Sounds like Wichita St to the AAC... Who gets an Invite?

[unipanther99]

Will WSU schedule a home and home series with current MVC schools?

[Haha]

For your sake, I hope that UConn and Cincinnati stay put.

Not sure what you're getting at, a league that still would have the likes of Memphis, Tulsa, SMU, Houston somehow wouldn't be more attractive to Wichita State? Never mind the AAC would have a long list of quality mid majors wanting to be the replacement for those two. I just can't see any downside.

[MidWestMidMajor]

"...if Wichita leaves or stays, UNI, ISU and MSU would pretty much jump at any chance to move to an FBS conference."

A poster a few pages back wondered why any school would take on the expense of FBS football.

After NMSU's football team did not get affiliate football membership renewed in the Sun Belt, AD Mario Moccia did an analysis of their options. One option is to drop down to FCS and join the Southland or Big Sky. But he determined that FCS football has nearly the same expense as FBS with only a fraction of the income possibilities. (Maybe NDSU, Montana, and a few others are exceptions to that.)

That's why just about any AD with an FCS team would "sell his grandmother" to get an FBS invite. Especially as state money gets more scarce, pressure on tuition increases, etc.

[BCPanther]

"...if Wichita leaves or stays, UNI, ISU and MSU would pretty much jump at any chance to move to an FBS conference."

A poster a few pages back wondered why any school would take on the expense of FBS football.

After NMSU's football team did not get affiliate football membership renewed in the Sun Belt, AD Mario Moccia did an analysis of their options. One option is to drop down to FCS and join the Southland or Big Sky. But he determined that FCS football has nearly the same expense as FBS with only a fraction of the income possibilities. (Maybe NDSU, Montana, and a few others are exceptions to that.)

That's why just about any AD with an FCS team would "sell his grandmother" to get an FBS invite. Especially as state money gets more scarce, pressure on tuition increases, etc.

Of course that's what the study said. When you're paying for the study, you get to choose what the results are.

UNI did a study a few years ago that said FCS was the best option because our incompetent AD wanted that to be the result. If we did the same study today with our new AD, I guarantee it would say go FBS.

[RoyalShock]

Will WSU schedule a home and home series with current MVC schools?

Hard to say. I would put the odds somewhere around what they were when Creighton left. Have they scheduled any of their former conference mates?

I honestly think after a few years go by, there would be a willingness to schedule an MVC school that's projected to be a top 2 or 3 league finisher.

[uniftw]

The reality of football is that something like 70 of the 125 FBS programs lose money. Only about 30 truly make any "real" money.

Yes, costs go up moving FBS from FCS. 22 extra scholarships (which isn't entirely true as you only have to give 78 of 85) plus extra Title IX scholarships. However, FBS conferences (even the MAC and Sun Belt) get millions of dollars every year from ESPN, Fox Sports, NBC Sports, the Football Playoffs, etc.. that get distributed.

There are about 5-10 FCS programs that actually do/could generate revenue - North Dakota State South Dakota State, Northern Iowa, Montana, Montana State, James Madison, Delaware, Jacksonville State, Sam Houston State, maybe McNeese State, maybe a just a very small few others - and Missouri State if they'd ever get their s*** straight.

The reality is the % of money lost at the FBS level compared to the % of money lost vs spent at the FCS level is the same. What's that mean? Let's say, and I'll use these two as an example as I remember having a discussion over something like this a few years back. Boise State lose something like $4m in a year. McNeese State (I think that's who it was....hell insert 90% of the FCS here as the numbers are all within statistical error of each other) lost something like $1.5m. Boise State's athletic budget is something like $40 million dollars. McNeese State's budget is like $12 million. Essentially Boise State "lost" 10% of their budget and McNeese was like 11 or 12% of the budget. If McNeese exrapolated their loses out to Boise's budget they'd have lost over 5m. Who gets the better ROI?

Sure, you could (and this other guy did) argue that "losing" 1.5m is better than "losing" 4m. However, that's ignoring so many basic economic principals. It doesn't account for publicity Boise State gets vs McNeese State - be honest, how many of you know where McNeese State is...or that they even existed?. That free marketing allows for more applicants, meaning better applicants can be accepted.

The reality, for a school like UNI, ISUr or MSU is that getting into the FBS makes sense - as long as our basketball programs are protected to be at the very least the level they are now. Jumping to CUSA makes no sense. However, when WSU leaves the MVC will drop even further down. The MAC with UNI and or ISUr is better than the MVC at that point.

College athletic budgets are mostly just a big game of accounting tricks. It only becomes an issue when you aren't good enough at the tricks anymore.

[Cdizzle]

Will WSU schedule a home and home series with current MVC schools?

No idea. But if the primary driver for leaving is so men's basketball can quit playing home and home series with so many RPI 100+ teams every year, I'm not sure there would be a long list of potential series.

[squirrel]

Someone brought up Gonzaga and the WCC...here is where Doug Elgin really dropped the ball in recent years: Cable TV.

The WCC benefited immensely when the Pac-12 signed a long-term exclusivity deal with regional Fox networks in the late 1990's-one happy byproduct of that was the WCC owning the late night Big Monday spot on ESPN that happened to coincide with Gonzaga's rise.

Elgin is a paradox in a lot of ways...his vision to emphasize basketball paid tremendous dividends for most of the last 30 years. He also gets credit for getting the Valley Championship game on CBS. And I think getting the semis on CBS Sports is great too. But ESPN 3 is NOT TV. You're only reaching homes that have an interest in the Valley, more often than not. Sure, it's great for us fans, but from a recognition, exposure and outreach standpoint, with NBC, Fox, and CBS all forming their own national networks over the past decade, the Valley still finds itself largely on regional TV, with only a handful of games on national broadcast and cable networks.

That was a huge miscue.

[BCPanther]

Someone brought up Gonzaga and the WCC...here is where Doug Elgin really dropped the ball in recent years: Cable TV.

The WCC benefited immensely when the Pac-12 signed a long-term exclusivity deal with regional Fox networks in the late 1990's-one happy byproduct of that was the WCC owning the late night Big Monday spot on ESPN that happened to coincide with Gonzaga's rise.

Elgin is a paradox in a lot of ways...his vision to emphasize basketball paid tremendous dividends for most of the last 30 years. He also gets credit for getting the Valley Championship game on CBS. And I think getting the semis on CBS Sports is great too. But ESPN 3 is NOT TV. You're only reaching homes that have an interest in the Valley, more often than not. Sure, it's great for us fans, but from a recognition, exposure and outreach standpoint, with NBC, Fox, and CBS all forming their own national networks over the past decade, the Valley still finds itself largely on regional TV, with only a handful of games on national broadcast and cable networks.

That was a huge miscue.

Excellent Post. Outstanding.

Doug was WAY ahead of his time when he decided to produce games in house and farm them out to FSN Midwest and FSN Chicago at the time. Brought in more money than any other comparable league and gave a true regional footprint.

The problem is that he stopped there and the world passed him. He believed in regional and having set game schedules rather than bending to TV. It ultimately is/will be his demise.

[Red]

I'm surprised we haven't heard anything official on this. What's taking so long?