FIU is too BIG for the Sun Belt

[SouthPaw]

Don't fall prey to small thinking and focusing on what was in the past. There's lots of good reasons why new athletics director Pete Garcia called FIU a "sleeping giant" when he was first hired over a year ago.

I firmly believe that there is no other school in the NCAA that has more upside for success at the highest levels in D-1 athletics than our own FIU. We are truly unique and poised for takeoff. Just look at the numbers and FACTS:

1. FIU is one of the largest universities in division-1 (D-1) with over 31,700 undergraduate students (and another 6,000 graduate students). This places us in the top 15 of the largest D-1 schools in the country and in the top 25 of ALL universities in the country;

2. FIU is located in Miami which is one of the top 20 media markets in the country;

3. FIU has over 124,000 alumni living is South Florida;

4. FIU's academics are very strong --- with one of the lowest acceptance rates for incoming freshmen in the country who have an average GPA of 3.5;

5. FIU is a complete university with colleges of business, engineering, architecture, law, and medicine (in 2009);

6. FIU has a beautiful campus and is located in sunny South Florida, which happens to be one of the most fertile recruiting grounds in the country for football and basketball.

With all of these facts, it's truly amazing that FIU has been sleeping this for so long. But not for long -- we're about to wake up.

[FIUFanatic]

One step at a time...let's start winning, and just as important, buikding facilities, support systems worthy of that increase, plus a larger loyal fan base. BTW, the incoming GPA was closer to 3.7 from the last newspaper report I read that talked about FAU and its effort to raise their standards from their current position as the state's second lowest GPA average, just ahead of FAMU.