The DePaul AD was just quoted as saying he wouldn't close the door on starting Football at DePaul.
Perhaps it's possible for the NBE to follow the WAC's footsteps of growing an FCS football conference from scratch?

You already have UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler.

The WAC was also restarted as a BBall-Only and finally built an FCS league. Lot's of parallels in how they brought those brands back. UConn could be their NMSU.

(10-12-2021 12:29 PM)TroyTBoy Wrote:  The DePaul AD was just quoted as saying he wouldn't close the door on starting Football at DePaul.
Perhaps it's possible for the NBE to follow the WAC's footsteps of growing an FCS football conference from scratch?

You already have UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler.

The WAC was also restarted as a BBall-Only and finally built an FCS league. Lot's of parallels in how they brought those brands back. UConn could be their NMSU.

Butler plays non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer League. Georgetown in the Patriot League, which allows schools to offer up to 15 scholarships in football IIRC, well short of the FCS limits. UConn is still in FBS for the time being, and Villanova FB better off in the CAA. This isn't going to happen for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the football-basketball division that destroyed the old Big East.

UConn isn't going to FCS, so let's put that aside right away.

As a DePaul Law alum, I would be shocked if we saw any FCS football program in my lifetime. As noted in that article, DePaul is having a hard enough time finding space for an on-campus basketball practice facility. The thought of having even a football practice field (much less an on-campus stadium) where DePaul is located is pretty much unthinkable: they're in one of the most expensive and built-up urban neighborhoods outside of NYC/DC/LA/SF. You might as well propose to tear down a mansion in Beverly Hills to create a football practice field: this is essentially the Chicago equivalent of that here.

Even if DePaul were to create an FCS program, if the Big East were to ever create and FCS league, it would likely need to be a football-only league and maybe even a separate entity (similar to the Missouri Valley Football Conference vis a vis the Missouri Valley Conference). It could consider schools like Dayton and Davidson as football-only members.

(10-12-2021 12:29 PM)TroyTBoy Wrote:  The DePaul AD was just quoted as saying he wouldn't close the door on starting Football at DePaul.
Perhaps it's possible for the NBE to follow the WAC's footsteps of growing an FCS football conference from scratch?

You already have UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler.

The WAC was also restarted as a BBall-Only and finally built an FCS league. Lot's of parallels in how they brought those brands back. UConn could be their NMSU.

I don't see it happening.

1. The Big East FCS schools are operating at wildly different levels of FCS. Villanova is in one of the top FCS leagues and I think was in an FCS NAtional Championship Game a few years ago. Butler plays non-scholarship Pioneer League. Georgetown plays in the low-scholarship PAtriot League. And who knows what DePaul might end up doing--MVFC? Pioneer? Ohio Valley? And of course UConn is FBS.

2. Traumatic memories of the last Big East Football Conference.

Somebody is going to have to play in Soldier Field!

(10-12-2021 12:38 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote:  Butler plays non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer League. Georgetown in the Patriot League, which allows schools to offer up to 15 scholarships in football IIRC, well short of the FCS limits. UConn is still in FBS for the time being, and Villanova FB better off in the CAA. This isn't going to happen for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the football-basketball division that destroyed the old Big East.

The Patriot League allows 60.

(10-12-2021 12:54 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  

(10-12-2021 12:38 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote:  Butler plays non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer League. Georgetown in the Patriot League, which allows schools to offer up to 15 scholarships in football IIRC, well short of the FCS limits. UConn is still in FBS for the time being, and Villanova FB better off in the CAA. This isn't going to happen for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the football-basketball division that destroyed the old Big East.

The Patriot League allows 60.

Thanks, I knew at one point there were discussions over limits for scholarships. Do all of the football squads in the Patriot utilize 60 schollys?

(10-12-2021 12:48 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote:  UConn isn't going to FCS, so let's put that aside right away.

As a DePaul Law alum, I would be shocked if we saw any FCS football program in my lifetime. As noted in that article, DePaul is having a hard enough time finding space for an on-campus basketball practice facility. The thought of having even a football practice field (much less an on-campus stadium) where DePaul is located is pretty much unthinkable: they're in one of the most expensive and built-up urban neighborhoods outside of NYC/DC/LA/SF. You might as well propose to tear down a mansion in Beverly Hills to create a football practice field: this is essentially the Chicago equivalent of that here.

Even if DePaul were to create an FCS program, if the Big East were to ever create and FCS league, it would likely need to be a football-only league and maybe even a separate entity (similar to the Missouri Valley Football Conference vis a vis the Missouri Valley Conference). It could consider schools like Dayton and Davidson as football-only members.

Every time I bat around the idea of a Big East football conference, it always ends up being a non-scholarship or reduced-scholarship league, because Villanova is more likely to cut or eliminate scholies than Georgetown or Butler are to add them. So if Nova withdrew from full-scholarship football, you'd have five schools. If DePaul actually does start a program and isn't trying to nose into Northwestern's territory, there's your sixth. Otherwise, Marist is Catholic and Northeastern, but would BE schools want to be yoked? Drake isn't Catholic but might be entertainable. And if any scholarship programs were to follow Presbyterian's path and go non-scholarship, that's more options.

