Friday, April 20th, 2007
SouthernFACTS Advisory Board Announced
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 20, 2007
Georgia Southern I-A study group, “SouthernFACTS” Advisory Board Announced
Statesboro, Georgia – The Georgia Southern fan organization SouthernFACTS (Fans for Advanced Competition Throughout Sports) announced the formation of an executive board today, the day before the annual Blue-White game in Statesboro. The board members consist of current students, boosters, strong fundraisers, and die-hard fans of the Georgia Southern program. The organization’s primary purpose is to provide research on the available support for the university publically announcing a plan for the football program to move to the highest level of NCAA-sanctioned competition. The organization has established a website, SouthernFACTS.org, to raise awareness of the fans’ desires by giving them a place to sign up to support the initiative to take the team to I-A.
Stacey Roach, SouthernFACTS founder and board member, invited all fans to visit the SouthernFACTS.org web site, “This effort began less than 60 days ago and the grassroots web-based movement has already proved the heavy desire of hundreds in the community to see the program take the same bold moves it took 25 years ago. Fans are anxious to see the university sports teams spread its humble beginnings and deep blue-collar traditions to the rest of the country.”
The organization has gathered over $100,000 in pledges and if its plans were enacted fully could see an annual athletic budget increase of $1,000,000 or more. With nearly 1,000 students and fans having signed on so far, the movement is still in its infancy. Roach continued, “With the formation of the executive board today, we are now prepared to take the organization to the rest of the fan base who have yet to hear of the movement. We are doing the legwork to show that fans are committed to the idea.”
SouthernFACTS.org has the support of past players, such as Patrick Parr who wrote, “As a former player I know that many of us and coach Russell wanted to see this program playing at the 1A level in the future. The time has come in my opinion and if we do nothing, then it may be another 20 years. A 1A competitive football program is what Coach Russell wanted to see happen. Its what most of the eagle nation wants to see. If the current GSU athletic staff doesnt have the vision to pursue this then we need people that do. I am commited one way or another to help make it happen. Erk Russell is responsible for our great school being on the map today. He did something many thought he could not achieve. We must take the next step in the process of building a great football program. If it succeeds, GSU succeeds with it.”
Many of the program’s founders and boosters are also strongly supportive of the plans and many of the fans, like Brian Dart, have already said what others are thinking, “It is sad that Alabama has four 1-A football teams and Mississippi has three, but Georgia only has two. It is sad because Georgia’s population is bigger than Mississippi and Alabama combined. I have no doubt our state could support another team. GSU would be well served to have a 1-A football program that competes at the highest level of the sport. I would increase my booster level and purchase more tickets if this move took place.”
Even students have stepped up to support the initiative by pledging support for increased athletic fees, as Chris Speight posted, “Thats a student fee I would be happy to pay!!!”
The theme seems to stay central to “the wants” of the most powerful figure ever to grace a field in the state of Georgia, legendary Coach Erk Russell who wrote of his move to Georgia Southern in his book, “I wasn’t sure what ‘Division One’ meant to [then University President Dale Lick]. But I knew what ‘One’ meant to me – Georgia, Notre Dame, Southern California – all those kind of folks.”
Erk Russell passed away late last season, but his desire to see the best for “Erk’s Eagles” lives on in the tens of thousands of fans that come to Statesboro for football every fall.
The members of the SouthernFACTS advisory board and their biographies are listed below:
Andrew Rutland – Bio
Brooks Collier – Bio
Jack Roche – Bio
Ken Vickers – Bio
Sanjeeva Pathak – Bio
Stacey Roach – Bio
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on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 3:38 pm:
Here is the first letter we delivered to Dr. Grube:
April 16th, 2007
Dr. Bruce Grube
President, Georgia Southern University
P.O. Box 8033
Statesboro, GA 30460-8033
Dr. Bruce Grube:
My name is Stacey Roach; I am an alumnus of GSU and a former employee of the University at Henderson Library back around the time when you first started on campus. I recently made my way back in to town again for the first of four annual visits I typically make to the University and I have to commend you; the vision you communicated to us early on for the school is really coming together. I continued to be amazed at the progress the University has made under your tenure and am very hopeful for the future.
It is in that spirit that I write to you today to tell you of a growing group of like-minded alumni, boosters, students, fans and followers of GSU athletics who desire that same kind of pride and respect that you have brought about for our campus and academics. You see, I represent a collective of individuals who seek to see the GSU football program take a bold step towards joining two other state universities, the University of Georgia and the Georgia Institute of Technology, at the highest classification of football recognized by the NCAA.
