(non-MVC) Realignment News

[Red]

ODU dropping wrestling. They blame a significant portion of their financial woes on joining CUSA and then having the "name" schools from that league bolt for greener pastures.

[BCPanther]

ODU dropping wrestling. They blame a significant portion of their financial woes on joining CUSA and then having the "name" schools from that league bolt for greener pastures.

They rushed to FBS Football with no plan as to how to pay for it. They have no one to blame but themselves. James Madison is getting real close to making the same mistake.

[VUGrad1314]

Old Dominion should really consider dropping to FCS or going independent and angling for membership in the A10. They might be able to get in on the strength of their basketball program. I think they would be a really good fit there especially with several in-state schools already there.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

ODU has the highest budget of any CUSA/MAC/SBELT program by $5M. They just rebuilt their FB stadium for $67.5M.

Norfolk (#37) is the only top-50 MSA not within 2 hours of a Big 4 franchise or P5+BE+AAC school.

Norfolk is perfectly positioned so ODU should keep investing. They’ll gain AAC admission within the 2020s.

[VUGrad1314]

I definitely think that the AAC might eventually be interested in Old Dominion. If they can't get any of their top top candidates they would be one of the best most balanced options between football and basketball strength out there. That said, with another wave of realignment on the horizon, the AAC might or might not be interested in or even interesting to Old Dominion depending upon what happens. There are a lot of ways realignment can go and it's hard to speculate on what will actually happen until the dominoes actually start falling. Cutting wrestling owing to declining revenue and travel costs in CUSA is certainly not a great look for ODU which is why I suggested maybe choosing the A10\Football Indy route which may end up being a better safer path for the Monarchs. They can use their football program which hasn't been terribly successful anyway to take buy games and fund their basketball program which would probably reach new heights in the A10. In addition, there are a lot of eastern independents to help them fill out a football schedule and potentially make independence pay for itself. I really think it could be the best move possible for ODU.

[BCPanther]

I definitely think that the AAC might eventually be interested in Old Dominion. If they can't get any of their top top candidates they would be one of the best most balanced options between football and basketball strength out there. That said, with another wave of realignment on the horizon, the AAC might or might not be interested in or even interesting to Old Dominion depending upon what happens. There are a lot of ways realignment can go and it's hard to speculate on what will actually happen until the dominoes actually start falling. Cutting wrestling owing to declining revenue and travel costs in CUSA is certainly not a great look for ODU which is why I suggested maybe choosing the A10\Football Indy route which may end up being a better safer path for the Monarchs. They can use their football program which hasn't been terribly successful anyway to take buy games and fund their basketball program which would probably reach new heights in the A10. In addition, there are a lot of eastern independents to help them fill out a football schedule and potentially make independence pay for itself. I really think it could be the best move possible for ODU.

ODU and Charlotte both started football with the sole intention of getting to the FBS by spending the minimum required years in FCS. When traditional FCS powers have struggled after making the jump, I have no idea how they thought they could be successful.

[VUGrad1314]

Visions (Delusions?) of money or the promise of money that was never actually there? I think a lot of people mistakenly believe that going from FCS to FBS will make so much money for the athletic department but I don't think that's borne out very well for most G5 schools. It's a real shame because ODU has been and would make a very good basketball school if they fully committed to hoops. Same with Charlotte. Same with Western Kentucky. Same with many others. I hope most of the FCS schools with decent to good basketball programs are watching how these schools have fared since jumping to FBS and weighing that in their decision before making the jump. (Schools like North Dakota State should absolutely make the jump, as should schools like Eastern Kentucky or Jacksonville State or Kennesaw State if they can afford to do so because it's not like they have a great basketball program or tradition of excellence in the sport that they would be risking. The situation for Missouri State Illinois State and UNI is different though. They would have a lot to potentially lose by going FBS and for the health of their basketball programs (and their athletic departments in general for that matter) I hope none of those schools make the jump.

