New Mexico State Hires Firm to Land Football Conference

[SWeberCat02]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

 

[SWeberCat02]

We don't need another football only school. The conference gave Poly and Davis a huge gift by allowing them to park their football program here. But when it comes to returning the favor by scheduling some basketball games with conference members they are no where to be found. Basketball scheduling is an impossible nightmare. Weber has 5 non-conference home games and 4 are non-D1. If NMSU would bring all sports they would be a great addition, especially considering they have a very strong basketball program. And God knows, the conference could use some serious help in the hoops department.

 

[mcg]

I doubt they would go FCS.

NMSU just signed a deal with the New Mexico Bowl for an auto-bid. With a lucrative deal like that these guys are going nowhere.

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

I doubt they would go FCS.

And their only chance for an FBS alignment would be with the Mountain West and that doesn't look probable. Forming a new conf. in the southwest would appear to be the charter of the consultant. Long shot.

Perfect...they can take Southern Utah, Northern Colorado, Sac State, UC Davis, and Cal Poly with them. Solve both of our problems.

 

[IdaGriz01]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

You make many good points. One answer: With a separate conference, a team could easily fill many of the 5-6 "open dates" with games that would now be OOC ... and would involve no really long travel.

But to your auto-bid point: From 2013 thru 2018, the Big South had only 6 teams ... but they still got an auto-bid. In fact, in 2017, a conference team got an at-large bid (Monmouth, BTW). Only this year has the Big South gone to 8 teams (with the official addition of North Alabama and Campbell.

The NEC had 7 teams up until this year ... and got an auto-bid. Same with the Patriot, which had just 7 members from from 2103 thru 2017.

Bottom line: The NCAA seems to have no problem with giving an auto-bid to a conference with just 6 or 7 members.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

Too difficult? We’d fill them with the same teams we play NOW, they’d just be from a different conference. Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp?

 

[AZGrizFan]

In my opinion, splitting the conference does solve the issues. You'd finally have the same conference schedule every year with a round-robin format like we had a decade ago, and you'd also have options to fill in the non-conference schedule with the other half of teams that were once part of the main conference. I'd love to hear your thoughts on why you don't think splitting the conference would solve anything.

You still don't have everyone play everyone, so schedules are still unbalanced. How do you determine playoff AQ if they don't play during the season? And just for CDA, you can still have teams play other conference teams in OOC play. It will not ultimately solve the issues, it will just make them different. IMO, the only real way to fix it, it for the BSC to get smaller.

Are you understanding "splitting" the conference like I am? Splitting? As in, two DIFFERENT conferences? Wouldn't that then allow each conference to schedule all the teams in their respective conference and fill in each year with available slots across the country (including those with teams that used to be IN the BSC?)

Most people talk about splitting a conference into 2 divisions, not breaking up the Conference into 2 separate Conferences. My take on the 2 separate Conferences, I struggle to see it happen, just for the fact that you could never get enough schools to agree who stays and who goes? And even if they did want to split, they would never do it without a guaranteed spot in the playoffs, which is probably a more difficult proposition than you would want to believe.

Well if it was easy a caveman could do it...

 

[SWeberCat02]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

Too difficult? We’d fill them with the same teams we play NOW, they’d just be from a different conference. Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp?

You think it would be easy getting 14 schools to figure out how to schedule up to 5 or 6 non-conference games vs each other? Not to mention scheduling these games around FBS games (that no one is going to give up), and other games with other FCS conference schools that programs and fans like to see scheduled.

 

[EverettGriz]

Eventually, and I predict sooner rather than later, there will be successful litigation against the NCAA's prohibition of teams moving to the FBS level without conference affiliation. At that point, there will be another conference restructuring, and that's when Montana, ndsu, and anyone else in a position to do so will move to the FBS level.

 

[SWeberCat02]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

You make many good points. One answer: With a separate conference, a team could easily fill many of the 5-6 "open dates" with games that would now be OOC ... and would involve no really long travel.

But to your auto-bid point: From 2013 thru 2018, the Big South had only 6 teams ... but they still got an auto-bid. In fact, in 2017, a conference team got an at-large bid (Monmouth, BTW). Only this year has the Big South gone to 8 teams (with the official addition of North Alabama and Campbell.

The NEC had 7 teams up until this year ... and got an auto-bid. Same with the Patriot, which had just 7 members from from 2103 thru 2017.

Bottom line: The NCAA seems to have no problem with giving an auto-bid to a conference with just 6 or 7 members.

If that's the case I'd take a 7 team conference with an auto-bid over the mess we have now. My wish list would be WSU, UM, MSU, ISU, UI, EWU, and NAU. That would be a very good football conference.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

Too difficult? We’d fill them with the same teams we play NOW, they’d just be from a different conference. Why is that such a difficult concept to grasp?

