This would be less embarrassing than the current WAC getting upgraded to FBS.


At least the MVC is the dominant FCS conference.

The MVFC should have taken the WAC up on the offer a decade ago. Even the inconvenience of Seattle and Idaho being in the league would have likely ended, as Idaho likely still would have gone FCS, and the Summit League would have likely picked up Seattle out of necessity (no NDSU, SDSU, or USD) if not the Big Sky (no UND, although they would later move to the Summit/MVFC).

WAC-MVFC (2013): Idaho, NMSU, Missouri State, Northern Iowa, NDSU, SDSU, SIU, USD, Illinois State, Denver*, Seattle*, Wichita State*

Summit: WIU, Chicago State, Omaha, UTPA, Utah Valley, UMKC, CSU Bakersfield, Grand Canyon

MVC: Bradley, Drake, Evansville, Loyola (IL), Valparaiso, Oakland, Milwaukee, Cleveland State, Indiana State, Detroit Mercy

Horizon: Green Bay, UIC, Youngstown State, Wright State, IUPUI, IPFW, Northern Kentucky, Morehead State

Idaho eventually downgrades and is replaced by North Dakota. Seattle also departs the WAC and joins the Summit. WIU replaces Morehead State in the OVC.

(08-03-2022 06:10 PM)Poster Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 03:23 PM)Hootyhoo Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 02:08 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  The schools that want to be FBS become FB only members of C-USA while others like WIU, Indiana St., SIU?, YSU? either drop FB-- go to the OVC (FB affiliate) or some other FCS league.

New C-USA with 16-20 members ; the MVC folks would be FB only. NORTH-SOUTH DIVISIONS.

Murray St. remains FB only in OVC.

Probably only 6-8 teams would want to move up.

Why would CUSA want football only members? If they did, isn't UConn the one to go get? They're a former power conference school with a giant budget.

UCONN lost money on the fricking Fiesta Bowl because they couldn’t sell their ticket allotment. If you can’t even get your fans to go to the Fiesta Bowl, I can’t imagine your football team will be profitable to any conference.

North Dakota State fans are diehard and they do travel. It is just like Boise State fans travel, and they went to Dallas for Boise State to take on Boston College, and they sold more tickets than Boston College did. But, the game was canceled, and Boise State lost that bowl oppertunity.

If anything I'd hope they'd invite Montana and MSU, could even flesh it out with some more Big Sky or ASUN/WAC schools

(08-03-2022 11:23 AM)Shox Wrote:  FBS MVFC
SDSU
NDSU
UNI
Illinois State
SIU
Missouri State
Youngstown State

My expansion candidate list:
-Montana
-Montana State
-North Dakota
-South Dakota *Upgrade Facilities*
-Central Arkansas

Could break it up into Divisions:

WEST
Montana, MSU, NDSU, SDSU, UND, SD
STATES:( MT, ND, SD)

EAST
UNI, MSU, UCA, Illinois State, SIU, Youngstown State
STATES:( IA, AK, IL, OH, MO)

Gives you a Conference with the biggest brands remaining in FCS and multiple time zones for TV.

I've said form "CUSA North Division":
CUSA gets DI members to keep their conference status during their transitions; the six get an FBS invite.
The six would be Montanas, xDSUs, UxDs.
Seventh would be Idaho because they wouldn't want BSC w/o Montanas. But neither would EWU.

Given the State of Illinois' budgetary woes and declining enrollments, I'm hard-pressed to see any Illinois school make the jump.

(08-05-2022 04:49 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  I've said form "CUSA North Division":
CUSA gets DI members to keep their conference status during their transitions; the six get an FBS invite.
The six would be Montanas, xDSUs, UxDs.
Seventh would be Idaho because they wouldn't want BSC w/o Montanas. But neither would EWU.

Given the State of Illinois' budgetary woes and declining enrollments, I'm hard-pressed to see any Illinois school make the jump.

I'm thinking you'll see a UTEP/NMSU/Idaho/Montana/Montana St/NDSU/SDSU mass exodus to the MWC if the PAC-12 gets down to 2 and raids the MWC.

