I don't ever recall a national article that big with both ADs and the head coach quoted directly about FBS so I'm guessing not 100x.
If we concentrated on the really important stuff in life, there'd be a shortage of fishing poles"
When you play football, you gotta like the taste of blood, And 50 percent of the time, it's your blood.
It is characteristic of the unlearned that they are forever proposing something which is old, and because it has recently come to their own attention, supposing it to be new.
"The best way to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question; it's to post the wrong answer."
I can't help but think of this comment in the Athletic in the context of how I've viewed public comments about NDSU going FBS this entire time. People haven't been making public comments because the narrative needs to be very tightly guarded. We, and any potential suitor, need to control the conversation and not let the media just run with it. It's the reason that so many people here have been so agitated. You just can't have ME or ML out making statements about the possibility of things and potentially ruining something that could or should be in the works.
That's what makes this a remarkable comment to me. I feel like it means one of two things:
1) An AAC invitation is in the final stages of development and there's nothing to guard against anymore.
or
2) It's now a lost fucking cause and now there's nothing left to protect.
Insert something clever here...
National reporters may not have asked but regional and FCS centric reporters sure as hell have and no response like this has ever been uttered. The closest I can remember is a comment last year by Entz stating something to the effect of “we want to be one of the best mid-major football programs in the country”. Not best FCS program. Reading the tea leaves it was some insight into them having bigger goals than FCS championships. Outside of that it has typically been “we’re monitoring the landscape”. This is more specific.
I was there. Georgia Southern may have more than double your estimate themselves. Buffalo fans didn't show up, but they get a pass because their airport was closed for 3 days due to a horrible storm, even by their standards. Not even their band and cheerleaders were able to make it.
It will be interesting to see how the TV ratings compare for the Camellia Bowl and the FCS Championship. Certainly, the FCS is a much more important game because there is a national championship on the line. However, until ESPN decides to promote it, run-of-the-mill bowls will still draw more TV viewers.
"You should host seminars on how to behave on opposing fan forums. Charge a pretty penny toward that Bison tailgating rig. " from Milkman 1/6/2016