They must specifically play FBS as well, so an 8th school which sponsors FCS (not willing to jump up a level) joined by UConn/UMass won’t count either.

(11-03-2021 08:15 AM)SMUfan Wrote:  Grace period 20.02.6.2

Next season CUSA will still be as it is now.

July 1, 2023 would start the 2 year grace period with new FCS schools in the league. The FCS schools would be in full acceptance by July 1, 2025. So they are good.

Note the specification of the grace period:

Quote:A conference shall continue to be considered a Football Bowl Subdivision conference for two years following the date when it fails to satisfy the eight full Football Bowl Subdivision member requirement due to one or more of its member's failure to comply with the bowl subdivision membership requirements.

"due to dropping below eight Football Bowl Subdivision members" is not necessarily part of the automatic grace period. Neither is, "due to not competing in a sufficient number of autobid competitions". However, "due to failure to comply with the FBS membership requirements" is covered.

Also, note that "full" here is not "full members of the conference" but "full Football Bowl Subdivision Members", so the status of the school as a voting or non-voting member of the conference is not at issue.

I believe it is quite possible that CUSA can get a waiver on that if it needs to to avoid a "gap" year (required to have a CCG, and it would seem assuring participation in the Go5 pool of CFP money), but it shouldn't be assumed to be automatic under the rules. From the history of the WAC and the continuity rule, the NCAA membership tends to be sensitive to the challenges facing a conference after it has been heavily raided. The sentiment "There but for the grace of God go you or I" may be operative here.

Note that the "failure to comply with the bowl subdivision requirements" would appear to cover the second transitional FCS to FBS year ... in the first year of the transition, the school is an FCS school that may not compete in the FCS championship (due to having "extra" scholarships as part of its transition), in the second year, it is a FBS member but not yet in full compliance with all of the FBS rules (the scholarship requirement in particular, since it won't yet have the full FBS scholarships).

So my reading is that if there are eight all-sports member schools that are either established FBS schools or FCS schools in the second year of their transition, they meet the sports sponsorship requirements, but do not all meet the FBS scholarship requirements (because in the second transition requirement you won't be at 85 scholarships yet), that's still an FBS conference as long as all the FBS requirements get met within two years.

So either one more FCS school invited prior to June 1, 2022, and assuming the sports sponsorships are all sorted out, then CUSA would be covered in July 1, 2024, and the only open question would be 2023.

It is not the general practice for FCS transitioning schools to join their future FBS conference in their first year ... but it could be argued that "failure to comply with FBS subdivision requirements" might apply to the first year of the transition, when the school is still an FCS school, allowing a transitioning school to join in year 1 as an FCS independent. If CUSA argues that and nobody pushes back, they might invite the transitioning schools to join CUSA in July 1, 2022.

Also, it may take some work to get some of sports numbers requirements met, which is why it is conceivable that CUSA might be asking the MAC to pretty please invite WKU/MTSU to join in July 1, 2024, to have the extra cover in the number of members playing in the various sponsored sports.

Tennessee State is who I’d be looking at first. They can play most of their games at the Coliseum and are actually in Nashville, which would be a great spot for the HQ to move. Also, the tournament could be there a week prior to the SEC.

I’d also send feelers out to FAMU, seeing as how the school made an effort for FBS previously. They’d also bridge the gap to FIU.

Those would be my first two targets for #8 seeing as how Mizzou St. and EKU are seemingly out?

(11-03-2021 10:35 AM)esayem Wrote:  Tennessee State is who I’d be looking at first. They can play most of their games at the Coliseum and are actually in Nashville, which would be a great spot for the HQ to move. Also, the tournament could be there a week prior to the SEC.

I’d also send feelers out to FAMU, seeing as how the school made an effort for FBS previously. They’d also bridge the gap to FIU.

Those would be my first two targets for #8 seeing as how Mizzou St. and EKU are seemingly out?

Conference USA HQ would never leave Dallas. I think that's one of the big reasons Tarleton is getting so much consideration. They would become the new North Texas for CUSA--sorta close to Dallas but not really, and I get the feeling the guys and lady in the CUSA office feel that the league needs a CUSA member in the Dallas-Fort Worth area because that's where the headquarters is.

(11-03-2021 10:35 AM)esayem Wrote:  Tennessee State is who I’d be looking at first. They can play most of their games at the Coliseum and are actually in Nashville, which would be a great spot for the HQ to move. Also, the tournament could be there a week prior to the SEC.

I’d also send feelers out to FAMU, seeing as how the school made an effort for FBS previously. They’d also bridge the gap to FIU.

Those would be my first two targets for #8 seeing as how Mizzou St. and EKU are seemingly out?

Why do you say that Missouri State and EKU are seemingly out?

(11-03-2021 10:22 AM)All4One Wrote:  Ahhh. This makes sense. So we were right to say UConn and UMass do not satisfy the needed 8th full member because they won't bring the required sports and number of sports to Conference USA.

Yes. Where UConn and/or UMass would be helpful is in grabbing more CFP money, if CUSA can get to 8 or 9 full FBS members with the FCS transition candidates it is happy with. The Go5 base distribution is $1m/school up to a maximum of $10m, and doesn't care whether that is an all-sports or an affiliate member.

A conference could, for example, give half of that to the affiliate and keep half as a travel subsidy for the schools playing at that affiliate.

(11-03-2021 11:08 AM)SMUfan Wrote:  

(11-03-2021 10:35 AM)esayem Wrote:  Tennessee State is who I’d be looking at first. They can play most of their games at the Coliseum and are actually in Nashville, which would be a great spot for the HQ to move. Also, the tournament could be there a week prior to the SEC.

