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Where Will FCS Football Land In College Football Realignment? W/ Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill
- Thread starter oldngrizzly
- Start date
Thanks for posting...interesting comments from the commissioner on the health of the FCS...
Haven't listened. But i'm guessing he needs 13 cameras to really make an honest and non-biased determination. And he doesn't have them. He just doesn't have them.
DoubleNicks
Well-known member
First I had heard about Richmond leaving the CAA for the Patriot League after this season. Weird, seems like a big step down. After Googling, looks like it was just announced 2 days ago.
Wistrcill can do that to you. Nothing special about that dude.Nothing earthshaking. What I got out of this was:
1) FBS is all about money.
2) The highest level of pure football is FCS.
If I have missed something, it's probably due to my falling asleep. I only had two naps today.
SinCityGriz2005
Well-known member
I really am astounded at some of the, I don't know, either ignorance, arrogance or apathy that some people have toward moving into the FBS.
Guess who lost to NDSU in the 1975 Camilla Bowl (forerunner to the FCS NC) UM, which was D2 football.
Due to *gasp* a desire for more money, increased scholarships, and a little more exposure, a "new" special division was created for the mid-majors, or as they are now known as, the G5 conferences.
When the 1AA Subdivision was created UM and the rest of the BSC teams made the jump up to D1-AA. it was a good move at the time. Look at how the program has evolved!
However, over the last thirty years, the top tier teams of 1AA/FCS have moved or are moving up to G5 conferences in the FBS. The FCS is D2 in all but name now.
Please save the "it's pure football" arguments. It's not the "pure football division" anymore now that the FBS has initiated a playoff system. For all intents and purposes, the FCS is D2, or the "I would rather go to a National Championship than no-name bowl game every year". It seems to me that people with that type of reasoning are also the ones behind participation medals and ribbons as well.
The time has come for UM to finally make the leap. Select the best teams out of the WAC and BSC and merge them into the PAC. That conference would be a G5 conference, no different than MAC, ASUN, MWC, AAC and Sun Belt.
What is the worst that would happen? Increased revenue, more, and better television/streaming coverage more scholarships, more exposure nationally, and frankly who wouldn't want to keep Montana kids at home instead of going to G5 conferences like they are now?
There is ONLY one reason. The desire to pat yourselves on the back with another meaningless NC trophy that NO ONE outside of the FCS recognizes.
I would rather walk into the Hall of Champions and see cases full of bowl game championship trophies than two has been Championships.
I am a fan of the team. I was born in Missoula. I was raised in Billings and was a Griz fan in a sea of cat poo. I moved back to Missoula after I got out of the Marine Corps and ended up with an AAS, BA, MPA form UM attending every home game from 1993 before I was a student to 2016 when we finally moved to Las Vegas. UM football was fun in the 80's, absolutely nuts from 1995-2011, but it has been thirteen years, a very large portion of the good teams have moved up. I'll still be a fan if they stay at this level of football, but I won't be very invested beyond maybe watching the Montana Power Classic.
If they make a move, which predictably they won't, I would be far more interested. I would drive/fly to games, and I would absolutely fly to bowl games to see the other teams that are not D2 and in different cities other than *sigh* Frisco, Texas.
I said my piece. I expect to get obliterated for speaking my mind, and I don't care. UM either changes with the times or dies a slow death like the dinosaurs did.
Guess who lost to NDSU in the 1975 Camilla Bowl (forerunner to the FCS NC) UM, which was D2 football.
Due to *gasp* a desire for more money, increased scholarships, and a little more exposure, a "new" special division was created for the mid-majors, or as they are now known as, the G5 conferences.
When the 1AA Subdivision was created UM and the rest of the BSC teams made the jump up to D1-AA. it was a good move at the time. Look at how the program has evolved!
However, over the last thirty years, the top tier teams of 1AA/FCS have moved or are moving up to G5 conferences in the FBS. The FCS is D2 in all but name now.
Please save the "it's pure football" arguments. It's not the "pure football division" anymore now that the FBS has initiated a playoff system. For all intents and purposes, the FCS is D2, or the "I would rather go to a National Championship than no-name bowl game every year". It seems to me that people with that type of reasoning are also the ones behind participation medals and ribbons as well.
The time has come for UM to finally make the leap. Select the best teams out of the WAC and BSC and merge them into the PAC. That conference would be a G5 conference, no different than MAC, ASUN, MWC, AAC and Sun Belt.
