Andrew Schmidt on the Big Sky Breakdown on struggles in Pokey, his proposal for the Snow Belt Conference

[Wolf777]

https://twitter.com/jbertram/status/1578443848723812352?s=61&t=B18AJj4ya3Ljs_Oh49pA-g

Sorry to resurrect this, but given the current landscape and crumbling of the PAC-12 it would be fun to see a Washington State in this mix with a built in border war rival with Idaho as well as EWU right down the road. If WSU can’t find a conference and some tv money to replace the previous PAC-12 media money, they will be operating with about 20-30% of the budget they have become accustomed too.

I’m also well aware that they would drop down to the Mountain West before ever considering such a move but the footprint of such a conference is awful fun to think about. Especially if we could poach a Wyoming or Boise State you’d have minimal travel expenses for schools and fans who could travel to away games in droves.

Unfortunately, you lack a big enough audience to draw any media rights deal. So sniffing $4 million a year like the mountain west is more than you could expect.

 

[AZGrizFan]

Well we could dump UNC and PSU and NAU and shrink the footprint of the league dramatically.

 

[Wolf777]

Well we could dump UNC and PSU and NAU and shrink the footprint of the league dramatically.

I know you’ve been a big proponent of dropping down to a league the size that it used to be where everyone plays everyone so there is a true conference champion. I agree in the FCS it is preferable given the playoff structure as well as the Big Sky in general. However, if you are interested in getting television rights at any level moving forward so your fans can watch their teams with more than student announcers and 2 cameras, less is certainly not more any longer.

UNC should be the first to go. I used to think it was the California schools but there has been concerted effort lately to invest in athletics and Sacramento is a decent sized market with good opportunities.

And I only resurrected this because the thought of creating a new FBS conference is certainly a fun idea to think about and the hypotheticals given the struggles WSU and OSU will now face.

 

[CatGrad-UMGradStu]

Well we could dump UNC and PSU and NAU and shrink the footprint of the league dramatically.

I know you’ve been a big proponent of dropping down to a league the size that it used to be where everyone plays everyone so there is a true conference champion. I agree in the FCS it is preferable given the playoff structure as well as the Big Sky in general. However, if you are interested in getting television rights at any level moving forward so your fans can watch their teams with more than student announcers and 2 cameras, less is certainly not more any longer.

UNC should be the first to go. I used to think it was the California schools but there has been concerted effort lately to invest in athletics and Sacramento is a decent sized market with good opportunities.

And I only resurrected this because the thought of creating a new FBS conference is certainly a fun idea to think about and the hypotheticals given the struggles WSU and OSU will now face.

Pretend, just for a moment, you're on the outside looking in (and anyone with any sense realizes most of the schools left now are relegated to Ivy and Ivy Plus status) and those with regional rivalries (read, Sun Belt here) and when the rest of us tire of listening to the bullshit announcers and watching schools we could give a rats ass about, stadiums will be filled with alumni and students of said school. College football will soon return to regional rivalries and conferences will morph to fit that reality based upon the egos of those in the Super Conferences. Read, who the hell wants to associate with those from schools such as Stanford, Cal and the Ivies where each and every peer reviewed journal article published can get exposed by a freshman journalism student and subsequently cause a "highly respected and highly published" university of inflated egos to resign? Actual schools of excellence are leaving those behind.

 

[AZGrizFan]

I know you’ve been a big proponent of dropping down to a league the size that it used to be where everyone plays everyone so there is a true conference champion. I agree in the FCS it is preferable given the playoff structure as well as the Big Sky in general. However, if you are interested in getting television rights at any level moving forward so your fans can watch their teams with more than student announcers and 2 cameras, less is certainly not more any longer.

UNC should be the first to go. I used to think it was the California schools but there has been concerted effort lately to invest in athletics and Sacramento is a decent sized market with good opportunities.

And I only resurrected this because the thought of creating a new FBS conference is certainly a fun idea to think about and the hypotheticals given the struggles WSU and OSU will now face.

Pretend, just for a moment, you're on the outside looking in (and anyone with any sense realizes most of the schools left now are relegated to Ivy and Ivy Plus status) and those with regional rivalries (read, Sun Belt here) and when the rest of us tire of listening to the bullshit announcers and watching schools we could give a rats ass about, stadiums will be filled with alumni and students of said school. College football will soon return to regional rivalries and conferences will morph to fit that reality based upon the egos of those in the Super Conferences. Read, who the hell wants to associate with those from schools such as Stanford, Cal and the Ivies where each and every peer reviewed journal article published can get exposed by a freshman journalism student and subsequently cause a "highly respected and highly published" university of inflated egos to resign? Actual schools of excellence are leaving those behind.

