Benson: GSU to Sun Belt hasn’t been approved
Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson said his conference hasn’t decide to invite Georgia State, and that he will not be in Atlanta on Thursday.
Benson’s comments contradict a report on CBSSports.com that the presidents of the Sun Belt voted earlier this week to invite Georgia State, and that Benson will be in Atlanta on Thursday to likely extend an invitation.
“No invitations have been extended, no decisions have been made,” he said. “We have had a continued dialogue.”
Benson said he was tentatively scheduled to visit Georgia State on Thursday. But that trip has been postponed. He said he is trying to get to Atlanta next week for a fact-finding trip.
Benson and GSU athletic director Cheryl Levick have had exploratory discussions for the past few months. Georgia State has been a member of the Colonial Athletic Association in all sports since 2005. The Panthers began playing football two years ago and will play its first conference schedule later this year.
– Doug Roberson, AJC. Please follow me on twitter @ajcgsu
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57 comments Add your comment
Bill Curry
April 3rd, 2012
12:31 pm
Of course there is nothing official yet. We have to cross our I’s and dot our T’s.
GSU is in Atlanta
April 3rd, 2012
12:32 pm
CAA 4 LIFE!!!!
GStateBenpantherman
April 3rd, 2012
12:32 pm
did you talk to Benson today?
GSU Alum
April 3rd, 2012
12:40 pm
Sunbelt = good for football, not good for basketball.
GStateBen
April 3rd, 2012
12:40 pm
Someone posting under my username. Cute. Doug can see IP addresses folks.
GAST
April 3rd, 2012
12:45 pm
Classic. GStateBen wrong again.
State of Atlanta
April 3rd, 2012
1:39 pm
Who the would post under another person’s name? That’s the lamest thing ever.
Dawgington
April 3rd, 2012
1:54 pm
Sunbelt? Hahahahaha
This state(DawgNation) could care less.
zgoldatl
April 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
Sunbelt would be good for basketball and football in my opinion. Football for obvious reasons, but basketball, because we could dominate the conference most years, and have an easier shot at getting to the big dance. We would have won the Sunbelt in basketball this year.
Sunbelt for life
eConference Realignment: Sun Belt Votes to Add Georgia State « AppStateNation.com
April 3rd, 2012
1:59 pm
[...] to the Atlanta-Journal Constitution, maybe this ISN’T happening…YET. Karl Benson says he will not be at Georgia State on [...]
Go Dawgs!
April 3rd, 2012
2:01 pm
What a joke of a program.
Carl Patton
April 3rd, 2012
2:09 pm
Now Georgia Southern trolls are posing as Georgia fans. This is getting interesting!
Stateside
April 3rd, 2012
2:19 pm
Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out.
Sid Miser
April 3rd, 2012
2:57 pm
Not so fast, my urban university friends. Benson never got the vote of confidence needed to extend an invitation. That upstart of a (so-called) columnist/reporter needs to do a little research -a poll of SBC presidents, before stirring the pot. Pure amatuarish.
GAST
April 3rd, 2012
3:04 pm
New Carl Patton is posing as a Georgia State troll. This is getting interesting!
Carl Patton
April 3rd, 2012
3:21 pm
How is what I said trolling Georgia State? It won’t matter after Thursday. LOL
GStateBen
April 3rd, 2012
3:34 pm
Again, love that someone thinks so much of me to take my name.
Brett McMurphy just did an interview with 790 The Zone. He said that he spoke to Benson this morning and confirmed a vote happend yesterday. The Assoc. Commish of the Sun Belt also confirmed publicly a vote happend.
Has an “official” vote happend? Who knows. As McMurphy just said, it is all semantics. Georgia State is the newest member of the Sun Belt and will play in the conference beginning in 2013.
GSUGrad06
April 3rd, 2012
4:02 pm
I remember when the SEC denied reports that they were inviting Missouri. How’d that work out? Ah, good times.
phil
April 3rd, 2012
4:15 pm
zgoldatl
April 3rd, 2012
1:55 pm
Sunbelt would be good for basketball and football in my opinion. Football for obvious reasons, but basketball, because we could dominate the conference most years, and have an easier shot at getting to the big dance. We would have won the Sunbelt in basketball this year.
Sunbelt for life
**************
LOL!!! You guys couldn’t come down to Macon and beat Mercer. Of course that’s because we were quite good this year and you weren’t. Now you’re primed to dominate a conference that hasn’t even invited you to join?
Put that cart ahead of that horse, why don’t you…
phil
April 3rd, 2012
4:15 pm
LOL as the Ga State delusions continue unabated!
Doug Roberson
April 3rd, 2012
4:24 pm
06: I’m reporting what I’m told, not what I think. And I don’t say that as an implication of others.
Jackson
April 3rd, 2012
4:36 pm
Sensationalism sells Doug! Don’t let facts get in the way of reporting “the news”!
GStateBensover
April 3rd, 2012
4:36 pm
llololol
Die Troll 2: Troll Harder
April 3rd, 2012
4:36 pm
LOL as phil eats crow in a few days! Cheers, troll!
GStateBen
April 3rd, 2012
4:43 pm
Enter your comments here
GSUtimes2
April 3rd, 2012
4:44 pm
Oh, yay. Now we move from Southern trolls to UGA trolls. Quick, Dawgington, tell me how many citizens of “DawgNation” actually graduated from UGA? Really not sure why bulldog fans really care what we do.
GeorgiaState1913
April 3rd, 2012
5:05 pm
I can understand the hatred from Mercer and GS fans, but UGA? Don’t you guys have bigger fisher to fry? Why are you wasting your time worrying about GSU?
