NT80, on 06 February 2010 - 02:00 PM, said:
Two things UTSA definately has working for them is football facility (Alamodome) and tourist destination (San Antonio). Most FCS schools start with a lot less. I'm sure coach Larry Coker has some strings to pull too with influential people.
The Dome is pretty far from the UTSA campus. About as far as Texas Stadium was to us. Was that an advantage for us? How did that build school spirit? The one good thing about playing games in an outside venue is the ability to sell beer. The downside is that tailgating will be non-existent, students can't "stumble" to and from the game, pep rallies won't be very effective, etc. If they can get the community behind them and not rely on the students, they might be able to hit their 15K attendance each year. South Alabama is doing it. If they start losing after the 1st year of prep schools an NAIA teams, it could get ugly. Certainly will be interesting to watch. If you go to their one fansite, utsatailgaters - it shows the timeline for the last three or four years. Plan A was to raise $15 million. Plan B was to hire a coach and staff, and so on... facilities were in Plan C, scheduling came next. They have accomplished hiring the coach. Over the last four years, they have raised about $2 million, not even close to the goal. Now, they do have student fees and that will help tremendously. I think that the Indy announcement/press piece was a recruiting ploy. Those kids are all asking the same thing - when will we be FBS? Coker wants to sell them that he can get them there by their Junior or Senior year so that they were a part of building something from the ground up. I just don't think that is a realistic timeline. Like their other timelines, it is too aggresive and not realistic. They haven't hit any of their othr goals but they seem determined to get to FBS. So with all that said, I believe that they will eventually get there, probably just not by 2013. If they do pull it off, they will have lightning in a bottle and the Belt would be lucky to have them. We shall see!