First off, I’ll be (1) surprised if there’s a 12th game, and (2) if it happens, it’ll be a NAIA school. Or freaking Lincoln College again.
Since the GNAC no longer sponsors football and it’s down to Central Washington and Western Oregon playing football in the Lone Star Conference, moving down a division really isn’t an option. That would kill the money games as much as anything.
Portland State football is good for one media stunt per year, meanwhile, you can get traffic reports going to Eugene for UO home game days, not to mention that the Portland area’s highest profile employer was born of UO and isn’t shy about letting you know it.
Meanwhile, when my daughter went to PSU, she would all but hint that there’s practically a shaming campaign among students towards people who actually go to games, or at least they laugh because it’s hard to find friends who are going. Or… I was the target of the shaming campaign, and otherwise students are too busy trying to afford to live in Portland and go to school to waste time going to games. The result is the kids in the athletic department constitute the student section for all the games and really get into it. But that’s about it. PSU has a chicken & egg problem.
