A day after Georgia State officially announced it is joining the Sun Belt Conference in 2013, more pieces of what the next year will hold fell into place Tuesday.
The Colonial Athletic Association, Georgia State’s home since 2005, postponed a vote Tuesday to increase its exit fee from $250,000 to $1 million. The conference couldn’t get a quorum of its schools’ presidents on the phone.
The announcement last week that the exit fee could be increasing caused the Sun Belt and Georgia State to hasten their negotiations, according to athletic director Cheryl Levick and conference commissioner Karl Benson.
Georgia State, which withdrew from the conference Sunday after agreeing to join the Sun Belt Conference on Friday, said it won’t pay more than $250,000. President Mark Becker referred to the current CAA bylaws during Monday’s news conference when asked which buyout total Georgia State would pay.
Georgia State got another piece of good news as well.
A CAA bylaw can exclude schools that have withdrawn from participating in conference tournaments. Georgia State feared that its spring teams wouldn’t be able to compete for CAA championships this year. However, Levick said she was told Tuesday by CAA commissioner Tom Yeager to operate as “business as usual, suit them up and send them.” Some of the tournaments begin next week.
However, participation in all of the 2012-13 season’s tournaments, such as men’s basketball, hasn’t been decided. Emails and messages to Yeager haven’t been returned.
Answers to other pieces in the financial puzzle of the move from FCS football to FBS were given Tuesday. FBS football will require a maximum of 22 more scholarships at a cost of approximately $500,000 per year. Levick said that a university analysis projects that expected increases in guarantee-game revenues for football, corporate sponsorships and ticket sales will cover the cost of the additional scholarships in 2013.
Sun Belt revenue sharing, a total yet to be determined, should add more to Georgia State’s coffers in 2014. Last year, the Sun Belt distributed $9.3 million to its 12 members, an average of $775,000 per school. Benson said they expect a similar distribution this year.
The website caahoops.com estimated that Georgia State will receive less than $200,000 from the CAA this year. Football is the only sport whose scholarship total will be affected by the move to the Sun Belt.
The change in how football scholarships are given is another small issue.
Though most of Georgia State’s football players already receive full scholarships, some receive partial scholarships. FCS football is designated by the NCAA as an equivalency sport, meaning one scholarship can be divided among players. FBS football is designated as a head-count sport, meaning one scholarship per player. Football will be the only sport affected by this change, as well.
The additional scholarships for football could also affect opportunities for women’s athletes.
Georgia State announced last season that it was adding two women’s sports, sand volleyball and another to be determined, to satisfy Title IX requirements after the addition of 63 scholarships for FCS football. Georgia State is compiling a gender equity report about its athletics. The results will determine how many opportunities Georgia State may need to add.
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