CUSA HAS SLIPPED A LOT IN THE PAST 2 YEARS!

There are too many teams. I recall there being 112 teams at one time, then up to 119, and now 129. The jump is fairly recent. The result is a watered down product and most of the new additions being in the bottom 20 teams in the country. Most are also new additional to less prominent conferences like SunBelt and CUSA. The trend will continue as long as dominant FCS (1AA) programs see FBS (1A) as bigger and better. Unfortunately, most of the schools that move up will go from top tier to bottom dwellers. There are a few exceptions to that, but it generally holds true.

CBS 105-129 includes

Ga State
Coastal Carolina
S Alabama
UTSA 
Charlotte
ODU
Texas State

GO OWLS!!!

Money drives all things.  This is probably for another topic, but I honestly think most of the G5 are now figuring out that these really big conferences spread all over the country are not a good idea.  There isn't enough TV money at the G5 level to justify the costs associated with 12 and 14 team conferences where you have to fly all of your teams (not just football) to away games 1000+ miles away.  And because you are playing a bunch of teams your fans and alumni don't even know, you also don't have great attendance at the games.

The next move will be for the already rich to take their ball and go to their own super-conferences - where all the money, TV, etc. will go.  Then it will be really interesting to see what happens - some of the premier G5 programs might get invited, some of the current crap P5 teams might get dropped.  I know schools like App State moved "up" because per their people they wanted to make sure they would be in the 2nd-level of football going forward (they came from the conference that my alma mater is in).  There are FCS schools right now that are thinking about it (Kennesaw State just started football up not too long ago, are now a top-10 FCS team, are in the Atlanta area, have 32k students, etc.).

So will the big dominos wait and fall when the P5 becomes their own "thing"?  Wil that mean we still have a D1 (FBS) and a D1-AA (FCS), or will those form their own NCAA-run division complete with playoffs (a bigger and more prominent offering of the current FCS model)?

I agree that 129 FBS teams is too many, but maybe I am in the minority and I also think most of the G5 conferences are to blame because they thought expansion would make them more important, generate more dollars, etc.  If I was the czar, I would take the 80 biggest money-generating teams and go form the Pro football and basketball minor-leagues that play for the CFP (not an NCAA event even now) and basketball equivalent.  Then I'd try to get the next 80 or so schools at the "normal" college level to play for an NCAA national championship, with them broken-into geographies and types that make sense (really tiny private schools in the North East shouldn't be in the same conference as a really big public school in the South for instance).  And move a bunch of FCS teams down to D2 or non-scholarship status to make that level better.

Easy to write down on paper - not so easy to implement!

< RANT OVER >

owlsdad said

Money drives all things…

< RANT OVER >

Posted On: Sep 11th 2018, 4:20 PM #380623

I think I follow your thought process. I was thinking something similar. What could happen is that there could actually be another separation where it is something like 1 (P5), 1A (G5), and 1AA (FCS). I think that is what you were indicating. The problem is that when teams are at the top of FCS, they want to move up. The same goes for teams at the top of G5. They want into a P5 conference. However, not all teams in a P5 conference can be perennial powerhouses. There are going to be bottom dwellers for every conference.

I honestly don't see anything wrong with being a school like North Dakota State or Montana. They are top of the heap and have no reason to think about moving up. Of course, they are big fish in a small pond. Biggest school in states that are sparsely populated and without any FBS schools. Schools like South Alabama, App State, Georgia State, Ga Southern, etc. can't say that. Arkansas State even has trouble and they are the #2 school in the state.

GO OWLS!!!

Do like soccer - promotion and relegation??? Fair but never happen will it!