This is one of your more well thought out, articulate posts. Nice work!
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Sun Belt is going to be getting at lot of Big Ten games now.
Sounds like an SBC visit to CCU is in the works.
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/spo...e29775115.html
I believe the Sun Belt also visited EKU sometime in the last year. I'm not sure if EKU is currently the number one choice and CCU the backup, or vice versa. Seems like the general thought is a non-FB invite to start, then a likely FB invite a few years later. Not all that different than the WKU situation a decade ago.
CCU would be a good fit in football talent-wise, but they rarely fill up there 9210 set stadium. They have to average 15k to stay FBS. So they need 6000 more seats and they have to fill them every game. It is too bad because they have a very good program moving in the right direction. What would the investment look like to expand to a 16k seat stadium and average 15k per game? They have to bump their spending up around $5m per year anyways and then add in a stadium expansion in a conference with around a $1M per year payout. That is the crux of the Sun Belt. The newspaper article student provided didn't take into account the difference in revenue vs. expenditure it only looked at what they are bringing in now vs. what they could bring in with the SBC. The current difference is much lower. They are one of the FCS schools in a better position being FCS than in the SBC.
On a side note, NDSU doesn't have to do anything stadium-wise to move into a G5 conference until later. We can average the 15k minimum required. That is a multi-million dollar expense off the books until the right time to make the move towards a new stadium. If it was the MW, the added expenditures would be a zero-sum difference compared to conference payouts compared to now. The move in the long run would not cost NDSU tens of millions of dollars like it would CCU. On top of that, the dome gets replaces at the end of its life cycle, not out of a specific need. It will be an expense regardless, so it will have to work out regardless of tier affiliation. It is kind of sad that CCU is considering this move when it might mark the end of their program rather than some exciting new era unless the school and its alumni are willing to shell out 2 to 3 times as much to play football with less to gain. The long term payoff will be CCU guarantees they will be in the second tier, but when it all shakes out, they will anyways and the G5 conferences will have to restructure to find some balance among its conferences. Being in the SBC now costs money. In two to three years, it might be profitable. They would lose nothing by waiting. There is no reason to force anything.
CCU has a pretty solid basketball program. They would compete in the S*** Belt. But that's not saying much.
CCU will accept if the Sun Belt offers an invite.....
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/spo...e30466269.html
Well if you can't beat the Bison you better just get out of the fcs. How many nattys do we have to win before the other schools left in the fcs pay our way to the next level. Big 12 here we come!