2024 Non-UND FCS Thread

[andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!!]

2 minutes ago, fightingsioux4life said:

Moving up from FCS to FBS is a lot more complicated and expensive than moving up from D-2 to FCS.

I disagree.  FCS to FBS is only a change for football (I fully realize there are ramifications in other sports such as the additional football scholarships that have to be offset). All other sports stay the same.  D2 to FCS was a seismic change across the whole athletic department.

[fightingsioux4life]

2 minutes ago, andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!! said:

I disagree.  FCS to FBS is only a change for football (I fully realize there are ramifications in other sports such as the additional football scholarships that have to be offset). All other sports stay the same.  D2 to FCS was a seismic change across the whole athletic department.

Have you seen how much bigger the budgets are for FBS schools vs. FCS schools? It's insane how big the gap is between FBS and everything else below it. Travel would also be much more expensive.

[FargoBison]

2 hours ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

*fenton picks up the phone and says if you take fb to mwc your out of the summit..........."good luck"

That would be his last act as Summit commissioner. 

[UND1983]

Didn't FBS propose to up the scholarship limit also?

[UND1983]

Just now, FargoBison said:

That would be his last act as Summit commissioner. 

Who would fire him? 

[FargoBison]

4 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

Who would fire him? 

Every school that doesn't have football that NDSU is in very good standing with. Schools that probably wouldn't want their premiere program to face a similar power play from Fenton that aren't in the Summit. SDSU might as well because NDSU might be its only FBS lifeline if it gets in the MWC. 

[UND Football Fan]

2 minutes ago, UND1983 said:

Didn't FBS propose to up the scholarship limit also?

85 to 105 I think for 25-26 season. NIL can also be used for walk-ons as well I believe. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

7 minutes ago, FargoBison said:

That would be his last act as Summit commissioner. 

supposed he did say/do that.......where does ndac "park" their oly sports?

[FargoBison]

1 minute ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

supposed he did say/do that.......where does ndac "park" their oly sports?

It wouldn't get to that point but it would likely be full MWC and perhaps it ends up costing the Summit SDSU as well to give NDSU a travel partner. 

[SIOUXFAN97]

3 minutes ago, FargoBison said:

It wouldn't get to that point but it would likely be full MWC and perhaps it ends up costing the Summit SDSU as well to give NDSU a travel partner. 

so ndac just gets a full invite bc fenton holds the line.......seems illogical...plus the mwc adds another mouth to feed bc fenton holds the line.......nope.

[homer]

4 minutes ago, FargoBison said:

Every school that doesn't have football that NDSU is in very good standing with. Schools that probably wouldn't want their premiere program to face a similar power play from Fenton that aren't in the Summit. SDSU might as well because NDSU might be its only FBS lifeline if it gets in the MWC. 

Those other schools sitting back and allowing NDSU have their cake and eat it to by earning more money in the MWC while getting the benefit of the Summit footprint would hurt everyone of their athletic depts.  If anything has become apparent in the recent college athletics landscape is you look out for yourself first.  
 

If NDSU wants to go, that is great they have certainly earned the opportunity.  As a regional competitor to them I certainly wouldn’t make it easy as any success impacts the entire campus.  

[UND1983]

18 minutes ago, FargoBison said:

Every school that doesn't have football that NDSU is in very good standing with. Schools that probably wouldn't want their premiere program to face a similar power play from Fenton that aren't in the Summit. SDSU might as well because NDSU might be its only FBS lifeline if it gets in the MWC. 

Think you’re overstating it a bit but to each their own.  

[The Sicatoka]

A FB-only might be fiscally viable, but it'd be near doubling the football spend.
https://knightnewhousedata.org/reports/ca0de22d

Full MWC is a fiscal death sentence (see: UND in BSC). 

[FargoBison]

1 minute ago, SIOUXFAN97 said:

so ndac just gets a full invite bc fenton holds the line.......seems illogical...plus the mwc adds another mouth to feed bc fenton holds the line.......nope.

It isn't illogical at all and it is why Fenton won't play that game. There is no motivation for him to play that game either outside of a few schools that play a sport that many league members don't sponsor. 

[FargoBison]

5 minutes ago, homer said:

Those other schools sitting back and allowing NDSU have their cake and eat it to by earning more money in the MWC while getting the benefit of the Summit footprint would hurt everyone of their athletic depts.  If anything has become apparent in the recent college athletics landscape is you look out for yourself first.  
 

If NDSU wants to go, that is great they have certainly earned the opportunity.  As a regional competitor to them I certainly wouldn’t make it easy as any success impacts the entire campus.  

Why would they care? The Summit is not a football conference and those president's are not going to get into NDSU's football business. They have no motivation to do so. 

[The Sicatoka]

7 minutes ago, FargoBison said:

Why would they care? The Summit is not a football conference and those president's are not going to get into NDSU's football business. They have no motivation to do so. 

... unless Fenton moved to overtake the MVFC and rebrand as "Summit Football". 

