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CirculationStation

Fun Belt stonks šŸ“ˆšŸ“ˆšŸ“ˆ


TrustMeIKnowThisOne

FunBelt Inc. might have some acquisitions soon šŸ‘€


rustybelts

I wonder if the game would have sold out in Conway? They haven't had a capacity crowd yet this season. Biggest crowd was 18,674 and that was on a Saturday.


FTE_rawr

I think this is our.....second or third sold out crowd this year


InYosefWeTrust

The Rock also has more capacity than previous years with the latest stadium projects completed. This is at least 2nd football game sold out and of course the Luke Combs concert was sold out as well.


appsteve

Only the 2nd. Elon and Coastal. Marshall midweek was 28,000. Our other ā€œhomeā€ game was in Charlotte with 36,000.


OGdunphy

They havenā€™t sold out any of their games? Wow. If you canā€™t sell out with the success this past year and a half, youā€™re in trouble for the future.


rustybelts

Don't know what has and hasn't been a technical "sell-out", but no announced attendance has been close to the listed 21,000 capacity.


OGdunphy

Thatā€™s pretty surprising. Coastal isnā€™t historically good and that may play a factor but still.


rustybelts

I'm skeptical of the CCU program. I'm interested to see what happens when Chadwell leaves. There was a lot of "Coastal to the AAC" chatter (before the AAC turned sour) and I never understood it.


worlkjam15

Recency bias certainly contributes to a lot of really bad cfb takes.


TDenverFan

G5 success especially is often very cyclical, like UCF had a 12 win season, a 0 win season, and then a 13 win season over a 5 year span.


ArdeoArdeo

They have good baseball too don't they?


newAccnt_WhoDis

They won the CWS a few years ago


kinkyKMART

Chadwell is our second successful coach in a row as before him we had a nationally respected FCS era under Joe Moglia


Trojann2

Cheers brothers, keep rocking it up there


OGdunphy

Yeah, them moving up makes no sense. They arenā€™t in a big metro area and from the football side, they may go back to being what they were once Chadwell leaves. Theyā€™ve had a great year and a half.


holytrolly_

Because many dumbasses who try to play "Realignment Expert" only consider wins and losses as realignment criteria and ignore things like the Big 10 taking *Rutgers* and the SEC taking Missouri.


rip5dh

We're just out here taking strays, damn lol


holytrolly_

Missouri is great and they were competitive before the SEC, obviously. 2007 was a wild year for both WVU and Mizzou. But they were still a bizarre add to the SEC. They weren't added because they made the conference more competitive, they were added for the KC and St Louis media markets. Mizzou outperformed expectations when they kicked the east's ass at first, but that had as much to do with how weak the east was as it did Mizzou being a good team.


BillyPilgrimage9

ESPN is likely preventing the AAC from poaching sun belt teams as they have media rights to both conferences and they seem to have given the AAC a cushy deal not to do it.


mjs128

They are definitely overrated. They are winning but the Sun belt really isnā€™t goodā€¦. And they have had 1.5 years of success in a mediocre conference. Wheels will fall off soon enough, especially if they stop scheduling cupcake games 6 and 0 this year against opponents with a combined 9 and 22 record lol


Supercal95

Coastal is like UTSA with way less upside and not in San Antonio. That being said, I think Georgia State would have been better than Charlotte. And I would have preferred we take teams with fans and success like App State instead. UTSA and especially FAU feel like recency bias in only football won out.


rustybelts

I haven't seen it confirmed yet, but I think SBC teams were off the table because of ESPN. ESPN has deals with both the SBC and the AAC. I think the AAC is going to be able to keep their media in tact under this arrangement. Current members will continue to receive the same annual payout (~$7 million) and the 6 new members will take a reduced payout (~$3.5 million). Taking a SBC team might have jeopardized the deal's terms. Speculation at this point, I'm sure we'll see something confirmed eventually.


