[7] With only a few hundred fans attending each game, this became a joke to media outlets, who purposefully tried to get pictures of the action with a lack of a crowd in the background.

Once Georgia State entered the CAA, a recurring question of whether the university should add football was brought up, leading to the commissioning of a feasibility study in 2006.

After gauging student and alumni interest, the administration found enough support to continue onwards with the effort, leading to the hire of former Atlanta Falcons head coach Dan Reeves as a consultant.

[11] With the addition of football, a rebrand of athletics took place, changing the logos, fight song, and mascot design.

[citation needed] Records for men's golf are incomplete between 1968 and 1988 Records for men's tennis are incomplete between 1984 and 1987 Georgia State has Sun Belt rivalries with all of the East Division schools (Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Troy, and South Alabama).

[24] Georgia Southern doesn't officially recognize GSU as an abbreviation for the school, actively discouraging it in its identification standards, and generally uses GS in its own branding.

[27] The beginning of the football rivalry was initiated after the hire of former Appalachian State (a major rival of Georgia Southern) athletic director Charlie Cobb to the same position at GSU.

During the run up to the game, fans from both teams expressed their dislike for the other over social media outlets such as Twitter, at times trending with tags of "SouthernNotState" and "StateNotSouthern" both of which were used as slogans for shirts given out by both universities.

The final score, a loss of 34–39, kept South Alabama's perfect record intact while Georgia State fell in their first season to 5–4.

However, after seemingly winning the game in regulation time by an interception by Mark Hogan with 8 seconds on the clock, the referees called a false start penalty negating the play.

The nickname "Panthers" has existed as the name for all Georgia State teams since 1963, when the university held a student vote to determine what the representing mascot should be.

Pounce's appearance has changed twice since his debut, most recently in 2009 when the current incarnation was presented during a basketball game against Georgia Southern.

The secondary logo is an italicized, capitalized GSU in white with blue outlining with a red streak beneath.

The new logos replaced the face of Pounce prior to 2009, as a highly stylized cartoon panther beneath the old Georgia State wordmark.

The plan would maintain the famous Hank Aaron wall that still stands in the Turner Field parking lot.

On December 21, 2015, the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority announced that Georgia State's bid to redevelop Turner Field had been accepted.

[48] The first phase of construction for Center Parc Stadium was completed in time for Georgia State's 2017 season opener on August 31.

[49] On January 31, 2018, Georgia State officially announced its intention to build a new Arena and Convocation Center that would host the school's basketball games.