(12-12-2017 05:27 PM)_C2_ Wrote:  

(12-12-2017 09:57 AM)jacksfan29 Wrote:  Sam Houston is an hour from Houston, a city of 2.3 million. They have 20,000 students and are in an area where getting into the Sun Belt would be a good option based on being in the footprint.

NDSU and SDSU have no G5 league close, Kalamazoo is 800 miles from Fargo, Laramie is also 800 miles. The combined population of the two states (South Dakota and North Dakota) is around 1.5 million. Again, neither will be moving up anytime soon and neither should.

I have heard interviews with the ADs from both schools discussing the finances of moving up. They are not good. In 10 years that could change. As of now, both schools have bigger priorities.

I'm an hour away from Houston, a city of 2.3 million. Sam has a following but no bigger following than TSU or Prairie View. And they're probably smaller because SWAC fanbases tend to be rabid. If they moved up, they'd probably still struggle to get headlines and fans, there'should only so many to go around. Houston's a city of 2.3 million, yet UH can't regularly sell out games and Rice doesn't exist to the average Houston sports fan.

They're just a random Texas schools that if not for the word "state," people wouldn't know they were public. Maybe if they were called Texas State it may work but not as is. They fit the Southland just fine.

And again on the Dakota schools, their states may be small but they are close to other states, especially Minnesota for NDSU.

We are both close to Minnesota, but not really populated Minnesota. Especially SDSU who claim southwest Minnesota as their fan territory. SW Minnesota is farm land with small towns. It is the the smallest population base in the state.

NDSU has the I94 corridor and is 3 hours from the western suburbs of Minneapolis. NDSU is very different then SDSU. The Fargo-Moorhead area has a population of 250,000 with very little competition for fans. One D2 school (Moorhead State) and UND up north.

SDSU sits in Brookings with a population of 30,000. The school is an hour away from the Sioux Falls area with 250,000, but the competition for fans out of Sioux Falls is tough. The University of South Dakota is an hour south of Sioux Falls and both Augustana and Sioux Falls College (D2) have solid fan bases. In addition, there is a lot of Sioux Falls sports fans who live and die Big Red NU football. A large number of people in the area have season tickets to games in Lincoln.

I really do not see SDSU moving up to FBS until they can regularly draw over 15,000 to all home FB games no matter what time of year. That is only going to happen if the fan base gets built up with extended years of success. Basketball is still king at SDSU as witnessed by the huge crowds of SDSU fans at the Summit League tournament in Sioux Falls. A national championship in football would help, a national championship plus multiple years of getting to the semi-finals in the playoffs and a second title would likely build the excitement level up enough to draw 15,000 after Thanksgiving.