Our organization was formed a month ago and membership is currently over 500 members and grows by about 20 members per day solely by word of mouth. We fully believe that as more and more alumni and fans hear about us, they will grow the movement into a unified coalition which can benefit the University immensely. Currently we are gathering signatures and pledges by an internet web site which has garnered over $100,000 in pledges of increased annual giving to the University. We vet all the information by electronic correspondence to verify the information provided is as represented. With our limited effort and in such a short time, we were astonished to see the hunger that our members had regarding this issue.
Many of us were as disappointed as I suspect you were that very little came of the NCAA attempts to strengthen the I-AA competition levels over the past number of years. We also continue to be disappointed at watching our peers make the decision to leave the class system we so strongly supported in the past. Schools like Troy State, Middle Tennessee, Central Florida, Connecticut, South Florida, Western Kentucky, North Texas, Marshall, Florida Atlantic, Florida International, and others have seen the issues we are discussing and we believe it is time that Georgia Southern take action as well. It is with a shared respect for your work on the academic front that we ask you make the same legacy-building commitment to our athletic programs!
We believe that under your leadership, we can re-invigorate the campaign you started after arriving at GSU to “Double Up to Leave Double A”. With a new coach, a new attitude, and now a new purpose we think your leadership is unquestionably the right match for the work ahead. We plead with you to hear the call and take us down the path to claiming our rightful place as one of the top athletic universities in the state!
This is a movement which will have a large affect on the state of Georgia long after you and I are both gone. I hope you will lead us there and I hope you will make the decision soon! Thanks for taking the time to read this correspondance and good luck with all that you do!
Sincerely,
Stacey Roach (’01)
SouthernFACTS.org
2608 Hwy 337
Menlo, GA 30731
P.S. At the end of this campaign, we plan to provide the University a comprehensive report with all of the gathered information so that the University and the Southern Boosters organization may act on it as you see fit.
on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 3:38 pm:
Here is Joe Franklin’s response:
April 23 2007
Mr. Stacey Roach
2608 Highway 337
Menlo, GA 30731
Dear Mr. Roach:
You recently sent a letter to Georgia Southern University President Bruce Grube concerning your efforts to promote moving Georgia Southern football from FCS to FBS. I am responding to that letter on behalf of the President.
The University has been studying a move to FBS football for several years. Numerous scenarios and options have been and are being considered. You can rest assured that Athletic Department leadership and Southern Boosters leadership discuss the potential for moving to FBS status regularly. From these statements, you can read between the lines that we are generally positive about the idea of moving to FBS football.
However, I want to be perfectly clear, the University will not move to FBS football until and unless the timing is right and that decision will be made by the University. To make the timing right, a number of pieces must fall into place. Some of the key pieces are financial support, competitive pressures, athletic performance, regional population growth and appropriate conference affiliation. Within this group are key pieces that cannot and will not be discussed publicly. To do so could harm our present position, and ultimately delay a potential move to FBS football.
To focus just on the financial piece, our belief is that it will take an additional $5,000,000 in revenue per year for Georgia Southern to be minimally competitive in an existing FBS conference. That revenue cannot come from additional student fees, nor from existing University resources. About $4,000,000 of the $5,000,000 must come from new season ticket sales and private giving to Southern Boosters. There is nothing in our previous history of season ticket sales or private giving that would remotely suggest that our fan base would provide this level of support.
To move to FBS football without having the appropriate pieces in place could be disastrous financially and competitively. Several universities have made ill-timed moves to FBS with disastrous and embarrassing consequences. We cannot do that to Georgia Southern University.
We do discuss a potential move to FBS football with the Athletic Department and Southern Boosters leadership on a continuing basis. Anyone wishing to have a voice in this matter should join Southern Boosters and be heard through that organization.
Sincerely,
Joe Franklin
Vice President for Business and Finance
Georgia Southern University
on Monday, June 25th, 2007 at 3:39 pm:
We sent Mr. Franklin & Dr. Grube a second letter …
April 24 2007
Mr. Joe Franklin
P.O. Box 8103
Statesboro, GA 30460-8103
Mr. Franklin:
Thanks for your attention to the matter that I wrote about to Dr. Grube. I appreciate your candor and I greatly admire all that the staff at Georgia Southern do for my alma mater.
In Saturday’s edition of the Statesboro Herald I commented after being contacted for an editorial piece by Alex Pellegrino where I was very clear that the SouthernFACTS.org web site was created to quell the rhetoric and in-fighting between the many fans and boosters regarding the program’s direction. It was also created in part to bring together those who hold the same desires for seeing the University field better competition for all of our games. We gather the information on supporters of the program in hopes, and we are aware these may not pan out, that we can garner more support for the Southern Boosters via our aforementioned final report.