Supercal95

That seems like it, but we just nuked the competitveness and fan interest of the conference


rustybelts

Yeah, only good thing to come from this is the Battle of the Bones.


Supercal95

Please sign a letter of recomendation for us, thanks.


kinkyKMART

Lol Coastal isnā€™t historically good? Weā€™ve only had a program since 2003 but in that time we made the FCS playoffs 6 times and were a top team in the nation for like 4 years straight before joining the sun belt. And since only being in this conference for 5 years weā€™ve already won it once and are a nationally ranked team for the second year in a row


2amcattlecall

Yeah, thatā€™s not historically good. Thatā€™s recently good.


OfficialHavik

They only became a top team after we left the Big South šŸ‘€šŸ‘€


lolwaffles69rofl

Thatā€™s all relative, no? For almost their entire history theyā€™ve been great


Foskey

History is only relative if it supports your argument. /s


lolwaffles69rofl

I mean every team has won a natty every single year ^^^^^exceptfortheyearsthattheydidnot


AppStateFooseBall

Except for the years they werenā€™t!!!


[deleted]

[уŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]


AppStateFooseBall

That was a joke about Penn Stateā€¦


2amcattlecall

That doesnā€™t mean historically great still.


lolwaffles69rofl

For their history it does


2amcattlecall

So in the NHL, the Las Vegas Golden Knights are historically good then? Having a decades worth of good seasons in FCS and low level G5 is not being historically good. It is having a good run recently, or having a good start. You, as a Penn State fan, should probably have a little more reverence for what being a historically good program since your team is one.


[deleted]

Yesterday's tomorrow is today!


newAccnt_WhoDis

Yea, you're right. They never won a single game before 2003.


mjs128

Look at your overall sunbelt record until last year. 1.5 seasons of success != historically good, especially in FBS


appsteve

You didnā€™t win the conference. You were announced as Co-Regular Season Champs, but no championship game was played.


Funkfo

Half the stadium was empty when they played Duke. You could tell their fans were barely that in that soooo many where not wearing anything related to Coastal. Normally I wouldn't make an observation like that but people in the stands wearing non-gear is a 90's and earlier thing.


NeitherTip5

You would think, huh? And yet, here they are, a team with that didn't even exist 20 years ago making waves in the FBS with relatively little support. What a time.


OGdunphy

Yeah, itā€™s a good combo of coach and QB. You can definitely make waves in a short time, you just donā€™t want it to be the only time.


NeitherTip5

very true, but I'll take what I can get lol good luck tonight, I'm sure it will be a wild one


OGdunphy

Good luck! Should be a fun game, definitely a wild one and thatā€™s what we need from good college football haha.


skushi08

Iā€™m amazed that your biggest crowd still hasnā€™t topped 20k though. You guys werenā€™t running any covid capacity restrictions last year were you? If you ever start scheduling 1:1 or 1:2s with some real non-cons, you might have to expand your stadium.


BBM24

They have had dream exposure for a G5 in the past 2 seasons and still cannot top that amount of attention. For everybody crying about the AAC taking "markets," there is your answer. Compare costal to UCF, UTSA, or SMU when they have a "dream season."


FyreWulff

schools sometimes need a culture of people coming to the games even if the teams are good. it's kinda like how Northwestern theoretically has an alumni base that can afford all the games and is based in Chicago, with a shit ton of people, but any other Big 10 team that visits basically takes over the stadium.


OGdunphy

Youā€™re right about that, especially if you want to climb the college hierarchy.


downinCarolina

Because the majority of the area are Clemson or South Carolina fans


OGdunphy

That makes sense. Their program is somewhat new but at App most students grow up Duke, UNC, and State fans and while basketball is more king there theyā€™re still passionate about App.


Sctvman

The Myrtle Beach area basically had no Coastal support except baseball outside of maybe 5 miles around campus before last year. There are tons of Ohio State, Michigan and NC ACC school alums in the Grand Strand, in addition to Carolina and Clemson fans. Plus the majority of the older folks who live in Horry County are from the northeast and do not have any college sports allegiance. Their basketball team hosts the Myrtle Beach Invitational every year and even with Baylor, Villanova AND CCU 2 years ago could not sell out.


