. . . it was only because he was flabbergasted at the suggestion that Georgia fans’ behavior is even remotely as objectionable as Georgia Tech fans’ behavior. Not even Tech fans believe that.

Concerning the actual topic at hand, however, let me ask you, in all sincerity, whether you believe the overwhelming reliance of Georgia State athletics upon the involuntary tax of student fees, rather than on actual merchandise and ticket sales indicating fervor for the program, is a concern for the Panthers’ athletic future, and, if not, why not?

gives you permission to be an impolite “asshat” to any others? Interesting theory.

….and tell me if your overall opinion of Tech fans versus UGA fans doesn’t change a bit. I would like to say that’s an isolated item, but that’s just one of about a million threads over there that are pretty disgusting and show just how pathetic the Techie little man complex is when it comes to UGA. Don’t kid yourself believing that UGA fans are somehow worse behaved than Tech fans. As TKK said, try to wear red when that game is in Atlanta and you’ll see a whole other side of general nastiness.

Latest sockpuppet eliminated, too.

That, I couldn’t tell you . . . but I’d be willing to bet the Big East would be insistent about a return on its investment, and, since it appears that the Panthers are being paid for predominantly out of student fees, rather than through the ordinary athletic avenues of merchandise and ticket sales, I have my doubts about Georgia State’s attractiveness as an option for that league.

I am merely addressing present realities when projecting forward into the future, as any reasonable person must, and as Georgia State clearly was attempting to do by hiring a consulting firm to evaluate the feasibility of a move to Division I-A.

Pretermitting the question of how exactly one might square the sentiment expressed in your 5:16 p.m. comment about Georgia Southern’s budget with your 5:08 p.m. comment about Georgia State’s, the question remains, and it is a valid, rather than an insulting, one: Given that a disproportionate share of the Panthers’ athletic budget comes from the university, in the form of the involuntary tax of student fees, rather than from boosters, in the form of merchandise and ticket sales, what is the basis for believing that there is an untapped fan base out there waiting to leap on the Georgia State bandwagon, if only the Panthers would move from Division I-AA to the Sun Belt? There may be such a basis, but it is far from apparent, and it raises legitimate questions about Georgia State’s ability to pull its own weight fiscally in a Division I-A conference.

I quite agree that Atlanta is a major league town, so much so that the Hawks have never been a consistent draw, two NHL teams have failed to take root despite growing numbers of northern transplants to the Atlanta area, Georgia Tech at one point reduced the number of seats in its stadium, and Braves fans consistently have been berated for their failure to show up even during the team’s extraordinary run in the 1990s. Georgia State could be (though it is not yet) the Georgia Southern of Atlanta, a Division I-AA powerhouse. The Eagles historically have been a big fish in a small pond; the Panthers aspire to be a small fish in a big pond, at least at first. What is the basis for believing that will work?

As I hope is clear, Panthersville, I am making a sincere effort to engage you in a serious conversation without disparaging your school, your sports team, your fan base, your mascot (I haven’t used the feline equivalent of “mutt”), or your surname (or your entitlement to use it). I’m not saying “you don’t have it in FCS, so you won’t have it in FBS”; I’m asking how that will happen, because I sincerely don’t see how such a move will succeed, given the financial reality that Georgia State fans aren’t supporting the program enough voluntarily to prevent Georgia State students from having to support it involuntarily to keep it afloat.

… is that I think it’s better to be the best damn minor-league program in the country rather than be #80 out of 120 at the major-league level.

I respect that you could have a different opinion, but I think being a I-AA powerhouse would lead to locally televised games (which would be watched all across the very large Atlanta metro area), and lead to some of that increased revenue like you’d see in a Sun Belt-like conference.

That’s nice. I say that without being sarcastic. However, extolling the potential for a program based solely on its first game ever is a mistake. There were probably many people that went to that first game solely because, and this is important, it was the first game ever. That’s the kind of spectacle you don’t see every day (although with two more schools in Georgia about to start teams, we’ll get that spectacle twice more). I was highly interested in going to the first game because it was State’s first game ever; I didn’t go for other reasons which I don’t remember.