I’d also send feelers out to FAMU, seeing as how the school made an effort for FBS previously. They’d also bridge the gap to FIU.

Those would be my first two targets for #8 seeing as how Mizzou St. and EKU are seemingly out?

Why do you say that Missouri State and EKU are seemingly out?

Just based on things I’ve read here, although I think they’re the best realistic options.

(11-03-2021 11:16 AM)esayem Wrote:  

(11-03-2021 11:08 AM)SMUfan Wrote:  ... Why do you say that Missouri State and EKU are seemingly out?

Just based on things I’ve read here, although I think they’re the best realistic options.

Note that the "seemingly" is Missouri State was seemingly not expressing interest in joining CUSA, but there might be an element of "wait and see how things play out" to that.

CUSA setting itself to be "pro forma" set as an FBS conference and only requiring one more when the WKU/MTSU announcement is made (one assumes, as soon as the MAC Presidents come to an agreement on the divisional question), may make the move more appealing.

There is also the question of whether there is another FCS transitioning school which would make CUSA more attractive to Missouri State.

(11-01-2021 08:40 PM)No Bull Wrote:  UMass Football only?

Maybe, but I think you still have to have 8 full time members in FB and BB to have a conference.

Things could change, but Missouri St wasn't interested in CUSA as of 5 days ago per Matt Brown's twitter.

If we believe Dennis Dodd’s tweet, there’s been up to 30 FCS schools that have contacted C-USA for possible membership. Not 5, 10 or 20 schools. 30. Think about that.

Those schools know the time to move up is now or wait another generation. The AAC, MAC and Sun Belt are full and the MWC won’t invite any FCS schools. C-USA is their only and last choice to make it happen so those schools need to make a decision soon. The expanded CFP and the revenue that will come with it makes the move to FBS attractive.

(11-03-2021 11:24 AM)TripleA Wrote:  

(11-01-2021 08:40 PM)No Bull Wrote:  UMass Football only?

Maybe, but I think you still have to have 8 full time members in FB and BB to have a conference.

Per a neighboring thread, CUSA wants to get to 10 or more, which opens the door for a FB-only member or two.

(11-03-2021 11:35 AM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  If we believe Dennis Dodd’s tweet, there’s been up to 30 FCS schools that have contacted C-USA for possible membership. Not 5, 10 or 20 schools. 30. Think about that.

Those schools know the time to move up is now or wait another generation. The AAC, MAC and Sun Belt are full and the MWC won’t invite any FCS schools. C-USA is their only and last choice to make it happen so those schools need to make a decision soon. The expanded CFP and the revenue that will come with it makes the move to FBS attractive.

But he didn't say 30 FCS schools. He said 30 schools, which could be FBS Independents, non-football sponsoring schools or even D2 schools seeking to fast track 1-A status.

If McNeese and UIW are moving (invited) to the WAC, what is stopping them from changing course to CUSA?

Seems McNeese would be interested in being in the same league as La Tech.

(11-03-2021 11:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Things could change, but Missouri St wasn't interested in CUSA as of 5 days ago per Matt Brown's twitter.

Was it that they weren't interested or that they weren't contacted?

(11-03-2021 11:42 AM)SMUfan Wrote:  If McNeese and UIW are moving (invited) to the WAC, what is stopping them from changing course to CUSA?

Seems McNeese would be interested in being in the same league as La Tech.

Exit fees to the WAC, if it's in their signed contracts.

(11-03-2021 11:41 AM)All4One Wrote:  

(11-03-2021 11:35 AM)UTEPDallas Wrote:  If we believe Dennis Dodd’s tweet, there’s been up to 30 FCS schools that have contacted C-USA for possible membership. Not 5, 10 or 20 schools. 30. Think about that.

Those schools know the time to move up is now or wait another generation. The AAC, MAC and Sun Belt are full and the MWC won’t invite any FCS schools. C-USA is their only and last choice to make it happen so those schools need to make a decision soon. The expanded CFP and the revenue that will come with it makes the move to FBS attractive.

But he didn't say 30 FCS schools. He said 30 schools, which could be FBS Independents, non-football sponsoring schools or even D2 schools seeking to fast track 1-A status.

Thanks for the correction.

If we remove NMSU and Liberty, only Army, UConn and UMass are left as FBS independents in the G5 and out of those three maybe and that’s a big maybe UMass showed some interest. The rest were either FCS or Div II schools which make it at least 25.

(11-03-2021 11:42 AM)All4One Wrote:  

(11-03-2021 11:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Things could change, but Missouri St wasn't interested in CUSA as of 5 days ago per Matt Brown's twitter.

Was it that they weren't interested or that they weren't contacted?

since programs tend to be the ones reaching out, my assessment is that they weren't ready for fbs

(11-03-2021 11:43 AM)All4One Wrote:  

(11-03-2021 11:42 AM)SMUfan Wrote:  If McNeese and UIW are moving (invited) to the WAC, what is stopping them from changing course to CUSA?

Seems McNeese would be interested in being in the same league as La Tech.

Exit fees to the WAC, if it's in their signed contracts.

But they haven't joined yet.

(11-03-2021 11:42 AM)All4One Wrote:  

(11-03-2021 11:27 AM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  Things could change, but Missouri St wasn't interested in CUSA as of 5 days ago per Matt Brown's twitter.

Was it that they weren't interested or that they weren't contacted?

He said it was on Missouri St's end.