weberwildcat
Active member
Interesting "move up" article with quotes from Fullerton of the Big Sky. Also the article mentions Weber St as a WAC candidate. Are we really?
http://helenair.com/sports/article_91a74d18-b336-11df-b7d6-001cc4c002e0.html
HelenIR.com
Montana, MSU ponder future in Big Sky Conference
Rob Ash likes the Big Sky Conference just the way it is.
“I think nine is a great number,” the Montana State University head football coach said. “I like the eight-game schedule with four at home and four away. I like the competition. I like the rivalries we have in the conference now. If I had my say, I’d like to keep it right like it is.”
But, like a family that is ever growing and changing, the landscape of collegiate athletics continued to shift this summer. Of all the developments, perhaps none hit closer to home than the decision of three members of the Western Athletic Conference to depart for the Mountain West Conference.
In the space of less than 90 days, the WAC was reduced from a reasonably healthy nine-team league to a far-flung six-member conference on life support and looking for new additions.
“I don’t know where the WAC is going to go, but they can’t stay at six teams,” Ash said. “So, I’m very concerned.”
“I have a feeling that the WAC will be interested in some of our institutions,” Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said even before Fresno State and Nevada announced they would join Boise State in leaving the WAC for the MWC. “I think they will begin a formal process of looking at whether they are going to add teams around the first of the year.”
If, as many expect, the WAC extends invitations to Big Sky members Montana and Montana State, administrators at those schools will be faced with decisions that will shape the future of their athletic programs for decades to come.
“It’s such a major decision, everybody has to be on board whichever way we go,” Montana State athletic director Peter Fields said. “I’m sure, in the next 60 days, it will percolate a lot around the west.”
Montana recently hired an outside consulting firm to explore the feasibility of such a move. Results of the study won’t be known until later this year.
Football the big factor
While any potential change in conference affiliations would involve the entire spectrum of a university’s sports programs, it’s no secret that football drives the train.
In basketball, volleyball and other sports, membership in the WAC or Big Sky is not dramatically different. Each league currently gets one automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as the volleyball tournament.
The real difference comes in football, where WAC members compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Big Sky members are part of the Football Championship Subdivision.
A move upward is certainly not without precedent. Both Boise State and Idaho were once Big Sky members who left for the FBS level with varying degrees of success, both on and off the field.
“Our fans have felt those were good competitors,” Montana athletic director Jim O’Day said. “So sometimes we are judged by how those schools have done.”
Show me the money
Whatever decisions are ultimately made, they will be based largely on – surprise – dollars. A move to the Football Bowl Subdivision level brings both additional revenue and additional expenses.
O’Day said the Grizzlies brought in around $72,000 in television revenue last season, while WAC schools grossed close to $500,000. UM netted about $30,000 for each of three home football playoff games, while sending more than $1 million back to the NCAA, which runs the tournament.
But a move to the FBS would also drive up expenditures.
“Look at the salary structure,” Fields said. “Their salary structure for football and basketball coaches is dramatically different than our salary structure. The number of scholarships that you have to offer (85 in football, compared to 63 at the FCS level) is dramatically different.”
“I think the average base budget in the WAC is somewhere around $20 million. In the Big Sky, we’re at $10-13 million.”
“We’d have to have an expansion of the (football) stadium. You’d have to increase your academic staff, your weight room staff, your equipment staff, your administrative staff. So you have a lot of expenses.”
Would the increase in revenue be more than enough to offset the increase in expenses?
“I think we’d be hard-pressed to make the connection,” Fields said.
Scheduling challenges
Such a move, however, is not without its advantages.
O’Day pointed out that it is has become increasingly difficult to schedule nonconference home football games. For the second straight season, the Grizzlies will open the season against a Division II opponent – Western State – at home, simply because an FCS foe couldn’t be found. MSU’s nonconference home games this season are against Fort Lewis and Drake.
FBS bylaws prohibit member schools from scheduling road games with FCS schools. A move to a FBS conference would open the door for nonconference home games against the likes of Boise State, Wyoming, Colorado State or even Pac-10 schools.