You think it would be easy getting 14 schools to figure out how to schedule up to 5 or 6 non-conference games vs each other? Not to mention scheduling these games around FBS games (that no one is going to give up), and other games with other FCS conference schools that programs and fans like to see scheduled.

I’m confused. It’s not like schools are being added or removed. The same schools will exist, just be in a different conference. I’m not sure where the problem lies.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

You make many good points. One answer: With a separate conference, a team could easily fill many of the 5-6 "open dates" with games that would now be OOC ... and would involve no really long travel.

But to your auto-bid point: From 2013 thru 2018, the Big South had only 6 teams ... but they still got an auto-bid. In fact, in 2017, a conference team got an at-large bid (Monmouth, BTW). Only this year has the Big South gone to 8 teams (with the official addition of North Alabama and Campbell.

The NEC had 7 teams up until this year ... and got an auto-bid. Same with the Patriot, which had just 7 members from from 2103 thru 2017.

Bottom line: The NCAA seems to have no problem with giving an auto-bid to a conference with just 6 or 7 members.

If that's the case I'd take a 7 team conference with an auto-bid over the mess we have now. My wish list would be WSU, UM, MSU, ISU, UI, EWU, and NAU. That would be a very good football conference.

Nope. Swap out NAU with PSU and you got yourself the PNW Conference. NAU is a huge outlier in your geography. another option would be UNC and call it the Big Sky Conference (unique, I know).

 

[SWeberCat02]

Splitting the conference into two divisions would bring it's own problems and doesn't really solve the problem of being too big. But, there are not enough teams to split into two separate conferences. The conference currently has 13 teams and adding NMSU would make it 14. Conferences of 7 teams are too small. After playing a full conference schedule you are left with 5-6 open dates. That would be very difficult to fill every season. And would the NCAA give auto bids to conferences of only 7 teams? To even have a chance to make two separate conferences work you'd need to add at least 3 more schools, and ideally 5 more. Dixie St and San Diego are the only other teams in the west that you could add. And San Diego is non-scholly and Dixie St is transitioning from D2, so neither of them are good options. Unfortunately the best solution of dropping 4 teams (Poly, Davis who are football only, and UNC and SUU who suck) isn't going to happen so learn to live with the current format.

You make many good points. One answer: With a separate conference, a team could easily fill many of the 5-6 "open dates" with games that would now be OOC ... and would involve no really long travel.

But to your auto-bid point: From 2013 thru 2018, the Big South had only 6 teams ... but they still got an auto-bid. In fact, in 2017, a conference team got an at-large bid (Monmouth, BTW). Only this year has the Big South gone to 8 teams (with the official addition of North Alabama and Campbell.

The NEC had 7 teams up until this year ... and got an auto-bid. Same with the Patriot, which had just 7 members from from 2103 thru 2017.

Bottom line: The NCAA seems to have no problem with giving an auto-bid to a conference with just 6 or 7 members.

If that's the case I'd take a 7 team conference with an auto-bid over the mess we have now. My wish list would be WSU, UM, MSU, ISU, UI, EWU, and NAU. That would be a very good football conference.

Nope. Swap out NAU with PSU and you got yourself the PNW Conference. NAU is a huge outlier in your geography. another option would be UNC and call it the Big Sky Conference (unique, I know).

Nope. My wish list, not yours.

 

[AZGrizFan]

You make many good points. One answer: With a separate conference, a team could easily fill many of the 5-6 "open dates" with games that would now be OOC ... and would involve no really long travel.

But to your auto-bid point: From 2013 thru 2018, the Big South had only 6 teams ... but they still got an auto-bid. In fact, in 2017, a conference team got an at-large bid (Monmouth, BTW). Only this year has the Big South gone to 8 teams (with the official addition of North Alabama and Campbell.

The NEC had 7 teams up until this year ... and got an auto-bid. Same with the Patriot, which had just 7 members from from 2103 thru 2017.

Bottom line: The NCAA seems to have no problem with giving an auto-bid to a conference with just 6 or 7 members.

If that's the case I'd take a 7 team conference with an auto-bid over the mess we have now. My wish list would be WSU, UM, MSU, ISU, UI, EWU, and NAU. That would be a very good football conference.

Nope. Swap out NAU with PSU and you got yourself the PNW Conference. NAU is a huge outlier in your geography. another option would be UNC and call it the Big Sky Conference (unique, I know).

Nope. My wish list, not yours.

Well your request has been denied.

 

[MrTitleist]

Paying a consultant a lot of money to tell them, "drop football. You have no history, no tradition, no attendance, and no one wants you." Nine winning seasons since 1960.. eh.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Paying a consultant a lot of money to tell them, "drop football. You have no history, no tradition, no attendance, and no one wants you." Nine winning seasons since 1960.. eh.

Yowza. We don’t want ‘em. There’s enough bottom feeders already in the bloated sky.

 

[griz4life]

The consultant is surely trying to keep this lowly FBS bottom feeder out of the big sky.