UM to NAIA?

[Paytonlives]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

 

[oldrunner]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

I would agree with that,except that the top teams won't call themselves Div. 1, and won't be governed by the NCAA. NCAA D1 will be what you have as D11. It's close to what we have now anyway. I feel that everything besides football will remain in the NCAA.

 

[mthoopsfan]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

The second group would never be called D-II. I still don't think that second group will include the likes of Montana and Weber. They don't have the money for more scholarships, salaries and costs; and regionalization will still be important for cost reasons in some of those conferences, just like it is today. FCS is a good division and cost structure for many schools, like the ones in FCS currently. If schools like NDSU could get an invite, they would likely move up to the next level.

Lower end FCS is not going to combine with NAIA, D-II and D-III, unless a particular school just can't afford FCS anymore. Most of the Big Sky teams, for example, don't want to drop scholarships and go to a lower brand/level. D-II has lower costs and less scholarships, and that's what they want and can afford. D-III has no scholarships, and those teams don't want scholarships.

Most of the movement and realignment is going to be at the FBS level, just as it is now. There are a few more good schools to find homes now, but other than that, there isn't going to be big movement again until the current big tv contracts get close to expiration.

I don't see the MW looking for FCS schools, and looking to spread their footprint to accommodate that. Plus, they only have $4 million on conference distributions now. That's not very much. They don't want to dilute that; they would like to figure out how to increase it. The renaming Paul-4 can't afford to go that low, nor would they want to be in that conference anyway. It looks to me that the MW has expansion opportunities to fill holes, which don't include FCS schools.

Anyway, that's my view.

 

[MikeyGriz]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

I would agree with that,except that the top teams won't call themselves Div. 1, and won't be governed by the NCAA. NCAA D1 will be what you have as D11. It's close to what we have now anyway. I feel that everything besides football will remain in the NCAA.

If the top schools take their footballs and go off on their own, why wouldn't they take their basketballs too and form their own March Madness?

 

[GrizGuy]

When I consider that Colorado College is in the Mountain West for only two sports, and Div III for all the rest, and they don’t even have football, I think, ya know, there are a lotta ways to have sports in college and to make up a conference. And I don’t think we’re close to seeing the end of things. I’m not predicting, I’m just saying, there are so many ways things could go, that it’s pure conjecture on a BBS to make bold proclamations.

Anyway… I’m planning to visit for the Butler game with a buddy who’s a Butler alum.
Hope to see some of you folks at the tailgates.

 

[Hoops watcher]

I would agree with that,except that the top teams won't call themselves Div. 1, and won't be governed by the NCAA. NCAA D1 will be what you have as D11. It's close to what we have now anyway. I feel that everything besides football will remain in the NCAA.

If the top schools take their footballs and go off on their own, why wouldn't they take their basketballs too and form their own March Madness?

It wouldn't be March Madness without the David/Goliath upset possibilities and the general public who eat those up would not care. Would not be close to worth the billion the NCAA gets now. The sum of the D/G Tv rights if they were seperate would be less than the present whole. Not to mention that money pays for the tournaments for all the other sports. TBF if I'm honest I thought regional and traditional rivalries would be a feature of the ultimate big dog football reshuffle we are seeing now so I could be way out on the warning track in left field here. I'm pretty sure the non regular season fan would tune it to a Loyola Chicago/Virginia matchup over Ohio State/Illinois for the 4th time in a given year though.

 

[brewskis]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

I think this will be the gist of it. The naming/classification will probably look different, but this will be the essence of it.

 

[Hoops watcher]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

I think this will be the gist of it. The naming/classification will probably look different, but this will be the essence of it.

That's kind of what I thought for the last 5 or so years, but when the PAC completely imploded I've considered it further. Half of the schools even in the BIG, ACC and SEC are irrelevant football championship wise. What's to stop the biggest of the Bigs from paring it down to a select 40 or even 32? Play an NFL type round robin schedule. They have erased most traditional assumptions around college football at such a rapid rate that the race to maximize revenue seems to be boundless. Then again as a kid 50 years ago I pored over the game scores for 20 minutes every fall Sunday in the Star Tribune sports section to see who beat who in the MIAC and everywhere else. So I classify myself as a dinosaur wrt college sports.

 

[RABIDAWG]

The NAIA is not part of the NCAA, so needs to be out of the list.

 

[uofmman1122]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

This is exactly how it's probably going to go.

Even the idea of us "moving to FBS" will be obsolete here pretty soon.

 

[Spanky2]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

Let’s hope you are correct. Using this classification, Div 2 is about right for UM.

