Herd

The MVC (w/ WSU) and the Horizon are already on the same level this year sitting at 12 & 13 respectively in the Sagarin rating.

If all 10 FBS conferences continue to be at 85 scholarship and play for a single national title, then no, teams will not be scrambling to move to the FBS. It will cost them $4 million, and for what? What does being FBS position you for if the FBS remains with 1 championship? If there is an FBS separation, some FCS teams will get the call. So . . . what's the rush? There is none. Maybe JMU is serious, but I really doubt that MO State and Delaware are going anywhere. MO State should worry about attracting some fans and actually winning for a few years before even considering it.

The Summit historical high point is 2014, ranked as the 14th best conf (sagarin). Current Bracketology has Summit team with a 13 seed playing #4 Wisconsin. If the Summit can move up to a 12th seed, that 1st round game is starting to look interesting. The Big Sky is ranked 25th. Current bracketology has the BSC entrant as a 16th seed playing #1 Arizona. ouch Criticize the addition of Denver in the Summit all you want, but I'd take them any day, and ORU too. Both will keep the Summit in the top 1/2 of the conference rankings year in and year out. Take Wichita out of the MVC, and the Summit 14, Horizon 13 and MVC 12 are pretty equal in 2014. Wichita boosts the MVC significantly however. The MVC is a 2 bid league if someone can knock off the Shockers in the tournament. Loyola not helping the MVC in 2014.

Bids into NCAA Tournament.. BSC 15-16 Seed, SL 12-13 Seed.

With the Summit adding ORU and moving forward, there are no autobid issues, and the Summit will be right there with the MVC and Horizon in the coming years. The Big Sky is fat and happy as a stable conf, and solidly in the bottom tier. Sagarin Rated Conferences: (current) 12 MVC 13 Horizon 14 Summit . . . 25 Big Sky

When was the last time a BSC team was invited anywhere, other than the new WAC? I attribute that to geography and mediocracy. Where would any of these team go, and who would want any of these teams based on their location and quality? The WAC is terrible, and the MWC is unatainable. So if you'd like to pat yourself on the back and define no opportunity for movement as stable, have at it.

Hmmm . . . his is saying that it has to be the right fit for both the school and the player. Ya, what a crazy and statement!

You vastly overestimate hockey for Denver. The same would be true of any school that was DI and honest with itself. NCAA DI Basket Round 1 Win > NCAA DI Hockey Title

The Summit League borders the MVC, Horizon, OVC, MAC and the Southland to name a few. There are opportunities and movement in these conferences. The BSC borders the WAC (worst DI league), and the PAC (no chance) and MWC (no chance). The teams in the BSC, except for maybe NC or ND, have nowhere to go. So, if you want to define "No Options" as stable, you are using the term stable loosely.

When you got a whole bunch of banners, sure give one up, no big deal. The most publicity for NDSU is in the following order. Basketball having the bigger upside vs. Football. Basketball - NCAA Tournament (Round 1 Win(if)) Football - DI FCS Champion Basketball - NCAA Tournament Appearance Football - FCS Playoffs Basketball - regular Season Football - regular season

So, what conference Does line up with Denver's sports? None, None, and None . . . So what difference does that make. Denver is not going to find a conference that lines up with its sports period. If hockey is it's most important sport, great. What conference has hockey? B1G, is the B1G going to add Denver? No The most important sport for Denver in joining any all-sport conference is Basketball. I think Denver did about as well as it could related to conference strength and geography in joining the Summit.

You don't think that NDSU has an overdrive when given an opportunity to stretch their legs and press the accelerator with more scholarships? Clearly the last 3 years says that you are dead wrong. Wow, take off the filter man.

So you'd rather play Minot, Mary and Crookston with 20 some scholarships for the Northern Sun, North Division Title, than stoop to the level of playing FCS football? You are so full of 'it that you've taken BS to a whole new level. Ya, FCS football is awful compared to ole Nothern Sun. I guess DII does fit the hockey model for the Duluths, MN States and St Clouds, but those schools with 16000+ students have to be feeling like they are a big fish these day. I'd actually like to see UND play FBS football, Idaho would finally have someone to pick on. Do you know what FBS football would do to UND athletic budgets, it would be a total resructure of athletics at UND, trying to find an extra 3-4 mil, dropping to the FBS minimum of sports to be able to afford it. Pretty small minded of you Cratter to think that Minot and Mary is your future.

Why would the MWC add 13 teams for football only? So they could split the TV revenue 13 more ways? Swing and a miss.

What would stop that? Doug Fullerton and the Big Sky would no longer have football as a sport. Under your scenario, the Big Sky would no longer sponsor football. Any team that has football would be an associate member of the Sun Belt conference, and Big Sky football would be a thing of the past. I think Fullerton would prefer to keep football as a sport in the Big Sky, don't you? What Big Sky teams could even affort the additional $3 million in costs? Another swing and miss.

The NCAA meeting last week in TX reinforced their policy that entire conferences are not allowed to move from FCS to FBS. Maybe there will be an FBS change in 10-15 years, but the BSC isn't moving anywhere that the MVFC, CAA, and SoCon would not also be moving. It's not like the Big Sky is working some exclusive deal like you seem to be positioning here. If there is a new 2nd level created in the FBS, the Big Sky wants to be there. Dahhh, so does every other top FCS conf.

