Back in the day people severely overestimated how it would work to "go D1". They related it to playing North Carolina in basketball, Texas in baseball - every year. Not the Summit League and FCS football. Then UND went and beat UNI in 2006 and people figured it out pretty quick that it wasn't Alabama and Ohio State.
Which is why I say now that leaving to go FBS and play in the MWC is not that big of a deal and would be very underwhelming for any FCS fanbase. The most excitement would in the first 4 non-conference games.