jdub27

At some point, they will be. And I would guess that will impact the price. You could be right though.

The only number they seem to know down there is 11,954. They absolutely will be. But you can bet they are going to try to not get bent over a barrel like NDSU and Sac St did. Huge entrance fee and waiver of media rights for 5 years is crazy. I get why they did it but its a hell of a gamble. Many? Like the 2 or 3 in the last decade? Its a huge roll of the dice on the athletics side when they academic side, both enrollment and financially, are in a bad spot. The optics on it look terrible and unsustainable. Maybe the new president has a plan but investing the huge amount of money into football while academics continues to struggle doesn't play well. And the talk that all the funds are being raised privately is pretty laughable. They are absolutely going to need to a portion of use state money to make it work at the level they want unless a few donors are going to open their checkbooks further. There's one or two specific ones that could do it, but will they and to what degree?

I'd guess roughly around half of them.... In general, this was the weekend that worked. Nebraska was scheduled in 2017. The front half of the Portland State contract was signed in 2019, with the first game to be played in 2020 and then them returning in 2025. The away portion was rescheduled to 2026, when they could get it back on the calendar after COVID canceled it. That left Labor Day weekend to get a home game, which they did with St. Thomas. When they were allowed to add a 12th game, there weren't a ton of takers to come to Grand Forks upfront and this year on a Thursday. LIU was the team that finally agreed to it and got the schedule to 6 home games.

As a general rule looking at the entirety of the subdivisions, you aren't wrong. However, the top of the FCS isn't that far behind the bottom of the G6 (and in a few specific spots). So yes, it is an increase in investments. However, pretty easy to argue on the field that the top of the FCS is on par (or better) than the bottom of the G6. So what are the conferences that aren't the AAC (any maybe the PAC, TBD on them) getting for that 2-3x? Getting to call themselves FBS? Kind of like the bottom of the FCS getting to say they play "D1" football when its more in just name only? At some point, something is going to have to give somewhere. I know that's been a common saying for a while now, but the gap continues to grow and the arms race is going to absolutely break some schools. And that is pretty much anyone not P4 with even a few of those who are going to have to take a long look in the mirror.

I have always appreciated that you come here with a level headed take. However your last paragraph definitely goes both ways. FargoU fans and media spent years pumping up FCS football and have immediately resorted to continuously denigrating it. No doubt, the bottom of the FCS is not good. However the top end is not a significant difference. I think that it remains pretty obvious the top 10-15ish of the FCS would find some degree of success at the G6 level, though the AAC and possibly the new PAC may be a slight step above, but we'll see how the year plays out. Jacksonville State is not a juggernaut. They would be a around the top 10 in FCS (Massey would have slotted them 9th last year, just behind UND and Sagarin would have had them 13th). A nice win? Yes. But to claim there is some giant step up in competition is amusing. Sagarin shows the MWC as a whole about 4 points stronger than the MVFC. Also remains to be seen how things will go as bills come due. Impressive large push at the beginning but the steam has worn out and while they gave themselves an extended window to reach their fundraising goals, some big checkbooks are going to have to open. Some early success could help with that though without a doubt.

This is accurate. Not enough airspace/time to accommodate everyone due to a larger than normal class last year, so it was capped at a lower number this year.

It was a mutual parting agreement, beneficial for both sides at the time. Had it not been, UND would have paid some fees to get out.

Lance Rucker will be an absolute problem. Kaden Vig will benefit from that.

Don't forget the MWC owes the teams that left $46 million from what they've withheld from them from last year. The MWC has to make that payment and then within 3 days, the money (plus $3 million) comes back.

It is just one vote out of around 1,000. However, can't wait for the viral campaign that gets some random player a first place Heisman vote.

Reading is hard for some...

Money seems like kind of a big deal, no? I did read the article, but I'm not sure if Mike read the bill. A section carving out distributions NDSU won't get seems pretty relevant when you're touting something. In fact, he literally referenced it before completely ignoring the context of it:

More evidence articles are being pumped out with no real thought: https://www.inforum.com/sports/bison-media-zone/mens-sports/mcfeely-protect-college-sports-act-could-be-boon-for-bison Given that it is going to be a "boon", seems like there is some actual language in the Protect College Sports Act that isn't exactly friendly towards NDSU but was glossed over:

All the puff pieces must not be getting enough views so decided to go with the tried and true method of click-bating rival fans.... *yawn* More accurately, no one thought they were going to convince donors to pay an unprecedented ransom on top of revenue concessions to buy their way in. Plenty of people knew things going on behind the scenes, they just didn't think NDSU would actually give into the demands that were out there. And the money still isn't there. Hopefully the ones that already opened their checkbook are willing to do so even more because they need some big checks. On the flip side, everyone knew Sac St would do whatever it took, their president is either a genius or a clown, which time will be the judge of.

This really made me laugh....