Confernce Realignment Chaos is Here!!!!!! (maybe ... probabbly not) (Rumor Texas and OK reach out to SEC about joining)

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MplsGopher said:
It's all about what you're willing to pay and afford to have an FBS football team. I think Idaho was more political than anything ... people in the state don't want competition for Boise, they want to push that program has high as it can go. I see no reason that Idaho could not have gone on doing what it was doing, but probably a decent contingent of fans happy to return to the Big Sky and playing Montana.

Anyway, UMass and UConn are making it. I doubt either kills their FBS team any time soon. Being closer to more teams out East probably helps.
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It is nice for them that they are a crop of independents now that can schedules games against each other (UMass, UConn, Liberty, NMSU), but eventually people may get tired of being a doormat. UMass and UConn have not show that they want to win, merely exist.
 

Almost certain that Liberty gets added, somewhere, in the near future.

But anyway, I don't disagree about UMass and UConn (and NM St, as well).
 

TruthSeeker said:
They need massive investment to make that happen.
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I think their goal is to join the Big East. That would be their natural home as a big city catholic school. They've already gotten into the CCHA for hockey which is great for them. For football I don't see a future without the investment you're talking about. They could try and be Liberty -- but Liberty has sunk 90 million into their football program alone to get to where they are.
 

Villanova is the one Big East Catholic private that has scholarship football, let alone football.

If they want the Big East, they might be better off just dropping football, as painful and probably not possible as that would be. Wild guess is that some of the big boosters that made the move happen, have big football dreams. But that is just a wild guess.

I figured they'd drop hockey, too expensive. But clearly wrong there.
 

noamfromm said:
I think their goal is to join the Big East. That would be their natural home as a big city catholic school. They've already gotten into the CCHA for hockey which is great for them. For football I don't see a future without the investment you're talking about. They could try and be Liberty -- but Liberty has sunk 90 million into their football program alone to get to where they are.
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That investment in a stadium would pay for itself fast if they can land in a strong football conference.

A lot more people would watch St. Thomas football if they are playing higher level division 1 teams.
Conference USA or AAC for football. MAC even.
 


Face The Facts said:
That investment in a stadium would pay for itself fast if they can land in a strong football conference.

A lot more people would watch St. Thomas football if they are playing higher level division 1 teams.
Conference USA or AAC for football. MAC even.
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Likely true. But none of those will even consider a Pioneer League upjumper, even if Bill Gates drops randomly drops half a billion on their heads.
 

Face The Facts said:
That investment in a stadium would pay for itself fast if they can land in a strong football conference.

A lot more people would watch St. Thomas football if they are playing higher level division 1 teams.
Conference USA or AAC for football. MAC even.
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Space is the main issue preventing expansion. The archdiocese owns much on the land on the "east" campus (I don't know what they call it). Additionally I assume the residents, like those that live around Ryan Field, would be quite upset about increased gameday traffic. With that said it would be fun if they found a home in the MAC or the entire Missouri Valley decided to make a run at FBS football.
 

Face The Facts said:
Just a side comment.
Does anyone else think St. Thomas has an opportunity to make a quick climb through the rankings.

I don't know what their stadium plans are, but if there is a football team / market that would gain attention being in the 15-16th best market, I can't be the only one who thinks they might not gain a lot of traction really fast.
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They aren’t even offering scholarships because they didn’t want to make that commitment.

The move to D1 is about winning an ncaa basketball tournament game once every 15 years to try to become a Marquette or drake. Not about football at all
 

Face The Facts said:
That investment in a stadium would pay for itself fast if they can land in a strong football conference.

A lot more people would watch St. Thomas football if they are playing higher level division 1 teams.
Conference USA or AAC for football. MAC even.
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If they wanted to expand the stadium, the smarter move would be to contract with the Vikings, loons, or gophers to play in their stadiums 6 times per year.
 



Some guy said:
If they wanted to expand the stadium, the smarter move would be to contract with the Vikings, loons, or gophers to play in their stadiums 6 times per year.
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I'm guessing the Gophers stadium is a not an option, but the Twins/Target Field would be viable a few times per season.
 

Ope3 said:
I'm guessing the Gophers stadium is a not an option, but the Twins/Target Field would be viable a few times per season.
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Allianz makes the most sense, it's nearly on campus.
 

goldengophers said:
Allianz makes the most sense, it's nearly on campus.
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Yeah. US Bank makes a lot of sense too since it’s so few dates.
But they don’t need to expand. They aren’t adding scholarship football in the next 4 years. Honestly will gain more publicity being top 3 in the pioneer than being a distant 5-7th in the Missouri valley
 




Why do any of Target, Allianz, or CHS fields want a college football team tearing up their natural grass?

Once a year, for a special game, is a different story.


