In all honesty, I guess I just see mid major teams go on runs and make the sweet sixteen type of level in ways that we wouldn't even have a chance to do in football, to my mind.While I agree wholeheartedly with the bolded statement, I don't really understand the reluctance to move up simply because of that. Montana competes at that level and against those programs in every sport besides football. Yes, I love the playoffs. Yes, I love competing for a "national championship". But I don't know of anyone who supports keeping football at the fcs level who also supports a move to DII for programs like basketball. Why is that? We have no chance at winning a national title there either, but for some reason people are happy to value things like conference championships and Dance appearances. I just don't understand the disconnect.
On the other hand, if the Big Sky somehow announced we were moving to d2 for basketball, I wouldn't care that much if I am honest. I wish there was an FCS level for basketball, too. I feel mostly the same about basketball and not being able to compete with the UNC and Dukes of the world.
Maybe I am wrong, and there are more paths to us being competitive at that level than I realize, but I don't see it. I just don't see a huge need to swim with the sharks when we know we are a dolphin. And dolphins are still pretty cool.