SAC St. should eventually get an invite from either the MWC or PAC 7. The Montana and Dakota schools seem happy in 1AA and the cost to move up is high when you add the NCAA $5 million upgrade fee, $2 million entry fee[ MWC] , 20 football scholarships, and stadium expansions to accommodate at least 25,000 fans. NDSU has a covered stadium that seats about 20,000 ( I didn't check the other 5 Dakota schools) so they might get a pass.
When CUSA last imploded both schools were invited to join the MAC as a package. WKU was all in, MTSU was not so they were both stuck in CUSA. N. Illinois , certainly much to my surprise, is moving to the MWC , who might be in the market for another football only school. The MAC bylaws require their members to place all their sports in the conference so unless they are changed N.Illinois must find a new home for their 'others." U.Mass is rejoining the MAC so they probably will stand pat. I think the N.Illinois victory over the Fighting Irish may have gone to their head plus their fans are tired of weeknight games that make it hard to attend for those who live out of town.
Hodge has us more than middle of the road in the AAC. We are definitely in the top 3. If it was not for a bad shooting night for our two top scorers against Memphis, we would be at the top.
I can't disagree with anything you're saying if ACC comes poaching and we're sitting here with Rice, Tulsa, and ULM/LAT as our most local conference peers. If that is the case, and it's a somewhat likely scenario, we need to be looking into the PAC as a viable option and not hush-hush turning them down. If anything, we probably should be lifting our skirt a little bit to keep it open as an option.
Seems the b10/sec are so worried about making sure they generate the absolute most revenue versus their peers that they’ve lost sight of what excites people about college sports in the first place. Until one of them relents and settles for setting caps in spending, and potentially sharing revenue, I don’t see how this changes.
I think that the power brokers believe that most current fans will just adopt their local big state or closest big brand and continue to follow college sports. Time will tell if they are right. For me, I will not. If it gets to the point where UNT no longer has a chance to be in the pool, my interest will evaporate overnight. Maybe they don’t care and assume that enough will that they’ll keep growing their own brands and revenues.
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