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Mountain West?

Good article. Dated afternoon of Jan, 22. Thx.

"Yet, Bison athletic director Matt Larsen said neither he nor university president David Cook has received a call from the MW.:

"And our interest of at least exploring that is as strong as it's ever been."

aMW commissioner Gloria Nevarez was complimentary in March 2025 of the top schools in the FCS but said her conference resisted dipping into that pool of candidates because of uncertainty on whether they would be approved to compete in the FBS.

"FCS has some amazing programs, ones that could come in immediately and be middle of the league, if not higher, and be competitive," Nevarez told NSN last year. "The issue for us right now is that it's a two-year waiting period, and there's significant political headwinds about expanding the membership of FBS. Not adding FCS. More about, 'Hey, how many schools do we have in the FBS, and do we need more?' And so our concern was even if we committed to an FCS now that would be a great match and contribute, in two years if the rules change and they couldn't be a member anymore, our options were available to us to stay FBS and that's where we wanted to stay today.

"Does that change in the future? Maybe. But in this environment, we just didn't know."

North Dakota State is not the only FCS school looking to join the FBS. Sacramento State applied for inclusion and was denied by the NCAA because it did not have a conference to play in. UC Davis is joining the MW in all sports but football in 2026 but investing in that sport and has first right of application among FCS schools looking to join the MW in football. Wyoming athletic director Tom Burman has stumped in favor of the MW adding FCS schools, naming North Dakota State, South Dakota State, Montana State and Montana."
 
CDAGRIZ said:
To cover the cost of additional…meal plans?
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To cover the cost of additional athletic scholarships. To use your previous example, lets say 63 scholarship cost $50 and the AD has $50...all good. Let's say that 105 scholarships cost $75 and the AD has $50...AD need to generate another $25. Scholarships aren't just a paper item, it has actual dollars that must be generated to cover.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
To cover the cost of additional athletic scholarships. To use your previous example, lets say 63 scholarship cost $50 and the AD has $50...all good. Let's say that 105 scholarships cost $75 and the AD has $50...AD need to generate another $25. Scholarships aren't just a paper item, it has actual dollars that must be generated to cover.
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Yes, I didn’t explain my point very well. This is why I suggested they look at how they trade money within the ol’ house coffee can.

Keeping it simple, in your example, MH actually receives the $75 from the AD and puts it in the house coffee can. It “costs” the AD, but it doesn’t cost UM anything because MH receives it. If the AD didn’t pay it, MH wouldn’t receive it, and there would still be no net cash outflow from UM as a whole to the world as a whole.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
Yes, I didn’t explain my point very well. This is why I suggested they look at how they trade money within the ol’ house coffee can.

Keeping it simple, in your example, MH actually receives the $75 from the AD and puts it in the house coffee can. It “costs” the AD, but it doesn’t cost UM anything because MH receives it. If the AD didn’t pay it, MH wouldn’t receive it, and there would still be no net cash outflow from UM as a whole to the world as a whole.
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But that it not how it works. Some where in your scenario there would be a deficit that must be covered, whether by the AD or MH. There are additional costs for more scholarships and it isn't just accounting magic on paper. Not sure there is much more to say on this.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
But that it not how it works. Some where in your scenario there would be a deficit that must be covered, whether by the AD or MH. There are additional costs for more scholarships and it isn't just accounting magic on paper. Not sure there is much more to say on this.
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Yeah, I think we’re just talking past each other because I posed the question of what does a scholarship cost UM, and you are thinking of it in terms of what does it cost the AD.
 
CDAGRIZ said:
Yeah, I think we’re just talking past each other because I posed the question of what does a scholarship cost UM, and you are thinking of it in terms of what does it cost the AD.
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There is a cost no matter whether it falls on the AD or MH. The amount is dictated by the University System and not by UM, so UM needs to account for that in their budget. So it does have a tangible cost for UM.
 
HelenaHandBasket said:
There is a cost no matter whether it falls on the AD or MH. The amount is dictated by the University System and not by UM, so UM needs to account for that in their budget. So it does have a tangible cost for UM.
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So is the cost dictated by the University System an accounting error/bias? Could/should that cost reflect actual costs to UM for an athletic scholarship?

CDA’s original question defining costs (real costs vs subjective costs) still seems to be the great unknown. If the AD has to pay MH $100 for a service that actually costs UM $25 the question seems to be why? The answer shouldn’t be, because this is the way we’ve always done it. Fascinating debate.
 
Ursa Major said:
So is the cost dictated by the University System an accounting error/bias? Could/should that cost reflect actual costs to UM for an athletic scholarship?

CDA’s original question defining costs (real costs vs subjective costs) still seems to be the great unknown. If the AD has to pay MH $100 for a service that actually costs UM $25 the question seems to be why? The answer shouldn’t be, because this is the way we’ve always done it. Fascinating debate.
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Scholarships are booked at full value when they are incremental to the University. Adding 40 scholarships does not require the University to build more buildings or hire more professors.
 
kemajic said:
Scholarships are booked at full value when they are incremental to the University. Adding 40 scholarships does not require the University to build more buildings or hire more professors.
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just hire more coaches and support personnel, increase sports facilities size (locker rooms, etc), increase travel expenses, etc and on and on...
 
The MAC has always seemed like a more natural fit for NDSU as well. I have always wondered why they have been so set on the Mountain West when it seems like the MAC would be a better fit both geographically and culture wise.
 
SoldierGriz said:
They pay no one. Seems there can be no other answer. They certainly don't pay they "university system" that apparently sets the rules.
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Seems like you’re right, but I’ve been assured that additional athletic scholarships would cost UM whatever the university system values them at.

OR

It might just be true that funding additional athletic scholarships won’t actually cost UM as many real dollars as we’ve always been led to believe. 🤷‍♂️
 
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