UND knows that NDSU, which hasn't scheduled a home and home for a decade, has been part of an MVFC block. NDSU doesn't want to play at UND because that will cause UND football to have a major spike in season tickets and corporate advertising, and NDSU's former President and AD wanted to see us starved financially.
UND dropped baseball purposely to make us less appealing for the Slummit, which needs baseball teams to keep its basketball autobid.
What the end result of this play will be is a reorganization of the WAC and Big Sky.
Sometime soon, the WAC will propose trading UVU, GCU, Bakersfield and Seattle with UND, UNC, the Montanas, Idaho, and E Wash. With six FCS teams, that will assure aa autobid for football. The remaining WAC teams would be NMSU, UMKC, UTRGV, and Chicago St. Highly doubt that Chicago State will be DI or even be open after this school year, as their budget crisis resulted in mass transfers, few new students, and many professor layoffs.
The WAC can still offer FBS spots per NCAA regs, as any conference that was FBS can offer new ones.
After the announcement, Wichita St will get an offer for football only, as it wants to build up its entire program to get into the American with Tulsa and SMU.
Around 2020, all the teams will be transitioning to FBS, except UMKC of course and UNC, which will stay FCS and go back to the Big Sky.
The WAC may invite other teams too, like Sam Houston St, Lamar, which want FBS, Mo St, which wants to follow Wichita St, and Denver, which was an FBS league though it will never have football.
I'm sure this will be picked apart, especially by PR.
UND is only pleading poverty to get a new revamped more eastern WAC with Big Sky schools. The WAC will be mostly research schools which will be a plus and has been talked about by numerous BSC Ad's that a research division is coming.
This will greatly satisfy politicians in ND who don't want UND in a conference with half the teams in the southwest.
The schools in the new WAC want to be part of the negotiations for a new CFP. Being an FBS conference will give them that right again, and maybe get much more than $2 mill if the CFP goes to eight teams starting in 2025.
