I've been toying with the idea of not even making this post, because someone will likely take offense to it and ignore the point, but here goes:
Be honest with yourself as a Georgia Tech fan, and consider the likelihood that GT ever makes the playoff. What percentage would you assign to that over the first five years of it being implemented?
Again, I am not trying to be facetious, I am simply making a point.
As for costing more money and there being no payoff, Southern has to add 44 scholarships. Let's assume a cost of $20,000 per year for those, which is high for Southern and is just a conservative number. The Sun Belt conference payout of $1.5 million per year covers that $880,000 with over $620,000 remaining for increased travel costs. Not to mention the doubled payout for BCS games, such as the $350,000 increase we're getting from Georgia Tech, and the $400,000+ increase we're getting from LSU.
So let's assume one money game per year, at $750,000 (a low estimate) in FBS vs $450,000 in FCS. Then adding in the $1.5 million payout and you're looking at clearing an additional million dollars to cover the increased travel costs after the scholarships are already fully funded. Then add in at least $2 million from the student fee increase (which still leaves it at a competitive level), and you're looking at a pretty decent opportunity to cover increased coaching salaries. This is also ignoring any other increase in revenue.
Of players from Georgia, 165 signed FBS offers in 2012. Only ~50 of those can go to Georgia Tech and UGA. That leaves 100 players that are leaving the state to play FBS football. Highly unlikely that all of those are going to SEC schools.
Georgia is a relatively talent rich state (fourth highest total signees, second highest ratio
[source]) and Georgia Southern has a good history of winning. They'll be just fine over the long run.