Interested to hear final thoughts on the 22-23 athletic year from the brethren and sistern....

I’ll start it off. An overall grade of C-.

Sun Belt Conference D+

Sun Belt Finishes:

Women's CC-- 5th
Men's CC-- 2nd
Women's Soccer--7th Bounced in First Round
Volleyball-- 4th in the East, bye to Second Round, lost
Football--Tied for 4th in the East, not Bowl Eligible
Women's Indoor-- 11th of 13 teams
Women's BB--10th Seed, bye to Second round, won, then lost in 3rd Round
Men's BB--9th Seed, bye to Second Round, lost
Women''s Golf--13th of 13 teams
Men's Golf --12th of 14 teams
Women's Tennis--5th Seed, won in 1st Round, lost in 2nd Round
Softball--12th of 12
Men's Track--5th of 9
Women's Track--10th of 13
Baseball--6th Seed, advanced to Final 4 with 30th win

Other-- A

Field Hockey--3rd Seed in MAC, lost in Championship Game
Wrestling--Undefeated Regular Season Southern Conference Champions, SoCon Tournament Champions, Ranked #20 in Nation

As I said earlier this season, outside of Football, our overall athletic program is on par with Campbell

Solid low C.

The grade would not reach the grad school threshold of a B, required to pass.

WASU 93 wrote: ↑

Sun May 28, 2023 8:27 pm

Sun Belt Conference D+

Sun Belt Finishes:

Women's CC-- 5th
Men's CC-- 2nd
Women's Soccer--7th Bounced in First Round
Volleyball-- 4th in the East, bye to Second Round, lost
Football--Tied for 4th in the East, not Bowl Eligible
Women's Indoor-- 11th of 13 teams
Women's BB--10th Seed, bye to Second round, won, then lost in 3rd Round
Men's BB--9th Seed, bye to Second Round, lost
Women''s Golf--13th of 13 teams
Men's Golf --12th of 14 teams
Women's Tennis--5th Seed, won in 1st Round, lost in 2nd Round
Softball--12th of 12
Men's Track--5th of 9
Women's Track--10th of 13
Baseball--6th Seed, advanced to Final 4 with 30th win

Other-- A

Field Hockey--3rd Seed in MAC, lost in Championship Game
Wrestling--Undefeated Regular Season Southern Conference Champions, SoCon Tournament Champions, Ranked #20 in Nation

As I said earlier this season, outside of Football, our overall athletic program is on par with Campbell

The only thing I would change is I still believe football beating Texas A&M and getting us College Gameday is worth more then a conference championship or a bowl game - program wise. Therefore I would bump the overall grade up to a C.

Not a good year overall, I’d call it a D+.

Yes game day and beating Texas A&M are worth more than sweeping the sunbelt titles, but that’s not something an AD can prepare for.

I’d take a conference title every year over a game day appearance.

If Cs are average then this year was a D.

Gotta be a D. We didn't fail. But we took a step back in almost every way in performance. The Tammy game was fun but this question is about the entire program not just football. One football game doesn't budge the grade of the overall athletic team grade. Keep the scope of the question in focus and don't be so football centric.

I would say C. While some teams took a step back - more than some teams took big strides this year from the previous year and with new HC's.

Money is not the answer to everything....but it sure does help. We are lagging behind in facilities and other amenities to attract top notch talent in non-revenue sports (I include all other sports besides football for App. St.).
It would also help on the coaching front in terms of head coaches and assistants. I do not follow the other sports besides men's football, basketball and baseball. As such, I do not follow the coaching staffs in the those sports. Maybe they are top notch talent.
I hope the new east side project gets completed in the next 3 to 5 years and sells to capacity. That will help. As has been said on this board a million times, our athletic booster club lags in overall funding compared to many of our conference counterparts.... but we want nice things. The two typically do not correlate. Lagging in funding and producing conference winners. Are there exceptions, yes. However, most of the time, it does not.
Personally, I think Kerns and Kermit are good coaches. If they continue to win, it is an easier decision to leave, even to another mid-major, if the compensation may be significantly higher than what App. St. pays. Just my opinion.

D+

Money isn't THE answer but it's a component most of the time. That's just reality. If scholarships aren't funded and facilities improved, it's impossible to recruit effectively. Now we have to deal with NIL.
I do think there are things we have in terms of culture that help us compete with a lower budget. In football, our winning culture and success in the NFL are attractive to kids who want to compete. Kerns and Smith are doing a very good job (in my opinion) of building some culture but it takes time and the portal makes it super tough, especially in basketball it seems.
I do hope that App shows good judgement in making any coaching changes. Stability counts for something.

All said, I would go with a high C I think. I'm grading against reality, not against history. C is average. It's not what we strive for but it's not the end of the world. Football should be an A and I think it will return. I understand frustration but the world isn't on fire.

5 programs of 15 finishing in the top half of the conference is not a C guys.

Barely a D.

Our overall athletic program is not competitive in the Belt, and the one program we could always count on has regressed.

There are things to be optimistic about. It appears steps have been taken to address football. Baseball made a big step forward this year, but it has to be maintained. Basketball is a question mark for me. I like Kerns, but there is something off there. Attrition on the scale we have seen is not normal. There may be a perfectly logical explanation for all of it, but I have yet to hear it.

Right now, we are not even an average program in the conference.

C+

C-

Here are the Bubas Cup standings without Baseball. We sit 11th out of 14 teams and no way to climb higher.
https://sunbeltsports.org/sports/2022/1 ... bubas.aspx

C-

If the hardline criteria is the Bubba Cup rankings it's hard not to say D- or even F+ and when you see every sport laid out with their results it's a gut punch. I think back to when we were moving to the Belt and many over zealous fans here were either insulted or delusional. We all aspire to be in the best conference possible and many felt slighted by the CUSA snub- aren't we glad that fell through? Many over the last few years believed a move to the AAC was more our speed. How would that have turned out? Would that move magically trigger more money and improved facilities? Are we getting a little humble pie fed to us? We certainly don't need to go all gloom and doom but we also need to realize that there are a bunch of solid athletic programs in this conference now. During the SOCON glory days what was our worst overall finish? Were we ever in the bottom 5th percent?