Had we not started football, we would not being the American, which would negatively affect everything else and we probably wouldnât have wes. Starting football wasnât our issue. Starting it and continually hurting shitty coaches is
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We should start a new thread on how to fix the overall program, but I would take some of the money raised and expand the other side of the stadium, a carbon copy of the current expansion, with lodge seats, suites, the whole thing. I think that would look great and youâre done with stadium build out for the next 20+ years.
I know it sounds crazy, but we need a stadium that recruits can see as a legit fbs stadium. I really do think that hinders us with recruiting and honestly I think that teams come to our stadium and think are we playing a JV team? The optics are important and until we fix that, no one will take us seriously. Thereâs a reason facility arms races are a thing.
Thatâs one thing we can get right because we all know hiring a coach is a crap shoot and Iâd rather invest in the optics of our program now, because we canât wait any longer.
We should have stayed in the FCS until we proved we were good enough to make the jump.
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No we shouldnât have. We wouldnât be in the American. We had to go and there was no guarantee weâd get the invite later
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Miami OH just offered the conference $30 million dollars to join. You canât pass up an opportunity like that. If you drop down in conference the resources also fall. Right now we canât even win the SoCon with AAC resources. We need to fix what weâre doing wrong.
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Going down in conferences will just get us even worse players and a lower budget. No reason we canât compete at this level
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Yeah Iâm sorry folks, but those of you wanting us to drop down to FCS are crazy. I know our football program sucks but everything just said about resources etc is correct.
We have everything we need to put a competitive team on the field - absent maybe full completion of both sides of the upper deck. The problem is with our resource allocation and decision making - aka who we hire and recruit and how we coach them.
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Well said! I agree 1000%.
I didnât say we should drop, I said we shouldnât have moved up when we did because we werenât ready. Iâm all for seizing the opportunity, but you canât complain when we are getting our ass handed to us every week.
Iâm not trying to be antagonistic, but what else would you expect the fan base to do? You say you donât want us to drop down a level. So we should just keep our mouths shut and enjoy the beatings?
Iâm confused.
Being vocal is the #2 way we can try to force change. #1 is with our wallets.
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Phil never decided to start football with being competitive in mind. He joked about us sucking for a long time. Football was just another amenity of the university to attract students similar to the Student Union that was constructed around the same time. We lucked into getting an invite to CUSA otherwise our football program would be floundering as an FCS independent. College football is one of the most competitive things imaginable. If your administration is half ass you arenât going to be remotely successful.
Unfortunately there isnât a silver bullet here. There is no coach or big recruit coming to save us. Everyone knows we are in over our head. The only way out is to invest heavily in the program. The stadium expansion is a good start. As someone mentioned previously, Charlotte is one of if not the fastest growing cities in America and a corporate center for big banks. Why canât we raise more money for NIL? The university needs to put its money where its mouth is and treat it like a major FBS program. There is no other way. If we just want a team and donât care about success then we shouldnât have been in such a rush to move the program up.
Charlotte football is about more than wins and losses. It is part of the universityâs identity, visibility, alumni engagement, student experience, and long-term national profile.
In 2008, former UNC System presidents C.D. Spangler and William Friday argued against Charlotte starting football, with Spangler warning that it could harm the university academically. That reflected an older view of Charlotte as an institution that should remain secondary to the stateâs established flagship universities.
Charlotte has outgrown that role. We will no longer be passive when former UNC presidents come to town and tell current and future students to go to NC State or Chapel Hill if they want the full college experience. Shame on them!
The university is larger, more ambitious, more research-oriented, and located in one of the nationâs fastest-growing major metropolitan areas. Those realities support greater ambition, not retreat.
Moving down from FBS to FCS would not solve the problem. It would reduce visibility, weaken alumni and student engagement, diminish athletic relevance, and surrender much of what Charlotte has already spent years building.
The answer is to persevere, make better decisions, invest intelligently, and build the successful FBS program this university and this city should be capable of supporting.
Major universities pursue the path we are on. They do not retreat.
If Charlotte wants to be treated like a major national university, it cannot keep thinking like a secondary institution.
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We are not backing off FBS. That is not even an option. It would be dumb as well. We are not the only school to have shitty years. I donât like it but it is what it is.
We will get over this. It is not permanent. You have seen the lists of shitty schools that are no longer shitty and formerly great schools that are struggling. It happens. Letâs find a path forward and move that way. We start by changing the coaching staff.
Go Niners!
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Does this look familiar?
Two seasons after this they went undefeated and claimed a national championship.
And that was before NIL which can speed up a turnaround if handled smartly.
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Here in Houston, U of H is very similar to us in my opinion. They are a little older and a little bigger, but they have the same problems. They are a city school competing against large, well funded state universities like UT and A&M. They arenât really even respected academically within Houston. Most of that goes to Rice.
But they have been very successful in college sports. Theyâve been to more Menâs BB final fours than I can count and their football team is ranked most years. How have they done that? They have just really been good at marketing themselves and putting their money where their mouth is. I feel like we are being run by a bunch of bean counters and bureaucrats, which is how we ended up with Albin.
Biff may have been annoying, but at least he had a bit of swagger. We need way more of that. We canât look anymore ridiculous than we already do.
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If you wanted to be optimistic, Albin is recruiting a lot of high school players. If given enough time he could build a deep roster of experience players. Be good in a couple more seasons.
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Are they local students?