Quote Originally Posted by youngterrier View Post
I hate to bust the Bison's balls but you don't see major football publications talk about North Dakota State outside of the novelty FCS playoff story every December. I don't read publications or websites that cover football outside of the Southeast (ACC, SEC, and teams found in those states), so maybe I'm biased (I don't think they actually exist). Still, if you look at CFB media you will find literally 0 mention of FCS teams outside of the time they play an FBS team or in the playoffs. But when they're successful, you'll see stories about App State, Georgia Southern, etc. There were quite a few articles written about how App was underrated and should have been considered for NY6 over UCF before they lost to Georgia Southern.

As a Comms/PR guy, I can tell you there are at least 2 ways to measure whether or not you're getting more or less exposure. Merchandise sales are a good proxy, but it's possible if not likely that NDSU has more by virtue of being a flagship university (though western NC has a bigger population). Another one is how many times you're mentioned outside of local media. When App took Penn State to OT it probably generated just as much media as NDSU winning the 7th title. You may say "oh man, that happened, I don't remember that???" Exactly. No one remembers your titles either, until we're reminded one random afternoon in January when you win one. People remember App beating Michigan because it was such a monumental upset; now NDSU will probably never schedule a spectacular ranked team ever again because everyone knows they're good (and thus could win) and thus won't schedule.

Being FCS in this situation is a roadblock to exposure. Meanwhile, App State got a home and home with Miami, Wake Forest, North Carolina, East Carolina, and South Carolina. That's not happening without brand recognition. P5 teams are willing to risk a loss and forgo lost revenue with a home game because losing to them isn't seen as humiliating. Are there are any other G5 schools (especially in the sun belt?) that can say that? The P5 doesn't do that unless you're a team with brand recognition and publicity.

The fundamental difference is that being FBS gives you the opportunity to be mentioned on sportscenter, etc more often throughout the football season than does the FCS. They literally do not care about FCS until late playoff time unless there's an upset. You're also more likely to get an ESPN game outside of the bowl game.

So we can go back and forth about "no we don't, yes we do" but whenever I hear a Bison fan talk about how their brand is the greatest compared to App State (it probably is better than Georgia southern right now) but until we have evidence to back up that claim I'm going to say it's wrong because there's more readily at hand evidence suggesting otherwise (more sportscenter appearances, more televised games, everyone remembers App State over Michigan, etc)
5 paragraphs to admit you have no clue about football outside of the Carolinas & Georgia. Stop pontificating on **** you habe no clue about since you're tiny-ass school is shrouded by Clemson & the Gamecocks in the GSP papers.

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