Thursday, July 30th, 2009
Since we started this web site, hoping for some kind of investigation in to the feasibility of our program taking that next step. Today we will get that answer.
It won’t be definitive, it won’t be perfect, but it will give us quite a grip on where we stand. Whatever comes of this, it’s been a fun ride and you guys have been vital in making this happen.
More importantly is to see how this all plays out from the top, most of us are hoping that Sam Baker uses this very important tool to his advantage.
Will he actively have the newest addition to the Boosters involved in marketing this study? Will there be a fund-raiser built around it? Marketing? Expansion ideas?
Or will we be disappointed seeing this only as an announcement of receipt of a document and a simple explanation of what’s inside it?
Stay tuned at GSUFans.com for the news.
Thursday, May 14th, 2009
If you notice (or have noticed) any site issues, you should be aware that we are migrating all of our databases over to a new server. Should hopefully be more responsive plus let me tinker with some newer technology (MVC and Oxite, if you’re interested).
Now back to your regularly scheduled lack of reading this site :)
Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008
Fellow SouthernFACTS supporters,
Back in March of 2007, many of us decided that the time for standing idly by had come and gone. By banding together in a grassroots effort, we were able to set and achieve our goal of convincing the University to pursue a FBS Feasibility study. Sometime next month, we will learn the results of that study and should be able to gauge where we stand in our pursuit of bringing better competition to Paulson Stadium.
Today we have launched our second grassroots effort in coordination with Southern Boosters and GSUFans.com – we are looking to raise money to endow ONE football scholarship.
Southern Boosters has set the cost of this endeavor at $50,000 and if we hope to add the 22 additional scholarships necessary to compete at the FBS/I-A level then we have to start gathering these funds now. We raised over $2,000 last time very quickly just out of a few donors to do some simple advertising – today we need you all to pitch in to directly help the football program ramp up for what’s next.
We ask that you visit SouthernFACTS.org and click on the ChipIn link on the right hand side. Send over whatever you can offer, $5, $10, $100, $1000 or more. The money will go directly to the Southern Boosters bank accounts and Dan O’Dowd and his crew will be able to give you credit for your donations just as if you had mailed the check in yourself.
So get your end of the year donations in and help us make a difference!
If you can’t give, then go out of your way and recruit a new booster to the program – have them ChipIn! – and make sure to let us know that you did so! Every little bit helps!
As an incentive to the largest donor during the month of December, I will personally mail you my last original copy of the coveted NCAA Drive to Dixie poster which celebrates Erk Russell’s undefeated 1989 national championship season. These originals have gone for over $500 on eBay and are great find for the GSU collector in your home.
So dig deep, and if you want to spread the word you can add a ChipIn widget to your sites by clicking this link.
Friday, October 3rd, 2008
When: Saturday, October 18th, 2008 at 10am EST
Where: Nessmith-Lane Building (UPDATED!!!) (map link)
Why: To get involved in the feasibility study at Georgia Southern
Rosser International, the consulting firm that we’ve hired, is holding a Feasibility Study Forum on Saturday 10/18 at 10am at the Nessmith-Lane Building.
This event is open to the public and we need to have as many supporters as possible to show up!
PLAN YOUR DAY AROUND THIS EVENT!
With just a little press coming from the ADs office regarding the study, we need your help more than ever keeping an eye on this!
Take this opportunity before the BLUE OUT to show up and get involved! Don’t sit on the sidelines for this, your opinion is very valuable and very much needed.
SouthernFACTS.org will have a few friends and representatives there and will try our very best to keep you up to date on the study.
If you are following this issue and would like to get involved, SouthernFACTS.org would love to have your contributions to publish on the website. Please contact us to help out!
Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
Sorry about the technical issues, our host changed their mysql servers without notifying me and they had some extended downtime. Everything should be back to normal now.
As an aside, BooneEagle posted an interesting look at UNCC’s times with their football study over at TSC, it’s a pretty interesting read. The amount of people who pledged who had not been donors before was 67% while only 4% of those who had given $25,000 or more were donating again.
Anyway, definitely interesting if I didn’t say that before :P
Tuesday, February 19th, 2008
In a long awaited move, Georgia Southern University has put up the first step in seeking to compete at the FBS / I-A level for the year 2011. The state of Georgia purchasing office posted this Bid Notice on Thursday. Here are the relevant dates:
Feb 14th: RFP posted.
Feb 20th: Deadline for vendor questions.
Feb 22nd: Answers to questions will be posted.
Mar 5th: Vendor conference will be held at the Hanner Athletic Complex at 1pm
March 18th: Proposals due.
April 8th: Contractor begins work.
The summary text of the bid reads:
Georgia Southern University is considering the advancement of its football program from NCAA Division I Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) to NCAA Division I Football Bowl Championship (FBS) beginning with the 2011 season. To determine the feasibility of this reclassification, the President, Director of Athletics and the University’s constituents require certain facts that present a complete and valid framework for the official decision of the University. To reach this critical decision in a deliberate manner and take appropriate action, the University desires to contract with a consulting firm to conduct this feasibility study. The RFP consists of the following documents. Please be sure that you have opened and reviewed all documents to ensure responsiveness to the needs of the Department.
There will be 3 deliverables, the Feasibility Study (Phase I), the Market Assessment (Phase II) and the Strategic Plan (Phase III).