“Our fans pay a lot and they don’t want us to be playing a bunch of Division II schools,” O’Day said.
Even road games are getting harder to come by. Montana will open the 2011 season with a $500,000 guarantee game at Tennessee, but those dates are becoming harder and harder for FCS schools to land, O’Day said.
“Scheduling is the most difficult issue,” he said.
One thing that seems clear is that Montana and MSU cannot afford to be left holding the bag in a smaller and weaker Big Sky.
“If your league gets raided, it (scheduling) gets tougher,” O’Day said.
Speculation among athletic department officials on possible WAC invitations centers on Montana first, followed by MSU and then, perhaps, Portland State, Sacramento State and/or Weber State.
Montana is the crown jewel of FCS schools in the western United States, once again leading the nation in home football attendance (24,417) last season. In fact, Montana would rank behind only Hawaii (36,724) in attendance among the remaining WAC schools. Montana State (13,278) routinely ranks second in the Big Sky in home attendance, followed by a dropoff to Sacramento State (9,687).
Bowls or playoffs?
Is it better to play in the FCS national championship game – as Montana has done five times since the year 2000 – or the Hawaii Bowl?
“I’ve always been a proponent of the championship format,” O’Day said. “But as I watch the wear and tear on our student-athletes, I start to look at it differently. Our kids are exhausted. We’ve taken finals (exams) on the airplane, at the site and when we got back home.”
This year’s national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas.
“The difference in a bowl situation is you have almost a month off,” he said.
First-year UM head football coach Robin Plfugrad has been on both sides, coaching teams to bowl games while an assistant at Arizona State, Washington State and Oregon.
“I do like the (FCS) format,” Pflugrad said. “But, the bowl games are awesome. The positives of the bowl games are that approximately 32 teams come out with a positive experience. At our level, one team comes out.”
Bowl games tend to make money for schools and conferences, while playoffs can actually lose money.
“I think the pros to staying at the FCS level is that we are playing for a championship,” MSU’s Fields said. “It’s proven the Big Sky Conference is a player at the national level.”
“I’ve always said I prefer the playoff system,” said Ash. “I know the bowls are a great experience for the young men. But the playoffs … that’s football at its best.”
Would the WAC fit?
On the surface, it seems UM and MSU would fit nicely with the remaining WAC members — San Jose State, Utah State, Idaho, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech and Hawaii – as well as other current Big Sky schools that might also come along.
“Those are good schools,” O’Day said. “Another important factor is how well you fit academically. That’s perhaps the most important factor.”
Montana’s call
The future of the Big Sky Conference will likely hinge on what O’Day and UM president Dr. George Dennison decide to do, much like the future of the Big 12 hung in the balance until Texas declined an invitation to join the Pac-10 earlier this summer.
“It’s basically the University of Texas at this level,” Pflugrad said of the UM football juggernaut.
If Montana leaves, chances are high that MSU, and possibly others, would follow.
“I’d like to stay with Montana,” Ash said. “As a state, as two institutions that have such a rivalry and are run by the same board of regents, we should stay together. Either we should both stay or both go.”
O’Day, also, expressed an interest in keeping the ’Cats-Griz rivalry intact.
“I’d like to see the two stay together,” he said. “The rivalry is a great rivalry and we think very highly of them.”
So which way is O’Day leaning?
“Today, I wouldn’t make the move,” he said. “When I look at the WAC and what is there? It would take a lot of work.”
But if enough other schools were added to make the WAC stronger, it might be enough to swing the decision.
“It’s been tougher across the nation for people moving out of the FCS,” Fullerton cautioned. “Quite frankly, the bottom of the FBS is where they problems lie now. You always have to remember that when someone invites you, it’s because they lost somebody else. And if the person they lost was their primary bread-winner, sometimes the place you’re going isn’t the place it was a year ago.”
Perhaps Fields summed it up best.
