Sun Belt boots Idaho & NMSU

[SDHornet]

Earlier this week the Sun Belt booted FB affiliates Idaho and New Mexico State. Now that the NCAA allows 10 member FBS conferences to hold a conference championship game, the Sun Belt wisely got rid of the dead weight to net more cash for its membership. After the 2017 season Idaho and NMSU are on their own.

The Sun Belt announced on Tuesday that it will not be renewing the contracts of Idaho or New Mexico State. Both schools will play their final season as Sun Belt members in 2017.

Consequently the BSC has offered Idaho FB membership when they decide to drop down to FCS. The invite has a May 4th deadline. Idaho really has no choices other than FCS or no football as FBS independent status would be a disaster for them given their current situation (poor facilities, poor location, poor tradition).

“There’s always a spot for them,” Big Sky deputy commissioner Ron Loghry told The Spectrum and Daily News in January.

Loghry even hinted that is why the league is at an odd number of teams (13), saving a place for the Vandals.

The league reiterated that stance on Tuesday, with a league spokesman saying, “There has been a public standing offer for Idaho to rejoin the Big Sky in football, and that offer remains.”

When Idaho joins the BSC for FB, that will push the BSC to 14 FB programs. Jeff Loghry was quoted as saying it is likely that a new FCS FB conference will be formed.

“The talk, honestly, is having another football conference,” Loghry said. “Everybody in the Big Sky for all sports, then having an — ala the Missouri Valley or Ohio Valley — a football only conference. So develop something like that for half the teams, and the other half would carry the Big Sky name still. Then you build a schedule among those two conferences.

“To go to divisions is an option, but you are still sharing one AQ,” he continued. “Where if you go into two separate conferences, then you could get an AQ for each one. Seven teams fight for an AQ and seven more fight for another one and you get two or three more in.”

Think this happens? If so, which conference would be best for our situation?

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Tough spot for Idaho and NMSU for sure. I've always wondered why Idaho went FBS with WSU in its back pocket. The market there can only support one FBS. I guess they did it because they had to keep up with Boyz.

They would be a great academic add for the BSC though and would fit right in athletic wise. I say they are full members of BSC or no member, not just FB.

I would like to see us more regionalized and if it includes UCFE or Poly for all sports the better. But I don't want Sac to limit itself in the Big Bus League as the national exposure being in the BSC is nice. It will be really hard to have another FCS full member conference with all sports sponsored.

I think a new FB conference will be formed and the current teams will remain in the BW or WAC, assuming the WAC survives as Chicago St. will probably close ending the WAC AQ.

I see NMSU dragging this out 4-5 yrs to see what happens. Dont think Idaho has the bank account to endure that many 1-10 seasons on the road as an independent from the NW. NMSU has a better chance at independent being close to Texas/OK/Midwest.

Gotta get the Events Center built or Sac will be left sitting on the sidelines again letting someone else make the decision for them.

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

Would be awesome to have a full all sports conference including baseball, football and softball.

Sac State
UCFE
Poly
SJSU
Fresno
Nevada
NMSU
NAU
Hawaii
Idaho

The MWC folks are just a step behind NMSU and Idaho, hanging by a thread.

Sac State has a $22M athletic budget which puts it in the Top 10 nationally for FCS teams. http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

MWC teams like Utah State ($25M), Nevada ($27M) and SJSU ($29M) are within the budget of Sac. Perhaps the MWC implodes and these teams are left with another reshuffle, will Sac State be ready and is it willing to make a bigger footprint?

I am kinda tired of the Montucky bias the current conference always presents. Helps that they win annually though.