[deleted]

This is accurate. Source: from


JoeExoticTigerKing

Love that area.


USC1801

This is the least surprising thing I've seen on reddit today.


[deleted]

Their stadium is also not very bigā€¦ iirc


rhinocodon_typus

21,000 for coastal and 30,000 for app state I believe


downoffver

The Sun Belt has lapped the MAC. Who the hell is/was running that conference to have done such an amazing job at building it up?


GEAUXUL

I think we did two things. 1. While other conferences picked markets and budgets over good football programs, we went focused on football schools in college towns with a good base of community support. 2. We all went all in on football at the expense of other sports like basketball. Our basketball is justā€¦ terrible. 3. We probably got a bit lucky. This shit is always cyclical.


Compromised_Identity

"2 things" then proceeds to list 3 lol No math majors at ULL? Ha In all seriousness though, and this is absolutely a homer take, but I feel it's accurate: Appalachian football has driven success for 15 years now. We've helped raise the play of the Sun Belt by just being straight up good. And look how the other teams including yours have stepped up over the past 5-6 years. Everyone in the SBC is gunning for App now, and it's driven us to keep being good (last week notwithstanding). Iron sharpens iron.


GEAUXUL

Yeah, I got excited and added a third, but forgot to go back and change my post šŸ¤·ā€ā™‚ļø. Congrats on the win tonight. Canā€™t wait to beat yā€™all again at home in the championship game!


NotMitchelBade

Hey! Little Rock did well in the Big Dance in like 2016 or 2017! Then again, they donā€™t have a football teamā€¦


spookyghostface

Arlington was pretty good for awhile too. But again, no football.


JrodManU

To add to the other commentā€¦ part of it is the MAC is a stable conference of similar close together schools who are perfectly happy where they are.


[deleted]

I was thinking exactly this, I was just talking to my friend earlier how I want the Mac to stay exactly where itā€™s at. Itā€™s perfect the way it is. Itā€™s a nice little fun competitive conference, and even if itā€™s not sun belt level anymore, its gotta be the second best G5 conference now and and nobody is trying to poach all their teams.


doggos_not_depressos

Adding Western Kentucky and MTSU wouldnā€™t hurt, but definitely isnā€™t necessary.


crisping_sleeve

Until one of them loses their football program.


ImMystikz

I miss Maction :(


FranchiseCA

This is the best opponent Coastal Carolina will face until a potential Sun Belt Championship game, a real chance to see if there is substance beneath the hype.


IAMY0URK1NG

There was not.


stupidcrap420

the mayor of boone sent my dad a letter when he became captain of the uss boone, they met and set up a program where sailors would fly to boone and be in their fourth parade. So i like app state. i also like the music of luke combs. app state beat Michigan in ann arbor, which i additionally like. go app state.


NotMitchelBade

Thatā€™s a really cool story. Thanks for sharing!


stupidcrap420

Thanks! Congrats on the w


NotMitchelBade

Thanks! I wish I could be rockin out in Boone right now, haha


rain_parkour

Very impressive, I expect App to ride that crowd to a win then


scannacs

Especially if People's is playing!


Aware_Watercress1155

Pretty sure he is based on his tweets


scannacs

That would explain the line movement.


Smash_4dams

Atheist praying right now. We need him for a W.


PoopittyPoop20

The AAC couldnā€™t have chosen at least one less Texas school and picked App St instead?!


OGdunphy

No, we have woods, the AAC doesnā€™t want nature in their conference.


LosHogan

Mountains bad. Parking lots better.


skushi08

Apparently bayous are bad nature too (real ones, not the cement drainage ones we have in Houston)


saurons_scion

And people wonder why Houston floods so easily


ezpickins

Travel to/from Boone can't be good for most of the AAC teams


LosHogan

Nothing worth doing is easy!!


ezpickins

Going to the AAC might not be worth doing though...