What is the worst that would happen? Increased revenue, more, and better television/streaming coverage more scholarships, more exposure nationally, and frankly who wouldn't want to keep Montana kids at home instead of going to G5 conferences like they are now?
There is ONLY one reason. The desire to pat yourselves on the back with another meaningless NC trophy that NO ONE outside of the FCS recognizes.
I would rather walk into the Hall of Champions and see cases full of bowl game championship trophies than two has been Championships.
I am a fan of the team. I was born in Missoula. I was raised in Billings and was a Griz fan in a sea of cat poo. I moved back to Missoula after I got out of the Marine Corps and ended up with an AAS, BA, MPA form UM attending every home game from 1993 before I was a student to 2016 when we finally moved to Las Vegas. UM football was fun in the 80's, absolutely nuts from 1995-2011, but it has been thirteen years, a very large portion of the good teams have moved up. I'll still be a fan if they stay at this level of football, but I won't be very invested beyond maybe watching the Montana Power Classic.
If they make a move, which predictably they won't, I would be far more interested. I would drive/fly to games, and I would absolutely fly to bowl games to see the other teams that are not D2 and in different cities other than *sigh* Frisco, Texas.
I said my piece. I expect to get obliterated for speaking my mind, and I don't care. UM either changes with the times or dies a slow death like the dinosaurs did.
No flamespray from me, Marine. This squid 100% agrees with your post. IMHO the "time" to move up was 15 years ago.
I've said for years that a G5 playoff was coming. It HAD to come--they were the ONLY level of football without a playoff format. It WILL come. And if we're not ALREADY there when it happens, moving there will only get more and more difficult.
I've said for years that a G5 playoff was coming. It HAD to come--they were the ONLY level of football without a playoff format. It WILL come. And if we're not ALREADY there when it happens, moving there will only get more and more difficult.
Not here to obliterate you. I see what you are saying, and I totally get that feeling. I've had this conversation with others, and I don't begrudge you that at all.
For me, it isn't the "meaningless national championship vs a bowl game" that makes me lean toward being good with the FCS, it is the playoff run that we get to experience. That playoff run last year was incredible, and as a sports fan was the most fun of my adult life. It felt special. While it would be fun to fly out to that Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, or whatever random bowl in whatever place, it wouldn't match the excitement of a playoff run for me.
I don't see Montana ever competing with the Alabamas, Georgias, and Texases of the world. We just don't have the money or recruiting base that they do, and I don't personally expect that we ever will. If they do go to a system where those top programs are split off by the CFP system and the current G5 teams make their own playoff system, I would be happy to join that. I just really, really don't want to lose the playoff system. I don't give a shit about "purity," but the playoff system is just more fun for me and that's pretty much all I take into account in the matter because I have absolutely zero say in anything the University does.
Elrod, I love the playoffs too. I really do. And I have no illusions of competing with the P3 conference teams. 99% of G5 can't compete with them NOW. But G5 just HAS to have a playoffs system at some point in the near future. They're a huge outlier right now. Now, it may involve the bowl games in some form or fashion, who knows, but I think it IS coming.
I really hope it does. The system without it has just never made sense.
I'm a little slow at work at the moment, so I've been sitting here kind of just thinking over your point. I genuinely don't know when the right time to make that move would be. I don't envy the MUS making these choices. I don't even know what level of control the BoR and OCHE have over that process.
I think you are right, that being there before the playoff would be a good thing because by then every FCS team will want to move up. I like to think that we are a premier team that every G5 conference would love to add out west, but that probably isn't the reality outside of my head.
Also, totally not against bowl games being involved. I'm not anti-bowl game, and I like that they are an option for teams left out of the current playoffs. I know there is long term money and relationships involved in them, and I'm sure they are a ton of fun. Totally down for the rounds to all be different bowl games.
Is there an "up there" to move to? I can't imagine the power 40 staying NCAA affiliated for too many more years. They have already shaved it down to two meaningful conferences. With the expanded play-offs I can see them letting maybe one Big 12 team in and an undefeated Cincinnati or Syracuse or Clemson for a year or two, but they are already lobbying for holding places for Big 20 and SEC teams. For all the other conferences they will either start their own Div 2 playoff system (a glorified FCS) or continue to placate their fan bases with "bowl eligibility".
yeah, the issue the naysayers have with this (and they're not wrong) is its just not the same as the kind of playoff experience we have now when we get 3 home games. Playoff games on neutral fields in front of audiences who don't have the energy of Wa/Griz wouldn't be the same.
