tourist said:
IdaGriz01 said:
Here's a question to ponder: Would a non-compliant school be willing to take the "humiliation" of moving to FCS ... or would it just drop football and add some other (surely less expensive) sport to retain their D-I status?
Ask Idaho.
Only a partial answer. The Vandals were one of the original 1-AA/FCS programs, when the subdivision started in 1978. They at least return to some “history.”
A look at the other bottom-ten attendance programs (like
Idaho, under 15,000) is very interesting:
Ball State (with the worst 2017 attendance) does have some non-FBS history, with stints as a junior college, at D-II, and some 1-AA.
Akron (4th worst) had six years at D-II and eight years as a 1AA program.
Louisana-Monroe spent 11 years as part of the Southland Conference and even won a 1AA Nattie (1987) before moving up to FBS.
Massachusetts was another “founding” member of the 1AA subdivision and played in three championship games (winning once) before moving up in 2012.
Thus, all of these programs can at least look back to some significant time at the 1AA/FCS level. But fans of programs on the rest of the list would surely see a “retreat” to FCS as a major come-down:
Florida Atlantic started its football program in 2001. They only competed at the FCS level for three seasons, knowing it was just a necessary stepping stone to FBS.
Charlotte restarted its football program in 2013 and, like Fla. Atlantic, had a quick timetable to full FBS … in 2015.
The other three programs –
Northern Illinois, New Mexico State and
Kent State – have all been D-1 since 1966 or even before. So, they have zero history with 1AA/FCS.