NDSU HC leaving for USC assistant role

[disco]

For sure... but is that due to St. Thomas, knowing that they're on probation and prohibited from post-season playoffs( for 2 more years), just keeping things on the back burner, so to speak? They don't have to make any decisions for a couple of years, at least.

True - why spend the money now if you don't need to?

 

[disco]

EDIT: UST has 8 of 9 Summit men’s sports (including baseball, critical for the SL) plus ice hockey and non-scholarship football. And they have 10 out of 10 Summit women’s sports plus ice hockey. No lacrosse, rowing, field hockey, or water polo. So those are all there.

Only 6 of the 9 Summit schools field baseball teams, but UST has such a tradition in the sport I couldn't see them ever dropping it.

 

[MNfootballfan]

For sure... but is that due to St. Thomas, knowing that they're on probation and prohibited from post-season playoffs( for 2 more years), just keeping things on the back burner, so to speak? They don't have to make any decisions for a couple of years, at least.

That is a good point that I never thought of.

Do you know if you enter probation again moving from non-scholarship to scholarship? I'd assume no because you are staying in the same division, but with the NCAA I wouldn't be surprised.

 

[disco]

That is a good point that I never thought of.

Do you know if you enter probation again moving from non-scholarship to scholarship? I'd assume no because you are staying in the same division, but with the NCAA I wouldn't be surprised.

I don't think so. The NCAA treats the Pioneer like any other FCS conference. I think the non-scholarship part is a voluntary thing with the conference members.

 

[MplsGopher]

I don't think so. The NCAA treats the Pioneer like any other FCS conference. I think the non-scholarship part is a voluntary thing with the conference members.

Correct. They self-enforce the conditions that formally existed when DI basketball schools were allowed to play DIII football. The original Pioneer members were those schools, that got kicked out of DIII football.

FCS allows any number of counters from 0 to 63.

 

[swede2]

For sure... but is that due to St. Thomas, knowing that they're on probation and prohibited from post-season playoffs( for 2 more years), just keeping things on the back burner, so to speak? They don't have to make any decisions for a couple of years, at least.

They can always make future decisions. But they are presently in no different position than any other team that has transitioned to FCS, with the difference being that schools that are and are intending to play scholarship football use the probationary period to increase resources: ticket sales, corporate sponsorships, philanthropy; and scaling up the investment in the football program: increasing scholarships, increasing coaching staff, funding cost of tuition, improving facilities. Waiting until the probation period has run is simply voluntarily setting yourself back. NDSU had the pieces in place to rapidly ramp up its football investment and hit the ground running when probation was over. SDSU took a bit more time but was making significant investments. The UxDs went through the same thing.

It takes years of investment to grow into a FCS scholarship program. There's simply no indication now that UST is making the kind of investment now or will in the immediate future. There are far too few pieces in place to make that happen. From a personal standpoint, you're looking at 63 fully funded scholarships, plus cost of attendance, plus a fully funded coaching and support staff. What would something like that cost at St Thomas?

From a facilities standpoint - SDSU's stadium cost $65 million to build. What would that cost today, in the Twin Cities. Easily double. Indoor practice space? NDSU just completed theirs for over $50 million. While not necessary per se, it is as part of the arms race at the top of FCS. I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that it would cost over $200,000,000 to put UST on a footing as an upper echelon FCS program. If someone drops that kind of money on UST, lookout. But

 

[MplsGopher]

@swede2 you seem to have a strong handle on FCS football in the north central, here. I appreciate your posts!