When they were scrambling for survival, their footprint became the continental United States. We've always had a geography problem. That was the one instance in which our potential membership plus our geography was less problematic for a conference than no membership at all.
I don't care what Jim says. That is not the real Ben Franklin. I'm 99% certain.
Think what you want if it comforts you in being on the wrong side of the FBS issue. Open records laws don't govern hedging or equivocating to journalists. Anyone can read the old news stories and posts. Pretty clear we rebuffed CUSA. In fact, I remember ML on 1660 saying that CUSA was not a good fit for NDSU. You're certainly not going to get a formal invite when that's your message. At a minimum, back channel queries were made as to NDSU's potential interest and we indicated we weren't interested. The administration has forever been wedded to wait-and-see. NDSU...the team that beat #13 Iowa in their house and has had the most dominant FCS program in history...has sat with its thumb up its ass while the FBS world has evolved without them. We've done NOTHING. We've signaled almost NOTHING, and even then only recently. NDSU should be embarrassed. We held out for the supermodel. We remain single while Missouri State is getting married to a decent, librarian-cute gal with a future.
I don't care what Jim says. That is not the real Ben Franklin. I'm 99% certain.
Exactly, we were never on the shortlist, which has been somewhat leaked various places. Missouri St has been floating out there for a few months for people that know where to look. They had conversations with SBC as well.
Sure, CUSA may have put out feelers to see what FCS teams were in play, but their objectives are to build a Southeast regional conference somewhat mirroring the SBC. They will continue to add within and adjacent to that footprint.
ML is exactly right on what’s coming down the pike as well. G5 will have an official top 25 soon, and they are working on creating a separate playoff.
I love all the speculation that if/when something happens that the G5 will just allow more conferences/schools to join. The talk of the G5 and the "top" FCS joining together is speculative and hopeful at best.
The reality is that the G5 doesn't have to do shit and could easily say no more conferences and limit the number of teams to join. NDSU could be on the outside looking in if/when that happens. It would be better to make a move independent to ensure FBS than wait for the perfect situation to come about and be potentially locked out in the future.
This 100% is the conundrum and what has me personally worried. I challenged Matt Zimmer on this on Twitter, and he basically is "not concerned." I was thinking, well, you sure as hell should be, but he is a journalist and probably not wanting to ruffle feathers are SDSU.
It doesn't have to be a perfect situation to move FBS but it has to be something less than an awful situation to make it worthwhile IMO. Moving all sports to CUSA would be a terrible decision for the athletic department as a whole. Sending baseball, softball, volleyball, etc from New Mexico to Florida to Delaware and many places in between for conference games is not going to work. What's good for the football program isn't necessarily good for the entire athletic department. CUSA, even with Missouri St (now the closest CUSA school to NDSU at 770 miles away), is still not a good option for any sport other than football and a football only invite isn't happening.