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Where Will FCS Football Land In College Football Realignment? W/ Big Sky Commissioner Tom Wistrcill

EverettGriz said:
While I agree wholeheartedly with the bolded statement, I don't really understand the reluctance to move up simply because of that. Montana competes at that level and against those programs in every sport besides football. Yes, I love the playoffs. Yes, I love competing for a "national championship". But I don't know of anyone who supports keeping football at the fcs level who also supports a move to DII for programs like basketball. Why is that? We have no chance at winning a national title there either, but for some reason people are happy to value things like conference championships and Dance appearances. I just don't understand the disconnect.
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In all honesty, I guess I just see mid major teams go on runs and make the sweet sixteen type of level in ways that we wouldn't even have a chance to do in football, to my mind.

On the other hand, if the Big Sky somehow announced we were moving to d2 for basketball, I wouldn't care that much if I am honest. I wish there was an FCS level for basketball, too. I feel mostly the same about basketball and not being able to compete with the UNC and Dukes of the world.

Maybe I am wrong, and there are more paths to us being competitive at that level than I realize, but I don't see it. I just don't see a huge need to swim with the sharks when we know we are a dolphin. And dolphins are still pretty cool.
 
ElrodGrizzly said:
In all honesty, I guess I just see mid major teams go on runs and make the sweet sixteen type of level in ways that we wouldn't even have a chance to do in football, to my mind.

On the other hand, if the Big Sky somehow announced we were moving to d2 for basketball, I wouldn't care that much if I am honest. I wish there was an FCS level for basketball, too. I feel mostly the same about basketball and not being able to compete with the UNC and Dukes of the world.

Maybe I am wrong, and there are more paths to us being competitive at that level than I realize, but I don't see it. I just don't see a huge need to swim with the sharks when we know we are a dolphin. And dolphins are still pretty cool.
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But the bsc is NOT a midmajor. Look, while I believe UM football belongs at the FBS level, I’d support them staying fcs if we could get all the other sports into a real, legitimate DI conference. Then they’d have a chance to make a run as you suggest.
 
What were not talking about in this formula?

It's a matter of time b4 secondary sports content companies/networks and the likes of X want to add live streaming sporting events to platforms.

Those options help the G5 and upper FCS level conferences, teams, etc.
 
SinCityGriz2005 said:
It seems to me that people with that type of reasoning are also the ones behind participation medals and ribbons as well.
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There is plenty of good in your post, but this part is exactly backwards. It seems.the "move up" crowd want their participation ribbon while accepting football never competing for anything more than some pointless and poorly attended small time bowl game ever again.

For the record, if it "Snow Belt" conference ever became a reality, I'd be fine with that. I'm not anti- move up. There are pros and definite cons as well. But to move up right now a conference has to want us. None do right now, and rightfully so, given that conference shuffling is entirely about media revenue. So that would mean we'd have to create a new one with a bunch of like minded schools. Competing against our peers institutions is what matters to me. I don't care to compete against current DII schools nor do I care to become a sacrificial lamb in a schedule full of teams with 10 times our resources.
 
ElrodGrizzly said:
Not here to obliterate you. I see what you are saying, and I totally get that feeling. I've had this conversation with others, and I don't begrudge you that at all.

For me, it isn't the "meaningless national championship vs a bowl game" that makes me lean toward being good with the FCS, it is the playoff run that we get to experience. That playoff run last year was incredible, and as a sports fan was the most fun of my adult life. It felt special. While it would be fun to fly out to that Alamo Bowl in San Antonio, or whatever random bowl in whatever place, it wouldn't match the excitement of a playoff run for me.

I don't see Montana ever competing with the Alabamas, Georgias, and Texases of the world. We just don't have the money or recruiting base that they do, and I don't personally expect that we ever will. If they do go to a system where those top programs are split off by the CFP system and the current G5 teams make their own playoff system, I would be happy to join that. I just really, really don't want to lose the playoff system. I don't give a shit about "purity," but the playoff system is just more fun for me and that's pretty much all I take into account in the matter because I have absolutely zero say in anything the University does.
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I can agree with the playoff run experience. I also look at it from the people I know who JMU alumni and former players who went through their insane season last year. I detest JMU and I even got caught up in the hype. But yeah, the playoffs are fun. I still think they will redesignate the G5's and they will end up having their own NC.

Man, you go to one of the P5 schools, and you learn really quick the differences between the five G5 conferences and the four P5 conferences. UM could very easily be a top 5 G5 team in a couple of years.
 