Holy run on sentences, Bat Man.

 

[Wolf777]

Pretend, just for a moment, you're on the outside looking in (and anyone with any sense realizes most of the schools left now are relegated to Ivy and Ivy Plus status) and those with regional rivalries (read, Sun Belt here) and when the rest of us tire of listening to the poop announcers and watching schools we could give a rats ass about, stadiums will be filled with alumni and students of said school. College football will soon return to regional rivalries and conferences will morph to fit that reality based upon the egos of those in the Super Conferences. Read, who the hell wants to associate with those from schools such as Stanford, Cal and the Ivies where each and every peer reviewed journal article published can get exposed by a freshman journalism student and subsequently cause a "highly respected and highly published" university of inflated egos to resign? Actual schools of excellence are leaving those behind.

Holy run on sentences, Bat Man.

Definitely that MSU undergrad English coming out. I kid, I kid.

 

[SaskGriz]

I know you’ve been a big proponent of dropping down to a league the size that it used to be where everyone plays everyone so there is a true conference champion. I agree in the FCS it is preferable given the playoff structure as well as the Big Sky in general. However, if you are interested in getting television rights at any level moving forward so your fans can watch their teams with more than student announcers and 2 cameras, less is certainly not more any longer.

UNC should be the first to go. I used to think it was the California schools but there has been concerted effort lately to invest in athletics and Sacramento is a decent sized market with good opportunities.

And I only resurrected this because the thought of creating a new FBS conference is certainly a fun idea to think about and the hypotheticals given the struggles WSU and OSU will now face.

Pretend, just for a moment, you're on the outside looking in (and anyone with any sense realizes most of the schools left now are relegated to Ivy and Ivy Plus status) and those with regional rivalries (read, Sun Belt here) and when the rest of us tire of listening to the bullshit announcers and watching schools we could give a rats ass about, stadiums will be filled with alumni and students of said school. College football will soon return to regional rivalries and conferences will morph to fit that reality based upon the egos of those in the Super Conferences. Read, who the hell wants to associate with those from schools such as Stanford, Cal and the Ivies where each and every peer reviewed journal article published can get exposed by a freshman journalism student and subsequently cause a "highly respected and highly published" university of inflated egos to resign? Actual schools of excellence are leaving those behind.

If you edited this three more times, it might become "authentic frontier gibberish". As it stands, this might be the Rosetta stone for Etruscan.

 

[Bertram]

Saw a (Fan)proposal to include a few Big Sky teams (some of which too cheap to upgrade facilities to the FBS level) , what is left the the Pac12, and a few teams from the Mountain West; the resulting conference would be The Broke Pac Mountain.

 

[mthoopsfan]

It's all about money now. Why would any conference, or the FBS, want these teams, none of whom (to my knowledge) have a huge tv/fan following. Some great fans, but virtually nothing for tv ratings and viewership, week in and week out.

I agree whole heartedly that we need to move up, the FCS is getting smaller and smaller and as mentioned the bottom will fall out eventually.

In regards to forming a new FBS Conference however I see that as the most long shot idea, frankly their are more realistic scenarios:

-PAC12 survives and backfills with MWC schools, we and MSU get the call up.

-PAC Collapses and is absorbed by BIG10 and BIG12. MWC may consider expanding to take advantage of TV/survivability.

Now in regards to this solution I feel there is an easier route to FBS then forming a new Conference, and that's to take over an existing one:

-The WACs dreams of moving up to FBS got torpedoed really quickly, however they still have the ability to do so without penalty (if I remember correctly) and would be a simpler thing to do the following:

-WAC announces FBS football by adding:

NORTH
Montana, MSU, Weber State, Idaho, NDSU, SDSU

SOUTH
UTEP, NMSU, Missouri State, Tarleton State, SFA, SHSU

(Potential replacement teams then those listed/future adds: UND, USD, UNI, Lamar, NAU)

I fully believe NMSU, UTEP and SHSU would prefer to be in this Conference over CUSA.

-The Big Sky and Southland could take the remaining WAC schools split between them.

-Could keep GCU as a basketball only member and maybe look at adding another (rumor is Gonzaga is looking to jump ship due to BYU leaving).

Where’s your data for FCS getting smaller and smaller?