A new and better FBS thread

[MWC]

https://www.on3.com/news/northern-il...mountain-west/

This report has the actual agreement embedded at the end of the article. The part that surprised me was the specific budget requirements for football.

NIU, as a Football-Only Member, is required to increase its football expense budget to at least $13,500,000 before the start of the 2026-27 football season.
This budget must further increase to at least $15,000,000 before the start of the 2027-28 football season.

Something feels way off on football budget reporting. Hero Sports had NDSU at $6.5m a few weeks ago. I don't see how NIU could be spending twice as much on football currently. Knight-Newhouse data for athletic department spending had NIU at $34.5m and NDSU at $30.25m. Having the City of Fargo pick up the football facilities cost surely distorts the comparability, but it can't be all of it.

Could some of the NIU cost be in the extra scholarships?

[EP NDSU Fan]

I think NIU had a football field turf project that was completed in 2024; their facility spending was up $3.1m year over year. The Athletic Student Aid category for the athletic department, as a whole, was also up $1.38m, but that category could be messy based on the data description.

Athletic Student Aid looks to be the total cost of attendance. If Knight Newhouse data is to be believed, NDSU actually had 20 more athletes than NIU but $2.6m less in ASA. Guessing that is from NIU having no out-of-state reciprocity agreements and NDSU having multiple. I looked at Univ of Rhode Island as a heat check; they had 69 fewer athletes than NDSU but a massive $11.5m in total ASA.

NDSU: 432 Athletes | 16 Teams | $5.18M ASA
NIU: 412 Athletes | 17 Teams | $7.8M ASA
URI: 363 Athletes | 19 Teams | $11.5M ASA

[HerdBot]

https://www.on3.com/news/northern-il...mountain-west/

This report has the actual agreement embedded at the end of the article. The part that surprised me was the specific budget requirements for football.

NIU, as a Football-Only Member, is required to increase its football expense budget to at least $13,500,000 before the start of the 2026-27 football season.
This budget must further increase to at least $15,000,000 before the start of the 2027-28 football season.

Something feels way off on football budget reporting. Hero Sports had NDSU at $6.5m a few weeks ago. I don't see how NIU could be spending twice as much on football currently. Knight-Newhouse data for athletic department spending had NIU at $34.5m and NDSU at $30.25m. Having the City of Fargo pick up the football facilities cost surely distorts the comparability, but it can't be all of it.

It is way off because the endowment fund at NDSU pays almost 100% of scholarships for football and most operations. We also don't pay for Fargodome upgrades since we pay rent to the city and the dome pays for turf, scoreboards, and all capital expenses... guarantee we spend as much as NIU, just in the more important areas like Alston Awards, Full Cost of Attendance, etc..

Also we do have 22 less scholarships to fund as FCS

[MWC]

I believe Nevada was at 13.5 million for fiscal 23/24. I think the comparison is to what other MW schools will be paying in 26. Were you to be invited for football only the MW would likely require the same contractual caveats, including the 13.5 million dollar for football obligation.

[TAILG8R]

I wouldn't read anything into the overall number of NIU's football budget. The only interesting part to me is the required increase but I'm sure that is a formality to ensure the budget will cover the mandatory added expenses of moving to the league like increased travel.

I would guess there was a clear roadmap of what expenses would be changing and by how much and NIU was told they needed to increase their budget to meet those expenses.