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Will reportedly make the jump to the FBS ranks and join CUSA as full members

https://twitter.com/brett_mcmurphy/stat ... 60804?s=21

This all dicey for everyone.....I would think Kennesaw will be looking to move up to FBS...big school in big population center....stadium (Fifth Third Stadium) only holds about 9000 (similar in size to Estes) but I suspect a big Atlanta company could find a way to help out...Georgia is a big football state.....

I have heard for a couple years that these moves will keep coming for several years .....both at FBS and FCS levels....

Got to be alert and thinking ahead....

If only UCA was willing to spend money that could be us, probably won’t ever get to that while everyone else leaves.

to bad our budget is in the bottom half of FCS. would be very difficult to move to 1-A unless the NCAA is broken up (which may be the more likely situation)

Might be time for a fundraising campaign that holds yearly interest.

I'm in....(but knowing this administration nothing will happen so it's easy for me to say.) They like their old ways.

KC Keeler was quoted during an interview on the move to FBS that he’d rather play for a natty in FCS than a dull bowl game but the changers coming down through the ncaa governance committees likely this year, it’s easier to move up now.

i think this is the tip of the iceberg. there will be divisions of teams based on size and budgets but the landscape of college football will be totally different in 2023

The elite FCS programs have been making the jump when offered the chance for the last decade. They know there is more money, more exposure and a better situation for the athletes in FBS. There is not going to be a "split" within FBS. They are not going to kill the golden goose and there is nothing to gain from it. Alabama already has all the advantages over UAB and the P5 can schedule in a manner that allows them to convince their boosters that they are successful despite having a losing record in conference games.

Every time there is a change in FBS, the money to the G5 just keeps getting bigger. Look at the budgets in the G5 conferences over the last 10-15 years. The more likely move is that they close the door to moving to FBS in the near future. ESPN only need a certain amount of inventory and the P5 only need so many G5 teams to schedule.

I am watching an ASU women's basketball game at 11 am on a Tuesday at my desk at lunch. I never listen on the radio anymore to football like I did ten years ago. If you get an invite and can get the money together then you should move. I would trade UCA for UALR in a heartbeat.

a new constitution is about to be adopted by the presidents that paves the way for new divisions. the power 5 does not want to share revenue with G5

here’s an article that makes a reasonable attempt at summarizing it.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/202 ... -divisions

That says nothing about splitting FBS. That idea is message board fantasy. There is no desire to bust it up and the numbers don't work out if you split off for scheduling, TV content and importantly political and legal protection from further lawsuits or legislation. There will reach a point where they spot expansion but there will not be contraction because there is more than enough money to go around.

They didn't increase the G5 share because they wanted to be nice each time the championship format changed. They did it because they want to keep those programs around. There are only about ten programs that legitimately compete for the coveted national title in football every year and the other 50 P5 do not want to shrink the pool so that they have to take on more losses.

Quote from Greg Sankey: "There’s a huge gap in Division I with schools roughly with $175 million budgets and schools with $4 million budgets," Lyons said. "A lot of times we’ve tried to legislate from an equality standpoint. Is there possibly a new division? Is there a Division Four? Do some schools break away and make a Division Four, and what is the membership requirement?"

I disagree with Crump1's assessment and believe the stage is set for more dramatic realignment. All of the current changes with CUSA and FCS team moving to FBS started with Texas and OU moving to the SEC. Not really sure how you think this is "fantasy" when universities are jumping conferences sometimes twice a year.

This makes no sense. It would be easier to govern a pool of like-minded and equally large P5 schools if they had the power to redraw the divisional lines. Which is what the new constitution gives them.

Lots of money in play....do not expect charity from P5.....UT and OU made the safe move to the SEC but now the real jockeying begins...

From Toadsuckhoops posted in MBB.....

"This jump was strictly football related and with the recent Sun Belt, WAC and Conference USA activities, Brad Teague had no clue and secondly NO one wanted UCA in the shuffling of football related moves."

