MSU Move to FBS

[CDAGRIZ]

Interesting look at it. I don't think either UM or MSU are in a huge rush, but need to be ready when the dominos fall. MSU could add both Men's and Womens Lacrosse (have the field) mens golf. MSU has access to a soccer field (in my opinion) so they could go with womens soccer as well. Softball would be tough, but they could add Hockey for both Men and Women, as they have a facility now, that is being expanded (it is not great, but they are improving it this year, and there is ex-NHL player money coming in). I think it has more to do with the amount that NIL and coaching salaries for the main sports would need to get to. That is a LOT.

Are you saying MSU has a hockey facility, or that there is a rink in town that operates independently of the university?

 

[SACCAT66]

Are you saying MSU has a hockey facility, or that there is a rink in town that operates independently of the university?

Rink that MSU club Hockey plays in. It operates independently. It is not on campus.

 

[LivingstonNative]

I heard the hockey team plays on that frozen cesspool, near the football stadium. That will definitely need an upgrade.

 

[Skookum-Jim]

Rink that MSU club Hockey plays in. It operates independently. It is not on campus.

NCAA men's hockey would be a really expensive sport to add. Very few teams west of the Mississippi, making travel difficult. The club team has been the beneficiary of the exclusion of avanced junior players allowed to play in the NCAA, forcing many of them into the ACHA. But that rule is now gone so it will be interesting to see how that affects the cats and griz club hockey roster.

 

[Copper Griz]

While I fully recognize this as nothing more than a thinly veiled (and horrible) trolling attempt, I'm going to nonetheless answer your question:

Well after Montana moves FBS.

The reality is that msu is considerably behind UM in readiness. Consider:

MSU would need significant (and costly) expansion and upgrades to RHS. UM already has the capacity necessary.

Absolutely NO FBS conference is taking a school without soccer and softball. So msu would need to build these programs -- not to mention fund and build the facilities!! -- from scratch. Ouch.

Both departments would likely need to add programs, but UM can easily -- and with extremely minimal costs -- add women's lacrosse (field is already there on the south campus), men's soccer (again, field) mens golf, and if need be, women's swimming and diving. What is msu going to add that doesn't come with an enormous facilities price tag? They have zero facilities for additional sports.

Very well stated. I also think it is tragic that people have no comprehension of what we are headed for as a nation. Take party affiliation out of it. Our national debt has ballooned to crisis levels. We haven’t had a recession in how many years? College athletics will be considered a luxury at some point and when the $$’s dry up there will be gnashing of teeth and crying for miles and miles and miles. U of M is very well positioned for the long game. Not a ton of debt. Solid facilities and slow growth. The world is changing rapidly. College athletics will not be insulated from those changes.

 

[grizfnz]

NCAA men's hockey would be a really expensive sport to add. Very few teams west of the Mississippi, making travel difficult. The club team has been the beneficiary of the exclusion of avanced junior players allowed to play in the NCAA, forcing many of them into the ACHA. But that rule is now gone so it will be interesting to see how that affects the cats and griz club hockey roster.

I trust Seatacat on this subject, the man knows his hockey….maybe not so much when it comes to financial engineering not being recognized as an actual “Engineering” degree

 

[SinCityGriz2005]

NCAA men's hockey would be a really expensive sport to add. Very few teams west of the Mississippi, making travel difficult. The club team has been the beneficiary of the exclusion of avanced junior players allowed to play in the NCAA, forcing many of them into the ACHA. But that rule is now gone so it will be interesting to see how that affects the cats and griz club hockey roster.

Air Force; Arizona State; Colorado College, University of Denver, North Dakota; Augustana, University of Alaska, Bemidji State, the various University of Minnesota programs (more or less on the Mississippi line) University of Nebraska - Omaha, St Cloud.

Let's not even get into the Division 2 hockey teams. JUST west of the Mississippi there are 12 teams. IF you want to include the ACHA teams there are even more.

 

[UncleRico]

Air Force; Arizona State; Colorado College, University of Denver, North Dakota; Augustana, University of Alaska, Bemidji State, the various University of Minnesota programs (more or less on the Mississippi line) University of Nebraska - Omaha, St Cloud.

Let's not even get into the Division 2 hockey teams. JUST west of the Mississippi there are 12 teams. IF you want to include the ACHA teams there are even more.

Hockey is not a MHSA sport. Which I think should matter if Montana High School graduates want a least a shot at playing at UM. Baseball is now a MHSA sport so I think that or wrestling would be the logical sports to add.

