A conference I'd love to see in FBS would something like this:

Eastern Washington
Portland St
Idaho
Idaho St
Montana
Montana St
North Dakota
North Dakota St
South Dakota
South Dakota St
Weber St
New Mexico St

Would compete from time-to-time. However, one of the draws to most of these schools is the chance to play in the FCS championship and get pro scout exposure. There's no point in signing to play for USC if you'll only be a practice squad or bench player (unless you truly love to be at that school which should be priority #1) when you could be a starter at one of these schools.

(01-06-2017 09:40 AM)Ewglenn Wrote:  

(12-27-2016 08:52 PM)StAteRedWolf Wrote:  

(12-27-2016 08:40 PM)KNIGHTTIME Wrote:  

(12-27-2016 08:32 PM)StAteRedWolf Wrote:  I am not sure that any FCS school "deserves" to be in the FBS. It might be better to consider what FCS schools might be "qualified" to give the FBS level a shot. Only that schools PTB can decide when they want to give the next level a try but even then they have to find a FBS conference willing to take them. NDSU might be ready to try out the FBS level but I sure hope it isn't the Sunbelt that opens the door for them. I am tired of watching the Belt be the league that teams from the FCS move up to. And if NDSU does move up soon they better be ready to suffer from some growing pains. They won't be seeing a lot of success on the field right away.

Growing pains in the sunbelt? I realize you have a few good teams and frankly better than the c-usa, but they wold be fine in the sunbelt.

There was a thread on the Sunbelt debating that very issue a couple weeks ago about how well would NDSU do in the Belt if they were to join. Aside from the fact that they would not be in the geographic footprint much better than the two outgoing teams in NMSU and Idaho I don't think they would come in right away and kick butt in the league their first year. They might win 2-3 games each of their first two years but until they caught up in the area of added scholarships they would have some growing pains against the top 4-5 teams in the league. Even in the Sunbelt there is still a sizable difference in terms of talent between the Sunbelt and FCS.

App and GS has pretty much been in the running for yalls conference championships since they joined. NDSU would compete right away.

App since they joined yeah, but Ga So? Not so much. They weren't all that good at all this past year since their coach moved away from the triple option offense. And it isn't likely that NDSU would compete right away either considering the schedule they play every year, FCS, is not as hard as it would be to face 12 games vs FBS level competition. Add in that until they caught up to the rest of the FBS schools they would be using fewer scholarship players than their league opponents.