 

[SDHornet]

I get the idea of positioning ourselves for something better, and we finally have the admin to get behind believing in accomplishing something bigger, but the reality is FBS football is dead. Pending a catastrophic change in NCAA structure (I’m talking a reclassification of the bottom FBS and top FCS) there really isn’t going to be any movement for western FCS. The bottom FBS (G5) programs are getting absolutely slaughtered from a financial standpoint by the power conferences (P5). I don’t really buy into the idea of spending a lot of money on facilities, scholarships, and coaching salaries just so we can beat our chests and say “we compete with the big boys in football”. Idaho and New Mexico State has thrown millions away over the years and look what that got them, SJSU is another more relevant example.

With that in mind, I would be open to joining this new FCS FB only conference and pursuing a BW membership for our Oly sports (same deal as the dungpilers and CP). We have nothing in common with any of the other BSC programs (exception maybe of PSU) other than playing FCS FB west of the Mississippi. I agree the BW is not innovative and comes across as a bunch of schools just content to be D1, but the BW would be great for our Oly sports. Financially we would save a boat load of cash on travel, open up better recruiting in SoCal, and the overall quality of competition across the Oly sports would be far greater than what is seen in the BSC. Attendance wouldn't be worse than it currently is for our Oly programs.

The issue is whether or not the BW would want us. They are most likely waiting on UCSD to move to D1 (students vote on going D1 this spring, a similar vote failed in 2011). The BW is currently sitting at 9 members, UCSD would make 10. I don’t see why a one bid league would want to go to 12 as that dilutes the NCAA payouts (see current BSC). One thing is for certain, we won’t be considered so long as hoops is still playing in the Nest, however a conditional BW invite (if one could be wrangled up) would be excellent leverage for Nelsen to enforce the student fee for the events center.

It’s anyone’s guess how this all plays out when Idaho moves down, but at least an FB only conference opens up our options and that is a good thing.

 

[josephpoint]

Interesting to se how this all plays out.

Agree that we need to get the Event Center built so the options for Sac State are more promising. Nothing new on this front. The options are always better for Sac State with an Event Center and better facilities.

Sac State continues to be a university ready to move to whatever the future holds in whatever conference brings more interest for our huge potential fan base that is waiting for a conference that brings interest and relevance to our current students and huge alumni population, and the big Sacramento city and county community that continues to grow as people move east to Sacramento from the SF Bay Area that is now the most expensive region in the US to live.

 

[superhornet]

I have my own ideas about a BSC split (the left coast portion being re-branded the PCAA if the Big West doesn't object to a resurrection of their old name) that would be nice in that it would boot the Sioux from the Sky as they won't be needed anymore. The only problem is that it would involve several left-coast I-AAA programs resurrecting their programs, which probably won't happen any time soon. Outside of some directional Oregons and Washingtons (which would really be out of the footprint of my projected PCAA, anyway), there really aren't any D-IIs in the area to call up. Perhaps Azusa, but they're perfectly happy being a D-II regional power and probably couldn't be enticed to jump up to FCS....

 

[Green Cookie Monster]

I don’t really buy into the idea of spending a lot of money on facilities, scholarships, and coaching salaries just so we can beat our chests and say “we compete with the big boys in football”. Idaho and New Mexico State has thrown millions away over the years and look what that got them, SJSU is another more relevant example.

Not so much as beating your chest, but a university with 30,000 students doesn't belong in a league playing schools that have 8-9,000 students.

Many FCS programs in the east are small, private schools or restricted directional state schools using DI basketball and I-AAA football programs to make the ESPN score scroll.

 

[josephpoint]

So based on info from other fan boards, Idaho needs to decide to come back to the Big Sky in football or not by May 4, 2016. Will be interesting to see. And that would bring the Big Sky to 14 football playing schools if Idaho comes back. Currently the Big Sky has 13 football playing schools with only 8 games counting towards the Big Sky title. 14 football playing schools and 8 games counting towards the Big Sky title if Idaho comes back . Wow., Understand that other scenarios are being discussed like two FCS football leagues, or one FCS league and one new FBS league. Wow. Shall be interesting to watch this unfold. Just want the best for Sac State and our 21 sports and our many conference affiliations.