Georgia State pounded in opener by MEAC powerhouse S.C.State, as growing pains continue

SCSU BULLDOGS POUND GEORGIA STATE 33-6 IN THE DOME.

ATLANTA, Georgia - If you haven’t kept up on the uniquely metamorphosing Georgia State football program, it goes something like this:

The Panthers started playing games in 2010. Their first schedule of Colonial Athletic Association games is this season (Year 3). But they’re not eligible for the CAA championship because they’ve already decided to jump to the Sun Belt. The NCAA’s mandated two-year transition to FBS means they can’t compete for championships or bowls until 2014 — not that it was realistic anyway — which effectively means they will have played four years of exhibition games (45) by the end of 2013.

And you thought the NFL preseason was long.

There’s an obvious advantage to this: New programs typically get beat up, and Georgia State has been no exception to this. So this extended stretch of unofficial-ness allows Georgia State athletic director Cheryl Levick to tell prospective donors, “Don’t worry, it’s just growing pains. Just wait until the games really count. Would you like another shrimp?”

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