Idaho and its Football Struggles

[22jack]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

I read today that Wichita State is interested in the Mountain West and might bring back football.

[slosho]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

I read today that Wichita State is interested in the Mountain West and might bring back football.

Wasn't something like this mentioned a year or two ago on this site?

So, this is what I ws talking about. http://sdsufans.com/board/showthread...state+football

[jacksfan29]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

Wichita State leaving the MVC would certainly downgrade that conference. UNI would be the only "power" left. It could be the definition of low mid major.

Agree, WSU is not partnering with NMSU in a possible Horizon. They have already approached (as stated in another post) the MWC. If they can't get into the MWC I would think the AAC would be their next target.

The NMSU Horizon interest is just weird. Unless there is something else up, could it be the NMSU President is interested but the Horizon really isn't (see WSU approaching MWC)? Even with a western travel partner it makes very little sense for the Horizon to go that far west.

[West-River_Jack]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

is just weird. Unless there is something else up, could it be the NMSU President is interested but the Horizon really isn't (see WSU approaching MWC)? Even with a western travel partner it makes very little sense for the Horizon to go that far west.

It makes even less sense for NMSU to go that far east, over and over again, all season long.

[GopherHole]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

http://www.underdogdynasty.com/2016/...a-bunch-or-new

Interesting reading. SDSU, NDSU and USD were all discussed in the Idaho consultant report. Not sure about USD, but it reads as if the consultant actually spoke to both SDSU and NDSU athletic departments.

In a related note. It was tweeted out earlier today that NMSU are going to play D1 FBS Independent in FB. Oh, and the HORIZON League are interested in having them join? As of now the Horizon schools are all in the Great Lakes region. An invite given to NMSU would seem to be odd and definitely out of character for the Horizon.

That same study/report has USD included in it. One idea that was floated a few years ago and may be rekindled is a hybrid football conference. The 15-team conference would feature 8 FBS teams and 7 FCS teams. If my memory serves me correctly, USD was exploring options three years ago for joining the Big Sky before they ultimately joined MVFC/Summit. Under the scenario with the Big Sky is that USD, UND, the two Montana schools, Cal Poly and Northern Arizona would have joined Idaho and New Mexico State would have all been FBS schools.

That's definitely thinking out of the box.

[West-River_Jack]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

From time to time there have been rumors on the message boards that the power 5 conferences may choose to go it alone because they are weary of sharing the wealth with all of the other colleges and universities in the NCAA. I would also wonder if the five non-power 5 conferences in the BCS might someday grow weary of having no chance of participating in the BCS football playoffs. A rift in BCS could come from either side, though I am not convinced that it will actually happen.

But, if it would happen, it would likely have a huge ripple effect on the FCS. If the five non-power 5 BCS football conferences decided to create their own division, which I will call the intermediate division of Division I football, would they want to add to their numbers in order to make a national championship more meaningful? The probable way to do that would be to invite current FCS members to move up.

How would they choose who to add?

Would they simply invite the best conferences to join them? That would have to include the MVFC. But would all of the teams of the MVFC be willing to go? It would probably mean a few more scholarships and perhaps more coaching expense.

Would they try to poach a few teams here and there? If so, would they invite the best, to strengthen the intermediate division? Or, would they avoid the very best because they want to keep the championship more easily within reach of the current members of those five conferences? In other words, would they want the Bison, or not? How about the Jackrabbits?

Most football programs, with the exception of some of the power 5 conference teams, lose money on football. Would a new intermediate division consider geography and try to invite only teams which would fit into tidy geographic conference clusters to avoid increasing travel expenses?

Would they base part of their decision on attendance, choosing only the teams that would add to the general popularity of the division? They might want some of the MVFC teams for this reason. Or, would they attempt to choose teams in urban areas hoping to add greater media interest in the division? If so, most of the MVFC might go unnoticed.

Will stadium capacity be considered? Depending on the cutoff, this could garner interest in the Jackrabbits, but leave the coyote's out.

How many teams would they want in such an intermediate division? How would the current FCS recover their numbers?

Like I said earlier, I am not predicting that this will happen. I just think about it when I see situations like Idaho and New Mexico State reworking their football futures.

[Rabbit74]

Re: Idaho and its Football Struggles

There are about 250 division I schools that sponsor football. I would not at all be surprised to see that become three divisions of 70-90 in the not to distant future. I would see the P5 conferences each with 14 or so including ND as an independent or maybe a conference member. This assumes the Big 12 will expand in the not to distant future. There are currently 65 P5 members The power 5 would have 70 +/- teams. That leaves about 60 current Group of % schools. The top 30 or so from FCS would join to get to get to about 90 leaving about 90 in FCS. I would predict that the 30 or so moving up would be primarily from the MVFC, and Colonial with a some teams from the Southland and Big Sky. Selection of who moves up would probably be based on who wants and can afford to move up rather than any type of selection process. Just my idle speculation as I have thought about this over the past couple hours.