 

[oldrunner]

I would agree with that,except that the top teams won't call themselves Div. 1, and won't be governed by the NCAA. NCAA D1 will be what you have as D11. It's close to what we have now anyway. I feel that everything besides football will remain in the NCAA.

If the top schools take their footballs and go off on their own, why wouldn't they take their basketballs too and form their own March Madness?

They could take their basketballs with them, but that would likely be a net negative if they were to try to run their own championship, at least money wise.

I don't feel that they would want to take on the burden of administering championships in anything but football. Maybe that is just me. :thumb:

That is also why I feel that there will be further realinement for non football sports as well.

 

[IdaGriz01]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

I think this will be the gist of it. The naming/classification will probably look different, but this will be the essence of it.

Look good to me also ... aside from one big doubtful point. With (very) rare exceptions, all the schools we're talking about are state-support institutions. It's going to be an administrative nightmare to split football off from the rest of the athletic endeavors. In fact, with the big football programs dragging in all this dough, why should the state (and students) kick in any money at all? Besides, knowing politicians, one might expect them to find a way to snag some of it.

Way more complications involved ... only some of which have been addressed so far.

 

[mthoopsfan]

Has been it the works for years

Div 1= Top 60-80 or so FBS teams (the Georgias, USC, LSU's etc)
Div 2= Those dropped from FBS and the top of FCS (Think Utah State, Washington State, North Dakota State, Montana & Weber)
Div 3= Lower end FCS and Top NIAA, Div 2 and Div 3 (Think Idaho State, Portland State, Grand Valley State & Ferris State)
Div 4= The Worst of the worst

This is exactly how it's probably going to go.

Even the idea of us "moving to FBS" will be obsolete here pretty soon.

I don't see the bottom half of FCS combining with the top of FCS. Why would conferences like the MW want to share their measly $4 million per year with just any FCS school, like Weber or even Montana? Why would Weber and Montana want to have to travel to the Southeast for games.

What about geography? There are travel costs.

The top of FBS may move away from the rest of FBS in terms of competition and money, but, really, why would they move away from the lower conferences of FBS. What would that get them that they don't already have? I just don't see the bottom conferences of FBS wanting to absorb a bunch of top FCS school, except when the conference may need to fill a particular gap. Clearly, the top of FCS could compete on the field in some FBS conference, but, again, the tv viewers and the cost of travel and the small size of stadiums. And name the FBS schools that want to come to play NDSU and SDSU?

I could see the top conferences of FBS pushing out some weaker teams in their conferences, or more likely cutting their percentages of distributions.

I would hope other sports would get some consideration too. Money is driving this, but there are many things and sports important to those schools other than just money.

Maybe there are solutions for what to do with sports other than football and basketball. I haven't read about any. I don't know enough about those sports to be able to suggest anything.

 

[p8nted]

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but the landscape of college football is changing. I don’t know for certain where they could go, but it’s likely that opportunity will knock.

As far as CW goes, that’s why I said “the likes of….”

I believe the FCS to FBS movement is done or is very close to done. The fallout for everyone non FBS will be dictated by how much money, if any, trickles down and is available. And if the large schools move to form a basketball tournament that separates itself from the NCAA, you will see most NCAA championships disappear.

With the formation of the Super conferences in FBS and the TV money there is no way TV will pay for FCS games much longer. They want highly competitive games for the big $$. The Big $$ game payouts so many in the FCS require are almost done

 

[ElrodGrizzly]

When I consider that Colorado College is in the Mountain West for only two sports, and Div III for all the rest, and they don’t even have football, I think, ya know, there are a lotta ways to have sports in college and to make up a conference. And I don’t think we’re close to seeing the end of things. I’m not predicting, I’m just saying, there are so many ways things could go, that it’s pure conjecture on a BBS to make bold proclamations.

Anyway… I’m planning to visit for the Butler game with a buddy who’s a Butler alum.
Hope to see some of you folks at the tailgates.

Right on! Feel free to shoot me a PM if you are looking to meet up with people, we would happily welcome a Butler alum and help them have a good time too.

 

[GrizGuy]

When I consider that Colorado College is in the Mountain West for only two sports, and Div III for all the rest, and they don’t even have football, I think, ya know, there are a lotta ways to have sports in college and to make up a conference. And I don’t think we’re close to seeing the end of things. I’m not predicting, I’m just saying, there are so many ways things could go, that it’s pure conjecture on a BBS to make bold proclamations.

Anyway… I’m planning to visit for the Butler game with a buddy who’s a Butler alum.
Hope to see some of you folks at the tailgates.

Right on! Feel free to shoot me a PM if you are looking to meet up with people, we would happily welcome a Butler alum and help them have a good time too.

PM sent! Thanks!