The best article on jumping to the FBS
Now that we're done talking about all that crime, it's time to get back to the other topic of conversation we're really sick of talking about: moving to the FCS! The following article is old, like two months old, but because it's the crummy offseason, nothing has changed since then and I can post this without looking too retarded. Here is a humorous look at moving to the FCS from a Georgia Southern fan. The article is beyond long, it's about two hundred words short of matching the Old Testament. Or a Bill Simmons chat transcript.
Here are the first couple paragraphs from the article on The Lanier Drive Insitute of Higher Thinking:
There are two types of debaters in the I-A/I-AA argument, and I don't mean those who are for moving up and those who are for staying put. I call them the "heads" and "hearts."The first type is composed of people who make every one of their points based on facts and figures. I suspect a good number of them are lawyers and accountants, although I have no way of knowing for sure. What is obvious is that this demographic of message board advocate has access to every school's athletic budget from 1863 to the present, they know the exact cost to fly a women's volleyball team from Fayetteville, Arkansas to Lake Charles, Louisiana, and they actually read and understand the minutes from the Division I Management Council's June meeting as reported in the NCAA News. I admire these people because of their ability to track down real and verifiable information. They also scare me, because they are the types of folks who could get on Google and compile a list of every woman I've ever slept with, forward it to my fiancé and then post the resulting apocalypse on YouTube. Not good.
The second type of debater is less concerned with hard facts and figures. This type of GSU fan relies more on anecdotal evidence and believes in the power of persistence and the strength of human resolve. Among Eagle fans, this subculture has a devotion to the school's meteoric initial rise to football prominence that borders on belief in the mystical. Some, I think, keep Eagle Creek water handy the way Borat holds on to gypsy tears. This isn't to say that they are unaware of the facts and figures, just that they consciously believe that every else's situation is irrelevant (or at least inconsequential). If I admire the "heads" then I truly love the "hearts." These people were English majors, they drink to excess (or smoke pot) and they cried at the end of the Western Kentucky game in 2002.
I strongly suggest going to the site and continue reading the article. You don't have to read the whole thing. I didn't. It's too damn long. But there's still more than what's above and you should check it out.
He goes on to look at timing and the future atmosphere of college football. To be simple, it's the best article I've read on a move to the FBS.