State of the Panthers

Athletics

State of the Panthers - December Edition

State of the Panthers
2021 TaxAct Camellia Bowl Game Edition
 
First, I acknowledge it's been too long since the last letter to our fan base. Mike Holmes and I discussed it and we commit to more frequent communications because I have learned many of you depend on this letter for accurate and reliable information about our athletics program.
 
A third straight bowl game, fifth in seven years, is an outstanding accomplishment for our football program. My congratulations to Coach Elliott, our staff, and players for a tremendous response to our season by winning six of our last seven games. With one to play, there is a lot that has been accomplished as we build the Georgia State football program. Each year, we accomplish more and more, and I know that a Sun Belt Conference championship is closer than ever before. I also know that coming to a bowl game on Christmas Day is a strong ask of our fans, but Montgomery is a short drive and I know our kids and coaches will appreciate the support. The TaxAct Camellia Bowl is the only televised college football game on Christmas Day, so it will be a great opportunity to promote our brand to a national audience against a very good Ball State team. With an active database of over 75,000 prospects, our staff will continue our work diligently contacting the "Panther Family" to drive ticket sales and fans to the game. Ultimately, however, we recognize that like our other games, each of you must make the individual decision to buy tickets and attend.
 
Congratulations to Coach Brett Surrency and our men's soccer team on their NCAA bid and first-ever GSU NCAA win over Charlotte. Last spring, we were left standing with no home conference for our men's soccer program, so I applaud Brett and Kelcey Roegiers for their diligent efforts to identify the MAC as a soccer opportunity for us and what a great first season we had. Thanks also to MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher and Associate Commissioner Jeff Bacon for their partnership as well. Post-season was a great ending for our first season in our new soccer facility at 188 MLK Drive. Speaking of soccer, our women's team was seeded No. 3 in the conference tournament, and we are equally excited about their improvement and growth. Facilities matter for team success and the new complex raises the bar of GSU Soccer. We are in the process of completing the permanent seating and replacing the old turf, but constraints from COVID made us separate the construction into two projects and we prioritized completing the field, locker room renovations and weight room so our teams could play.
 
One aspect I have learned during my service on the College Football Selection Committee, in the history of the CFP, there has never been a leak from the committee on the team rankings prior to public dissemination and the members and staff take great pride in protecting the credibility of its annual decision-making regardless of the outside noise. Likewise, I understand there has been much written and discussed among some of you related to conference expansion this summer and fall. As I hope you can understand, many of the conversations were and need to stay private, but I promise that we were very active in determining our best future. If I had one wish, it would be for fans to realize, in most cases, uninformed or agenda-driven people quoting unnamed sources are not knowledgeable about strategic discussions involving Georgia State. Without question, the current American Athletic Conference was a desired future aspiration; however, with the departure of like urban universities, the reconstituted league with CUSA schools moving does not stack up against what we were concurrently creating in an expanded Sun Belt Conference. A side benefit to the expedited timeline we were under was it gave me an immediate chance to bring our new president, Dr. Brian Blake, up to speed on the discussions and strategic decisions. As expected, he was a quick study and gave great insight to our process. Obviously, time will tell, but based on what we know today, the Sun Belt Conference is a very competitive league, and all expectations are we got better adding Old Dominion, James Madison, Marshall, and Southern Miss. Over the next several months, we will look at scheduling models for all sports to efficiently travel and compete. An interesting data point I want to study is the competitive disparity between the east and west football divisions, so I especially look forward to those discussions among our Presidents, Athletics Directors, and Coaches.
 
Also, let me be as clear as I can. If you want to know something that is going on with our athletics program and/or decisions being made, please either email me at ccobb13@gsu.edu or call me at 404-413-4004. I will respond or get you to the person on our staff who can. Mike will also continue to monitor social media to identify other hot button issues among our fan base that we may need to address, perhaps using this letter as one mechanism, but certainly responding via like social media mediums, which ironically, we use for targeted marketing campaigns directed to students, fans, and the general public on a daily basis.
 
As an example to our commitment, last week, I received a couple emails from concerned basketball season tickets holders about our cancellation of the Tennessee State game. As I told them and now tell you, unequivocally, we did not and do not have a COVID-19 outbreak on our team and any rumors spread to the contrary are intentionally misleading. Federal laws preclude any of us from publicly disclosing specific student health information, but I appreciate the leadership of our staff and coaches and the commitment our student-athletes take daily to safely compete given the uncertainty of the past 20 months. Nothing about COVID-19 has been easy and we all look forward to a time when it is out of our daily vocabulary, but until then, we respectfully follow federal, state, University System and Sun Belt Conference guidelines related to testing, vaccinations, and daily safety protocols. My experience with the virus is every situation is unpredictable, but our response has been consistent and for that I am very thankful for Bob Murphy's leadership of our sports medicine department.
 
Finally, I want to thank former Panther Chris Sibilia for all his work supporting the Panther Athletic Club while Leigh Barton was on maternity leave this fall. I am excited for what he can do to help us grow. I also thank Doug Justice for stepping in to assist Chris with donor calls and solicitations. Our membership and donation numbers are consistent with previous years and, while we obviously want to grow both, it isn't for a lack of staff or their efforts. In the spring, we combined the ticketing, marketing, and PAC efforts into one combined sales effort and the results are encouraging. We made over 42,000 targeted phone solicitations (lapsed PAC donors, season ticket purchasers, single game ticket buyers, etc.) during this time and they will continue for the immediate future. Anyone who has ever participated in sales knows telemarketing is crucial, but not easy work to grow a business or increase support. I also challenge any who think we aren't doing enough to gain new fans, give us your "GSU friends" list and we will contact them on your behalf. As the popular phrase goes, "it takes a village..."
 
Until next time, thank you for your support!
Happy Holidays!
 
Charlie Cobb
Director of Athletics
 
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