a symptom of the BOT probably still approaching things as if we're a small-time D2 school. I have doubts that the Shoals area is even ready for us to be big time, but at some point, you have to "dress for the job you want". If I make a donation today, I plan to tell them to earmark half of it for a new football stadium, and the other half for some purple and GOLD uniforms. Maybe gold is an extra cost and that's why we are now purple and white. Probably not a bad approach with regard to donation.
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Post by roaringsince96 on Mar 10, 2023 21:36:58 GMT -6
Surely all this money we are raising should help us be at a much better place for facilities in the very near future.
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Post by unalions on Mar 11, 2023 12:41:02 GMT -6
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