STATESBORO — A marching band played the school fight song, and cheerleaders orchestrated the cheers Wednesday morning in the Williams Center on the campus of Georgia Southern University.
The Eagles announced another historic step for the GSU football program in the same room where the program’s rebirth received similar fanfare more than 30 years ago.
Southern and its president Brooks Keel officially accepted an invitation to join the Sun Belt Conference, allowing the Eagles football team to compete at the highest level of Division I, the Football Bowl Subdivision.
Not long after, confetti flew.
“This one right here, this didn’t come from Kmart, I promise you that” said Eagles athletics director Tom Kleinlein, holding up a ceremonial football with the logo Sun Belt at the makeshift podium. “This one came from the Sun Belt.”
It’s a reference to Georgia Southern’s humble football beginnings. The sport was dormant for more than 40 years at Southern, coming to a halt in 1941 because of World War II.
But in 1981, Southern hired Georgia defensive coordinator Erk Russell as head coach of the Eagles’ start-up program. To announce the hiring, then-athletics director Bucky Wagner went across the street to a Kmart to buy a football as a prop because the school didn’t have one.
“Yes, Erk would have been proud of (Wednesday’s announcement),” said Wagner, thinking back to Russell, who died in 2006. “Back then, we didn’t know what would happen to the program. My vision was to walk in the shade of the second deck of the stadium. I still waiting for that one, but all of us are proud of the progress being made.”
Eagle support
From an embryo, Georgia Southern’s football program grew quickly. In storybook fashion, the Eagles won four national championships before earning an invitation to join the strongest FCS conference in the nation — the Southern Conference.
GSU won two more national championships and 10 conference crowns in a 21-year period.
Keel, who was hired in 2010, saw an opportunity for football to take the school to greater heights — turning Georgia Southern from a regional university to a national university.
“This move helps us market the university, helps us get the word of the university out beyond the reaches of Statesboro and Bulloch County,” Keel said. “Some folks are just afraid of change, afraid of moving forward. I understand and respect that. But we’re all about trying to make this university as great as we possibly can, and this is an opportunity to take it to another level.”
Kleinlein understands football grabs the biggest headlines and can bring attention to the university.
“Our job is to put our institution on a bigger platform so we can talk about the great academic things that are done on this campus,” Kleinlein said.
In September, Keel estimated an additional $4.4 million a year would be needed, increasing GSU’s athletic budget to more than $16 million a year to facilitate the move.
Fans and students supported the move financially. Boosters gave $10 million to construct a football operations building at Paulson Stadium. Students agreed to additional activity fees of $75 a semester for the move to FBS and $25 for the construction of 6,300 additional seats at Paulson.
The support made an impression on Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson, who attended the Georgia Southern press conference Wednesday.
“The Sun Belt and Georgia Southern are a perfect fit from an academic standpoint, an athletic standpoint and geographic standpoint,” he said. “The Sun Belt just got better with the addition of Georgia Southern.”
Benson said the Sun Belt’s future plans call for six-team Eastern and Western Divisions.
The East would include Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Troy, South Alabama, Western Kentucky and Appalachian State. Appalachian accepted an invitation to the Sun Belt later Wednesday afternoon.
The West is expected to consist of Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, Texas State, Arkansas State, New Mexico State and Idaho. New Mexico State had not officially been invited as of Wednesday night, while Idaho accepted Wednesday. Those two schools would be admitted as football-playing members only. Non-football playing Texas-Arlington and Arkansas-Little Rock would compete in the West in other sports.
Benson said a conference championship game is being considered with the winner getting the league’s bid to the New Orleans Bowl.
There will be some sacrifice for Georgia Southern’s football teams during the next two years. The Eagles will play a Southern Conference schedule in 2013 but will not be eligible for either the conference title or a spot in the FCS playoffs.
GSU will compete in the Sun Belt in 2014 and could play for the league championship, but will not be eligible to play in a bowl game.
Southern will share in revenues earned by the league starting in 2014. The Eagles’ other sports programs will be eligible for conference titles and advancement for NCAA championships.
GSU will have to find a conference home for its men’s soccer program because the Sun Belt doesn’t offer the sport.
Southern will also add two women’s athletics programs to stay in compliance with Title IX, a federal law that demands equal opportunities for men and women in education.
The Eagles’ football program would be eligible to play in a bowl game in 2015.
“It’s new competition and new opportunities,” said GSU safety Matt Dobson, a rising sophomore. “It’s an exciting time for us. We’re still playing football. We’re in college, and still playing a great game. Our worry right now is being the best team we can and winning the most games we can.”
Sun Belt Conference Breakdown
Eastern Division
Georgia Southern University, Statesboro
Georgia State University, Atlanta
University of South Alabama, Mobile, Ala.
Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Ky.
Troy University, Troy, Ala.
Appalachian State University, Boone, N.C.
Western Division
University of Louisiana Lafayette
University of Louisiana Monroe
Arkansas State University, State University, Ark.
Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
#University of Texas-Arlington
#University of Arkansas Little Rock
*New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, N.M.
*University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho
# Non-football playing members
* Football playing members only
Appalachian State leaving SoCon for Sun Belt
BOONE, N.C. — Appalachian State has announced it is leaving the Southern Conference to join the Sun Belt Conference in 2014.
The Mountaineers, who won three consecutive FCS national championships from 2005-07 and captured 10 Southern Conference titles in football, will be stepping up to play at the FBS level.
Appalachian State will begin playing Sun Belt games and will be a revenue sharing member of the conference in 2014 and be allowed to compete for the conference title. However, the Mountaineers will not be eligible to play in a bowl game until 2015.
Appalachian State joins current Southern Conference rival Georgia Southern in the Sun Belt.
The Mountaineers field hockey team will continue to compete in the NorPac Field Hockey Conference and men’s soccer and wrestling will stay in the Southern Conference.
The Associated Press