 

[AZGrizFan]

While I fully recognize this as nothing more than a thinly veiled (and horrible) trolling attempt, I'm going to nonetheless answer your question:

Well after Montana moves FBS.

The reality is that msu is considerably behind UM in readiness. Consider:

MSU would need significant (and costly) expansion and upgrades to RHS. UM already has the capacity necessary.

Absolutely NO FBS conference is taking a school without soccer and softball. So msu would need to build these programs -- not to mention fund and build the facilities!! -- from scratch. Ouch.

Both departments would likely need to add programs, but UM can easily -- and with extremely minimal costs -- add women's lacrosse (field is already there on the south campus), men's soccer (again, field) mens golf, and if need be, women's swimming and diving. What is msu going to add that doesn't come with an enormous facilities price tag? They have zero facilities for additional sports.

OK…clue us in…when did UM drop men’s golf?

 

[Hells bells]

While I fully recognize this as nothing more than a thinly veiled (and horrible) trolling attempt, I'm going to nonetheless answer your question:

Well after Montana moves FBS.

The reality is that msu is considerably behind UM in readiness. Consider:

MSU would need significant (and costly) expansion and upgrades to RHS. UM already has the capacity necessary.

Absolutely NO FBS conference is taking a school without soccer and softball. So msu would need to build these programs -- not to mention fund and build the facilities!! -- from scratch. Ouch.

Both departments would likely need to add programs, but UM can easily -- and with extremely minimal costs -- add women's lacrosse (field is already there on the south campus), men's soccer (again, field) men's golf, and if need be, women's swimming and diving. What is msu going to add that doesn't come with an enormous facilities price tag? They have zero facilities for additional sports.

I doubt both schools are ready to move up.
Lets face it, if MSU and UM would move up next season, both football stadiums would be at the bottom regarding attendance/capacity. What drives the attendance is playoff football and the chance at a title. I highly doubt this occurs if MSU and UM move up to the Mountain West.
Also, i honestly forget which thread this was in - but are both schools prepared for an additional $8 million dollars in expenditures?
As is, the FBS seems to be in the middle of craziness (Stanford is in the ACC, I highly doubt that San Francisco is anywhere near the Atlantic Ocean). I hope both schools do not want to be in the middle of it.

(edit - a couple of typos)

 

[Hells bells]

besides - it is fun having both schools dominate the Big Sky

 

[EverettGriz]

OK…clue us in…when did UM drop men’s golf?

 

[alabamagrizzly]

OK…clue us in…when did UM drop men’s golf?

Shortly after wrestling.

 

[PhxGriz]

This is the most sensible FBS move post I have read in a while. There are other types of sports that could be added along with Softball and Soccer. Hockey??? UM already has competitive Men's AND Women's teams in place that compete in the ACHA. There is a rink in place, support in place a fanbase in place. That would be easiest sport to add AND there is a ton of competition that is already in place with other schools. Add women's swimming, because we already have a pool, and there you go! MSU has a Hockey teams as well, those would be very easy to convert to scholarship sports.

Could we add wrestling back?

I ask because years ago when I was cycling, we had a guy who used to wrestle for UM and then took up triathlons when wrestling went away. That guy would get so pissed because he wasn't the best immediately. Loved that guy for his fire.

 

[alabamagrizzly]

Could we add wrestling back?

I ask because years ago when I was cycling, we had a guy who used to wrestle for UM and then took up triathlons when wrestling went away. That guy would get so pissed because he wasn't the best immediately. Loved that guy for his fire.

Wrestlers are usually very self driven.

 

[Flowtowngriz72]

I doubt both schools are ready to move up.
Lets face it, if MSU and UM would move up next season, both football stadiums would be at the bottom regarding attendance/capacity. What drives the attendance is playoff football and the chance at a title. I highly doubt this occurs if MSU and UM move up to the Mountain West.
Also, i honestly forget which thread this was in - but are both schools prepared for an additional $8 million dollars in expenditures?
As is, the FBS seems to be in the middle of craziness (Stanford is in the ACC, I highly doubt that San Francisco is anywhere near the Atlantic Ocean). I hope both schools do not want to be in the middle of it.

(edit - a couple of typos)

How is the playoffs the reason we sell out games. Not saying winning helps but if the the playoffs were so important. The playoff games themselves would be sold-out, but they sell sell only half to a third of the stadium. Unless it is the semifinal game. We know we are making the playoffs unless we shit the bed. It is a 99% chance to make it. Specially how the FCS is getting more watered down.
We are celebrating a home and home game with a team that just started a football team a couple years ago. We celebrate division 2 teams that moved up a few years ago. Not saying we need to move up, but we need to accept that we play in a third tier of football. Kinda like class B football in state. Us moving to D2 isn't much of competitive difference. Right now the FCS is a 3 or 4 team race. Not saying a out layer can win but if I had to bet my house on who is making the natty. I would only consider 3 or 4 teams.