90% of 85, or 77 scholarships is the minimum number to be eligible. So you can't really target 77, or you'd run the risk of not being at the level required to be eligible. So really, you need to target 80-85, so when you lose a few players you don't fall below the minimum. Targeting 77 would be a losing proposition, targeting 77 for a conference would not be an option unless there was a change to the current scholly structure. A conference would not be allowed to move FBS anyway without approval from all FBS conferences, and if you decided as a conference to target a lower level than 85, I'm sure you could forget the whole idea. Approval would not be granted.

How many teams deserve to be in the FCS playoff? The size of the FCS pool is about exactly the same as the FBS pool of 127. If 16-20-24 if right for FCS with 125 teams, how can 4 be right for FBS?

So, what is happening to create a DI football level at 77 scholarships? Enlighten me? Why would you spend an additional 2 million on 28 (14x2) scholarships when nobody from the current FBS 85 level is coming down to play with you. The current gap of 22 scholarships between FCS and FBS keeps the current FCS teams and leagues at-bay from the Top Level. The 4 team championshp deal recently agreed to is keeping all 127 teams in the FBS at 85. Look at me, I'm at 77 scholarships, and I'm not eligible for a Bowl or the FCS title, and I can't afford this! How is that benefiting anyone? I think the two levels will stay in-tact for at least the next 5-10 years, and the FBS playoff will expand from 4 to 8 to 12. and more FBS conferences will be involved. I don't see any benefit in increasing FCS scholarships to anything less than 85 right now, and almost all the teams you listed aint going to 85, let's be honest. Unless there is an FBS spits (not happening for at least 5-10 years), the Big Sky aint going up in scholarships, period. If the FBS relaxed the scholarship level and created a 77-85 slot, it would increase the number of teams in the FBS, which is what the Top Conferences do not want. Why would this happen? The FBS controls the FBS scholarship levels with the NCAA, so why would they sabatoge themselves by allowing teams in at 77 scholarships? Sorry, makes no sense. Portland St going to 85 scholarship would be a 2 year death sentence, but I guess FCS football isn't sustainable for them either.

The selection committee looked at records for the most part, something which tends to be pretty deceiving in the BSC, cause there were some pretty easy wins in the middle and the bottom of the conf. Heck, if MT State would have beaten MT, they would have been 8-4 and the BSC would have gotten 5 teams in the playoff field. That doesn't change one's opinion about the overall strength of the conference.

What do you mean? NDSU plays UND in almost every sport, except for Softball. Why not softball? I heard BF say that he would never play NDSU in softball, but I didn't report it.

The last place team in the MVFC (INState) would have 4 teams below them in the BSC. The 9th place team (9 of 10) in the MVFC (SD) would be exactly middle of the pack in the BSC, nearly even with Portland St. If you dropped NDSU out of the MVFC, the other teams have a 56.40 rating, placing them easily as the 2nd place conference in the FCS behind only the CAA. You decide, just giving you the facts based on Sagarin ratings.

16 MISSOURI VALLEY (AA)= 59.04 58.99 ( 16) TEAMS= 10 58.79 ( 17) College Football 2013 through games of December 14 Saturday the BCS uses the PURE_ELO RATING W L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 | DIMIN_CURVE | PREDICTOR | PURE_ELO HOME ADVANTAGE=[ 3.54] [ 3.16] [ 3.44] [ 3.70] 23 North Dakota State AA = 82.24 13 0 56.88( 138) 0 0 | 1 0 | 83.00 21 | 81.30 24 | 80.98 26 93 Northern Iowa AA = 63.15 7 5 56.77( 139) 0 0 | 0 1 | 62.24 100 | 63.87 87 | 53.85 131 94 South Dakota State AA = 63.11 9 5 58.42( 127) 0 0 | 0 1 | 62.95 96 | 63.08 93 | 62.02 99 98 Southern Illinois AA = 62.49 7 5 60.17( 109) 0 0 | 0 1 | 62.45 98 | 62.33 98 | 52.26 135 111 Youngstown State AA = 60.14 8 4 53.90( 155) 0 1 | 0 2 | 60.85 105 | 59.23 116 | 56.66 118 115 Missouri State AA = 59.86 5 7 57.21( 135) 0 0 | 0 2 | 57.60 132 | 61.97 101 | 44.56 185 125 Illinois State AA = 57.75 5 6 60.82( 103) 0 0 | 0 1 | 57.69 131 | 57.61 123 | 48.74 162 159 Western Illinois AA = 50.71 4 8 58.74( 122) 0 0 | 0 0 | 50.66 162 | 50.56 160 | 39.43 203 162 South Dakota AA = 49.71 4 8 57.54( 132) 0 0 | 0 1 | 50.95 161 | 48.24 166 | 41.38 195 199 Indiana State AA = 40.72 1 11 59.95( 111) 0 0 | 0 1 | 41.59 199 | 39.63 200 | 23.03 244