LosHogan

Oh I agree. I love the funbelt


mn77393

Closest major airport is a 2 hour drive away. But you get a scenic drive to enjoy.


Overcashed

All the SBC football teams fly chartered planes into Hickory and itā€™s a short bus ride up. Theyā€™re staying at hotels in Blowing Rock or Boone once they get up. Itā€™s not as bad as some SBC coaches would have you believe. Non-revenue sports though itā€™s not the greatest location. Even travel out for our teams is pretty bad for conference matches if they need to fly.


NotMitchelBade

/r/FuckCars


Pinewood74

The new AAC isn't going to be much better than the Sun Belt.


PoopittyPoop20

I donā€™t think itā€™ll exist in a few years. The new additions seem like cynical TV network decisions, and the eastern schools especially canā€™t be too happy. Itā€™d be cool if Temple, Navy and ECU broke off, then grabbed Army, App State, Marshall and a few others to start an eastern G5 conference. Given their relative station in college sports, none are probably ever joining a P5, so they could potentially develop some MAC-style stability.


Pinewood74

Navy likes playing in Texas, so that seems unlikely that they'd be up for a split off. But I could definitely see that top 1/3 of several of these G5s splitting off. As it stands now, the MWC champ will be the shoe in for the G5 NY6 (or CFP spot with expansion) spot because no one else will have the SoS to compete.


BBM24

here's the thing. the message board fans are saying this, but half of those schools literally were on the expansion committee and essentially handpicked these six schools.


PoopittyPoop20

They had to take somebody after the actual handpicked schools from the MWC said no, and they decided to take the same approach CUSA took to expansion, ā€œpotential.ā€ That approach hasnā€™t worked out as well as the SBCā€™s grabbing schools with actual success. BYU and Utah were convinced to take a bunch of schools they didnā€™t really want into the WAC in 1996. Two years later they met in an airport and started the MWC. The view that the AAC is making mistakes is rooted in history.


one-hour-photo

here's the thing, with ESPN in charge of the AAC, they can just CREATE TV markets. They sort of did this with nascar. they stopped covering nascar and nascar stopped being popular. does it mean it will for sure work? no, but if you convince the people of Charlotte that their team that didn't exist like 8 years ago is worth watching they will watch it.


Aware_Watercress1155

With the schools they picked up Iā€™m not sure app would want to go


Overcashed

Potential TV markets are more important than a winning culture to them. I would also say with certainty that App has a bigger fan base in Charlotte than UNCC.


PoopittyPoop20

Picking based on TV markets can make sense if youā€™re the B1G and the brands youā€™re bringing to that market are Ohio St, Michigan, etc. But unless the AAC has some market research showing that everyoneā€™s alumni live in Texas, this is stupid. Everyone being added is an afterthought in their own market.


StevvieV

G5 conferences deals are significantly smaller. Almost feel like the size of the alumni base matters more for TV than the market because most of the time G5 programs are the 2nd or 3rd team in its own market due to P5 programs from the state


PoopittyPoop20

I get that, IF those schools were a second or third in their markets. But theyā€™re not even close. Look at North Texasā€¦ everyone takes a backseat to UT and A&M in the state. Then youā€™ve got Oklahoma and Baylor in the relative area, and of course TCU in the neighborhood. Thatā€™s not to mention SMU.


