Interesting point of view about how and when Western Kentucky could jump to 1-A football in the Sunbelt. Article brings up the La-Tech/SBC/WAC debate again, but is a good read about how the Sunbelt is doing right now and their approach to the possibility of a BCS windfall under the new system.


I-A football could be coming
Ransdell says new BCS revenue might make move possible

By OJ Stapleton, ojstapleton@bgdailynews.com -- 270-783-3239

Friday, June 18, 2004

In an interesting move, the Sun Belt Conference presidents selected Western Kentucky President Gary Ransdell to represent the league in talks concerning the distribution of possible football money.

The Bowl Championship Series, which previously included only the top six Division I-A leagues, recently adopted a new formula which would give the five lower-tier conferences a piece of the multimillion dollar pie.

The six original BCS members – the Atlantic Coast Conference, the Southeastern Conference, the Big Ten, the Big 12, the Big East and the PAC 10 – will each get one share (about 9 percent) of the total revenue created by the various bowl games. The other five conferences – Conference USA, the Mountain West Conference, the Western Athletic Conference, the Mid-American Conference and the Sun Belt – will each split one share evenly.

“This is not some huge windfall,

So would the Hilltoppers be a MAC team or a Sun Belt Team??? That is the $64,000 question!

broncobob Wrote:So would the Hilltoppers be a MAC team or a Sun Belt Team???  That is the $64,000 question!

I suspect the Hilltoppers will stay with the SBC; they have been a member for a long, long time! However, I do not see them making the move to 1-A football in the near future.

I'm not sure which conference they would eventually end up in, but it does seem that their possible jump to 1-A is based on at least a couple of "IF"s.

IF a current non-BCS team gets a BCS birth...
IF the payout is enough to help W. Ken. financially...