“There are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers,” he said.
http://helenair.com/sports/article_91a74d18-b336-11df-b7d6-001cc4c002e0.html
HelenIR.com
Montana, MSU ponder future in Big Sky Conference
Rob Ash likes the Big Sky Conference just the way it is.
“I think nine is a great number,” the Montana State University head football coach said. “I like the eight-game schedule with four at home and four away. I like the competition. I like the rivalries we have in the conference now. If I had my say, I’d like to keep it right like it is.”
But, like a family that is ever growing and changing, the landscape of collegiate athletics continued to shift this summer. Of all the developments, perhaps none hit closer to home than the decision of three members of the Western Athletic Conference to depart for the Mountain West Conference.
In the space of less than 90 days, the WAC was reduced from a reasonably healthy nine-team league to a far-flung six-member conference on life support and looking for new additions.
“I don’t know where the WAC is going to go, but they can’t stay at six teams,” Ash said. “So, I’m very concerned.”
“I have a feeling that the WAC will be interested in some of our institutions,” Big Sky commissioner Doug Fullerton said even before Fresno State and Nevada announced they would join Boise State in leaving the WAC for the MWC. “I think they will begin a formal process of looking at whether they are going to add teams around the first of the year.”
If, as many expect, the WAC extends invitations to Big Sky members Montana and Montana State, administrators at those schools will be faced with decisions that will shape the future of their athletic programs for decades to come.
“It’s such a major decision, everybody has to be on board whichever way we go,” Montana State athletic director Peter Fields said. “I’m sure, in the next 60 days, it will percolate a lot around the west.”
Montana recently hired an outside consulting firm to explore the feasibility of such a move. Results of the study won’t be known until later this year.
Football the big factor
While any potential change in conference affiliations would involve the entire spectrum of a university’s sports programs, it’s no secret that football drives the train.
In basketball, volleyball and other sports, membership in the WAC or Big Sky is not dramatically different. Each league currently gets one automatic bid to the NCAA Division I men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, as well as the volleyball tournament.
The real difference comes in football, where WAC members compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision and Big Sky members are part of the Football Championship Subdivision.
A move upward is certainly not without precedent. Both Boise State and Idaho were once Big Sky members who left for the FBS level with varying degrees of success, both on and off the field.
“Our fans have felt those were good competitors,” Montana athletic director Jim O’Day said. “So sometimes we are judged by how those schools have done.”
Show me the money
Whatever decisions are ultimately made, they will be based largely on – surprise – dollars. A move to the Football Bowl Subdivision level brings both additional revenue and additional expenses.
O’Day said the Grizzlies brought in around $72,000 in television revenue last season, while WAC schools grossed close to $500,000. UM netted about $30,000 for each of three home football playoff games, while sending more than $1 million back to the NCAA, which runs the tournament.
But a move to the FBS would also drive up expenditures.
“Look at the salary structure,” Fields said. “Their salary structure for football and basketball coaches is dramatically different than our salary structure. The number of scholarships that you have to offer (85 in football, compared to 63 at the FCS level) is dramatically different.”
“I think the average base budget in the WAC is somewhere around $20 million. In the Big Sky, we’re at $10-13 million.”
“We’d have to have an expansion of the (football) stadium. You’d have to increase your academic staff, your weight room staff, your equipment staff, your administrative staff. So you have a lot of expenses.”
Would the increase in revenue be more than enough to offset the increase in expenses?
“I think we’d be hard-pressed to make the connection,” Fields said.
Scheduling challenges
Such a move, however, is not without its advantages.
O’Day pointed out that it is has become increasingly difficult to schedule nonconference home football games. For the second straight season, the Grizzlies will open the season against a Division II opponent – Western State – at home, simply because an FCS foe couldn’t be found. MSU’s nonconference home games this season are against Fort Lewis and Drake.
FBS bylaws prohibit member schools from scheduling road games with FCS schools. A move to a FBS conference would open the door for nonconference home games against the likes of Boise State, Wyoming, Colorado State or even Pac-10 schools.
