Georgia Southern University - Statesboro, GA

[j.midtown]

j, I have to agree. The Sun Belt has made great strides in the past few years and I believe it would be a good match for Southern, especially based on geography and competition level.

I'm on the fence on the idea of moving up, but if they do they need to be competitive. There's no use doing it just to take a check and be everybody's punching bag. If things go well there's the possibility of changing conferences sometime in the future.

[Florida]

Thanks for the mention of FSU!! My Alma!!

[andremurra]

I would prefer Georgia Southern to enter a more competitive and presitgious conference and take more time to build up the program and competitiveness, than join a second-rate conference with satellite campus schools and being more competitve from the get go. I think its in GSU's best interest to take the heat for a while in a better conference than settling for being average competing against schools in the Sunbelt Conference. Georgia Southern is rapidly moving up in the ranks of schools according to prestige and academic excellence. I would not want our football program to compete against and therefore be associated in the minds of football fans with non-peer and non-aspirational institutions. Our enrollment is small because we are somewhat selective and reject 60% of applicants. I am not going to support competing against schools that no one has ever heard of.

As for those who are not supportive or not sure about GSU moving up to DIA - while we may not be the best of the best right now in our own divison, we have seen the victories (six national championship winners) and are ready for something more. I feel that Georgia Southern has proved itself and has accomplished about all that it desires to do in DIAA. Thats my two cents, and yes, I do sometimes come across as particularly stuck up when it comes to my alma mater - because I am.

[j.midtown]

Thanks for the mention of FSU!! My Alma!!

[Florida]

lol!

[j.midtown]

I would prefer Georgia Southern to enter a more competitive and presitgious conference and take more time to build up the program and competitiveness, than join a second-rate conference with satellite campus schools and being more competitve from the get go. I think its in GSU's best interest to take the heat for a while in a better conference than settling for being average competing against schools in the Sunbelt Conference. Georgia Southern is rapidly moving up in the ranks of schools according to prestige and academic excellence. I would not want our football program to compete against and therefore be associated in the minds of football fans with non-peer and non-aspirational institutions. Our enrollment is small because we are somewhat selective and reject 60% of applicants. I am not going to support competing against schools that no one has ever heard of.

As for those who are not supportive or not sure about GSU moving up to DIA - while we may not be the best of the best right now in our own divison, we have seen the victories (six national championship winners) and are ready for something more. I feel that Georgia Southern has proved itself and has accomplished about all that it desires to do in DIAA. Thats my two cents, and yes, I do sometimes come across as particularly stuck up when it comes to my alma mater - because I am.

[912]

What it will take to move up to I-A

[andremurra]

The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching

University Classifications

Georgia Southern (16,100

[j.midtown]

Thank you for the essay response, but you completely missed the point and failed to address the key issues in the topic of major college football conference membership.

Youre right, some of these schools do compare to Georgia Southern, but Georgia Southern doesnt strive to be like its peer-institutions, it strives to be like its aspirational-institutions.

<snip>

In addition to this, we do have a brand and we are known substantially outside of the South, but mainly throughout the DIAA world as the most successful DIAA football program in history. We have six national championships that we won in addition to the other times we played in the national championship games. We are the winningest football program throughout NCAA DI-AA and hold the two longest NCAA DI-AA winning streaks in history. The Eagles football team has advanced to the NCAA Division I-AA playoffs 16 times since 1985.

[j.midtown]

We do have a strong Alumni base. Our alumni are decorated individuals with power and class. Our admission standards keep our enrollment tight, and we don't hand out easy diplomas. Honestly, I thought Georgia Southern was going to be a breeze. Sure, the first year or two were easy, but to get to graduation is a killer – and its paying off in our alumni.

Edited December 18, 2007 by j.midtown

[Pete17]

j, once again I agree and feel you made excellent points.

andre, I appreciate your support for GSU and wish I felt as strongly about either of the schools I attended. When you finish your degree the administration should hire you.

[andremurra]

Midtown, in case you didnt notice, I was mainly going off on your "directional school" comment (in the Georgia Southern topic) that was particularly offensive and unrealistic representation of a top national school. It doesnt matter how they rank Georgia Southern in the top 262 schools in the country. It matters that we are in it and while 262 sounds like a lot, it really isnt compared to the number of schools in this country. I also showed the comparisons to the other schools in the Sunbelt conference. Several were also Research Universities, some were selective and some had higher transfer ins. According to those comparisons, I would say Georgia Southern would be one of the top schools in Sunbelt if it were in it. I just dont think belittling the university that the whole thread is about is a good idea. I appreciate all your factoids, but let me point out a few things.

1. Georgia Southern has just over 60,000 paying members of the Alumni Association - not the same thing as total living alumni.

2. Secondly, Savannah isnt the highest concentration of paying members of the Alumni Association. Statesboro is number one, Savannah is number 2, Atlanta counties are ranked afterwards. Of course Savannah and Statesboro added together are the highest concentration overall.