(08-05-2022 04:53 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  ... if the PAC-12 gets down to 2 ...

If the PAC gets down to two, the MWC will consume WasSU and OrSU and it'll be done.

(08-05-2022 04:49 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  CUSA gets DI members to keep their conference status during their transitions

But CUSA already has that. This isn't a selling point if it isn't something needed.

(08-05-2022 04:56 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 04:53 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  ... if the PAC-12 gets down to 2 ...

If the PAC gets down to two, the MWC will consume WasSU and OrSU and it'll be done.

PAC is one of 5 conferences with autonomy, so G5 schools will be lining up to join for that reason. Plus the PAC's NCAA credits.

(08-05-2022 04:49 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  I've said form "CUSA North Division":
CUSA gets DI members to keep their conference status during their transitions; the six get an FBS invite.
The six would be Montanas, xDSUs, UxDs.
Seventh would be Idaho because they wouldn't want BSC w/o Montanas. But neither would EWU.

Given the State of Illinois' budgetary woes and declining enrollments, I'm hard-pressed to see any Illinois school make the jump.

The state itself has been discussing how to work on having a second public Big Ten school, like Michigan and Indiana have. The only real candidate to do so is Illinois State, since UIC doesn't have football, and it would take a lot of work both athletically and academically to get them where they need to be. I think if the state felt like it had the chance, it'd find the resources to nudge them along.

Maybe they'll get a hair up their butts and try to push UIC to have FBS football. Soldier Field's about to be empty, after all. More than likely nothing will happen, but finding a second public to groom for B1G membership has been talked about.

(08-03-2022 04:15 PM)inutech Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 04:00 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 03:23 PM)Hootyhoo Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 02:08 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  The schools that want to be FBS become FB only members of C-USA while others like WIU, Indiana St., SIU?, YSU? either drop FB-- go to the OVC (FB affiliate) or some other FCS league.

New C-USA with 16-20 members ; the MVC folks would be FB only. NORTH-SOUTH DIVISIONS.

Murray St. remains FB only in OVC.

Probably only 6-8 teams would want to move up.

Why would CUSA want football only members? If they did, isn't UConn the one to go get? They're a former power conference school with a giant budget.

I know C-USA wants Missouri State in there. They would be a logical target.
Youngstown State does have an FBS size stadium already.
Getting MVFC schools committe to FBS might be enough for Western Kentucky to stay longer.

Why? Why would WKU prefer to stick around to play with a bunch more FCS call-ups with worse geography across the board over the MAC that they want to join now (over a league with many issues, but still better than that same group of schools plus a bunch more FCS call-ups).

It doesn't follow.

As for UConn, I don't want them either for football only. But they'd be the one school that might not be a net loss in conference media payout.

I never understood this either. The MAC does not need to expand. How would the MAC benefit by adding UCONN FB only? They wouldn't. How would UCONN benefit? Stability, bowl tie-ins guaranteed schedule. They don't need the money.

UCONN FB only with a mens and womens BB scheduling agreement? YES.
UCONN FB only? HELL NO!

Same applies to UMASS but to a far lesser extent.

(08-05-2022 04:56 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 04:53 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  ... if the PAC-12 gets down to 2 ...

If the PAC gets down to two, the MWC will consume WasSU and OrSU and it'll be done.

It also depends on how quick the Pac pulls the trigger after each departure. If the schools leave one or two at a time, and the Pac immediately reloads, they could theoretically strip the MWC down to two schools.

The best case scenario for the MVFC members looking to upgrade would be if two Front Range schools were left holding the bag. I would expect Missouri State, Northern Iowa, and the four Dakota schools to be the only semi-realistic candidates. UTEP and NMSU likely would join them.

(08-05-2022 06:51 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 04:56 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 04:53 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  ... if the PAC-12 gets down to 2 ...

If the PAC gets down to two, the MWC will consume WasSU and OrSU and it'll be done.

PAC is one of 5 conferences with autonomy, so G5 schools will be lining up to join for that reason. Plus the PAC's NCAA credits.

I think dissolution is still in play on the PAC.

The way the BIG is going about this, it could even be an objective.

