The Moratorium Standard Replacement - Want Fbs? Must Have Sponsor Con

[stebo]

D1 Leadership Council -- FCS move up to FBS

Grabbed this off the Belt Board, if UTSA or Texas State wants to move up... they will need an offer in hand from a Div I-FBS conference first. That is the recommendation by the D1 Leadership Council going into next month's meetings.

Membership standards

In addition to the cost-savings discussion, the Council put the finishing touches on recommendations for new Division I membership standards. The group generally concluded its discussion on the topic in January but tweaked a few things at the recent meeting, including:

Football Championship Subdivision members who wish to join the Football Bowl Subdivision should have a bona fide offer of membership from an FBS conference to be considered for FBS membership. FCS members suggested this change as a way of being consistent – the Council is also recommending that new Division I members have a bona fide offer of membership from a Division I conference before beginning the reclassification process.

The application fee will be commensurate with either the estimated annual average value of direct benefits through distributions and championships made available to Division I members ($1.3 million) or the median annual value of direct benefits through distributions and championships ($900,000).

Those recommendations will go to the Division I Board of Directors next month. The Board could introduce legislation into the 2010-11 cycle that codifies the new standards.

http://snipurl.com/v39ts

[NT80]

That makes sense that they already have a conference invite, don't need a bunch of independents struggling to schedule during the conference season.

It makes reference to the 2010-11 cycle to "codify" it, would that probably make the moratorium go away for the 2011-12 season and expect moveups by say 2013 or 2014? That would go along with UTSA's timeline thinking.

I expect UTSA to be pumping out PR material to CUSA should there be an opening with someone going to the Big East or somewhere. UTSA, along with La Tech, may end up being our main competition for a slot!

[UNTflyer]

UTSA, along with La Tech, may end up being our main competition for a slot!

Again I ask... why would anyone assume UTSA would jump to the head of the line for FBS membership?

[MeanGreenTexan]

Again I ask... why would anyone assume UTSA would jump to the head of the line for FBS membership?

While I don't think they will pose much of a threat to us in the next 10 years, San Antonio is a top 10 city (population-wise) in America and the closest school is Texas State. Couple that with playing in the Alamodome, and UTSA could be considered a nice piece for any conference.

[forevereagle]

While I don't think they will pose much of a threat to us in the next 10 years, San Antonio is a top 10 city (population-wise) in America and the closest school is Texas State. Couple that with playing in the Alamodome, and UTSA could be considered a nice piece for any conference.

San Antonio may be a top 10 city by population, but it is not in the top 20 of DMAs (Designated Market Area), which is the measure of television markets. TVs is where the money is, not just the city. According to the linked document, DFW ranks as 6th, and I have seen other rankings that have shown DFW as high as 4th. In order to get the most recent and accurate count, you would need to subscribe to Nielsen's ranking.

[UNTflyer]

UTSA is a commuter school. Their own students say so.

Still a Commuter School/Still a Working Student Body

While we may frequently hear that UTSA is becoming a more traditional university, those answering the senior survey are two things, commuters and working students. One important reminder must be added- while our entering freshmen may be demonstrating new demographic patterns, the great majority of our graduating seniors are transfer students. For these students, UTSA is still a commuter school. Only 4% of those taking the survey reported living within walking distance of campus, while a third (34%) of the students are commuting for 20 or more minutes to get to campus. Only 18% of the seniors reported that they usually did not work while attending UTSA

It doesn't matter that they are located in a large city - UTSA has never played a down a football, and they will not go to the front of the line for FBS membership. There are much better candidates - Appalachian State, Montana, Delaware, Villanova.

UTSA also said back in February that they were going to go independent - that tells me they aren't drawing any interest from any conference.

[Legend500]

We also forget that for Division I conferences, there are two sports that matter. Not only does UTSA need a football team, they need to do better than getting whipped out of the Southland conference basketball tourney in the first round, too.