Citadel Game Thread

[FU3]

Furman isn’t dropping football or going to the Pioneer League .. keep throwing it out but it ain’t happening . As we have witnessed in the basketball program an engaged coach who wins and has an exciting product will generate fans and money. Football is no different.

[MidlandsPaladin]

If there aren't changes made and fall continues like the spring I think there needs to be consideration to Pioneer league or elimination of football. Use saved money for other sports and bring baseball back. Never ever in my life thought I'd say that.

And to think that one of the justifications for dropping baseball was to invest in improvements in the football and basketball programs.

[Roundball]

FCS football is a money pit.

[FU3]

Myopic view of the totality that football brings to over all fund raising especially for schools in the Southeast.

[Flagman]

Wofford did us a favor.

[Roundball]

Myopic view of the totality that football brings to over all fund raising especially for schools in the Southeast.

Oh, I agree that it helps with fundraising, or at least that is what we are told. We just have to accept the fact that playing this level of football is a losing proposition for the sport itself. I had a high dollar donor to tell me that we either need to move down or move up. My hope is that the NCAA makes a separate division between the P5 and the FCS. We may be able to improve the program by joining that division and start competing again with the likes of Appalachian State and Georgia Southern. As for the Pioneer League, is it any worse than the SoCon right now in football?

[JohnW]

Offense is awful. It is Coach Hendrix's fault. Total mismanagement of personnel, bad faith, poor leadership. I'll quit before I type something I regret.

I am not in the mood to defend the football program, but wanting to drop it, or go non-scholarship since we had a bad year but bring back baseball is ludicrous. Success is not a argument for baseball over basically any other sport at Furman. Mediocrity was the norm. Football is a year removed from being in the post season, when was the last time baseball even had a winning record? I wish Furman still had a baseball team just because I believe that is a sport we should compete in, not because I miss all the winning. Be mad as hell about the season we've had, I'm right there, just don't tell me having a .500 baseball team would be better.

[Affirm]

Offense is awful. It is Coach Hendrix's fault. Total mismanagement of personnel, bad faith, poor leadership. I'll quit before I type something I regret.

I am not in the mood to defend the football program, but wanting to drop it, or go non-scholarship since we had a bad year but bring back baseball is ludicrous. Success is not a argument for baseball over basically any other sport at Furman. Mediocrity was the norm. Football is a year removed from being in the post season, when was the last time baseball even had a winning record? I wish Furman still had a baseball team just because I believe that is a sport we should compete in, not because I miss all the winning. Be mad as hell about the season we've had, I'm right there, just don't tell me having a .500 baseball team would be better.

You used the word ludicrous. That same word could also be used to define the present football situation at Furman.
A year removed from being in the postseason? OK. We did badly when we got to the post-season, so getting there was nothing special.
Ludicrous. Actually nothing to laugh about.
It is tiresome to see people for some reason acting like Furman football is something to take seriously. One must have a great sense of humor to even follow Furman football.
But why waste all that money and time?

[Furmanoid]

You can’t not have football because that would just totally suck. I don’t see how it’s elimination would help basketball. If we had all that extra money, what exactly would we do with it to enhance basketball?

But I feel your pain. Football is a money pit. It can at least be a fun, enrollment enhancing money pit if you win. But winning is hard. And you have to be mean to people who are doing a crappy job. That just isn’t the FU mindset so we don’t win.

But even if we suck, having football is a good thing. Sucking in the Pioneer League would be cheap. My preferred pipe dream would be to drop FB to DII and get Citadel and WC to go with us. That cuts the cost way down. We could join the SAC and play a bunch of old schools with backgrounds similar to ours. Very pleasant, but not overly serious.

[apaladin]

Back to the game. Entering todays game the Citadel was giving up an average of 32.5 points a gamein the spring. The fewest they had given up was in a 21-14 loss to WCU. Yes they lost to WCU. Today we scored 7. The last 2 years we have scored 17 total against the Citadel or an average of 8.5. Just awful.

[apaladin]

FCS football is a money pit.

Then why are 130+ teams participating?

[Furmanoid]

Beats me. Take FU for example. Our revenues from all athletics are about 4.2 million. Is there any way that covers football? And a big chunk of that revenue is coming from basketball.

[gofurman]

Back to the game. Entering todays game the Citadel was giving up an average of 32.5 points a gamein the spring. The fewest they had given up was in a 21-14 loss to WCU. Yes they lost to WCU. Today we scored 7. The last 2 years we have scored 17 total against the Citadel or an average of 8.5. Just awful.

Wow. Good stat. Didn’t realize the worst points against them was 21...until today.

I did know this is the same team that was on a 9 game losing streak until Woff and lost to western!!!

It’s the trajectory that concerns me. I could take 3-4 if we lost first and won last 4... but we DESTROYED western and then today lost to the only team western could beat. Wi?t?h.?

[apaladin]

In 5 of 7 games this spring we scored either one or two TD’s. 18 points or less in 5 of 7 games. In todays era of offensive football that is hard to do.

[Affirm]

FCS football is a money pit.

Then why are 130+ teams participating?

Well, about 12 of those are in Pioneer Football League and 8 are Ivy League and a number of the FCS schools are HBCU’s who apparently have their own bowl game as well as being able to sometimes get on FBS schools’ OOC schedules for added revenue.
Plus, almost all of the schools in all of FCS are considerably bigger than Furman.
Consider that there are numerous good schools that do not have football:
CofC, Winthrop, UNC Greensboro and Asheville and Wilmington, High Point, VCU, George Mason, George Washington, NYU, Emory, Belmont, Xavier, Gonzaga, Loyola Chicago, DePaul, Creighton, Boston University, Pepperdine, Univ of Denver, at least 3 U of California campuses, at least 3 Cal State U campuses, Providence, Drexel, St. John’s, Iona, San Francisco, Marquette, Bradley, Wichita State, Fairfield, Canisius, Seattle, Seton Hall, Pacific, UMBC, Rider, Saint Mary’s, Saint Joseph’s, Oral Roberts, LaSalle, Hofstra, Fairleigh Dickinson, Bellarmine, Radford, Vermont, Lipscomb, Texas-Arlington, Portland, Nebraska-Omaha, Northeastern, Evansville, American, Hartford, Saint Louis, Manhattan, Niagara, St. Bonaventure, Saint Peter’s, New Orleans, Texas A&M - Corpus Christi, Longwood, Radford, Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Wisconsin-Green Bay, SUNY-Binghamton, Santa Clara, Quinnipiac, etc.
... But my more direct answer to your question of “why?”: politics, “pride”, “herd mentality”, inertia, CTE-denial.