GeorgiaState1913
April 3rd, 2012
5:11 pm
*fish…good job auto correct.
On another note, I keep hearing people making fun of us for going 3-8 last season. People need to realize that we were in our second season EVER. If we move up, it is only going to help us get better, because recruits will actually want to play football here now, and not too mention fan support will go up as well. We are (soon to be ‘were’) FCS…the average person doesn’t even know what that means. If people start seeing that we are playing schools with bigger names, with the possibility of playing in a bowl game, more butts will be in those seats at the Dome. I’m not saying we will sell the place out, but filling the lower bowl EVERY Saturday is perfectly fine with me…for now. You trolls need to focus on your own teams.
Tana
April 3rd, 2012
5:46 pm
I don’t think it effects football at all. Basketball will become the best team in the conference, but will lose the strentgh of schedule by not playing VCU, Drexel, and ODU.
laxtonto
April 3rd, 2012
5:56 pm
I would be leery of saying that GSU is the “best team in the the conference” until you take a hard look t next years WKU, MTSU and UNT squads.. UNT’s
Tony Nitchell right now is a late round 1st round pick as a FR and will most likely be a lotto pick pick by this time next year.
What hurts the Belt is some real bad teams and poor scheduling that kill the RPI of the league
DesignerJacket
April 3rd, 2012
5:59 pm
As a Tech fan I’m kind of thinking State going up to FBS in less than five years of starting a football program would be the biggest troll on Georgia Southern I can imagine. But it does mean I’m gonna have to stop pulling for the Panthers. Can’t have another FBS team so close to my Jackets without a little rivalry popping up!
I come in peace
April 3rd, 2012
6:08 pm
Enter your comments here
GSU88
April 3rd, 2012
7:22 pm
Hate all you want….FBS here we come. Doug please don’t sensor this, we are in America for God’s sake
GSU TRUE
April 3rd, 2012
7:49 pm
What teams will be left in Sun Belt and what other schools will they invite? Do they have a one or two bowl game guarantee? How will this affect the other sports?
Uncle Johnny
April 3rd, 2012
8:12 pm
Looking at the conference teams– will there be any fans with a full set of teeth in the stadium? I heard the banjo player from deliverance plays the star spangled banner.
Dumb move and bad for basketball.
WaycrossWizard
April 3rd, 2012
8:54 pm
Very excited to see my alma mater making this move. Proud to be a Panther!
Go Panthers!!
April 3rd, 2012
9:48 pm
Excited about the move! Looking forward to our first bowl game, whenever that is!
Also, somewhat selfishly, looking forward to GSU being in video games.
Sluggo
April 3rd, 2012
10:38 pm
Laugh now, cry later. #Clowns
STATEment
April 3rd, 2012
11:14 pm
Interesting about the difference in stories here….who to believe CBS Sports or….the AJC?!?!
PantherCJ
April 3rd, 2012
11:53 pm
I never believe the ajc. But them again I’m scorn from the horrible falcons beat writers.
Morning Five: 04.04.12 Edition « Rush The Court
April 4th, 2012
7:01 am
[...] including a quote from the Sun Belt Conference’s commissioner appears to indicate that the decision is still very much up in the air. Given our history of hearing conflicting reports we are going to side with the initial report as [...]
RidgeRunner
April 4th, 2012
8:14 am
FBS mania
Bill Curry
April 4th, 2012
8:27 am
@Uncle Johnny – the SunBelt only has 1 guaranteed bowl game for the conference champ. A 10-2 Sun Belt team will get overlooked by a 6-6 Clemson.
GSUGrad06
April 4th, 2012
10:08 am
“06: I’m reporting what I’m told, not what I think. And I don’t say that as an implication of others.”
I know Doug…my comment wasn’t meant to be a dig towards you. Just saying that I would expect nothing less than this until an official press conference is held. We’ve seen this in the past just change the names of the school/conference involved.
GSU4Life
April 4th, 2012
10:23 am
Start making your donations now!! Gobble up the season TIX so in 3-5 years you will be on the 50YD line watching SEC/ACC/BIG10/BIG East etc.. teams come in. The train is headed down the track and it’s leaving with or without you.
GO PANTHERS
Bob
April 4th, 2012
11:39 am
GSU 2nd largest University in Georgia, is following the UCF (Central FL), and USF (South FL) plan, its worked out pretty well for them so far
So Go Panthers FBS or bust
WKUYG
April 4th, 2012
12:15 pm
Enter your comments here
Couple quick questions about the gym GSU plays in…BTW just from seeing it in a picture we have Jr high school gyms larger and built better than that.
1.Where do you put the goal? From the pictures I saw there doesn’t look to be enough room at the end of the court. I’m sure running through a “brick wall” has a different meaning when playing at GSU
2. What is the netting used for at the top of the gym? Looks like it’s used to keep fans from falling the 3 feet
to the floor.
I hope the AJC is right because honestly the SBC doesn’t need another 250+ RPI team that has 9 winning seasons of basketball in 39 years. Eight of those while playing in the A-Sun.
Should fit in well with Troy (freaking) St, ULM and FAU-FIU, with your 915 avg in basketball.attendance. Nothing beats playing a basketball game with 500 people in the stands.
GSU season ticket holder
April 4th, 2012
1:26 pm
This will be great for ALL of GSU sports. Cant wait for the Pathers to leave fcs in the dust…hello FBS! Oh & dawg fans are scared of what we will become! GO PANTHERS!!!
GSU4Life
April 4th, 2012
2:52 pm
FBS!!
The Howling
April 4th, 2012
5:52 pm
If this turns out to be true, welcome to the Sun Belt, Ga. State! Glad to have you!