SinCityGriz2005 said:
I can agree with the playoff run experience. I also look at it from the people I know who JMU alumni and former players who went through their insane season last year. I detest JMU and I even got caught up in the hype. But yeah, the playoffs are fun. I still think they will redesignate the G5's and they will end up having their own NC.

Man, you go to one of the P5 schools, and you learn really quick the differences between the five G5 conferences and the four P5 conferences. UM could very easily be a top 5 G5 team in a couple of years.
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I'd love it if we could. I would be very, very hopeful that we could get to being a top 5 G5 team in a couple of years.

I do agree with points that yourself and people like Everett have made that it would mean more if we were winning a championship against the Boise States and Fresno States of the world rather than blowing through SE Louisiana Tech in the first round. I like the way it is now, but if the biggest guys split off and we get an even playing field with the likes of JMU and Georgia Southern, I'd enjoy the hell out of that.
 
sports.yahoo.com

With $2.8B settlement looming, NCAA's smaller conferences feeling squeezed: 'What other options are there?'

College sports is on the brink of a deal that'd require a massive amount in damages. But schools outside the power conferences aren't too happy about the split considering who'd be paying the majority of it.
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com

On Tuesday morning before his drive to the office, Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill scrolled through news on his phone.

He stopped at a headline announcing that college football’s two goliaths, the SEC and Big Ten, earned a cumulative $1.7 billion in revenue last year.

“It’s both ironic and a gut punch,” Wistrcill told Yahoo Sports in an interview Tuesday. “The SEC and the Big Ten are announcing record revenues and distributions to their members while I’m looking at a 10% operating budget cut so that money can go to their former student-athletes.”

It is a strange time in college athletics.
 
Schools or conferences should pay in accordance with what their former athletes get. This would be easy to calculate. I can see why the big schools would prefer that smaller schools subsidize them.

State legislatures will get involved. They won’t allow their schools to subsidize big conferences.
 
To say college SPORTS is in flux is an understatement. The Big Ten and SEC gobble up schools like supermassive black holes gobble up everything. The ACC is now going full blown football, kicking out Duke, Syracuse, Boston College, and Wake Forrest, to make room for...

The Frontier Conference just added a handful of schools from North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

In the meantime, the Big Sky sends Wistrcill out to reassure it's members that all is well, nothing to see here, so go back to sleep.
 
EverettGriz said:
But the bsc is NOT a midmajor. Look, while I believe UM football belongs at the FBS level, I’d support them staying fcs if we could get all the other sports into a real, legitimate DI conference. Then they’d have a chance to make a run as you suggest.
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This issue of getting the other sports into better DI conferences doesn't get discussed enough. A different conference has to make sense for the other sports, not only for competition and playoff opportunities, but also as a revenue generator. I'd love to see UM basketball play a Mountain West schedule.
 
AZGrizFan said:
Same. I’ve always said a conference made up of:

Montana
MSU
Wyoming
Colorado State
NDSU
SDSU
UND
USD

I would take that in a heartbeat.
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Except it is a total non-starter for Wyo and CSU

Why would they leave teams that would be staying the MWC, no matter what, like Nevada, SJSU, New Mexico, Fresno, Utah Sate, for that little region with no media exposure at all. Way easier, and more profitable, to Add UTEP, New Mexico ST, and North Texas than do your idea.

I mean no matter what happens, 7 - 8 schools will remain in the MWC and they will rebuild to 10 or so quite quickly.
 
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p8nted said:
Except it is a total non-starter for Wyo and CSU

Why would they leave teams that would be staying the MWC, no matter what, like Nevada, SJSU, New Mexico, Fresno, Utah Sate, for that little region with no media exposure at all. Way easier, and more profitable, to Add UTEP, New Mexico ST, and North Texas than do your idea.

I mean no matter what happens, 7 - 8 schools will remain in the MWC and they will rebuild to 10 or so quite quickly.
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I didn't say it was probable. But a fella can dream, can't he?
 
'Ol Watsa Mater U?
Speaking WMU, it's been 103 days since Silver-Spoon-in-his -mouth from Weiser got KO'd by the indentified UI football player during Round 2 of this saga. Moscow PD has had a new Chief since the first of the month. Chief Inspector Clouseau must be hard at work, in his private 'reum' sifting through all the 'cliews' to get to the bottom of this baffling mystery, 'yeu kneuw.'

I wonder what the odds are that MPD and UI will come out with a joint statement on Clouseau's investigation on Day 104. Schools out, graduation is in the books, and students have scattered to the four corners of the earth.
 
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