[BCPanther]

Visions (Delusions?) of money or the promise of money that was never actually there? I think a lot of people mistakenly believe that going from FCS to FBS will make so much money for the athletic department but I don't think that's borne out very well for most G5 schools. It's a real shame because ODU has been and would make a very good basketball school if they fully committed to hoops. Same with Charlotte. Same with Western Kentucky. Same with many others. I hope most of the FCS schools with decent to good basketball programs are watching how these schools have fared since jumping to FBS and weighing that in their decision before making the jump. (Schools like North Dakota State should absolutely make the jump, as should schools like Eastern Kentucky or Jacksonville State or Kennesaw State if they can afford to do so because it's not like they have a great basketball program or tradition of excellence in the sport that they would be risking. The situation for Missouri State Illinois State and UNI is different though. They would have a lot to potentially lose by going FBS and for the health of their basketball programs (and their athletic departments in general for that matter) I hope none of those schools make the jump.

The window for UNI to make the jump closed about 10 years ago. The booster club and Farley were really pushing for it at that time but we had a bad AD and didn't have a president for an almost 2 year span. Farley basically went behind the ADs back and had discussions with both the Mountain West and MAC but nothing really came of it in the end except for wrestling joining the MAC once Farley became interim AD for a while and that only lasted 3 years before wrestling moved on to the Big 12.

We're now in a spot where we aren't going anywhere anytime soon and that is just fine with the vast majortiy of us.

[MissouriValleyUnite]

Visions (Delusions?) of money or the promise of money that was never actually there? I think a lot of people mistakenly believe that going from FCS to FBS will make so much money for the athletic department but I don't think that's borne out very well for most G5 schools. It's a real shame because ODU has been and would make a very good basketball school if they fully committed to hoops. Same with Charlotte. Same with Western Kentucky. Same with many others. I hope most of the FCS schools with decent to good basketball programs are watching how these schools have fared since jumping to FBS and weighing that in their decision before making the jump. (Schools like North Dakota State should absolutely make the jump, as should schools like Eastern Kentucky or Jacksonville State or Kennesaw State if they can afford to do so because it's not like they have a great basketball program or tradition of excellence in the sport that they would be risking. The situation for Missouri State Illinois State and UNI is different though. They would have a lot to potentially lose by going FBS and for the health of their basketball programs (and their athletic departments in general for that matter) I hope none of those schools make the jump.

Old Dominion is a unique situation from all those other schools. There is incredible value in becoming *the* sports team of the Hampton Roads region (#37 MSA, only top-50 >2 hours from every Big-4/P5+BE+AAC team). The sports dollar is effectively vacant making it the most valuable untapped sports market in the US.

It’s why billionaire sports owners have twice attempted to relocate franchises there but failed due to lack of venue (90s Hampton Roads Rhinos, 2010s Virginia Beach Kings).

It’s why when ODU moved up to FBS, 3 ACC teams inked H&H’s in Norfolk. Virginia Tech signed up for half a dozen at Foreman Field. Remember how hard it is for a G5 to bring a P5 to their turf? Here’s an FBS call-up with no history that was an FCS infant yet ACC teams swarmed ODU solely to get their feet wet in the Tidewater.

Hampton Roads is the #1 market with a complete sports void. ODU knows it. ACC teams know it. Billionaires know it. If you don’t have a team there, you want to recruit there.

The value of becoming “the team” in Norfolk is why ODU made the investment to startup a FB program, rebuild a stadium for $67.5M, and budget $5M above all peers. The hard ($$$) and unfixable (market) parts are done. Now’s the easy part: win and ODU’s in the AAC.

[municup14]

Also,two conferences are asking for relief money.One part is that their ENDOWMENTS aren't doing very well.I don't believe the NCAA should help bail out a school if they have millions of dollars in endowments. Some of these Ivy League schools have 30 plus billion dollars and they charge kids 100,000 to attend school.