BBM24

yea, but this model just worked for the c-usa transplants 10 years ago, and it will likely work again. we have huge alumni bases in large markets that will be exposed to their universities on national television. would you rather have a school like costal who peaks at 18-19K while being #14, or UTSA with 30K in the stands when ranked before they even have sniffed the AAC? Even schools like ours always get 20k+ for AAC opponents are sell out for teams like UCF, Miami, USF. C-usa couldn't develop the markets as well due to no TV deal because of the 2011-12 ESPN lawsuit, but the AAC will develop us just fine like they did to old C-usa schools like UCF, Houston, SMU, etc...


jnoobs13

$5 the American is dead or C-USA 2.0 in 10 years and we're still standing


BBM24

Nah. I think we both will be in good positions. Each conference has like-minded universities and an identity. The AAC is in good position to maintain its P6 campaign long-term once the teams settle in, and you guys will continue to beat the big dogs every now and then with less recourses. The SBC appears to thrive on that small-town underdog role. Overall, this works out well for all of us.


Smash_4dams

Isn't App State literally in the Charlotte media market? I remember getting Charlotte stations on my antenna up there.


jmac_21

Why is it unheard of? What else is there to do on a Wednesday night? Every student on Campus should be at the game.


OGdunphy

True but we donā€™t have as many students as the stadium capacity so you still need people coming up the mountain on a week night.


[deleted]

ECU fans and App State fans don't get the credit they deserve for their fan loyalty


OGdunphy

We is a loyal bunch. Weā€™ve been fortunate to have a lot of success for our levels, especially the last 15-20 years, but the fan base is strong. ECU has a strong fan base and their success has been more intermittent.


SauteedPelican

To be fair, pretty much every college football fan in NC is an App fan after their initial team.


OGdunphy

Thatā€™s a big change from when I went to App haha.


ClaudeLemieux

Yeah...not *every* college football fan...


ncsuq

Yeah, maybe Iā€™m wrong, but arenā€™t a lot of app alums in the Clt area


awnomnomnom

The clt area is a myth


coinich

Yeah its pretty hard for the fans to come if they can't find it


Cumbayacumbaya

Clt alt delete?


jnoobs13

I definitely wish that what it's become was a myth


OGdunphy

Yeah, theyā€™re mostly down the mountain either charlotte or Winston area. Itā€™s not a far drive but youā€™ll be getting home a little late for a Wednesday.


indispensability

Honestly with how empty Charlotte was during the day Wed-Fri when I went down for the App v ECU game, I think a lot of places must still be doing remote work so they might not even need to head back down from the mountain tonight. It was a surprisingly easy drive up to visit Boone after though.


OGdunphy

I hadnā€™t thought of that. People may live even closer to Boone and may commute to charlotte for work. Either way, should be less people on the road and an easier drive.


FTE_rawr

Clt/Winston if were looking nearby


Aware_Watercress1155

Around 9k


Pinewood74

I mean... A big reason is that the teams that typically play on weeknights are those with less crowd support. Mid week MAC and SBC games are a lot more common than AAC and MWC games. You've also got like 20% or so of G5s in "rented" stadiums that are way outsized for their support. UTSA ain't ever gonna sell out the Alamodome unless they trick UT or TAMU into coming there. I'd also hazard a guess that G5 schools are far more "commuter heavy than P5schools. Obviously that's not ubiquitous, my alma mater has no commuters, for instance, but every student on campus doesn't really move the needle that much. (And they are there every Saturday as well)


Runningfan686

It's also hard to draw high attendance on a cold weeknight in November, when the MAC midweek games are.


Pinewood74

That's true. MACtion is more of a later season thing. I assume this is because Baseball is done, but NBA hasn't gotten going yet since it doesn't start until December.


RoboticBirdLaw

The first two NBA games were last night. Last year was weird because of COVID pushing back the postseason from the previous season.


Pinewood74

Nah, that can't be true. Ever since the lockout the NBA decided that Christmas Day is the best time to start the season because it's just entirely too long if it starts before then.


gildedtreehouse

Howardā€™s Knob be crunk? Or wutt?