Not an issue for USB, but I doubt they can or want to afford that (if it would be offered).
 

goldengophers said:
Allianz makes the most sense, it's nearly on campus.
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I think Allianz is about the worst choice.
MLS teams don't want football divots on their field.

They did that one time before a Loons playoff game (it was setup well in advance, and maybe there was thought the Loons wouldn't make the playoffs that year), but it was a disaster just from one game.
 



MplsGopher said:
Why do any of Target, Allianz, or CHS fields want a college football team tearing up their natural grass?

Once a year, for a special game, is a different story.


Not an issue for USB, but I doubt they can or want to afford that (if it would be offered).
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A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Not sure they want a football team there regularly as far turf goes.
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If it was long term, Allianz/Loons could come up with a solution such as putting down temporary field turf.
 

A_Slab_of_Bacon said:
Not sure they want a football team there regularly as far turf goes.
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I didn't clarify, there is no way MNUFC would allow St. Thomas to play on the same field as more than a one off. It would require some sort of portable second field option (see Tottenham/Raiders) which is extremely cost prohibative.
 

goldengophers said:
I didn't clarify, there is no way MNUFC would allow St. Thomas to play on the same field as more than a one off. It would require some sort of portable second field option (see Tottenham/Raiders) which is extremely cost prohibative.
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Cost prohibitive is relative, it could be more financially feasible than spending say $150 million on a new stadium.
 

Reports say Southern Miss going to Sunbelt -- CUSA is down to 7 teams. Seems like Marshall should go back to the MAC and bring Western Kentucky along.
 

Ope3 said:
If it was long term, Allianz/Loons could come up with a solution such as putting down temporary field turf.
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Anything can be done for infinite money.

Even assuming UST paid 100% of the cost of said turf and installing it and taking it out, it's hard for me to imagine that the grass underneath would go unscathed.

Not saying it's impossible or a bad idea. I don't know. Just doubting.
 

Ope3 said:
Cost prohibitive is relative, it could be more financially feasible than spending say $150 million on a new stadium.
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I think most logical solution would be a 6 game rental for Us bank stadium.

that’s pretty much how UTSA runs it in San Antonio
Pretty much how temple does it.

I don’t think they need to move any games for the most part though
 

noamfromm said:
Reports say Southern Miss going to Sunbelt -- CUSA is down to 7 teams. Seems like Marshall should go back to the MAC and bring Western Kentucky along.
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CUSA might have to try to survive off of FCS move-ups.

Could be a generational chance for schools like Delaware, Villanova, Jacksonville State, Eastern Kentucky, along with all but certain move-up JMU, to evaluate their situations and make a decision.
 

Ope3 said:
Cost prohibitive is relative, it could be more financially feasible than spending say $150 million on a new stadium.
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What about getting together with CDH and the city of SP to upgrade Griffin to say 15k seats, with a decent pressbox? Wouldn't be anything fancy, just capacity more than anything.

Move the track elsewhere. Maybe dig down to gain the extra seats where the track was and give it more a stadium feel. Just spitballin'
 

In addition to being a Minnesota alumnus, I am a graduate of Western Kentucky University. I am really worried that C-USA is going to turn out as the biggest Group of Five loser in realignment.
The Hilltoppers had been in the Sun Belt (and in hindsight, should have stayed there).

I REALLY hope that the MAC would consider picking them, and Marshall, up - but it doesn't look like the MAC is making any expansion overtures.

With the AAC's moves, and the falling dominoes that are resulting, there seems to much less parity between the group of five conferences than there had been.

I also dislike the idea of simply bumping more FCS schools into the FBS, it would dilute the product IMO. I think the FBS is already a little too big. I think there are some historically bad FBS teams that should move down - such as Idaho did a few years ago. To me the candidates would be UMass, UConn & NMSU. I also recall, years ago, that there was some 3-year or 5-year home game attendance requirement to be FBS. I looked at the 2019 (pre-pandemic) home attendance averages and there were a few schools that were getting 9,000 or less. The five with the worst attendance were: Ball State, Northern Ill, Charlotte, Florida International and Kent State.

If the Group of Five could go from its current grand total of 60 teams to 48, a super-conference of 4 12 regional divisions might make the most sense from a tv contract negotiating standpoint.

Just some random thoughts.
 



GophersInIowa said:
James Madison can easily slide into the Sun Belt. The only conference that makes sense for NDSU IMO is the MAC. Would the MAC accept them?
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JMU does benefit from proximity, NDSU could be a Mountain West option when Boise and SDSU move into the Big 12.
 

goldengophers said:
JMU does benefit from proximity, NDSU could be a Mountain West option when Boise and SDSU move into the Big 12.
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They could but I feel like that would be a pretty big jump. The Mountain West is better than the MAC or Sun Belt. The facilities would probably need a pretty big upgrade.
 

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