Mike Minter on 99.7 This Morning

Heard Mike Minter on 99.7 The Fox this morning.

He was talking about what he has been up to lately, all the Charity etc. I think it was John Boy who asked about his future with the University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Mike Minter of course pointed out that given the team he could be in a Championship game within 3 years and that currently he is being considered as a candidate.

Good stuff. I almost thought they weren’t going to say anything about his connection to us, but they did towards the end. Good publicity for our program.

Come back down to earth, Mike. An I-AA Championship in our program’s third year? I don’t think so. A conference championship? Maybe, if we are actually in a conference for our I-AA stint.

are we even eligible for the playoffs in our 3rd year?

Has there ever been a non politician publicaly campaign for a job as much as Minter has for this one? It seems so odd. It seems you never see this sort of thing with coaching job searches.

I think we’ll be eligible for the playoffs right away, but if we play as an independent each year of our I-AA tenure it’s going to be much harder to get a playoff bid. We would be reduced to competing for one of the few at-large bids and our schedule is going to remain a hodgepodge of games.

Why aren’t we eligible for the playoffs our first year?

Edit:

[b] The chance to go to the FCS playoffs is all the buzz among Big South teams. The conference champion will gain an automatic bid for the first time when the playoffs expand from 16 to 20 teams in late November. The Northeast Conference champion will also advance to the playoffs with a new automatic bid, and two more at-large selections will fill the other two spots. [/b]

http://www.ncaafootball.com/index.php?s=&url_channel_id=36&url_article_id=19280&change_well_id=2

There are now 10 automatic bids, and 10 at-large bids for the FCS playoffs. According to this site: http://www.printereagle.younce.net/playoffs/inside.html , any team who is "in the process of moving up to FBS, or still moving up from a lower classification" is not eligible for an at-large FCS bid. Not sure if that means we will be ineligible for the playoffs during the last year that we are FCS, or each year we are FCS. It could also mean that once we formally declare to go to FBS that we can no longer compete for the FCS championship.

my bad, don’t know where i got the information to think that we wouldn’t be eligible for some time. But according to this: http://richmond.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=837631 ODU was eligible year 1 due to the amount of FCS teams they played.

As for the Big South, they now get a playoff bid: http://www.thestate.com/2010/07/30/1396050/big-south-champ-will-get-playoff.html

no

We would only be eligible for the FCS playoffs in 2013 if we were not "in the process of moving up to FBS". I don’t know how, exactly, that process works or when it begins. Everybody and their mama knows that we’re heading for FBS, but I’m not sure when the formality of it begins and how that affects our FCS playoff eligibility. ODU has no plans to go to FBS anytime soon, so they were eligible in their inaugeral season for an FCS playoff bid. My hope is that we will be eligible until at least the season prior to us making the move to FBS. The games will be a lot more meaningful if we are playing for something rather than simply fielding a team.

We’ll be eligible for the FCS playoff the first year but any DII, DII or NAIA we play can’t be counted toward it. As we will be Independent we will have to earn an at large. If we go short term to FBS (4 years) the last 2 are half FBS, half FCS and I have no idea how that works towards playoff eligibility.

I do not like this Minter mess. It’s getting out of hand for someone who shouldn’t, given his experience level, even be on our radar for a coordinator job.

That’s the nugget of info I was seeking. So once we declare a date to move to FBS, then we will likely be ineligible for the FCS playoffs for our last TWO seasons of our FCS tenure. I’m guessing the NCAA made this rule because your recruiting should be picking up in talent with players knowing that you’re moving up.

If we are taking the quick route to FBS in 2017 that will mean:

  • We will not be in a conference for FCS competition since we will only be playoff eligible for two seasons. (i.e. no FCS conference will want us)
  • We will likely only be FCS playoff-eligible during our first two seasons of play, 2013 & 2014.

That’s the nugget of info I was seeking. So once we declare a date to move to FBS, then we will likely be ineligible for the FCS playoffs for our last TWO seasons of our FCS tenure. I’m guessing the NCAA made this rule because your recruiting should be picking up in talent with players knowing that you’re moving up.

If we are taking the quick route to FBS in 2017 that will mean:

  • We will not be in a conference for FCS competition since we will only be playoff eligible for two seasons. (i.e. no FCS conference will want us)
  • We will likely only be FCS playoff-eligible during our first two seasons of play, 2013 & 2014.[/quote]

If we haven’t announced an FCS conference home before Summer of 2013, then I would expect us to move in 4 years to FBS. If we do announce an FCS home, you can add at least 10 years in FCS to our timeline.

How are we going to go FBS when we can only seat 15,000? Don’t we have to average 15,000 in attendance? If our plan is FBS in 4-5 years, why not find a way to build an 18,000 seat stadium?

We can probably fit in 5000 temp bleachers if we have to. There’s just no way in hell we stay Independent in FCS, that’s suicide. If we are staying FCS for 7+ years some FCS conference will want us. If they don’t, that’s even more reason to move up ASAP.

As an outsider I’m not sure how everyone is convinced that this program will be FBS within 3-4 years. There are lot of requirements and the landscape of FBS football is likely to change drastically by then.

Did ya’ll hear something?

I think it’s because we have already been through this once. All sorts of outsiders came in and said that we would NEVER field a team. Here we are. We have fought through adversity with this thing and it is people like the ones on this message board who are going to keep this dream alive. For it to become a reality, we first must dream it.

The goal is to eventually have FBS football and I’m not convinced it will only take 3-4 years. We have alot of work to do so who knows how long it will take to get there?

I definitely understand the excitement and even the potential for Charlotte to move up to FBS, but assuming it will happen in the next 3-4 years is pretty bold without ever having played a game. Trust me, I hope it happens…I just don’t think it’s going to get any easier for FCS teams to move up to FBS.

How has athletic fundraising been?

From what I know, the requirements to move from FCS to FBS are as follows…

  1. Two year rolling average of 15,000 home attendance (I’d think UNCC took that into consideration if they want to move up)
  2. Must have 16 varsity sports…I’m assuming that isn’t a problem
  3. Some minimum of scheduling home games against FBS teams. Not sure how a FCS school even accomplishes that.

I imagine that ideally the AD wants to take 10 years of FCS then move to FBS. Whether circumstances force her to do so sooner or later is the question. I think my personal choice would be 7 years. Enough time to pull in fans and start thinking about the first expansion but not too much to lose them with FCS football.

[quote=ā€œarmour248, post:19, topic:23913ā€]I definitely understand the excitement and even the potential for Charlotte to move up to FBS, but assuming it will happen in the next 3-4 years is pretty bold without ever having played a game. Trust me, I hope it happens…I just don’t think it’s going to get any easier for FCS teams to move up to FBS.

How has athletic fundraising been?

From what I know, the requirements to move from FCS to FBS are as follows…

  1. Two year rolling average of 15,000 home attendance (I’d think UNC Charlotte took that into consideration if they want to move up)
  2. Must have 16 varsity sports…I’m assuming that isn’t a problem
  3. Some minimum of scheduling home games against FBS teams. Not sure how a FCS school even accomplishes that.[/quote]

Fixed that for ya.

  1. Hopefully we’ll obtain the 15,000 avaerage in years 1 and 2.
  2. Well have 16 after we add football in 2013 and Women’s Field Hockey in 2016.
  3. I imagine that whatever FBS conference wants you to join will incourage their current members to schedule you, like South Alabama is doing right now with the Sun Belt. Also, and its not ideal, but we could schedule FBS schools to play us ā€œhomeā€ at BoA Stadium, if we have to.

We’ve raised $5.6 Million in private donantions for football.