getgrizzy said:teams like tcu, utah and boise state got onto the national scene by being able to win lots of games against mediocre teams. they were able to do that because they were in mediocre to poor conferences. don't hold your breath waiting for utah to win the pac12 or tcu bring home the big 12 title. bsu has a chance to make some noise in the big east, but they need to do it before they get put on probation, which will taint their successes. the big schools and conferences are working to eliminate them from ever playing in a meaningful game. by the time we (heaven forbid) move up that window will be closed forever. the best we can hope for is the ncaa to create a third subdivision between fbs and fcs.
we'll be a jumping off point even if we move up. we know this because other fbs schools in the mwc, mac, wac, cusa, lower level bcs confernce schools are also jumping off points. there are about 30 schools that aren't jumping off points. we'll never be one of those. the only differeence will be that we're a jumping off point to unlv, wyoming, wsu, utah state right now, and we'll be a jumping off point for usc, nd, texas, ou, florida, bama, lsu, osu, michigan if we move up. those schools don't have much more luck retaining coaches than we do.
What probation for BSU? Are you talking the sleeping on couches bs? We are already under the penalties for that. If you are talking anything else then you are spreading fiction. As for the weaker conferences in FBS, you play who you can schedule. If you think it was a walk in the park then you are mistaken or don't watch any football above FCS. A third subdivision only creates a glass ceiling to limit programs not considered "elite." The Iowa States, North Carolina States, Northwesterns, Mississippies, and Washington States of the big conferences have benefited from being included in the "elite" without putting much effert into their programs. The current division of FBS and FCS fits the money and effort that schools are willing to invest in their programs. Another level is about the control of the money, not any real separation in the competition level. Another level would also likely force Montana to move up since the attention paid to FCS likely be dropped to the next level down. That would cause you to invest in athletics even if you didn't want to. How many Division II games does anyone but student fans and alumni pay attention to? Our success at BSU in other sports is not limited we do very well with our resources although our BBall programs are in the process of improving to a level we like a lot better. How often does Montana and BSU meet anymore to have a chance at comparison? You are 100% correct that BSU would pull all their sports into the same conference once the opportunity arose because it just make sense to have everything in the same conference. I also think this new rumored division could possibly create more problems for the "elite" than solve since it is obvious their intent. It would be sweet justice to have all teams from the newly created lower divisions refuse to play their inflated ranked members. Then they would actually have to prove themselves instead of saving the efforts for their top tier opponents.