I have not seen any good explanation of why the group of Southland Texas schools really wanted to make a move although there is the angle of making the WAC into a FBS conference. They are fortunate to have Texas as a good football TV market so maybe the numbers will work with the other new WAC members. The new WAC would seem to just make it too much travel for UCA....not so much football but all the other round robin sports. Adding the southern La schools to the new WAC would add the NOLA area TV markets but the travel to the "west" part of new WAC seems excessive.

Some of the schools in the new WAC do not meet the FBS attendance requirement if for no other reason they do not have stadiums of sufficient size. Below is what I found on the attendance requirement. Not sure of their plans to meet but they probably have a few years in FCS to figure that out.

https://www.sportsrec.com/division-1-college-football-requirements-6660709.html

"To maintain FBS status, a school must average 15,000 in paid or actual attendance a game at least once every two seasons. The NCAA used to require Division I-A schools to have a stadium with a minimum capacity of 30,000, but that rule was scrapped in 2004. FCS has no attendance requirements."

As for Sunbelt and CUSA.....UCA stadium is not large enough to meet the attendance requirement and would require an expansion......contact Athletic Dept to donate funds for that project....

CUSA.....note that Jacksonville State already easily meets both size and actual attendance.....Sam Houston stadium is close to big enough.....James Madison should also meet easily now....New Mexico State and Liberty appear to already meet the requirement....

Sunbelt.....not sure why Sunbelt would want another Arkansas school...makes sense long term for UCA but it has to be reciprocal....plus we would have to show we can expand Estes fairly quickly AND get attendance up....our record is 12,000+ and a few games 10,500+..I think I have been to all of those.....until we address that issue would not seem like we are going to move to FBS even if we could fund the stadium expansion...

So, our choice seemed to be to hang with the La schools from SLC and hope for something beneficial ...or move to ASUN who wants to build a top shelf FCS football conference.....that has its risks like the JSU move to CUSA.....have to find a suitable replacement to get an AQ bid....a conference with APU, EKU, UCA, Kennesaw, North Alabama will be seen as solid.......not sure who else may be contemplating a move.....geography is key.....maybe someone from OVC, Big South or Southern...or maybe from Pioneer.....then there is a D2 move up such as Delta State or one of the other Gulf South teams.....


McNeese appears to have cut the best they could have have to stay with their La sister schools and try to make SLC work....I wish them the best...

UCA is in it as high as they can go.
This administration does not have the funds or foresight to get UCA to the Sunbelt or any equivalent conference that is lower FBS.

I attended UCA when the visitor side was the homeside.
We built on and MORE people came.
We moved up to division I and more people have come.

Sam Houston has had great success this past decade in the FCS and their fans complain about attendance...even after winning a national championship. They don't travel very well either. I could count the number of their fans at our game.

Yes, we need a bigger stadium.
Yes, we need an exciting campaign to raise funds to make FBS happen BEFORE we even think about doing it. We need the momentum to not only go FBS but to establish a solid fan base to be there. You don't do that by restricting tailgating 6 hours before kickoff or half an hour after the game. You don't do that by holding beg-a-thons sparsely throughout the year. You don't do that by NOT advertising games to Arkansans. You don't do that by creating a high school environment at football games with awards given out every 5 minutes, band and music speakers blasting at the same time, and little fan interaction on the big board (who doesn't want to be on the big screen???? ).

Let's look at McNeese's tailgating and get some clue on tailgating.

Let's look at SFA's big board fan interactions and get the fans involved.

Simply put, people go to things because they are fun.
Watch the frats and sorors on Bruce Street.
No alcohol isn't necessarily needed but some home games early in the year would be GREAT. Some departmental interactions are awesome too. How about establishing connections with local high school football teams to get them and their families to the games and give them a shoutout?? The bands rock gotta say.

We have TONS to learn about being a party atmosphere but the good news is other schools have been doing it for YEARS. We can look at what they do and use some of their ideas and try whatever works and make it better.

UCA can do this. Most of it is free and fan driven.

Just my 2 cents. Yes, I've said it before.