[AJS]

3 hours ago, Tolna said:

Correction, per Brett McMurphy: https://x.com/Brett_McMurphy/status/1854175932073799987

Let's look at this from a realist standpoint. Here are the three things I believe to be true. This really started taking shape when the Pac-2 merged with the four Mountain West teams. 

1. NDSU was at the top of the FCS to FBS realignment list
2. "Travel" partner if needed would be SDSU
3. UND not on anyone conferences radar

I felt and still feel that there would be some sort of trickle-down effect where NDSU would get the nod from some conference and before today, was convinced it would be also with SDSU. Before today, also assumed all-sports invite. That would be the nightmare scenario for UND and would damage the athletic program immensely. Losing both NDSU and SDSU for all-sports. 

If we listed all the scenarios and gave them probabilities heading into today. I'd take NDSU moving to MW (FB only), because it could be so, so much worse. Keep the Summit League intact, keep SDSU aligned with yourself. 

 

Important note: If this happens, I also want to see some anger. Some real questions as to why UND is where they are right now. Left behind. 

 

[jdub27]

20 minutes ago, FargoBison said:

It isn't illogical at all and it is why Fenton won't play that game. There is no motivation for him to play that game either outside of a few schools that play a sport that many league members don't sponsor. 

Not saying what he will or won't and should or shouldn't do, but Summit schools and Fenton have already "played that game" to certain degrees with the MVFC, MVC and Summit making sure schools there have homes for Olympic sports.
And since everything is speculation right now, with Patty V retiring, it isn't out of the realm of possibilities that the Summit is eying taking over handling the MVFC. It would definitely help strengthen the brand for the conference and would have minimal effect on the "affiliate members". I know the idea has been discussed before.

I'm sure Fargo's appetite to help support the move by choosing twice not to pay to renovate the Fargodome won't go unnoticed when looking at funding options.

[AJS]

Catching up on some other posts. Do you think NDSU moving up solo to Mountain West for all-sports would be more / less beneficial than FB only? Expense wise, of course it would be harder, but they would also completely separate themselves from the other Dakota schools athletically. High risk / high reward type of scenario. I could see that doing more harm than good for UND. Otherwise, it's a situation where they have a good FB program, but otherwise on par. 

Chaves better be on the phone with both SD schools and making sure they are aligned in this.

 

[NDRA]

32 minutes ago, AJS said:

Catching up on some other posts. Do you think NDSU moving up solo to Mountain West for all-sports would be more / less beneficial than FB only? Expense wise, of course it would be harder, but they would also completely separate themselves from the other Dakota schools athletically. High risk / high reward type of scenario. I could see that doing more harm than good for UND. Otherwise, it's a situation where they have a good FB program, but otherwise on par. 

Chaves better be on the phone with both SD schools and making sure they are aligned in this.

 

I would think one reward for a solo move would be a big recruiting edge over the other Dakota schools as they'd have that FBS tag to dangle in front of recruits.  But, I wonder if it would also hurt their recruiting as in all their games, except home games, being played out of their traditional recruiting footprint.

[CMSioux]

4 hours ago, andtheHomeoftheSIOUX!! said:

It would be nice to see UND leading on something related to athletics for a change.  UND should be embarrassed with the way they have ceded the state of ND to NDSU.  Its unacceptable in my opinion.  The frustrations are numerous- from the inability to win in a variety of sports to the poor planning in the athletic department over the years to always being behind and on and on and on. 

I realize for some it's all about the sports, but UND has far from "ceded" the state of ND to SU in the most important area which is academics. 

[AJS]

55 minutes ago, AJS said:

Catching up on some other posts. Do you think NDSU moving up solo to Mountain West for all-sports would be more / less beneficial than FB only? Expense wise, of course it would be harder, but they would also completely separate themselves from the other Dakota schools athletically. High risk / high reward type of scenario. I could see that doing more harm than good for UND. Otherwise, it's a situation where they have a good FB program, but otherwise on par. 

Chaves better be on the phone with both SD schools and making sure they are aligned in this.

 

One last thought. The old saying of athletics are the 'front porch of the university'. Could being a fully FBS athletic department help enrollment if they succeed moving up? Retroactively hurting UND. Things I hope are being thought of if UND and co push NDSU to an all or nothing type of decision. 

[UND-FB-FAN]

9 hours ago, Kab said:

Per Izzo , bison being considered for MWC for football only 

hope they go

So you (and others) didn’t learn anything from circa 2004-2007? UND staying behind while NDSU goes up has not historically been kind to UND…

[Kab]

14 minutes ago, UND-FB-FAN said:

So you (and others) didn’t learn anything from circa 2004-2007? UND staying behind while NDSU goes up has not historically been kind to UND…

Nothing we can do if there is no invite

‘notice Montana schools and sdsu don’t have an invite either 

‘I’ve said if they go it should be all sports, summit shouldn’t let them stay 

Mountain  west will be a shell of what it was after several schools go to the pac 12 

[Hawkster]

I'll believe it when I see it.   As I've said before, the Bison have been barking up the FBS tree for years and nothing happens.  I doubt anything becomes of this either.