Serious question... Why is North Dakota state still fcs...?

[Addicted2quack]

I mean come on, really, 5 straight ncaa championships..... They just flat out dismantled Jacksonville state. This team has got to be moved up to the fbs level. I would say put them in the MAC or the MWC... I'm not saying they are going to be an powerhouse or even a group of 5 power right off the bat, but this is getting ridiculous. After 3 it should have been automatic, but now five straight, it's obvious they've built a dynasty at that level that can't be touched....move them up already. I know this is all about money in the grand scheme but it's just pointless now.

how is Hawaii still fbs??? They can barely compete with anyone, let alone their own conference smokes them on a weekly basis. Switch them and NDSU...

or how about eastern Michigan in the MAC, good god they are awful. I've been to that stadium too, it's decrepit. No reason they should be an fbs team getting throttled every week. NDSU could swap with them right now and give the MAC a huge bump up in terms of competitiveness.

Anyone else agree or disagree even?

 

[LineBreaker+]

Why in the world would you want to play in the MAC?
The only real benefit is maybe winning the league and playing in the Little Ceasars Bowl or a different low their bowl game every year.
I would much rather play in the better conference of the Missouri Valley and then actually compete for a national title every year and get to play in the playoffs.

seriously, is it better to be App state or Georgia southern playing in the sun belt and then some no name bowl or playing in playoffs and winning national titles?

 

[mws]

You sound like a fan of association football (soccer), not that there's anything wrong with that! Promotion and relegation definitely add interest to the pro game, and it might be fun to have a bit of that in college football, and I'd like to see Bama promoted to the NFL sometime before 7:30 tomorrow, but it's probably unworkable. But NDSU is dominating, no doubt.

 

[solrosenberg]

A2Q- the main problem with NDSU going 1-A FBS is that the Fargo Dome seats around 20 or 21,000, to have a stadium with the required 29 to 30,000 seating capacity for the top level of NCAA football they would be looking at ripping out their existing dome and totally replacing it, and costs probably in the 100's of millions. When it does happen they wont go MAC they would be in the top third of the Big 10 or Big 12 right now. 2 years ago they went to Manhatten and beat a K-State team fresh off of a BCS bowl appearance in one of the best college football games I have ever seen. Last year they went to Ames and shelled out a complete beat down on Iowa State shortly before Iowa State went to Iowa City and beat Iowa. This team would be competitive with the middle third of the FBS and beat the crap out of the Kansas's and Hawaii's and Purdue's and Tulane's right now.

 

[rolltide]

AD already stated he's waiting to see how this whole Power-5 thing shakes out as he expects the non power-5 to merge with some FCS schools at some point. He's also in a huge recruiting advantage as he can beat some ass against wyoming, new mex state, idaho for recruiting (those are 3 specific teams that he mentioned) even if he has 22 less scholarships available.

of course biggest reason is money...their $20M AD budget is huge for FCS but would be bottom-5 in FBS and 10M/yr less than UAB who dropped the sport for a few years. They can't increase AD budget through ticket sales as they are already 95% capacity so it would have to come from donors and with the oil/fracking world in a death spiral those rich alumni aren't increasing donations anytime soon

 

[MackDonald]

AD already stated he's waiting to see how this whole Power-5 thing shakes out as he expects the non power-5 to merge with some FCS schools at some point. He's also in a huge recruiting advantage as he can beat some ass against wyoming, new mex state, idaho for recruiting (those are 3 specific teams that he mentioned) even if he has 22 less scholarships available.

of course biggest reason is money...their $20M AD budget is huge for FCS but would be bottom-5 in FBS and 10M/yr less than UAB who dropped the sport for a few years. They can't increase AD budget through ticket sales as they are already 95% capacity so it would have to come from donors and with the oil/fracking world in a death spiral those rich alumni aren't increasing donations anytime soon

If the "oil boom" returns to the Dakota's there could be plenty of money .....Just like Texas & Louisiana. It would be interesting to know how much oil money ends up in the athletic coffers of LSU, Texas, Baylor, TCU, A & M, T-Tech et al.

 

[sdf]

with a move to FBS come TV contracts and more road games against the bigger boys that pay bigger money. it doesnt have to be all about donors. and you have to think a good number of the 20k crowd are students so increasing student fees (!) could help a bit.
increasing crowd size in their current dome is plausible but comes at a great cost very likely.

then again.... some teams are just comfortable where they are. they want to be the big fish in the small pond.

 

[RunLeeRun]

I'm not feeling the big fish, small pond analogy. There are 125 FCS teams and all have 63 scholarships. There is as much in variety of teams winning titles as FBS, and actually more if you set aside the NDST anomaly. Plus they play in what is turning out to be a very difficult conference. Last year the final was between conference opponents and this year 2 teams were in the semis. On a national scale, they have the same issues any northern team would have in recruiting. Jacksonville State had all this speed and talent being a southern team and with SEC transfers and what not, while NDST had kids that couldn't get offers from the likes of Minnesota or Nebraska even while being in there back yards and being all-state players. Now, I'm being a bit facetious because I'm of the opinion that talent evaluation in less populated areas isn't of the same in-depth level, so you can get some unknown diamonds. But overall depth of talent in north vs south is still the same. Though, perhaps the 63 vs 85 scholarship difference is enough that it's more feasable to fill you team regionally. I'd listen to that debate.

They've built a juggernaut but it didn't happen overnight. I wouldn't epect them to move up especially with a potential for a breakaway division (power-5).

 

[rolltide]

with a move to FBS come TV contracts and more road games against the bigger boys that pay bigger money.

nobody is giving NDSU a $1M to come play them like happens with the guaranteed win FCS teams. Kansas State only paid NDSU $350k to play them 2 years ago, same amount as Iowa State a year later. plus that's already been written into their budget so cannot significantly increase even if they populate entire OOC with power-5. and a move to FBS makes them have to comply with title IX and would require same # of scholarships for men and women. So increasing 22 schollies for men = increasing 22 schollies for women and possibly even means creating new womens program and/or disbanding a mens program.

i remember reading the colonial conf commissioner saying he had a study done on FBS feasibility for his programs which basically came back that if you can't average 30k/game don't even think about a move. pretty much knocked them all out from consideration as it should NDSU and Coastal Carolina who are premier FCS programs and likely could compete on the field well in MWC or CUSA or SBC. Neither of these schools have a prayer of getting power-5 invite with fargo and conway/myrtle beach TV markets.

i remember the NDSU AD also bringing up Idaho as a program he watches closely as they were a Big Sky powerhouse that went FBS in a tiny market and have failed miserably. Idaho was a serious program (dennis erickson, john l smith) that are now bleeding money as a FBS joke