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If Hawaii drops football...

Hawai'i dropping football would be incredibly sad. High school football is so insanely good in that state, and if Hawai'i just pulled the second best ten players from their own state each year, they'd be knocking on the top 25 year after year. In fact, the talent in Hawai'i is so good, they could be one of the biggest sleeper programs in the country if they just got their act together. They don't want to spend a nickel on athletics, and not a single penny on facilities. You'd have thought June Jones leaving after taking them to the BCS would have been a wake-up call, but it actually seemed to make them even more apathetic.

FWIW, Hawai'i is a very good research institution and a degree from UH is better than most major state programs in the Western US. Plus, dude, campus is in Manoa.
 
EWURanger said:
Is there discussion of them dropping it? The travel costs must be pretty steep.
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http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaaf/2014/08/18/hawaii-athletic-directory-ben-jay-finally-challenged-athletic-department/14265907/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
 
Although I don't think they are very interested at this point, I would think Montana might get an invite. They might give Idaho a look just because of geography.
 
Rjones61 said:
Although I don't think they are very interested at this point, I would think Montana might get an invite. They might give Idaho a look just because of geography.
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Montana would be a much more suitable fit for the MWC. But without MSU, they aren't going anywhere. I doubt Idaho ever gets a MWC invite without significant upgrades to their facilities.
 
EWURanger said:
Rjones61 said:
Although I don't think they are very interested at this point, I would think Montana might get an invite. They might give Idaho a look just because of geography.
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Montana would be a much more suitable fit for the MWC. But without MSU, they aren't going anywhere. I doubt Idaho ever gets a MWC invite without significant upgrades to their facilities.
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Yeah, I would think Montana would be the number one pick. It's just I don't think there is much incentive for them to move up. They have arguably the largest fanbase in the FCS. As long as they stay successful, they will continue to have that massive fanbase and create big revenue. If they move up and start losing, will their fans stick?
 
NDSU is really a geographical outlier. Much better fit in the MAC, and much more likely to get an invite from that type of conference. I don't see many FCS teams moving straight into a conference like the MWC, to be honest.

In terms of Montana and MSU, with the WAC dead and gone, the likelihood of any FCS teams on the west coast "moving up" at this point are fairly slim. You need that intermediary kind of conference that the WAC was to pay your dues in before you're going to get into the MWC. Another alternative might be the Sun Belt if a team is dead set on moving up, but the travel in that league would be a nightmare (see Idaho). The other alternative might be to play independent for a few years, but that most likely results in a lot of money games to make ends meet, few home games, and decreased fan interest.

The upper echelon of the Big Sky has very slim options in terms of going FBS, NDSU probably has more options with the MAC.

Really, I think the best thing we can hope for right now is some sort of restructure between the lower end FBS conferences and the power FCS conferences. Who is more alike, Idaho and Florida, or Idaho and Montana? Kind of a no-brainer. I just hope that if an when it happens, we'll be in a position facilities-wise to land in that second Tier.
 
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