(09-24-2013 07:34 PM)Bull_In_Exile Wrote:  

(09-23-2013 04:35 PM)bullet Wrote:  

(09-23-2013 04:08 PM)MWC Tex Wrote:  per NCAA president Mark Emmert.

http://espn.go.com/college-sports/story/...oming-ncaa

Sound more like a lean to the split of the FBS conferences and some other conferences (Big East..) that are in line with the issues of the Big Schools from the last paragraph of the article.

"suggests that FBS institutions and conferences that are more closely aligned in issues and athletics resources form a new division."

I read that as more that the P5 form a new division. Basketball conferences, CUSA, MAC, Sun Belt not invited. AAC and MWC possibly not invited as well.

Then you read it wrong.... The FBS schools, all of them, are pretty much aligned on all the issues and 30 million being spent at the top of the MAC is not too far off the bottom of the B1G compared to how far the MEAC is from the MAC

No, the P5 will be driving the bus if this goes through. The G5 and anyone else who goes along for the ride will be just trying to hang on as the P5 keeps increasing the speed of the bus (i.e., the cost of competing).

Here's a quote from the official "D-4" proposal:

Quote:"FBS must be a master of its own fate, particularly with regard to matters of enhancement of the student-athlete experience that depend on increased revenue allocation."

That means paying "stipends" or "full cost of attendance" or Spurrier's suggested "$4,000 a year" or something similar to that. IMO, that will be just one of the new rule changes that will permit everyone to spend more money. They might allow FBS teams to hire more assistant coaches, to hire recruiters who don't have coaching duties, greatly increasing the football and athletic department payrolls. And it means everyone's budget is going up if they want to keep up.

$30 million/year may not be enough to keep up -- and there are schools in every G5 conference and every non-FBS D-I conference that might not be able to spend that much, ever.

They won't force schools out of FBS by kicking them out. They'll just keep increasing the cost of being competitive until athletic departments that are both poor and unsuccessful at football decide to leave FBS.

http://www.vuhoops.com/catholic-7-news-a...ion-i-down

Good writeup on the situation.

There's a comment in the article about all the schools moving up to FBS. There have been large numbers. But I don't see many more doing it. Very few of the remaining schools have the desire, the finances and the potential conference waiting for them.

In the west you have:
Cal-Davis (who I think could be successful eventually)

Cal Poly
Montana
Montana St.
Northern Arizona
(this group probably has Wyoming as their high end)

Sacremento St.
Portland St.
(this group probably has becoming Eastern Michigan as their potential)

Portland and the California schools don't have anywhere near the finances. Northern Arizona hasn't really expressed any interest and Montana has the fallout from the rape problems. Montana St. follows Montana. And with the WAC gone, all would need the MWC to give them a landing spot and I don't see that unless someone like San Jose drops football. Even then they probably go east to Texas.

In the east Villanova is glad they blew their chance and the state schools are more likely to drop scholarships than move up.

In the Midwest you just have the MVC schools. While most of them could be mid-level or better MAC programs if they could put together the finances, the MAC would have to invite them.
Youngstown St.-MAC has said they aren't interested in more Ohio schools
4 Dakota schools and Northern Iowa-MAC isn't likely to go west
S. Illinois-AD in last year or so responded to a question about FBS by saying they were in a lightly populated area that was losing population and couldn't do it.
So that leaves Illinois St. who has been talking about it forever and Missouri St., just two schools (who are better at basketball and baseball than football).

The only place you have the potential for many schools is the south. At some point the CUSA and Sun Belt realize they need to quit creating more competition for recruits and fans.
In the south you do have schools who have or are talking about it:
UTA
Sam Houston
Lamar
UALR
Southern
Jackson St.
Florida A&M
Jacksonville St.
Liberty
James Madison
Delaware
But probably no more than 4-5 of these have anywhere close to the finances needed.

So as long as the rule is in place to limit move-ups to those with conference invites, you won't see more than a half dozen more schools move up. The ones who could pretty much have already.

(10-02-2013 08:50 AM)bullet Wrote:  There's a comment in the article about all the schools moving up to FBS. There have been large numbers. But I don't see many more doing it. Very few of the remaining schools have the desire, the finances and the potential conference waiting for them.

I think if you run the numbers, Division I as a whole has grown faster than I-A/FBS. Even if you play some Enron style accounting, it takes a big investment to go FBS.

To go Division I the investment isn't that bad. Play 14 sports and award half your allowed scholies. A serious Division II program that doesn't play football can move at little cost. A serious Division II program with football that moves to a conference that doesn't award full aid in football can make the move at little cost.

A few years ago Harding University in Arkansas was looking to move Division I but their interest was based on being admitted to a regional basketball league and securing interest in the Pioneer for football, they were basically looking at taking the scholarship savings in football and re-allocating them to pay the travel for a non-scholie football team. Moving in the other sports would have been a near wash but they couldn't get all the pieces together.

The investment for FBS is more significant. Have to award 200 scholies, must play 16 spots, must offer near the full limit in football, must play a minimum number of home games. That really limits the number of schools that can make the move. Additionally with the per conference cap on CFP revenue a potential move-up must offer something more compelling to receive an invite.