(11-01-2021 09:53 PM)arkstfan Wrote: (11-01-2021 08:42 PM)_sturt_ Wrote: This seems to be eluding some, and not to step on any toes, but for what it's worth...
If programs exit by Aug 2023... and that may or may not be practical... CUSA football won't technically exist for that season unless they are able to coax all 5 FBS indys to join, making 8. The FCS schools they may add shortly will be meeting the annual June deadline for application to move up, and the NCAA manual explicitly says they cannot be reclassified until the August two years after that deadline... meaning, August 2024.
(Someone raised the fact that the manual also allows for an exception, but that exception also is explicit to one situation, ie, that a given school that had been FBS would fail to meet the requirements for the number of sports sponsored.)
That said, CUSA as a full-fledged FBS football conference still would be able to return for 2024... as far as I've been able to find, anyhow, there is no football penalty for skipping a year.
The manual specifically says there is a two year grace period. 3 can be a conference for two years then it’s over. ...
There is a two year grace period on being a division 1 multi-sport conference, maintaining continuity and keeping the NCAA Tourney bid. Close reading of the two year grace period on being an FBS conference is that it is only for one or more of the full members falling short of their qualifying sports numbers (which can happen because, say, an affiliate member leaves and cannot be replaced immediately, so a conference sponsored sport falls below its autobid number ... but that has an automatic two year grace period to be fixed, so it is only consistent for the overall autobid sports numbers to have the same grace period).
So it is one possible reading of the bylaws that with an explicit waiver granted by the waiver committee, a conference stops being an FBS conference the same season it falls below eight FBS members.
However (1) if it is only a single year as a consequence of FCS/FBS transition, that waiver seems like it would likely to be granted and (2) in any event, FBS status doesn't have any continuity rules, so even under the above reading, once the transition has completed, the FBS status would be regained immediately on having eight FBS members.
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(11-01-2021 09:06 PM)Bogg Wrote: (11-01-2021 08:59 PM)Wahoowa84 Wrote: If they need 8 members to formally survive, can they take the non-football schools from the Sun (ALR / UTA) and UMass / UConn as FB only?
Well, they need 8 full FBS members to meet requirements, so that particular arrangement wouldn't help, but they'll be able to have their pick of several FCS teams. That's assuming MT and WK leave, if not they don't have to do anything else.
Yes, they would need one more full FBS member, but if they add a pair to replace WKU/MTSU and stay at 9 full members, then a FB-only school would get their FB competition to 10 for a divisional CCG, and two non-FB schools would get their MBB competition to 11 for a 20-game round robin.
The FB-only part would be partly dependent on what the media partner wants, but it would also add $1m in CFP money (the Go5 base distribution is $1m/school for up to the first ten schools), which could be split 50:50 between the FB-only school and the conference by giving the FB-only school $500K as their distribution and not charging them an affiliation fee.
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(11-02-2021 09:32 AM)quo vadis Wrote: Remember, the choice for FIU/LA Tech/UTEP isn't between this incinerated, ridonculously embarrassing version of CUSA and the SEC. It's between this incinerated ridonculously embarrassing version of CUSA and independence. Because no other FBS conference wants them. If any other conference wanted them, they'd leave too.
And as bad as this incinerated CUSA is, backfilled with the independent dregs of FBS and FCS callups, it is better for all of them than independence. That's why independents like NMSU and Liberty are joining. This rump CUSA still has a TV contract, still gets a share of CFP money, and still has an autobid to the NCAA tourney. None of which they have if they go indy.
And, critically for Liberty, it offers a formal place in the Access Bowl race. They spend the money on their sports in order to raise the profile of their University, and so even having a chance to be in the Access Bowl spot
conversation is worth something to them.