New NCAA Subdivision Proposal

[BCPanther]

I'm surprised there isn't more talk of this. It's the biggest news in college sports ever. What's going to happen to the MVC?

Belmont, Bradley, Drake (drops football) and UIC are going to opt in and find other non-football schools to partner with and keep the Valley name. Football schools are going to opt out and the big split happens. Evansville is on the fence. Valpo either has to drop football and opt in or they opt out.

SIU, Murray and Indiana State head to what will be a remade OVC and Missouri State, Illinois State and UNI will head to a newly formed 'Snow Belt League' with the 4 Dakotas, 2 Montanas, Idaho, Weber State and Sacramento State.

It's doomsday right after we were finally stable and it sucks for everybody.

Could this be done for just football or do you think it has to be an "all or nothing" type of deal?

The way that the proposal reads as of now, and of course it could change, is either your in as a total department or out as a total department. There's no FCS carve out at this point and it's just not feasible for any of the scholarship football schools to drop football other than maybe Indiana State

[racernation]

Belmont, Bradley, Drake (drops football) and UIC are going to opt in and find other non-football schools to partner with and keep the Valley name. Football schools are going to opt out and the big split happens. Evansville is on the fence. Valpo either has to drop football and opt in or they opt out.

SIU, Murray and Indiana State head to what will be a remade OVC and Missouri State, Illinois State and UNI will head to a newly formed 'Snow Belt League' with the 4 Dakotas, 2 Montanas, Idaho, Weber State and Sacramento State.

It's doomsday right after we were finally stable and it sucks for everybody.

Well that's a very specific answer. I doubt there are going to be as many as 100 schools that will "opt in" to whatever it is you're referring to (and who knows what "it" really is). Do you think Belmont, UIC and MoState can compete with the Power 4? It's laughable.

The Power 4 wants their own deal. They aren't going to mess with the Group of 5 or certainly any FCS schools. Basketball only schools like the Big East, A10 and the MVC will be left out in the cold.

[BCPanther]

Belmont, Bradley, Drake (drops football) and UIC are going to opt in and find other non-football schools to partner with and keep the Valley name. Football schools are going to opt out and the big split happens. Evansville is on the fence. Valpo either has to drop football and opt in or they opt out.

SIU, Murray and Indiana State head to what will be a remade OVC and Missouri State, Illinois State and UNI will head to a newly formed 'Snow Belt League' with the 4 Dakotas, 2 Montanas, Idaho, Weber State and Sacramento State.

It's doomsday right after we were finally stable and it sucks for everybody.

Well that's a very specific answer. I doubt there are going to be as many as 100 schools that will "opt in" to whatever it is you're referring to (and who knows what "it" really is). Do you think Belmont, UIC and MoState can compete with the Power 4? It's laughable.

The Power 4 wants their own deal. They aren't going to mess with the Group of 5 or certainly any FCS schools. Basketball only schools like the Big East, A10 and the MVC will be left out in the cold.

Charlie Baker used the number 100 over and over today at a press event which is magically about the right number for the P4 plus the Big East plus the better non-football playing members of the A10, Valley and WCC.

I totally agree with you on the G5 and FCS football schools; however, they are going to tolerate basketball only schools that they can still control and put together a reasonable national tournament with.

[unipanther99]

Would the non-scholarship FCS even need to drop football? If those numbers aren't counted, who cares? It seems like a no-brainer for any good mid major basketball team without scholarship football to go ahead and do this.

My question... What becomes of the MAC and Mountain West?

Some of the Mountain West will definitely want to try to make this work, along with the PAC-2. Others may not. Those that do, become part of the new PAC-X? and those that don't retain the Mountain West and pick up either the Dakotas, Montana schools or all of them.

Almost certainly most of the MAC schools won't be able to afford to do this. And they would have no reason to throw a lifeline to UNI, Illinois State, or SIU.

This could be devastating for some Valley schools.

[BCPanther]

Would the non-scholarship FCS even need to drop football? If those numbers aren't counted, who cares? It seems like a no-brainer for any good mid major basketball team without scholarship football to go ahead and do this.

My question... What becomes of the MAC and Mountain West?

Some of the Mountain West will definitely want to try to make this work, along with the PAC-2. Others may not. Those that do, become part of the new PAC-X? and those that don't retain the Mountain West and pick up either the Dakotas, Montana schools or all of them.

Almost certainly most of the MAC schools won't be able to afford to do this. And they would have no reason to throw a lifeline to UNI, Illinois State, or SIU.

This could be devastating for some Valley schools.

You're right. I had all SAs not just scholarship athletes on the brain.

Obviously this thing will be amended but it wouldn't be out there if this weren't the direction and, again, you're right that this is probably a very bad thing for the public football schools.

[TylerDurden]

What's the math on this?

The article mentions "eligible athletes" but doesn't really say who those athletes are. My assumption is scholarship athletes.

Back of napkin math here:

Just in FBS with 85 scholarships, the bill is $2.55m annually.

With Title IX compliance in the mix (to whatever degree schools are actually following Title IX), you're likely looking at 100 or so women's scholarship athletes to balance football, so $3m more.

$5.5m annually, without including any other men's sports.

That might get FBS schools with 15-20 sports close to the halfway mark. It might also be an incentive for schools to consider cutting sports.

Some current FBS schools have a relatively low number of sports. Iowa State, for instance, only offers 16 intercollegiate sports - and no doubt double-counts its men's and women's cross country teams as part of the track and field teams.

By comparison and on the high end, Ohio State offers 18 men's sports and 20 women's sports.

This is the way the resource divide has been trending, but throwing an additional $5+ million dollar annual requirement on schools is certainly one way to speed up the process.

Let's say an FCS team decides the funding is doable...that still doesn't give you a conference to play in - they probably don't want you anyway.

Also, let's say the every school in the B1G, SEC, ACC, Big 12 and Big East are on board and now play under a different set of governing rules. Does this effectively kill the NCAA men's basketball tournament as we know it?

Sure seems to me that CBS and the breakaway groups would be perfectly happy to not share that money. Cinderella stories are for opening weekend, but CBS would much rather have Kentucky, UNC, Kansas and UCLA in the Final Four.

Obviously there are still a lot of unknowns, but this isn't good news for the vast majority of DI schools.

[racernation]

He might say 100 now, but the P4's ultimate goal is autonomy. They don't care about anyone else.

[Kyle_Saluki_17]

What is the difference in SIU, Murray, and Indiana State vs the other public schools such as UNI? Why would those schools do something that SIU doesn’t? Curious on your explanation BCPanther

[BCPanther]

What is the difference in SIU, Murray, and Indiana State vs the other public schools such as UNI? Why would those schools do something that SIU doesn’t? Curious on your explanation BCPanther

Geography. Nothing more. Illinois State could just as easily go east where I'm certain UNI would choose to go west.