End of the FBS and FCS as we know it?

[SJHornet]

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefoo...ight-be-coming-but-which-leagues-will-conquer

Anyone else see this article? Says App State declined the move to FBS partly because they believe the FBS split might happen. Basically the BCS conferences would expand athletic scholarships to include the full cost of attendance leaving the "lower" 1-A conferences behind.

• The remaining conferences in Division I-A (Mountain West, WAC, Mid-American, Conference USA, and Sun Belt), will be joined by the best conferences in Division I-AA to form a new Division I. This division will crown a national champion with a playoff. The Big Sky, CAA, Missouri Valley and Southern conferences would be among those I-AA leagues likely to help form a new Division I-A.

Division I-AA: Big South, Ivy, MEAC, Northeast, Patriot, Pioneer, SWAC, Fordham (Independent)

Mainly just an opinion piece, but an interesting read.

 

[SactoHornetAlum]

I have been thinking about this for a while where the BCS leagues for football only break off completely from the NCAA in that sport so they can preserve their bowls, while the rest of the leagues (leftover FBS and FCS) would contest the NCAA Division I Football National Championship.

 

[HornetHope]

Seems reasonable to me. I am wondering if Wanless, Gonzo, et al, were getting wind of this last year and thought,"If we end up like this, would we rather be in the Sky or the WAC".

Interesting......

 

[SJHornet]

Seems reasonable to me. I am wondering if Wanless, Gonzo, et al, were getting wind of this last year and thought,"If we end up like this, would we rather be in the Sky or the WAC".

Interesting......

If so, I owe them an apology.

 

[SDHornet]

Interesting article and one that is plausible. A couple of things came to mind when I read this:

Why would this stop at only football? The BCS schools can make way more money if they pulled all their sports out of the NCAA and basically operated as a semi-pro league/organization. They would keep all the TV/tournament/post-season/sponsorship revenue all to themselves for all sports and completely eliminate the “trickle down” effect to the mid majors/FCS essentially crippling the growth/sustainability of the schools left out. This would corner the market on “collegiate” athletics and would allow the BCS schools to be rolling in more dough. If all their sports were to operate in its own league/association, they would probably not play the other schools that would remain under the NCAA’s umbrella. This would mean that every single OOC game in any sport would by default almost be a marquee matchup. No more FCS body bag games for the top programs in football, no more weak mid major matchups in hoops; instead those games would be replaced by respectable opponents for every matchup further increasing the value, hype, and media attention of each game. Quite frankly, this move makes too much sense (cents?) not to happen.

Secondly, if this split was to happen, how would the new D-1 look? I imagine all the schools left out would realize they would have to reorganize to a more regional conference alignment for survival. As the remaining schools would be fighting over table scraps for TV revenue and other resources, it would be ridiculous to have a conference footprint spread across the entire US (BSC, WAC, ConfUSA). Also if the BCS schools don’t play schools that remain in the NCAA, schools will have to find a new source of instant revenue to replace the money games. How many scholarships would the new D-1 have? With the means to added revenue now out of the question, does the NCAA make D-1 football programs have a 63 scholarship max? If not, the FCS programs to be included with the left out BCS programs would face a serious problem funding the added scholarships.
:twocents: