Austin Peay's Gerald Harrison wants Govs in FBS football by 2025. Here's the plan

George Robinson
Clarksville Leaf-Chronicle

Austin Peay football is in the beginning stages of making the transition to the Football Bowl Subdivision, athletics director Gerald Harrison announced Friday.

Harrison outlined an ambitious plan during Friday's winter Board of Trustees meeting that mirrors the recent steps taken by Jacksonville State and Kennesaw to shift away from the FCS and jump to the highest level of the sport.

"We're trying to follow the university's strategic plan of being bold," Harrison said. "If you're not going to be bold, then why do it? I don't want to run from Clarksville. This is our home. We want everyone here to take pride in it.

"Several decades ago, Austin Peay was sitting here and Western Kentucky and Middle Tennessee State were its brothers. Those two schools made a bold decision to move to FBS. Austin Peay had an opportunity and didn't do it. It was easy to be comfortable. I don't know any successful business that survives just being comfortable."

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Harrison said the school is in the very early stages of the process but hopes to have it completed so the Govs are competing at the FBS level by 2025. Jacksonville State declared its intentions over a year ago and is scheduled to begin FBS play next fall. Kennesaw State began its process months ago and is targeting a 2024 start date.

"It's going to require very diligent steps on our part that we'll have to take one at a time," Harrison said. "But this is the path that we are on and we're excited about that."

Austin Peay will have to increase its football scholarships to 85 to be eligible for FBS play. The FCS only requires 63 scholarship players. Jacksonville State's 80-plus scholarships this fall made it ineligible for the Atlantic Sun championship, despite the Gamecocks finishing 5-0 in conference play.

Austin Peay, Eastern Kentucky and Central Arkansas shared the conference title with 3-2 league records, but only EKU advanced to the FCS playoffs with the conference's automatic qualifying bid.

FBS schools also must offer at least 200 scholarships or at least $4 million in total athletic scholarships across all sports.

Harrison outlined a desire to upgrade Fortera Stadium. The Govs installed new field turf last summer to accommodate its move to the ASUN, but Harrison envisions a renovated visitor's side complete with a new pressbox. To maintain FBS status, a school must average 15,000 in paid or actual attendance a game at least once every two seasons, according to the NCAA. Fortera Stadium currently can hold just over 10,000.

While the school doesn't have a potential cost for the renovations yet, the increase in football scholarships could cost up to $2 million, Harrison said.

"Once our facilities plan is done, we'll start getting recommendations and get an idea of what these changes will cost and at that point we'll go through all the approvals," Harrison said. "We have to work with the state so we still have a lot of steps. It's not like we're trying to do this by tomorrow. It's going to take a few years to put this plan into place from a facilities standpoint."

Austin Peay athletics director Gerald Harrison talks with members of the media during an ASUN press conference welcoming the Govs to the league Monday, Sept. 20, 2021 in Clarksville.

Austin Peay topped 11,000 students for the first time in school history in 2019. Those enrollment numbers are now around 10,000. If those numbers hold when APSU moves to FBS, the university would be among the smallest universities to compete at that level, but bigger than schools like Wake Forest (ACC) and Rice (Conference USA) who compete in larger conferences.

Harrison has been aggressive in pushing the university's athletics department into uncharted territory. He helped facilitate the move to the ASUN last year and hired Govs football coach Scott Walden in October 2020.

Harrison also brought in Duke assistant Nate James to take over the men's basketball program and hired Mississippi State assistant Brittany Young to oversee the women's program. The basketball programs will play at F&M Bank Arena beginning in the 2023-24 season. Harrison also snagged Roland Fanning from Oklahoma State last May to head the baseball program.

While Austin Peay's ASUN membership remains strong, there could be a scenario in which the Govs are looking to join an FBS conference in the coming years. Jacksonville State and Kennesaw State will join Conference USA, and Harrison said he'd like for Peay to have a conference affiliation that makes sense regionally. But he didn't rule out the possibility of playing as an independent in the FBS.

"We want to be in an FBS conference," Harrison said. "Don't get me wrong, financially, we're not going to try to join a conference in the northeast. We're very happy in the ASUN. We're not overjoyed that we lost two members as soon as we walked in the door. But we'll see where this goes."