Georgia State could join Georgia Tech and Georgia as FBS members by 2014-15.
Georgia State’s athletic department commissioned a report that explores the expenses and revenues associated with moving from FCS, in which the Panthers currently play, to FBS, which features bowl games and the BCS.
The report concludes that “GSU is well-positioned to make a transition to FBS” and “that the Sun Belt would be the best fit.” A draft of the report, along with the contract between Georgia State and the authors, Atlanta-based Collegiate Consulting, was obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Freedom of Information Act. The report cost $20,000.
Athletic director Cheryl Levick said that no decisions have been made and that Georgia State hasn’t received any invitation from any conferences. She declined to comment on the report, which focuses mostly on the financial aspects if GSU were invited to join the Big East, Conference USA, Sun Belt, Mid-American or Western Athletic conferences. The Panthers are members of the Colonial Athletic Association. Georgia State’s football team will play its inaugural CAA schedule later this year.
“We are performing our due diligence to fully understand potential opportunities in the rapidly changing landscape of college athletics and particularly college football,” Levick said in a statement. “We will evaluate the information in the feasibility study to determine the best course of action for Georgia State.”
A school that has been invited to join a conference that plays football on the FBS level must submit a notice to reclassify, along with an application, strategic plan and philosophy statement, and pay a $5,000 fee to the NCAA. The NCAA’s annual deadline for receiving such packages is June 1, with a required postmark by May 25.
If Georgia State were to accept an invitation from an FBS conference, and the NCAA allowed the transition, the Panthers could play in a bowl game, if they qualify, as early as the 2014 season.
There would be other issues: Georgia State likely would have to pay a minimum exit fee of $250,000 if it were to leave the CAA, as well as forfeit participation in the conference’s revenue-sharing plan, which could mean as much as hundreds of thousands of dollars. There also would be an entry fee to another conference. Those fees can range from the Sun Belt’s $300,000 to the Conference USA’s $2 million, according the report.
CAA commissioner Tom Yeager said he understands why GSU commissioned the report, noting that several CAA schools have done so. He declined to name them.
“Oftentimes, when people visualize the idea of moving up, they have visions of the very top end of the BCS, the SECs, the ACCs of the world,” Yeager said. “When in fact, their entry into that division are at a much, much lower level.
“Oftentimes, those types of consulting reports are as much as a validation of where they are as they are the public’s assumption that we are moving up.”
More than a dozen schools have conducted FBS feasibility studies within the past three years. Three of those schools — former CAA member Massachusetts, Texas San Antonio and Texas State — became members of conferences with FBS teams. Villanova, a Big East member in every sport other than football, has remained in the CAA.
Karl Benson, who will take over as commissioner of the Sun Belt as early as April 1, said he didn’t want to comment on Georgia State’s study until then.
“I don’t think there’s any sense of urgency right now,” he said.
He did say last week that his conference is looking to expand, but prefers existing FBS schools.
Georgia State is well-positioned to move to the Sun Belt from a budgetary standpoint, according to the report. Its projected $22.9 million in revenues in 2011-12 is 44 percent more than the average Sun Belt member, according to the report. However, the difference in those revenues can be traced to student fees: Georgia State receives more than $16.5 million compared with $5.6 million for an average Sun Belt school. Conversely, the average Sun Belt school received $1.5 million in game guarantees to GSU’s $440,500.
The average revenues and expenses for the conferences included in the report are from previous years and are in the process of being updated to give Georgia State the most accurate information.
Georgia State’s revenues are almost $24 million less than the average Big East school and 23 percent less than Conference USA.
“Institutional support would need to increase, but the primary increase would come from externally driven revenue from athletics,” according to the report.
Georgia State’s expenses of $22 million are $19 million less than what they would spend as members of the Big East in 2014-15, according to the report’s projections.
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