3. Georgia Southern

Edited December 20, 2007 by andremurra

[j.midtown]

Midtown, in case you didnt notice, I was mainly going off on your "directional school" comment (in the Georgia Southern topic) that was particularly offensive and unrealistic representation of a top national school. It doesnt matter how they rank Georgia Southern in the top 262 schools in the country. It matters that we are in it and while 262 sounds like a lot, it really isnt compared to the number of schools in this country. I also showed the comparisons to the other schools in the Sunbelt conference. Several were also Research Universities, some were selective and some had higher transfer ins. According to those comparisons, I would say Georgia Southern would be one of the top schools in Sunbelt if it were in it. I just dont think belittling the university that the whole thread is about is a good idea. I appreciate all your factoids, but let me point out a few things.

[andremurra]

Well, Georgia Southern has a rich history of achieving unrealistic dreams. As for comparing top national schools, you may be trying to make a point and all (which I understand), but inferring additional information that I did not write in the previous posts is never a good idea. Just because I said that Georgia Southern is a top 262 school doesnt mean I think its equivalent to Princeton or Berkeley. I originally stated that those two schools topped the list to illustrate the types of schools which are classified on the list. Half of the schools on the list also probably yield little name recognition but simply because they are on a list topped by Princeton and Berkeley, the list says a lot more about the schools than a state list topped by Georgia Tech and UGA could. I understood you the first time about name recognition since I cannot recall where Colorado State is located off the top of my head, but thats a little different from me not being able to recall where Georgia State is, since it is in the state that I live in. That was my original point when you said that you didnt know where Georgia Southern was located until a few years ago, as if it wasnt important enough to know where its located. All Im asking, is for you to try not to be so negative on the Georgia Southern forum. If you think its an unreasonable feat, then recommend a solution. When only considering the short history of Georgia Southern's football program, I would have to say that GSU has a knack for achieving the unachievable.

When reading forums and considering how to respond, it is a good idea to consider words for their face value, and not trying to respond to additional ideas that were not even mentioned or insinuating that the previous forumer supported those ideas.

Edited December 23, 2007 by andremurra

[andremurra]

Tuesday, Jan. 29

-Keynote Speaker Lisa Ling: Opening Minds and Hearts to the Issues Surrounding Us at the Performing Arts Center starting at 7 p.m.

[ironchapman]

Well, construction on Centennial Place has started. They've already destroyed the building housing the SDRC (Student Disabilities Resource Center), unloaded some trailers in front of Johnson Hall, and they seem to have begun work in Olliff, Winburn, and Johnson's parking lot. That last one means the parking lots of Watson Hall, where I am currently living, is a lot fuller than it used to be (and I'm having a harder time finding a parking space now).

The GSU internet service is a little weird about uploading photos from Flickr, so I won't be able to get any photos of the construction underway posted until they are way out of date.

Has anyone aside from myself been to the new CAT and the Black Box theater?

[andremurra]

Here is a cool pdf link on the Ambling Group's website detailing the Centennial Place project:

http://www.amblingunivdevgroup.com/Georgia...hern%20U_on.pdf

[ironchapman]

I stopped by Statesboro for a minute the other day on my way down to Jacksonville Beach. I only had a minute because we had to get back on the road, but I did get a chance to see some of the progress they've made at the Centennial Place area. Mostly what I saw was the ruins of Winburn, Olliff, and Johnson Hall. If I had had more time I would have gone over to it and investigated it more, but it certainly seems like they are making progress. I do pity next year's residents of Watson Hall (both RIGS and Commons). They are going to have to deal with a lot of construction noise, but on the other hand, they will also get to witness first-hand the building of the new dorms.

[andremurra]

GSU Alumni & Welcome Center begins construction on Akins Blvd

The Bishop Family Welcome & Alumni Center will be nearly 12,000 sf located across from the newly rennovated $44-million RAC. It is expected to be completed in May 2009.

Edited July 31, 2008 by andremurra

[andremurra]

Georgia Southern University enrollment figures will be officially released in October after the last day to drop without academic penalty has passed, but that number does not take into account the number of students who started classes in August. The current unofficial number is a whopping 17,700 - which is a leap from 16,841 last year. People who seem to be worried about the new 1,001-bed Centennial Place dormitory creating a surplus in the market should rest assured since 90% of those beds have been accounted for via one year of enrollment growth. By Fall 2009, when CP opens, GSU enrollment will be over 18,000 students, and since no new major apartment communities have been announced or started on construction, people should stop worrying about the rental market in Statesboro.

[ironchapman]

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Centennial Place development is looking like. Any of our Statesboro forumers have any updates? The last thing I saw on it was this article from the George-Anne Daily.

[shqippy]

Well, I'm looking forward to seeing what the Centennial Place development is looking like. Any of our Statesboro forumers have any updates? The last thing I saw on it was this article from the George-Anne Daily.

Edited July 23, 2009 by shqippy

[ironchapman]

Some of us went into the Cold Stone Creamery in Centennial Place a few days ago. They were giving out free samples that day, and said they might try to open to the public the following day. Einstein Bros. Bagels is in the same small food court (which has more booth seating and a cozier feel than a mall food court), but all they had up were signs...no bagels yet. The print shop has machines in it already, we could see from the windows. Not sure when they're opening either. The one thing we found funny was a crosswalk in the road that led straight onto new sod, a good 15 feet or so from the sidewalk extension to the road. Would've made a nice "FAIL" pic.

[andremurra]

Georgia Southern's fall enrollment for 2009 broke another enrollment record. It was 16,842 in 2007; 17,774 in 2008, and 19,086 in 2009. It jumped over 900 between 07-08, then another 1300 between 08-09. WOW.