Originally Posted by
bulldogg
Yep. With the coming implosion of the Pac-12, it appears that Stanford and Cal are going to be without a home. I believe they both sees themselves as well above the MWC, so my first guess is that they go indy.
I believe indy offers some exciting opportunities for scheduling, including pay games. Indy has its challenges, but it could set you up as a good candidate for the next FBS conference seat available.
The biggest problem I see is say you schedule Stanford and/or Cal and make $1.5 million per to kick their asses. Are they going to want to play you again? Nooooooo! Who are you going to schedule to play in Fargo? You will likely have to pay to get anyone to play there. What will the quality of those opponents be? Can you get a home and home with Minnesota or Iowa? I doubt it? How about K State with your connection there? I'm sure the Wabbits would do a home and home, and your fans would love it. It's an FCS opponent (want to only have one or two of those per season), but it's good football. Lots of possibilities. Doing nothing but the same old clobbering of the directional Illinois teams and other MVFC dregs is a mistake, IMO. You guys need to do something or in ten years you could find yourselves in the middle of the pack in an FCS conference with nowhere else to go. You are better than that. You have momentum on your side right now, but that can dwindle away quickly if you don't capitalize on it while you have it.
Can you all take yourselves, SDSU, Montana, EWU, and Montana State as a core for a new regional FBS conference?
Has your admin petitioned MWC for inclusion? That's the obvious place for you, but MWC teams are probably afraid that you will dominate the conference and are reluctant to let you in. That didn't stop us from getting into the Sun Belt, which we dominated from the jump, but we had help from some old FCS rivals who had moved up and helped us get in.
Where there's a will, there's a way, but don't squander the momentum you have.