The full text of the document can be found archived here at SouthernFACTS.org in PDF format. The most relevant piece of the document is on page 9 where it describes the 3 phases of the proposal.
Thursday, December 13th, 2007
Nine months have passed and today we electronically delivered our report to the leaders of the Southern Boosters, Georgia Southern University’s athletic fundraising arm. The report contains the names of approximately 1,100 supporters who have expressed support of the I-A study recently announced by the University.
Some quick facts about the report:
|
Statistic
|
Explanation |
|
96.2%
|
The percentage of signatories who wanted to see an independent study. |
|
$322,644.63
|
The total amount of new money pledged in the first year (excluding student fees). |
|
377
|
The total number of current and potential boosters who are signatories to the survey. |
|
94.6%
|
The percentage of students willing to increase student fees by $28 per semester to support I-A football. |
|
$33,631.05
|
The total amount of one time donations pledged. |
|
$168,353.58
|
The total amount of new annual renewable donations pledged. |
|
$97,320.00
|
The total dollar amount of new season ticket purchases pledged. |
|
$23,340.00
|
The additional revenue from single ticket purchases pledged by the signatories to the survey. |
|
$294.12
|
The average increased pledge amount of the signatories to the survey. |
|
124
|
The number of season ticket holders who are signatories to the survey. |
|
166
|
The number of current boosters who are signatories to the survey. |
|
344
|
The number of current students who are signatories to the survey. |
|
226
|
The total number of individuals who pledged to become Southern Boosters. |
|
139
|
The total number of non-students who pledged to become Southern Boosters. |
|
115.2%
|
The stated projected increase in single ticket purchases by the signatories to the survey. |
|
$1,232,000.00
|
The amount of money that could be raised per year with a $28 increase in student athletic fees. |
|
24
|
The number of athletic scholarships that could be endowed every year with the increase in student athletic fees. |
The public summary can be found archived here. The public report merely provides a short summary of the data gathered and a few supplemental site traffic reports. The detailed report was delivered to the Southern Boosters this afternoon with the signatures and answers to the survey questions for all those who signed up.
Thursday, November 29th, 2007
UPDATE: It’s now official with Sam Baker’s press release. The Statesboro Herald will run their article in tomorrow’s paper.
Original Story:
I’ve contacted members of the Faculty Senate at Georgia Southern today and have confirmed a number of rumors that the meetings early this week netted a very wonderful development!
At Tuesday’s meeting, Dr. Grube gave a report to the Senate Executive Committee (SEC) on the prospect of hiring an outside firm to conduct a feasibility study. Dr. Grube apparently placed two stipulations on the study, one was that the move could not be done out of existing money and two was that no increases in student fees would be permitted.
So to clarify, Dr. Grube has fully authorized Sam Baker and the athletic department to hire an outside consulting firm to study the feasibility of Georgia Southern moving to I-A / FBS.
The Faculty Athletic Committee approved approaching Dr. Grube about the study at the October meeting, this meeting was to update the SEC as to Dr. Grube’s decision after being approached on the topic.
It appears that Dr. Grube has taken the first step. Kudos to him!
And so it has started … stick with SouthernFACTS.org for more updates.
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Yesterday afternoon, Texas State Associated Student Government passed emergency legislation supporting move to Division I-A (FBS). The entire legislation is documented here.
The jabs at the inaction by the administration was humorous … if not unfortunately familiar.
WHEREAS: In the past similar efforts have been made to move Texas State football up to a higher division, and failed, largely due to a lack of enthusiasm and vision on the part of the administration; and
WHEREAS Due to this lack of enthusiasm and vision many alumni and supporters have chosen to withhold donations to Texas State; and
The key pieces of the resolution is here for your convenience.
BE IT RESOLVED: By the Associated Student Government of Texas State University that University President Dr. Denise Trauth, or an authorized representative, hold a press conference or some other public event to enthusiastically announce that Texas State has decided to move up to NCAA Division 1 (FBS) in football; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That the administration present a plan to the Associated Student Government with specific benchmarks, dates by which these benchmarks should be met, and the fiscal impact to the students, regarding this move up in football as soon as possible; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED: That President Trauth commit, in writing, to this move and that this commitment be published to the student body as a sign that we are all in this together, and that all levels of this university support and look forward to competing on a truly national level; and
Again I ask, where is Georgia Southern’s leadership in the SGA when you need it?
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Kennesaw State’s Student Government Association is sponsoring an online vote starting today until to 11/9 for students attending KSU in the fall. They are offering T-shirts, food, etc to promote the event on campus. The questions will ask whether they are willing to raise their student fees in order to fund their football program.
The fee hike options on the survey are $35 – Non-scholarship football, $70 – Division I-AA, and $105 – Division I-A. For a school with 20,000 enrolled, the proposed $105 hike would bring in around $5M annually. Similar fee hikes are being bandied about at West Georgia and Georgia State.
With the SGA vote, they are another small step closer to playing football in the state of Georgia.
Where is GSU’s student government association on the I-A issue? We know many of you have signed the survey … but have remained silent on the political front. Even the George-Anne has not taken an active role in the debate despite nearly 1000 students signed on to the Facebook movement.
Is anyone willing to step up? Send us an email at southernfacts@southernfacts.org and we’ll give you all the ammo you can use.
