Believe this or not I agree with what you say and have said. We need visionary thinking...Amen. Its hard to see the traffic through when you're driving in pea-soup fog, and thats the way I see the windshield right now. NDSU's move TO D-1, was a lot more simple, as I had felt for several years that maybe...just maybe we were sand-bagging by staying D-2, while others were moving up. Were we going to be left with the Mankato State's and Augustana's left in the NCC? Plus, back then, this move "up" while questioned by most, including most NDSU fans, was very clear...move to FCS, here's the schools, here's the Conferences, try to get into one yada-yada-yada.
But moving up to FBS not only has "fog" distorting our vision...it has a true road-block, in the $$$. First of which, similar to the move to FCS, we had 5 years to prove to the NCAA that we-NDSU could raise enough $$$ to support 60+ scholarships...we had that done in roughly 3 years. Read Kolpacks book, for a good reference on that. Now we will need the $$$ to support 80+ scholarships? Then of course all the $$$ needed for travel, then of course the stadium...issues talked about over and over. Trouble is no one can provide a realistic solution to the $$$ problems, they only say "we can beat a lot of FBS-FB teams we have proven that"! THIS is why we ALL want to move up to FBS....yes I said we ALL want to move up to FBS, including me!!! A season ticket holder for well over a decade, who sat through sparse crowds, sat through a 3-8 FB season, with the worst NDSU teamwork ever seen on a FB field, and lets not forget I have sat through the last 3 seasons with stage 4 cancer...yes I WANT us to go FBS...but only when the time is right. To me this is not Pro-FBS versus Anti-FBS argument....its simply WHEN do we pull the trigger?
So right now I'd like to see Matt Larsen ask the NCAA the question..."What does the future hold for College FB...FBS...FCS..and where does NDSU sit? We need to know NCAA...what are you folks thinking?" I really think the ball is in the NCAA’s court.