(08-03-2022 06:10 PM)Poster Wrote:  ...
UCONN lost money on the fricking Fiesta Bowl because they couldn’t sell their ticket allotment. If you can’t even get your fans to go to the Fiesta Bowl, I can’t imagine your football team will be profitable to any conference.

It could be that they did get most of their football fans to go to the Fiesta Bowl ... which would mean that "most of their football fans" is not enough to sell out the Fiesta Bowl ticket commitment.

(08-03-2022 06:10 PM)Poster Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 03:23 PM)Hootyhoo Wrote:  

(08-03-2022 02:08 PM)TOPSTRAIGHT Wrote:  The schools that want to be FBS become FB only members of C-USA while others like WIU, Indiana St., SIU?, YSU? either drop FB-- go to the OVC (FB affiliate) or some other FCS league.

New C-USA with 16-20 members ; the MVC folks would be FB only. NORTH-SOUTH DIVISIONS.

Murray St. remains FB only in OVC.

Probably only 6-8 teams would want to move up.

Why would CUSA want football only members? If they did, isn't UConn the one to go get? They're a former power conference school with a giant budget.

UCONN lost money on the fricking Fiesta Bowl because they couldn’t sell their ticket allotment. If you can’t even get your fans to go to the Fiesta Bowl, I can’t imagine your football team will be profitable to any conference.

Uconn actually had many fans at the Fiesta Bowl, most bought their tickets else where because the ones sold by Uconn were too high priced.

(08-05-2022 05:08 PM)inutech Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 04:49 PM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  CUSA gets DI members to keep their conference status during their transitions

But CUSA already has that. This isn't a selling point if it isn't something needed.

CUSA keeps wobbling membership and getting dangerously close to below threshold. Getting a larger group together lends stability.

(08-05-2022 06:51 PM)IWokeUpLikeThis Wrote:  PAC is one of 5 conferences with autonomy, so G5 schools will be lining up to join for that reason. Plus the PAC's NCAA credits.

In a two left in the PAC scenario, will they retain autonomy?

In a two left in the PAC scenario, will it be two or zero (meaning the PAC dissolves and divests the credits).

(08-05-2022 09:37 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  I never understood this either.

The MAC is happy being a relatively (by today's standards: very) tight footprint and being able to bus to 80% plus of conference events.

If they expanded it'd be after Youngstown State got it's act together or if a bridge from Ohio to Buffalo was ready (looking at you Bobby Mo*, or Mercyhurst.)


*Robert Morris

(08-05-2022 11:10 PM)Big 12 fan too Wrote:  The way the BIG is going about this, it could even be an objective.

Quietly moving to subvert, destroy, another conference would be quite the arrogant flex.

Oh. Wait. B1G.
Nevermind.

(08-06-2022 08:16 AM)The Sicatoka Wrote:  

(08-05-2022 09:37 PM)THUNDERStruck73 Wrote:  I never understood this either.

The MAC is happy being a relatively (by today's standards: very) tight footprint and being able to bus to 80% plus of conference events.

If they expanded it'd be after Youngstown State got it's act together or if a bridge from Ohio to Buffalo was ready (looking at you Bobby Mo*, or Mercyhurst.)


*Robert Morris

Some of the posts in this thread, including the OP, are quite comical. I don't think some of you realize the immense cost of moving up from FCS (63-scholarship football) to FBS (85-scholarship football).

The MAC plays 85-scholarship football while the MVFC plays 63-scholarship football. The MAC has considered expanding to 14 schools, but it will only do so with schools that fit its university profile and increase/enhance its current ESPN media rights deal set to expire in 2026-27.

Western Kentucky is one such school, but the MAC must find another school to pair with WKU that appeals to the MAC Presidents. MTSU makes sense, so does UMass for all sports. Army West Point as a football affiliate also makes sense. Beyond that, if you had to consider an FCS school that fits the MAC profile, extends the footprint, has the budget, desire and a football facilities upgrade plan, then Missouri State makes sense, too.

I'm confident the MAC will expand to 14 members NLT 2025 in time to negotiate a new and expanded media rights deal.