It is in that spirit of support that we do pledge to help out and I have personally volunteered this help to Dan O’Dowd, who has been my point of contact through Southern Boosters since I joined the organization a number of years ago. Many of our members are very much aware of the work that has been performed studying the feasibility of competing in the FBS. It is with that in mind, that we desire to put this information out there for public consumption. Secrecy, intentional or not, on topics of this nature with many of the program’s supporters can be very detrimental as I’m sure you are aware. Publicizing and even marketing at least some of this information can do nothing but help us reach towards the goal and hopefully do so successfully.
We hope Dr. Grube is willing to make that pledge to be open and we would love to work with Southern Boosters to make the SouthernFACTS organization part of publicizing that effort and even rallying financial support from our members to the cause.
The website has 125 current members of Southern Boosters who have signed on to the survey backing our ‘call for a plan’. Their consensus desire is to hear and see the vision, know our goals, and to see the active marketing push for those goals. The Campaign for National Distinction was equally pursued and was successful beyond many expectations. We feel that with Dr. Grube’s support for an active pursuit of a Campaign for Athletics Distinction we can exceed the goals he and Sam Baker see as necessary. The CND would never have reached its goals had Dr. Grube and the University not sought the donations and put in the work. Similarly, we should all be aware that without Dr. Grube’s support and the University actively seeking the donations, a CAD will not be successful either.
I am slightly curious as the why student fees are untouchable, but I understand the commitment to low fees and the desire to keep the Board of Regents happy. The curiosity stems from our student fees ($132) being less than a quick scan of the athletic fees at comparable schools in the region. The comparison shows that we are competitive with each of the fees of the local schools such as Savannah State ($173), Georgia State ($142), West Georgia ($138), Memphis ($200), and Appalachian State ($244.50). Regardless of that issue, I do understand the desire to keep those low however I think the students would support an increase overwhelmingly should the issue be put up for discussion.
None of our supporters, as I’m sure you are aware, seek to do anything detrimental to the athletics program that we all hold in high esteem. We all believe that jumping blindly would be a mistake. We are all aware that our fans are far too unforgiving for such huge mistakes. But the supporters do want to see the progress and know the plans. As it stands, I am very happy to hear that Dr. Grube does look well on the FBS idea, we only ask that it goes beyond ‘between the lines’ communication. Our fans and supporters deserve to know where we are going and that we have the University’s full support in getting us there.
Ultimately all we ask of Dr. Grube, the athletics department, and Southern Boosters is that we publicly announce the portions of our plan that can be announced, that we put a name to it and market it, and that we keep supporters updated on the progress. We ask for nothing more than the information and the effort.
The SouthernFACTS organization and its members will do everything that we can to help. We merely need the direction to focus our efforts.
Sincerely,
Stacey Roach
SouthernFACTS.org
CC: Dr. Bruce Grube
on Friday, August 10th, 2007 at 6:21 pm:
Latest letter to Dr. Grube:
Dr. Bruce Grube
President, Georgia Southern University
P.O. Box 8033
Statesboro, GA 30460-8033
Dr. Bruce Grube:
I must, as a spokesperson for the SouthernFACTS collective, applaud you on voting against Proposal No. 2007-10 (the NCAA’s Division I membership moratorium) at the recent meeting of the NCAA Board of Directors.
As we are certain you are well aware, similar actions were taken in the recent past during your first years at Georgia Southern. As a result of failures by the NCAA to demand results and the inability to affect change back then, the work was almost completely watered down and absolutely no major changes took place over the 6 years involved in the realignment subject. The hope that I-AA will be strengthened by NCAA involvement is beyond laughable given those efforts.
Georgia Southern deserves better than that and we believe you are well aware of this matter. The SouthernFACTS members are all aware of the demanding schedule you maintain and the breadth of subject matters which you must attend. It is with that in mind that we would urge you to understand the urgency of the need to be fully prepared to PUBLICLY plan and prepare towards the FBS/I-A move soon! We have been given the run-around as a University over the past 15 years regarding realignment. Teamed with the dwindling competition levels in FCS/I-AA and loss of respect given to our member institutions as institution after institution move away from the FCS level of competition, it is imperative that we prepare ourselves fully for the future.
All we hope for and ask of you is that you publicly form an independent committee within the Georgia Southern community to prepare a plan of action for getting our University a seat at the only FBS table. This has become the only membership that our institution can pursue which gives us any control of our own destiny. We can achieve great things by involving the community, raising awareness and funds, and aiming high as we have been accustomed.
We hope that you will find the determination to take a stand and form this committee and see to it that it is well-represented by the visionaries of the past and present. You have spoken recently of big growth for Georgia Southern over the coming years and we believe that this is the time to make your vision a reality. Twenty-four thousand students and a national academic and athletics stage are well within reach; however we must not let this opportunity slip away as we have done twice in the past 20 years.
We hope you will be bold with the four years you have been given to prepare and we hope we can assist you with any efforts you wish to undertake.
Sincerely,
Stacey Roach
SouthernFACTS.org