I would think that the Ivy would like to have a conference full of similarly aligned non-scholarship programs against which they could schedule OOC games. That's how the Patriot League came into being.

(10-12-2021 12:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  Somebody is going to have to play in Soldier Field!

Lightfoot will avenge the Bears leaving by bringing DePaul into Soldier Field.

DePaul needs to spend that money getting out of the Big East's basement before they start adding major sports. Also, in that city, in that neighborhood, hockey might be higher upside than FCS football.

(10-12-2021 12:38 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote:  

(10-12-2021 12:29 PM)TroyTBoy Wrote:  The DePaul AD was just quoted as saying he wouldn't close the door on starting Football at DePaul.
Perhaps it's possible for the NBE to follow the WAC's footsteps of growing an FCS football conference from scratch?

You already have UConn, Villanova, Georgetown, and Butler.

The WAC was also restarted as a BBall-Only and finally built an FCS league. Lot's of parallels in how they brought those brands back. UConn could be their NMSU.

Butler plays non-scholarship FCS football in the Pioneer League. Georgetown in the Patriot League, which allows schools to offer up to 15 scholarships in football IIRC, well short of the FCS limits. UConn is still in FBS for the time being, and Villanova FB better off in the CAA. This isn't going to happen for myriad reasons, not the least of which is the football-basketball division that destroyed the old Big East.

For all the money Gtown has, they could really care less about football.

(10-12-2021 01:08 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(10-12-2021 12:52 PM)esayem Wrote:  Somebody is going to have to play in Soldier Field!

Lightfoot will avenge the Bears leaving by bringing DePaul into Soldier Field.

That does fit accurately with her management style.

(10-12-2021 01:15 PM)Bogg Wrote:  DePaul needs to spend that money getting out of the Big East's basement before they start adding major sports. Also, in that city, in that neighborhood, hockey might be higher upside than FCS football.

That's true that hockey would actually make more sense for DePaul in terms of a comparative advantage. To be sure, if Illinois is having to spend years trying to figure out how to make Division I hockey work with the benefit of Big Ten revenue, it's not realistically happening for DePaul (as fun as that would be).

This is a not so subtle attempt by a BC fan to suggest UConn drop to FCS. LOL. That is not happening.

(10-12-2021 12:56 PM)CarlSmithCenter Wrote:  

(10-12-2021 12:54 PM)DFW HOYA Wrote:  The Patriot League allows 60.

Thanks, I knew at one point there were discussions over limits for scholarships. Do all of the football squads in the Patriot utilize 60 schollys?

All but one: Georgetown, which is the only non-scholarship program in the entirety of Division I playing in a scholarship conference.

Lots of reasons why, none particularly simple, but here are three:

1 As an author described Georgetown basketball in the 1960's, it applies to football: "They always wanted to have a good team, but didn't know how to go about doing it." While the second largest budget item in the athletic department, football is just 5% of the total budget because of how many sports it sponsors and much money Georgetown puts into men's basketball, sometimes with diminishing returns.

2. When Georgetown was shut out of consideration in the formation of Big East football in the 1990's, it aligned the program along the lines of what I called "The Ninth Ivy", figuring that it could be seen as a peer to Ivy League schools and play at that level. The problem was (and is) that the Ivy League really don't want anything to do with them, and other conferences are nonplussed by adding a program that is underfunded and a school committed to another conference's brand (i.e., Big East).

3. Of Georgetown's 30 teams, only eight of these are fully funded via scholarships. Those sports that have jumped up the ladder take far fewer grants to become nationally relevant. The marginal gain to add scholarships across multiple smaller teams is deemed more impactful than putting them in football given football's position in the low-tier Patriot League and the distinct lack of interest in adding Georgetown by any other conferences. Example: 11 scholarships led Georgetown to the 2019 NCAA title in men's soccer and the current #1 team in the nation. 11 scholarships would do little to elevate football against full-scholarship opponents.

DePaul used to field a team in the past.

Big East men's basketball, with many folks, is perceived as "high profile."

To attach FCS football to the league in a direct manner might alter that perception in a negative manner. Any football component would need to operate "separately" from the Big East and, ideally, also include programs that are not in the Big East.

As to DePaul possibly starting a football program ... it makes little sense. I enjoy cheering for DePaul (and Belmont for that matter) because they do NOT offer football.

Would be great if DePaul got a football team and left. Great excuse to kick them out haha

DePaul isn't adding football, but schools that add it tend to follow three reasons:

1. They are a state university who see football as a ticket to more visibility and resultant increased funding (UAB, Coastal Carolina).
2. They are a smaller private school who see football as an enrollment boost for male students (Erskine, Wheeling)
3. They are a private school who who see football as a ticket into a better Div. I experience for all sports (Houston Baptist, Incarnate Word)

DePaul doesn't need football for visibility, for enrollment, or for a top conference. Absent a significant history in the sport, it's not top of mind there that it's a visible gap in their campus life.

The NBE would be better off putting the band back together than starting an FCS league. Just remerge with the AAC while they are hanging out there with 7 all sports schools and the Navy/Wichita combination. Move Villanova up to FBS and add UConn FB. The merged conference can then play an 18 game BB conference schedule with 19 teams.

FB East - Villanova, Temple, ECU, UConn, USF
FB West - Navy, Memphis, Tulane, SMU, Tulsa