(05-05-2020 05:24 PM)dogdangit Wrote: NIU being FBS is a big reason why I chose to come here. It differentiated NIU from all the other directionals and ISU. From the outside it made NIU look like the "big school" that all the other BIG state schools look like watching on TV when I was in hs. Sadly my case is rare as most other students now don't really care or know the difference between fbs and fcs. I also can't imagine a drop to fcs will lower our student athletic fees. After I "graduate" in 4 days I'll still cheer on my Huskies but if we drop to fcs I'll be looking for a new team to adopt.
What exactly are you rooting for? If a change in FBS to FCS is a deal breaker, then I don't understand what it is that you think the ultimate goal is.
Winning the Boca Raton Bowl? Is that the penultimate accomplishment? Because if it's breaking into the Top 10 and winning a New Year's Eve Bowl then, I hate to break it to you but your expectations are not in line with reality even though they played in one 7 years ago. That was a long time ago in terms of how FBS is ran and it's never going to get easier or more accommodating to schools like NIU.
Right now, I dare you to argue that the 2012-13 Huskies were better than the last two years of Appalachian State and they weren't able to pull off what NIU pulled off. And NIU needed a lot of help for the dominoes to fall just right to get in to the Orange Bowl. And since then? It's harder to pull it off.
Or maybe the example is UCF? I mean, not only does UCF play in a conference that is borderline on P5 level, but they also are in a city of 2.5M people and have an enrollment of 65,000 with an endowment of $183,000,000. They are leagues ahead of NIU in a ton of aspects and resources. Yeah, they got to the same place. But it took a team like UCF, with all the resources as they have to get it done this last time. And one year later, they're in the Gasparilla Bowl two days before Christmas (granted, they beat down Marshall, which we couldn't do...).
Nevertheless, what is the goal for a person like you who would consider a move to FCS a complete deal breaker? People were voting for North Dakota State in the AP Rankings this year and they aren't even in FBS. There is prestige in being a top FCS team. They put guys in the NFL (as much or more than we do).
Look, I'd love to stay in FBS. But its really hard to justify it if the program is hemorrhaging money to the point that we have to have two money games a season and have given up on hosting any big name schools in our own stadium just to stay afloat, then this fantasy of FBS in 2020 and beyond is ludicrous.
Hey, I'm more of a basketball fan anyway and when I enrolled at NIU back in the early 90s, I honestly had no clue they were on the same level as Illinois (back then I think it was D-1A or something like that). And, to be honest with you, I didn't even know there was a "Northern Illinois University" until my high school guidance counselor told me about it. But, going on 30 years later, when I'm asked who my favorite football team is (and often they're talking about he pros), I say NIU. And I'd still say that if they dropped to FCS.
And I'm not trying to say that like I'm better than you or a better fan or anything. I'm not sure it's even relevant to the question I initially posed (which was supposed to be the only part of this comment...).
What is it that makes a move to FCS a deal breaker? And...why does staying FBS solidify your fandom?