Maybe we could poach some Big Ten teams? Yeah I know that's silly talk, but none of them west of Lake Michigan will ever be a threat to win the B1G again.
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Well, for those of you wanting Matt Larsen to put NDSU's pursuit of the FBS in plain public view you'll have a use case in Sacramento St to see how that would work out. Their President and AD have been very vocal publicly that they want to move to the FBS bloviating about $50M NIL pools and a $500M new stadium but no conference has taken the bait (the MWC probably isn't interested since they just added UC Davis, which is within 20 miles of Sacramento, and the PAC probably views Sac St as beneath them).
They applied for a waiver from the NCAA to move to the FBS without a conference invite a la Liberty but the oversight committee has recently recommended that this waiver be denied. Now, according to Matt Brown, they're set to leave the Big Sky and join the Big West in all non-football sports and move their football program to FCS independent status until their FBS aspirations come true. Their President is out there making (and quickly deleting) comments about how they'd put up 50 points on South Dakota (link) after calling the FCS JV level football over the course of the last few months.
It's tough to say which approach is right - the one where you're very tight-lipped about FBS realignment talks like Larsen and NDSU have been or the one where you're very open about it like Sac St has been. The right approach is probably in the middle but I don't think the Sac St approach will lead to the FBS any more quickly than the NDSU approach is.
EDIT: In a related note NDSU may not be the most hated program amongst the FCS community anymore...
Well I can tell you that Matt Larsen's approach isn't working and it's just pissing people off. I've got zero interest in donating until we see some results. All Larsen appears to be doing is giving lip service and saying we want to FBS and we all know how that's working out.
If you actually read and listen to the reporting, ML is pissed off because NDSU's collective dwarfs anything that our peers have, and that advantage would be blunted through opting in. However, I have no doubt he will do what it takes to go FBS. Please forgive me for being an optimist lol
I’ve been on the record numerous times recently as saying that NDSU should be bold and go independent, rather than die a slow death in FCS. I now think that is wrong, and Sac St is a good learning tool as to why.
An FBS invite is required to go FBS. That is what we have learned. We know that in the past when asked directly, Matt says that he has not talked directly with FBS conferences about getting an invite. I think this is probably smart to protect our standing with our current conference. Other reports from solid local reporting has indicated that “NDSU” HAS BEEN in contact with FBS conferences, so it’s likely Matt is playing both sides here and doing what he thinks is right for NDSU and by his current commitment to the MVFC.
Matt is now being more open publicly about being ready when the time comes, which likely has to do with all the shuffling and openness about this in general being the norm.
While I think there are plenty of other reasons to be critical of Larsen, this is not one of them. Can you name a specific different thing you think he should do?
If not, can you admit which family members it was that Matt fucked over to cause this clear vendetta you have against him?
I think we should wait until we win our 10th FCS title, then pursue FBS. Oh, snap!
The Sac State approach does work to garner some sympathy.