“Our fans pay a lot and they don’t want us to be playing a bunch of Division II schools,” O’Day said.
Even road games are getting harder to come by. Montana will open the 2011 season with a $500,000 guarantee game at Tennessee, but those dates are becoming harder and harder for FCS schools to land, O’Day said.
“Scheduling is the most difficult issue,” he said.
One thing that seems clear is that Montana and MSU cannot afford to be left holding the bag in a smaller and weaker Big Sky.
“If your league gets raided, it (scheduling) gets tougher,” O’Day said.
Speculation among athletic department officials on possible WAC invitations centers on Montana first, followed by MSU and then, perhaps, Portland State, Sacramento State and/or Weber State.
Montana is the crown jewel of FCS schools in the western United States, once again leading the nation in home football attendance (24,417) last season. In fact, Montana would rank behind only Hawaii (36,724) in attendance among the remaining WAC schools. Montana State (13,278) routinely ranks second in the Big Sky in home attendance, followed by a dropoff to Sacramento State (9,687).
Bowls or playoffs?
Is it better to play in the FCS national championship game – as Montana has done five times since the year 2000 – or the Hawaii Bowl?
“I’ve always been a proponent of the championship format,” O’Day said. “But as I watch the wear and tear on our student-athletes, I start to look at it differently. Our kids are exhausted. We’ve taken finals (exams) on the airplane, at the site and when we got back home.”
This year’s national championship game is scheduled for Jan. 7 in Frisco, Texas.
“The difference in a bowl situation is you have almost a month off,” he said.
First-year UM head football coach Robin Plfugrad has been on both sides, coaching teams to bowl games while an assistant at Arizona State, Washington State and Oregon.
“I do like the (FCS) format,” Pflugrad said. “But, the bowl games are awesome. The positives of the bowl games are that approximately 32 teams come out with a positive experience. At our level, one team comes out.”
Bowl games tend to make money for schools and conferences, while playoffs can actually lose money.
“I think the pros to staying at the FCS level is that we are playing for a championship,” MSU’s Fields said. “It’s proven the Big Sky Conference is a player at the national level.”
“I’ve always said I prefer the playoff system,” said Ash. “I know the bowls are a great experience for the young men. But the playoffs … that’s football at its best.”
Would the WAC fit?
On the surface, it seems UM and MSU would fit nicely with the remaining WAC members — San Jose State, Utah State, Idaho, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech and Hawaii – as well as other current Big Sky schools that might also come along.
“Those are good schools,” O’Day said. “Another important factor is how well you fit academically. That’s perhaps the most important factor.”
Montana’s call
The future of the Big Sky Conference will likely hinge on what O’Day and UM president Dr. George Dennison decide to do, much like the future of the Big 12 hung in the balance until Texas declined an invitation to join the Pac-10 earlier this summer.
“It’s basically the University of Texas at this level,” Pflugrad said of the UM football juggernaut.
If Montana leaves, chances are high that MSU, and possibly others, would follow.
“I’d like to stay with Montana,” Ash said. “As a state, as two institutions that have such a rivalry and are run by the same board of regents, we should stay together. Either we should both stay or both go.”
O’Day, also, expressed an interest in keeping the ’Cats-Griz rivalry intact.
“I’d like to see the two stay together,” he said. “The rivalry is a great rivalry and we think very highly of them.”
So which way is O’Day leaning?
“Today, I wouldn’t make the move,” he said. “When I look at the WAC and what is there? It would take a lot of work.”
But if enough other schools were added to make the WAC stronger, it might be enough to swing the decision.
“It’s been tougher across the nation for people moving out of the FCS,” Fullerton cautioned. “Quite frankly, the bottom of the FBS is where they problems lie now. You always have to remember that when someone invites you, it’s because they lost somebody else. And if the person they lost was their primary bread-winner, sometimes the place you’re going isn’t the place it was a year ago.”
Perhaps Fields summed it up best.
“There are a lot of questions and not a lot of answers,” he said.
