Thanks for posting...interesting comments from the commissioner on the health of the FCS...
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.
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.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.
I really hope it does. The system without it has just never made sense.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.
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.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.
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".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.
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.Tom Wistrcill does not say much in a lot of time justifing his job.
Same. I’ve always said a conference made up of: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.