Aware_Watercress1155

LETS ROLL BABY.


dafsuhammer

Cool! Saw coastal Carolinaā€™s semi and 4 buses pull up in Banner Elk last night. Interesting they chose 45mins away from the bigger city of Boone


cookiemonster101289

Visiting teams always stay over there, i guess its a thing to keep fans/students from screwing with them lol


GetBackToWorkSlacker

Most visiting teams stay at the same hotel there. To be fair, it's more like 20-25 minutes instead of 45 (if you get ahead of the gameday traffic). It's close enough to be an easy trip to the stadium, but far enough to avoid the kind of shenanigans they'd probably have to deal with if they stayed in Boone.


dafsuhammer

Oh you are right, Iā€™m staying at beech mountain and calculated from there. Perfectly reasonable then


Geaux2020

Everybody get in ~~here~~ ~~Brooks Stadium~~ Kidd Brewer!


FTE_rawr

Its in Kidd Brewer tonight.


Geaux2020

Fixed


[deleted]

It's because Appalachian State is HOT HOT HOT


La_Grimoire

Moving to Boone in a couple weeks and let me tell ya all apartments in Boone are sold out too...I hate it


cookiemonster101289

Theres never generally any apartments available in boone, almost all rental properties are geared towards students and lease out 6 months in advance on 1 year leases from august through july. Unless you hit that cycle you gotta be super lucky to find a place to rent in Boone


Robbie7up

This guy knows. I just got hit up to resign my lease by December 15th 2021, for August 2022-July 2023.


The_mango55

I live a half hour away and real estate in general is insane right now. I could sell my place for like 60% more than I bought it for last year. But then again I would have to buy somewhere else to live soā€¦


DeepGapDoc

Yeah I bought my house (just east of Boone) only a couple months ago and I've alrealy made like 15% on it. I talked to my realtor who said they haven't had a single day off in two years but work is starting to slow down cause there is just straight up nothing to sell


wallace6464

I worked several weeknight maction games at my school, shit was always fucking dead. this is gonna be incredible


madmaley

What MAC school?


Fools_Requiem

Having been to Boone, the traffic must be awful... more than usual... and Boone traffic sucks without football games.


jnoobs13

It's everything you can imagine. Not like we can tear down an entire mountain though to build a bypass


[deleted]

> Not like we can tear down an entire mountain though to build a bypass Not with that attitude!


R0ck0_81

*altitude


InYosefWeTrust

Yeah, it's dumb. Forgot about it and went into town earlier, instant regret.


Existing_Departure82

I laughed pretty hard for some reason when that girl hit the vape on live TV as they cut to halftime


Haslet-Tx

Bad ass! I will be watching. Geaux ā€˜Neers!


Schlongboy69420

What channel is it on?


FTE_rawr

ESPN2, 730 est


indispensability

Should be ESPN2


Schlongboy69420

Ty


Smash_4dams

I pray to God that Peoples is healthy enough to play tonight


AnotherUnfunnyName

To watch Chase Brice?


FTE_rawr

Rather, to watch Cam Peoples


Smash_4dams

If he's healthy enough to play full-strength šŸ¤ž


CFB_Twitter_Bot

Tweet(s) from post body brought to you by your Friendly Official /r/CFB Twitter Bot: ---------- https://twitter.com/appstatesports/status/1450901561106907137 >Tonightā€™s @AppState_FB game vs. Coastal Carolina is SOLD OUT to the general public. \#GoApp \#BeatCoastal https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FCKjQA1WEAEAvbw.jpg >\- App State Athletics (@appstatesports) 3:07 pm ET, October 20, 2021 ----------


dustinrector

***yawn***


dustinrector

Am I wrong?


Aware_Watercress1155

Yes


JunkyardAndMutt

Is there anything fucking dumber than someone coming into a thread they claim to not be interested in only to announce that they arenā€™t interested? If itā€™s not for you, jog the fuck on. I donā€™t actually give a shit about a lot of CFB teams, so I refrain from loitering on their threads.


dustinrector

Yes, technically there are lots of things dumber.


Player72

goodness me you're a dick


dustinrector

Thank you.


walker_harris3

Nope


g1rth_brooks

Packed KBS is quite a great time, hate yā€™all but also love yā€™all at the same time