mvfcfan wrote:You try to act like basketball is some big cash cow for the conference and in reality everyone in our league is just trying to break even on it.
At the end of the day football and basketball are the two major sports in Division 1. On a per game level, every school in the MVC that has scholarship football draws more per game than they do for basketball. Please don't try to pretend that no one cares, because obviously there a lot of people out there that do. If no one cared then every MVC public would not be spending more on football than they do on basketball. There's obviously a reason they are doing it. There's also a reason why ILST and MSU just recently renovated their stadiums, and SIU built a new one. Indiana State is also planning on building a new stadium and UNI already plays in a dome.
NDSU and SDSU spend more on football than basketball too, just like everyone else in the MVC. The only difference is that they have more success at it and draw way more people to their games. NDSU also plays in a nice dome and SDSU just built a new stadium that is G5 FBS quality. It doesn't mean they don't care about basketball. Obviously they both do. There hasn't been a team not named SDSU or NDSU make the NCAA tournament from the Summit League since 2011. Since 2009 SDSU has made the tournament 5 times and NDSU has made it 4 times. That's better than pretty much everyone in our league.
Yeah they are only 2-9 all time combined in the NCAA tournament (NDSU has both wins), but SDSU only lost by single digits 3 of those 5 times. NDSU also played Kansas and Gonzaga tough.
I think they have both proved that are plenty deserving of an invite. I don't think it would be that awful to invite programs to our league that want to win in both sports.
Some serious mental gymnastics going on here.
Is football the most popular sport in America? Yes!
Is FCS football popular enough such that the playoffs get a $10 billion dollar contract like NCAA basketball? Not by a longshot! I'm not saying "nobody" cares, but there sure as hell aren't bracket pools in any office I've seen.
You can compare football attendance with basketball attendance but guess what? If basketball sells 6k/game that's for (generally) 17 home games! Football (generally) plays 6 home games! And basketball has 13 scholarships! FCS football has 63! That's wayyyy more expensive! And about 1/3 of the gate revenue! And no playoff TV money!
So it's far, far more complicated than saying "football is more popular than basketball."
As for NDSU and SDSU, they have very low basketball spending in a very poor conference. You cite their 2 wins, but 1 of those wins was in the Dayton play-in game. Remember how many people on here were wringing their hands because Bradley got a 15 seed? NDSU not only got a 16 seed but was one of those 16 seeds that had to play in! Now, actually, that's not that horrible a fate financially because in the NCAA's infinite wisdom a Dayton appearance is worth just as much as a regular round of 64 appearance but I think most would agree that's not the greatest business model!