I actually read your post, and I know that you are not just siding with the OP. Your comments are relevant, but you cannot expect change that quickly. Everybody knows that we would like to take a step up against better competition.
That will come with time, but right now we cannot control that. Even our schedule this year would have been better had it not been for some strange circumstances. We should (and will be) playing 1-2 bigger schools each year OOC.
Nobody is lowering their standards. They are enjoying the moment as we are rising to the point we want to achieve. We would all like to go as far as a national championship, but you simply cannot get there in your insane time frame with the resources we have at our disposal.
In Summary: We all want to reach for the stars just as you do, but we have to keep our ambitions grounded in reality. You can only expect so much improvement in a given time period.
However there was one blatantly false statement in your post that I would like to address:
TOP 25 IS STILL A GIVEN IF WE GO UNDEFEATED. To think any differently is mind-boggling ignorant. There is 0% chance of us not being in the top 25 if we are undefeated. We will likely be in that grouping after the first few weeks assuming we win.
ENJOYING THE MOMENT AND BEING CONTENT WITH THE CURRENT SUCCESS THAT IS WITHIN YOUR CONTROL DOES NOT MEAN THAT YOU ARE OK WITH STAYING STAGNANT FOREVER. STOP ACTING LIKE YOU ARE IN SOME SELECT GROUP THAT ARE THE ONLY ONES PURSUING PROGRESS.
Dunk, I'm not sure you've been exposed to the several posts over the last several months that have indicated a disturbingly MAC-fan-like contentment with this conference (and naturally, the opponents we are expected to play year-in-year-out) as-is. Those many posts stand in opposition to your assumption that you're speaking for them in suggesting that "we all want to reach for the stars."
To the contrary, even in this very thread, there is a sentiment that striving for the CFP Bowl berth is beyond us... and it's just not. There's a satisfaction with Top 25 as-if that's all we can hope for... and it's just not. If you can agree on those points, we have common ground... if not, we don't, and you essentially align yourself with the MAC-like contingent.
I'm inclined to think that you, as others seem to have, read a few lines and thought you understood the point of the post... but if you didn't recognize that those first lines were a premise to the real focus/conclusion, my message just didn't get through... if I'm to blame for that, so be it... but then, let me just say again...
"Win Baby"... yes, absolutely.
"Just" Win Baby? *sigh*... that phrase is going to haunt so many of you when, at the end of this season, we're undefeated and see ourselves looking up at 1-3 other Go5 schools who lost one or more.
If you think about it, you're actually letting our players down by pretending it's only about what they do on the field.
I know the refrain. And, you're right... none of you individually have decision-making power.
But you have to be an advocate of change so that you create an environment where presidents and conference execs take notice and feel they have latitude to try things that may represent out-of-the-box thinking... so that our players have the very best opportunity they can receive to perform on the biggest stage within their grasp to play on.
Finally... a re-read hopefully will reveal to you what it seemed to reveal in Collis' (and hopefully others') first read... I feel like top 25 is, at least, very likely with an undefeated season. High fives all around. Hallelujah! How exciting!!!
Hopefully the sarcasm gets through...
Brothers, the point isn't to be top 25... no one remembers what MAC or Sun Belt teams creeped into the top 25 in any given year... and, repeating myself,
it's unfortunate that so many are so willing to embrace that, and then by virtue of how they've responded for my pleas for them to be advocates for change, willing to be distracted from the one true goal that ought to rightfully dominate any discussion we have... there is only one measure of success for Go5 teams... and to pretend otherwise is to willfully be... well...
pretenders.