But please dont say we sell out because of the playoffs. We would sell out for a chance to win the mountian west championship, as much. Plus play more competitive teams. Right now we should win 10 to 12 games. If we dont them we feel the wheels is coming off the wagon. Only fair weather fans want us to play a schedule that we almost guarantee 10 win seasons.
Hey we can go backwards but then we should stay. I always want to move forward and sometimes moving forward is hard work and risky. If we decided to play it safe. We deserve what we get. Playing in the basically class B football that only people give a shit are the ones who live class B. Shit division 2 dont give a shit about us like we give a shit about fbs. That is because fbs is the best of the best of college football.
Sorry about the rant but I am so tired people think that griz football is so special that we should worship it. It is average to below average college football. Yes we love our team but outside montana nobody gives a shit. If state want to move up. I would support them even if it leaves us behind. At least someone has the balls to take a risk. But we all know we are tied at the hip.

Go GRIZ. Montana is not for the timid and the weak. Most of the posters who want to stay are timid and weak.

 

[EverettGriz]

How is the playoffs the reason we sell out games. Not saying winning helps but if the the playoffs were so important. The playoff games themselves would be sold-out, but they sell sell only half to a third of the stadium. Unless it is the semifinal game. We know we are making the playoffs unless we shit the bed. It is a 99% chance to make it. Specially how the FCS is getting more watered down.
We are celebrating a home and home game with a team that just started a football team a couple years ago. We celebrate division 2 teams that moved up a few years ago. Not saying we need to move up, but we need to accept that we play in a third tier of football. Kinda like class B football in state. Us moving to D2 isn't much of competitive difference. Right now the FCS is a 3 or 4 team race. Not saying a out layer can win but if I had to bet my house on who is making the natty. I would only consider 3 or 4 teams.

But please dont say we sell out because of the playoffs. We would sell out for a chance to win the mountian west championship, as much. Plus play more competitive teams. Right now we should win 10 to 12 games. If we dont them we feel the wheels is coming off the wagon. Only fair weather fans want us to play a schedule that we almost guarantee 10 win seasons.
Hey we can go backwards but then we should stay. I always want to move forward and sometimes moving forward is hard work and risky. If we decided to play it safe. We deserve what we get. Playing in the basically class B football that only people give a shit are the ones who live class B. Shit division 2 dont give a shit about us like we give a shit about fbs. That is because fbs is the best of the best of college football.
Sorry about the rant but I am so tired people think that griz football is so special that we should worship it. It is average to below average college football. Yes we love our team but outside montana nobody gives a shit. If state want to move up. I would support them even if it leaves us behind. At least someone has the balls to take a risk. But we all know we are tied at the hip.

Go GRIZ. Montana is not for the timid and the weak. Most of the posters who want to stay are timid and weak.

The bolded areas are key. I'd be very curious to see a pole of out of staters vs in staters regarding their opinion on an FBS move. People in Montana -- I believe -- have an oversized idea of how important Montana (and the fcs in general) is on the national landscape. It's not their fault; they're in the middle of it so it makes sense. But for those of us removed, we really truly see that the fcs is 3rd tier, and few if any know about it.

 

[Allezchat]

I think the bigger issue that he pointed out is that the MSU facilities just don't even exist at all. They would need to be built, and that would take years.

As an example, their Indoor Practice Facility started the approval process back in 2017, so it took 8 years from start to finish.

There is a lacross field. There may not be a ton of seating but it has a scoreboard and is new within probably the last 5/6 years?

Golf. Thats easy if either school has women's gold then they can have men's golf.

Hockey. Both schools would need to build an arena.

Bobcat stadium has a larger capacity than an FBS school needs to have. Could it be bigger? Yes.

Soccer. MSU still owns land close to the school that isnt developed. I just can't imagine it take long to build some stands and locker rooms. Same with Softball.

Where is the UM lacrosse field just out of curiosity? I haven't been past it though the soccer field and softball field I haven't driven past either.

I would be a huge fan of both schools adding wrestling. I didn't realize what a huge sport it was. I'm kind of dating this girl who's kids wrestle and have learned how its scored and actually enjoy watching it. Can you imagine a Cat/griz dual? The atmosphere would be freaking electric!

 

[alabamagrizzly]

Can you imagine a Cat/griz dual? The atmosphere would be freaking electric!

This.