While they’re no longer in the same conference, they do employ a former ACU HC and they were heavily studied while ACU was deciding whether to move up to D-1. Consequently, I found some comments their HC, Nathan Brown, made yesterday while appearing before the LR Touchdown Club’s weekly luncheon. In particular:
1. While there’s no timetable for UCA moving into the FBS, he believes there is a path available, and it would be very similar to that of Coastal Carolina
2. “You look about 8-10 years ago, and Coastal Carolina was a FCS program, battling its way through. That had a vision. They had a moment.”
3. “But they were proactive. They were pushing the envelope. They had an administration that bought in. An athletic program that bought in, a university that bought in.”
4. “Now, they are a brand in college football. Everybody knows who the Chanticleers are….I really believe that’s the University of Central Arkansas.”
5. After relating how the school president describes the athletic department as the university’s porch, Brown described the football program as the mailbox.
How does this relate to ACU?
1. College athletics is VERY fluid.
2. While we’ve struggled at FCS, we moved because of academics.
3. Consequently, I CAN see us moving to FBS under the right circumstances.4. Given that we only announced our move to the Southland Conference on August 25, 2012 (who, among you, saw THAT coming?), thereafter, opening a new on-campus football stadium on September 16, 2017, and, most recently, moving the greatest of ACU traditions, SingSong, to accommodate it’s newest tradition, basketball, I, too, believe In ACU to the FBS!!
At the risk of sounding a wee bit like John Belushi’s “Animal House” character, “Who’s with me!?!”
Go Wildcats!!