Honestly, I think Bowls have served their purpose and might need to just go away. And that ain't happening. So maybe take the 12-16 teams that make the playoffs, and THEN start picking bowl matchups. Nobody watches those things anyway.
oldngrizzly
Well-known member
Tom Wistrcill does not say much in a lot of time justifing his job.
Something needs to change and I truly believe the answer is that the "big two" evolve into a something that has like 40 of the top revenue teams and they do what they need to do with both players and their "National Championship".
A new next level that can incorporate the current G5 plus move ups much like the old 1-AA seems to make sense. A completely separate playoff would be necessary and the $5MM move-up fee needs to go away!
The bowls as they exist today seem like participation medals but could be incorporated into the playoffs at some point (yes I know there are too many bowls to include them all) allowing for some to the older well established games to continue with their traditions and heritage. All seems like a good path for college football and as SSG says, I'd probably be more inclined to follow given the pool of teams involved ... what I don't want is that the path continues down the road of feeder teams for the big boys and that all the college football traditions I've grown up with and love get tossed because of the pursuit of money. I like playing in a regionalized conference, I love it when we play Idaho and MSU...would hate it if Southwest Louisiana and Western Kentucky were conference games... Loved the Griz in '80's (and before) and still love them now but something needs to change for the positive without killing all that is college football and its traditions...
No obliteration from me, just a few thoughts and observations.
I would say I-AA hasn't evolved, but devolved. The best have moved on. Some of the teams the Griz have had memorable games with include Georgia Southern, App State, JMU, Sam Houston State, Troy State, Marshall, Delaware, Liberty, UMass, and former(and present)BSC teams Nevada, Boise State, and Idaho. Quite a resume.
One thing that hasn't changed is geography. Missoula and Bozo are STILL in the middle of nowhere...like Idaho(who got burned, then crawled, whimpering, back to the BSC). THEY went FBS because Boise State went FBS, plain and simple.
College football is morphing into something, I just don't know WHAT. My gut feeling is, when it's all said and done, Montana(and it's joined-at-the-hip-'lil-brother)will get scooped up into some new, appropriate entity. We are a flea on the back of a big f*cking dog who is scratching and shaking itself into a lather. We aren't at the tip of the tail, but still hard to ride out. Patience, Grasshopper.
BTW, I loved your back handed slap at the 'Montana Power Classic.'
Brawl of the Wild.
It's the Griz-scat game, and the world will just have to call it right!
I would say I-AA hasn't evolved, but devolved. The best have moved on. Some of the teams the Griz have had memorable games with include Georgia Southern, App State, JMU, Sam Houston State, Troy State, Marshall, Delaware, Liberty, UMass, and former(and present)BSC teams Nevada, Boise State, and Idaho. Quite a resume.
One thing that hasn't changed is geography. Missoula and Bozo are STILL in the middle of nowhere...like Idaho(who got burned, then crawled, whimpering, back to the BSC). THEY went FBS because Boise State went FBS, plain and simple.
College football is morphing into something, I just don't know WHAT. My gut feeling is, when it's all said and done, Montana(and it's joined-at-the-hip-'lil-brother)will get scooped up into some new, appropriate entity. We are a flea on the back of a big f*cking dog who is scratching and shaking itself into a lather. We aren't at the tip of the tail, but still hard to ride out. Patience, Grasshopper.
BTW, I loved your back handed slap at the 'Montana Power Classic.'
Brawl of the Wild.It's the Griz-scat game, and the world will just have to call it right!Well, if McDowell and Edwards wanted to produce enough tape to get some people to notice their talents, I can look back at Wistrcill's taped FCS Future tape and guarantee he would be a #1 Best Seller on Audio Books for Children's Bedtime Stories. Christ! He put me to sleep in under two minutes.
The day will come when the "Big Boys" 70 to 90 Teams tell the Lesser FBS teams and the FCS to pound sand, leaving a FBS- Div 2 of the UM's, Wyomings, Colorado States, New Mexicos of the world to their own division. If that is a division with a playoff system count me in with both feet and a Cold Smoke.
Same. I’ve always said a conference made up of:
Montana
MSU
Wyoming
Colorado State
NDSU
SDSU
UND
USD
I would take that in a heartbeat.
