Thursday, May 31st, 2007
Today marks 100 days until the Eagles kickoff on September 8th, 2007.
Today is also the last day to renew Southern Boosters memberships I think, so if you’re going to do it – go do it!
To commemorate the 100 day countdown to ridding ourselves of the horror that was last season, I am going to try to post some memorable pictures related to GSU football as often as possible. I’m shooting for 100 pictures, but the likelihood of me remembering every day and sticking with it is very much a long shot :)
Anyway, the first in our collection comes from jetrotz’s flickr album and starts us off on the right foot.
Do you have any pictures you want to send to us to see them spotlighted on the website? Email us!
Wednesday, May 30th, 2007
BoroNative put together a great collage on YouTube! today, we’re just a few months away!
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
Sam’s latest journal is up on the web, he laments about the negativity floating around all the recent turmoil that’s fallen under his watch. I do feel for Baker as GSU fans demand the best and when we don’t get it – well things tend to get ugly. This comment stuck out at me like a sore thumb.
I have come to appreciate most (Coach Hatcher’s) consistent focus on the positive: we have so much to be proud of here at Georgia Southern and unfortunately some want to focus only on the negative.
I hope Baker doesn’t think that people who have signed this petition fall in to that category. More…
Wednesday, May 23rd, 2007
The Eagle baseball squad kicks off their SoCon tourney action this afternoon at 4pm against Elon (29-27). The Eagles are seeded in the 6-spot and facing the 3rd seeded Phoenix team at Joe Riley Park in Charleston. The Eagles hold a 33-26 record, but have been up and down all year with extended hot and cold streaks, but have come on strong at the end of the season winning 13 out of their last 17 games. So I’m hopeful that we can pull this one out, it’s a great time to be on a hot streak.
It’s been 5 years since our last tournament win, but starter Aaron Eubanks threw six scoreless innings the last time he faced Elon and his emergence as a starter has been the spark that has turned around the season so far. Keep an eye out for Chris Shehan!
Tuesday, May 22nd, 2007
This is something we’ve talked about quite a bit recently here. And we all know that it’s always about the money as Scott has challenged us to go at it with real dollars.
This is from the latest from his final but not quite final post in his 3 part, 4 part, or heck 6 part series covering his shift in opinion of I-A at GSU.
The next step, individually or collectively, should be pretty clear if anyone actually takes the $1 million challenge. The start, though, would be tremendous. It would tell GSU athletics—administration, fans, athletes, coaches—that no matter where they stand, the fans are ready to help. Even when they don’t agree on the specifics, the fans care about the generality: Georgia Southern sports is important, for whatever reason.
This will not happen this year at SouthernFACTS – it just isn’t feasible given that renewals are due this month. Do we want to take this on in the next year or two? If we assume that our representatives aren’t wanting to do the legwork – then sure thing. That could well be our next step – likely after football season is over.
Three months in though, we’re still hopeful that this one or this one (or better yet, either of these two) are hearing the calling…
Either way though, we’re listening…leave us your thoughts?
Thursday, May 17th, 2007
We’ve modified the site a little today if you haven’t been watching. The weblog is now the front page to the site. You can still find the links to all the past articles by at the Pages listed over at the right. For those of you who are new to the site, make sure to read the Who are we? and What is our goal? links listed at the top.
We’re still working on a lot of the other stuff…so excuse the mess!
We now have RSS feeds so you can go download any RSS reader and point it at the site to keep you up to date.
Hopefully I should have most of the other stuff cleaned up by the end of the week…thanks for stopping by.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
Not Grube, not Baker, not even the lowly second-guessing SouthernFACTS organization. Everyone’s getting second guessed at Georgia Southern these days!
Gotta love being called a bulldozer though…
Every now and then, though, a bulldozer comes crashing through the front door. Enter SoutherFACTS.org, a group of Internet activists intent on getting some real traction in the FCS/FBS debate. Suddenly, there is a unifying voice on the other end of the debating table from GSU, and while SouthernFACTS could be doing more, just the initial introduction into the arena of combat is enough to get some attention. Hell, it got mine.
I did find Scott’s arguments to be persuasive and More…
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
With elections coming ever earlier this year, I get tired of the same goofy talking points used to quell discussion. Last night we saw Giuliani chomping at the bit to play the 9/11 card on a very well-spoken Ron Paul. Who needs to have merit when you can just stop the debate and score political points?
Apparently we’re getting in to the same tired talking points with the University’s administration. No money, no conference. No, duh. End of discussion, right?
Some people have declared it so - of course you hate to see more people leave the Southern Boosters organization.
Why does it have to be this way?
Nearly everyone involved seems to want the I-A move to happen, but who is doing ANYTHING about it? At least we’re doing *something* here at this website.
Is it asking too much for the leaders of our various organizations to publically communicate with the Southern Boosters, our fans and supporters, the University & Statesboro community on how they have come to the conclusion that Statesboro can not support a I-A football program?
Let’s get an independent study done and get rid of all the politics and conjecture. Finally show us the numbers – show us what it will take - and ask people to make the donations for the I-A cause.
$200,000 in SouthernFACTS pledges lends me to think that we’ve got our heads in the sand if we’re doubting the support of people from Georgia Southern.
Wednesday, May 16th, 2007
The Southern Boosters will be soliciting for your renewals this week if you haven’t already renewed. At this point in time, you should be able to renew your football season tickets and Southern Boosters donations if you are a member. If you aren’t a member, then you can sign up here. If you do, make sure to credit SouthernFACTS.org as your reasoning in big bold letters on the form. There’s not a field for it, so make one!
With all that said, make sure to use the opportunity presented to talk about the I-A / FBS issue – the Boosters and student-athletes don’t have a lot of pull in this area, but they do need to hear your thoughts especially while they are asking for your money. We’ve made our opinions known, have you?
The Baseball Eagles (32-24) start their stint in Cullowhee tomorrow, after winning against Mercer last night. The Cats are eyeing a sweep to put them at the 40 win mark. The 3 games are the best opportunity GSU has for a bid to the tourney, so show your support!
Tuesday, May 8th, 2007
We are proud to announce that as of yesterday we have received over $200,000 in new money pledged to Georgia Southern. Over 900 verifiable supporters have signed on asking GSU to study the feasibility of a FBS move. Nearly $25,000 in one time donations have been pledged, over 600 new season ticket purchases have been pledged and we are about $200 shy of breaking $125,000 in pledged annual donations. The estimated impact on the Georgia Southern athletics budget would top $200,000.
The investment in this web site has been $102.70 so far which amounts to a 1947.42% ROI, not bad huh?
Budget comparisons
These few donations from the die-hards who have heard about our site teamed with the increase in student fees, we could surpass Idaho, Arkansas State, and Louisiana Tech’s athletics budgets. Imagine what a concerted official fundraising effort could do.
We have updated our research on revenues & expenses for each profiled school to the latest values reported to the federal government. Not surprisingly, a number of the low tier I-A schools grew revenues at a faster rate than Georgia Southern, however we are on the virge of breaking the $10,000,000 revenue mark for the first time.
Continuing to push
With summer approaching and football season still a few months away, we need eyes on the website more now than ever. This will be our lull period, so please do your part to get involved and push our numbers higher! Without the word being spread we will have no legs to stand on…if you ever want to see it happen you have to do the work!
GATA EagleNation!
