A new and better FBS thread

[MWC]

I haven't seen that for awhile..Well played,

[heffray]

While I would like to see all 4 move, I sort of hope this isn’t true. It doesn’t seem like a high credibility source.

If there is truly a block that says “take all or none”, that could work against us in a situation where a conference only wants to add one or two schools.

They’re not really saying anything ground-breaking though… essentially all their saying is, “the 4 schools talked and agreed that if the MW asks all 4 of them, they’d all agree to go.”

…essentially they are saying that in the exceedingly less likely event that this happens, they’re all game. It doesn’t matter who reports this, its probably not going to happen anyway…

[heffray]

I guess it gives the griz fans something to talk about …

They seem very divided on the move up topic…

lol - some of those comments appear to be pretty ignorant of the way the new 12-team playoff format works. Casts some doubt on the narrative that griz fans are great football minds, bro…

[BigHorns]

They’re not really saying anything ground-breaking though… essentially all their saying is, “the 4 schools talked and agreed that if the MW asks all 4 of them, they’d all agree to go.”

…essentially they are saying that in the exceedingly less likely event that this happens, they’re all game. It doesn’t matter who reports this, its probably not going to happen anyway…

Some of the posts seem to imply the 4 schools have decided to link their fate and move as a group with whatever they do.

No idea if true, maybe the twitter account is coming from a Montana affiliated person or elsewhere. Just too hard to know the source currently, and how knowledgeable they are of whats actually happening. Clearly not a tier 1 reporter, more of a grape vine report, and possible it's entirely fabricated.

[BigHorns]

Very interesting Montana podcast here with AD comments at 33 minutes in.

https://gogriz.com/sports/2019/8/28/...mRedirect=true

His comments seem consistent with what the twitter account was saying. They would consider jump to MW, but need money to do so.

[ringthebells]

Maybe 8 FCS teams can move up together and put the $5 M each owes on a lay away plan with the NCAA. Winnings from Bowl games, FBS matchups and each team plays a home and away game on Wed night to fill time slots for CBSSports. Everybody will be FBS in no time. No way this wouldn't work. Now, where is that purple font I keep reading about.

[BigHorns]

Maybe 8 FCS teams can move up together and put the $5 M each owes on a lay away plan with the NCAA. Winnings from Bowl games, FBS matchups and each team plays a home and away game on Wed night to fill time slots for CBSSports. Everybody will be FBS in no time. No way this wouldn't work. Now, where is that purple font I keep reading about.

It’s not the $5m that’s the killer. Montana AD in the podcast said their athletic budget would need to go up $16m/year, plus potentially additional costs coming out of the NCAA House settlement. He doesn’t believe their donor base can do that. MW probably isn’t going to come up with those types of numbers either.

One misconception on bowl games - they typically don’t pay out directly to schools. It goes into conference coffers and gets distributed that way most often. And most of the major bowls have tie-ins with specific conferences. So, it’s really just part of the annual conference distribution. What has helped MW in the past is a bunch of NCAA basketball tourney credit payouts they can distribute.

[SoCalBison]

Some of the posts seem to imply the 4 schools have decided to link their fate and move as a group with whatever they do.

No idea if true, maybe the twitter account is coming from a Montana affiliated person or elsewhere. Just too hard to know the source currently, and how knowledgeable they are of whats actually happening. Clearly not a tier 1 reporter, more of a grape vine report, and possible it's entirely fabricated.

Thought the comments by Griz fans were interesting. Sounded a lot like this place did 4-5 years ago.

[The_Sicatoka]

Very interesting Montana podcast here with AD comments at 33 minutes in.

https://gogriz.com/sports/2019/8/28/...mRedirect=true

His comments seem consistent with what the twitter account was saying. They would consider jump to MW, but need money to do so.

Unverified partial transcript copied from CSNBBS board:

- "[Montana] wants to be prepared to offer the very best opportunities for our student-athletes. And I've said this before, for us to go to the FBS and join CUSA and send our volleyball team to Louisiana just doesn't make any sense for us. We need to stay regional, we need to play like-minded schools, and so you want to be selective in that."

- "I think [realignment has] calmed for a while. The Pac-12 needs to find another full-time school. The Mountain West now has found its eighth, that's the magic number; I imagine they'll want to go bigger than that."

- "Our fit [in an FBS conference] is far more in the Mountain West than it would be [in a conference outside the region], you just look at the institutions that are there."

- "We just want to be prepared. We feel like we've got our facilities in a spot where we're prepared. Our fan base is certainly attractive. The television audience that we bring. And when I say we, I do mean Montana State too, because we are governed by the same board of regents so we're tied together. But we just want to be prepared. I think it's calmed for a little while, it's gonna ramp back up when the Mountain West decides what they're gonna want to do and then the Pac-12 has got to make a decision."

- "As far as [the challenges faced by the] Big Sky, I can't answer those to be honest with you. My focus is on making Montana the very best that it can be, and we're in a conference, but I gotta stay laser-focused on what we're doing and what we do. Conferences have evolved over time, and they're really supposed to be avenues for you to generate more revenue, and you see, okay, if we maxed what we can do here, uh, so that's a challenge but the Big Sky Conference is gonna do what it does and Montana's gotta make sure that we're in a spot where we can thrive."

- "What's the biggest challenge for us? Certainly it all comes down to money. I hate to make it that but our budget would have to increase. We can only generate so much money. We're already asking our fans to generate 65 to 70 percent of our budget. That can't go up when our budget goes up to $40 million from $24 million, we can't pass that on to the fans. And so, I've said this multiple times, that it's a commitment really from the State of Montana I think to say look, both of these institutions, this is what we want to do, we see them as economic drivers, we see them as wanting to play in this [FBS] level."

- "The other big thing to really watch is how this House settlement [plays out]. It's been approved, but there some significant changes within there that you and I don't have enough time to talk about. But just google 'roster limits House settlement' and you'll see the changes that are coming from roster limits. Scholarship limits really have gone, they're not there any more according to this settlement, and opting in if you want to do that changes what you do. And so we've gotta decide are we opting in on this, and what that means for FCS football and all those things."

[The_Sicatoka]

Haslet also only has 15 NCAA sports (min: 16).

Montana (as Haslet points out) would need $15-20M more annually in MWC.