26 BIG SKY (AA)= 47.02 47.11 ( 26) TEAMS= 13 47.15 ( 26) College Football 2013 through games of December 14 Saturday the BCS uses the PURE_ELO RATING W L SCHEDL(RANK) VS top 10 | VS top 30 | DIMIN_CURVE | PREDICTOR | PURE_ELO HOME ADVANTAGE=[ 3.54] [ 3.16] [ 3.44] [ 3.70] 74 Eastern Washington AA = 66.19 12 2 54.34( 152) 0 0 | 0 0 | 66.06 79 | 66.11 77 | 67.37 79 109 Montana AA = 60.29 10 3 50.19( 182) 0 0 | 0 0 | 58.23 125 | 62.20 99 | 55.70 121 138 Cal Poly-SLO AA = 55.65 6 6 50.85( 173) 0 0 | 0 0 | 52.21 151 | 58.84 119 | 46.89 176 151 Northern Arizona AA = 52.69 9 3 50.22( 180) 0 0 | 0 1 | 54.29 142 | 50.85 159 | 55.97 120 157 Montana State AA = 52.02 7 5 46.26( 204) 0 0 | 0 0 | 50.43 164 | 53.37 147 | 44.75 184 161 Portland State AA = 49.82 6 6 48.97( 187) 0 0 | 0 0 | 48.51 169 | 50.89 158 | 37.18 216 172 Southern Utah AA = 47.45 8 5 51.24( 170) 0 0 | 0 1 | 48.74 168 | 45.93 172 | 50.99 144 181 UC Davis AA = 45.39 5 7 48.87( 188) 0 0 | 0 0 | 45.88 177 | 44.68 178 | 36.67 217 182 Sacramento State AA = 45.36 5 7 49.87( 184) 0 1 | 0 1 | 45.84 178 | 44.67 179 | 39.97 200 228 North Dakota AA = 35.52 3 8 48.23( 193) 0 0 | 0 0 | 34.68 231 | 36.11 216 | 30.65 230 229 Idaho State AA = 35.06 3 9 51.29( 169) 0 0 | 0 2 | 32.70 235 | 36.89 213 | 21.76 247 230 Weber State AA = 35.00 2 10 55.59( 147) 0 0 | 0 0 | 36.04 227 | 33.72 229 | 30.62 231 234 Northern Colorado AA = 31.94 1 11 48.67( 190) 0 0 | 0 0 | 30.36 237 | 33.14 230 | 17.23 250

In 2013, there is no doubt. CONFERENCE CENTRAL MEAN SIMPLE AVERAGE 1 SEC-WEST (A) = 83.08 82.75 ( 1) 2 PAC-12(NORTH) (A) = 82.63 81.39j ( 2) 3 PAC-12(SOUTH) (A) = 82.03 81.08 ( 3) 4 SEC-EAST (A) = 77.28 76.92 ( 5) 5 BIG TEN-LEGENDS (A) = 76.81 77.51 ( 4) 6 BIG 12 (A) = 75.86 75.60 ( 7) 7 ACC-COASTAL (A) = 74.97 74.08 ( 8) 8 BIG TEN-LEADERS (A) = 74.02 73.55 ( 9) 9 ACC-ATLANTIC (A) = 73.45 75.60 ( 6) 10 AMERICAN ATHLETIC (A) = 65.02 65.96 ( 10) 11 MWC-WEST (A) = 63.48 63.74 ( 11) 12 MWC-MOUNTAIN (A) = 61.69 62.12 ( 12) 13 I-A INDEPENDENTS (A) = 61.54 61.37 ( 13) 14 CONFERENCE USA-WEST (A) = 61.08 60.04 ( 14) 15 MAC-WEST (A) = 60.25 59.30 ( 15) 16 MISSOURI VALLEY (AA)= 59.04 58.99 ( 16) 17 COLONIAL (AA)= 58.71 57.77 ( 18) 18 SUN BELT (A) = 58.46 57.62 ( 19) 19 MAC-EAST (A) = 58.27 58.05 ( 17) 20 CONFERENCE USA-EAST (A) = 57.65 56.59 ( 20) 21 OHIO VALLEY (AA)= 52.73 52.25 ( 21) 22 SOUTHLAND (AA)= 51.43 51.69 ( 22) 23 IVY LEAGUE (AA)= 49.86 48.14 ( 23) 24 SOUTHERN (AA)= 48.44 47.88 ( 24) 25 BIG SOUTH (AA)= 47.31 47.66 ( 25) 26 BIG SKY (AA)= 47.02 27 PATRIOT (AA)= 45.61 45.34 ( 27) 28 I-AA INDEPENDENTS (AA)= 41.84 41.18 ( 28) 29 NORTHEAST (AA)= 40.81 40.86 ( 29) 30 MID-EASTERN (AA)= 39.29 39.94 ( 30) 31 SWAC-EAST (AA)= 34.32 33.40 ( 31) 32 SWAC-WEST (AA)= 27.34 27.42 ( 32) 33 PIONEER (AA)= 26.86 25.98 ( 33) 34 ***UNRATED*** (__)= -90.00 -90.00 ( 34)