Idaho to Reclassify to FCS....Maybe

[xubrew]

So, Idaho should announce its plans to move it's football program down to the FCS level and join the Big Sky. That's kind of funny because even though the Big Sky is an FCS conference, I think it's probably a better overall conference than the current Sun Belt.

And...I say maybe, because they don't plan to move until 2018. That gives them two seasons to change their minds and/or find a way to make staying at the FBS level a realistic option.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/writer/dennis-dodd/25568947/idaho-will-become-first-team-to-drop-from-fbs-to-fcs-in-2018

Continuing as an independent would mean not getting a share of the football playoff money. The playoff money is why so many schools at the FCS level are currently looking to move up, but in order to get a share of it they'd need to be in one of the Group of Five conferences, and they're just isn't a whole lot of room left. There are rumors that UTEP might leave CUSA and join the Mountain West, and that would open up a spot for New Mexico State if CUSA wanted to remain at fourteen. New Mexico State seems to be a perfect fit for CUSA because every time that conference expands the target schools seem to be schools that are either starting up football programs, or schools that already have football programs but are really really really bad. There is also no good reason in the world for CUSA to want to remain at 14 teams, and that is another reason I think that they will absolutely want to do so. The ACC and SEC have fourteen teams, so of course CUSA feels they need fourteen as well.

It wouldn't shock me if CUSA also ended up taking Idaho. There is no rumor or talk of that happening, and it would again make little to no sense to do it, but....they may just end up doing it.

[GoMuskies]

Go Fighting Petrinos!

[xubrew]

Eastern Michigan's and UMass's faculty, as well as a fair number of students, are wanting the schools to either reclassify to a lower division, or drop football entirely. In both cases, the school's administration seems to be against dropping it or cutting it.

Cutting football altogether can be a very expensive venture. First, you have to buy out of all the OOC games that you've already scheduled. Then you have to basically pay damages to all of the schools in the conference, which would probably range somewhere between $1 million and $2 million per school. Keeping football and spending less money on it makes a lot more sense than getting rid of it altogether. Football only costs what you spend on it. Cutting football could potentially cost a fortune. Although, in the case of UMass and Idaho, they wouldn't have to go through paying any sort of conference penalties since they're not in a conference.

[GoMuskies]

UMass has to be the only school that plays its home football games a 2 hour drive from campus.

[xubrew]

UMass has to be the only school that plays its home football games a 2 hour drive from campus.

They do have a few logistical challenges.

[X-band '01]

Losing UMass won't be a problem for the MAC, but if they lose Eastern Michigan and don't add another member, they'll lose their conference championship game.

I don't think they need to worry about cutting the programs entirely; this looks like UAB in reverse in some respects.

[xubrew]

Losing UMass won't be a problem for the MAC, but if they lose Eastern Michigan and don't add another member, they'll lose their conference championship game.

I don't think they need to worry about cutting the programs entirely; this looks like UAB in reverse in some respects.

The UAB situation may look like this on the surface, but it's really not the same at all.

At EMU and UMass, the students and faculty have stated they don't want football. At UAB, the students and faculty said they did want it, and were willing to pay for it, but were not given the chance to vote on it. It was the board of trustees that wanted to cut the program. Not the school itself. It essentially cost UAB two whole seasons, and about ten million dollars when they cut the program. Had UAB not brought it back, it would have cost the school close to fifty million bucks in lost revenue and financial penalties, and gotten them kicked out of their conference, and potentially gotten all of their sports kicked out of div1 entirely because because they wouldn't have had enough teams to stay in div1. So, they brought it back. Well, that's the eventual plan anyway.

[ArizonaXUGrad]

UAB was worse in that the Board that voted to shut it down was manned by several Tuscaloosa grads. I believe there is still hard feelings over UAB narcing on the Tide several years ago.


The UAB situation may look like this on the surface, but it's really not the same at all.

At EMU and UMass, the students and faculty have stated they don't want football. At UAB, the students and faculty said they did want it, and were willing to pay for it, but were not given the chance to vote on it. It was the board of trustees that wanted to cut the program. Not the school itself. It essentially cost UAB two whole seasons, and about ten million dollars when they cut the program. Had UAB not brought it back, it would have cost the school close to fifty million bucks in lost revenue and financial penalties, and gotten them kicked out of their conference, and potentially gotten all of their sports kicked out of div1 entirely because because they wouldn't have had enough teams to stay in div1. So, they brought it back. Well, that's the eventual plan anyway.

[xubrew]

UAB was worse in that the Board that voted to shut it down was manned by several Tuscaloosa grads. I believe there is still hard feelings over UAB narcing on the Tide several years ago.

This appears to be the case. It was an attempt by three or four individual members on the board of trustees that oversees multiple campuses to sabotage UAB's athletic department. As you indicated, twenty or so years ago UAB turned Alabama in to the NCAA and got them in quite a bit of trouble. Some of the people who were on the board were directly effected by that and apparently were still pissed off about it twenty years later. They wanted to cripple UAB, and they certainly succeeded.

[sirthought]

All MAC schools should drop football. The sport is just too expensive.

[xubrew]

All MAC schools should drop football. The sport is just too expensive.

Ehh, it's like anything else. If you want it enough to feel that it's worth the expense, then it's not too expensive. I don't know about the MAC, but I know that in the Sun Belt and CUSA, student government generally gets to vote on the student fees, and in all cases where student fees are used, the students vote in favor of it.