Idaho Football dropping to FCS in 2018

[Zeke11]

I wonder if they will be returning the Big Sky Conference???


http://footballscoop.com/news/source-id ... op-to-fcs/

[Zeke11]

Article just updated - states they will be competing in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018. There you have it.

[Mr Lisle]

Article just updated - states they will be competing in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018. There you have it.

I am well pleased Idaho is returning. They will no doubt be a annual contender. Welcome Idaho fans! You no longer have to wonder where the teams you play are located.

[vike_king]

Their travel budget will be 1/3 of what it is now.

[RobertCats]

Article just updated - states they will be competing in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018. There you have it.

I am well pleased Idaho is returning. They will no doubt be a annual contender. Welcome Idaho fans! You no longer have to wonder where the teams you play are located.

After visiting their message board, I am not sure that Idaho will have any fans left, seems like the majority of the fanbase is very upset at this. Doesn't make any sense to me, playing in the Big Sky conference and competing against regionally local teams is a helluva lot better than playing in the Sun Belt Conference and the chance at a Maurchan Ramen Noodle Bowl game berth.

http://www.scout.com/college/idaho/foru ... ow-at-10am

[RobertCats]

Curious with what they'll do with the BSC? I am happy to have Idaho back and 14 teams is better than 13, but I am a little skeptical about splitting the conference.

[MSU01]

Article just updated - states they will be competing in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018. There you have it.

I am well pleased Idaho is returning. They will no doubt be a annual contender. Welcome Idaho fans! You no longer have to wonder where the teams you play are located.

After visiting their message board, I am not sure that Idaho will have any fans left, seems like the majority of the fanbase is very upset at this. Doesn't make any sense to me, playing in the Big Sky conference and competing against regionally local teams is a helluva lot better than playing in the Sun Belt Conference and the chance at a Maurchan Ramen Noodle Bowl game berth.

http://www.scout.com/college/idaho/foru ... ow-at-10am

I would be willing to wager a pretty hefty sum of money that the Idaho fans who are claiming they will never support the team or university again will be elbowing each other aside to jump right back on the bandwagon once Idaho puts together a couple strong seasons in the Big Sky. It will be interesting to see what the Big Sky does with its alignment and schedule. If you thought the schedules got pretty imbalanced now, it'll be even worse with a 14-team league!

[John K]

This is pretty much an unprecedented situation, and It will be interesting to see how they work out the various details involved in the transition, i.e. going from 85 to 63 scholarships. I suppose that means they'll also have to eliminate at least one women's sport. I would guess that they'll cut back a few schollies each of the next two years, so that they'll be down to 63 by 2018. That means they won't be able to sign many new recruits the next two years. Of course, their fans are predicting that there will be a mass exodus among their current players, and so maybe that problem will resolve itself, although I don't necessarily believe that will actually happen. I'm sure some will look to transfer to other FBS programs, but I don't think they'll lose half their team, or anything like that. I wonder how long it will be until they'll be eligible for the playoffs?

[CARDIAC_CATS]

Article just updated - states they will be competing in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018. There you have it.

I am well pleased Idaho is returning. They will no doubt be a annual contender. Welcome Idaho fans! You no longer have to wonder where the teams you play are located.

After visiting their message board, I am not sure that Idaho will have any fans left, seems like the majority of the fanbase is very upset at this. Doesn't make any sense to me, playing in the Big Sky conference and competing against regionally local teams is a helluva lot better than playing in the Sun Belt Conference and the chance at a Maurchan Ramen Noodle Bowl game berth.

http://www.scout.com/college/idaho/foru ... ow-at-10am

I would be willing to wager a pretty hefty sum of money that the Idaho fans who are claiming they will never support the team or university again will be elbowing each other aside to jump right back on the bandwagon once Idaho puts together a couple strong seasons in the Big Sky. It will be interesting to see what the Big Sky does with its alignment and schedule. If you thought the schedules got pretty imbalanced now, it'll be even worse with a 14-team league!

Exactly. The fans will be back as long as they are successful dropping back down.

[BleedingBLue]

Aside from 14 teams and possible divisions and so on and so forth what will the conference do about the "natural rivals" that each team plays every year? Everyone already has their 2. The logical choices would Idaho would be ISU, EWU and UM, but EWU and UM already have 2 HUGE games for their yearly rivalries. Does the FCS allow 9 conference games per team? If so they could add a 3rd rival that each team play every year opening up all 3 of the afore mentioned teams for Idaho. That would leave 10 teams to rotate through for the other 6 conference games every year just like it is now.

[RobertCats]

Article just updated - states they will be competing in the Big Sky Conference beginning in 2018. There you have it.

I am well pleased Idaho is returning. They will no doubt be a annual contender. Welcome Idaho fans! You no longer have to wonder where the teams you play are located.

After visiting their message board, I am not sure that Idaho will have any fans left, seems like the majority of the fanbase is very upset at this. Doesn't make any sense to me, playing in the Big Sky conference and competing against regionally local teams is a helluva lot better than playing in the Sun Belt Conference and the chance at a Maurchan Ramen Noodle Bowl game berth.

http://www.scout.com/college/idaho/foru ... ow-at-10am

I would be willing to wager a pretty hefty sum of money that the Idaho fans who are claiming they will never support the team or university again will be elbowing each other aside to jump right back on the bandwagon once Idaho puts together a couple strong seasons in the Big Sky. It will be interesting to see what the Big Sky does with its alignment and schedule. If you thought the schedules got pretty imbalanced now, it'll be even worse with a 14-team league!

Exactly. The fans will be back as long as they are successful dropping back down.

Yeah, I can't imagine they are selling out the Kibbie dome averaging 3.7 wins during its 20-year FBS run, and only 2.9 per season since 2000.

[DaCats21]

UMass faculty to push for dropping out of FBS
By Zach Barnett Apr 27, 2016

It hasn’t been a good week for the lower rungs of FBS. Just a day ago Eastern Michigan warded off rumors the school would drop to Division II, and earlier today word broke Idaho will leave FBS for FCS. Now UMass will have to join the inauspicious group, as the university’s faculty senate will push to leave FBS or drop football altogether.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... ut-of-fbs/

[John K]

Aside from 14 teams and possible divisions and so on and so forth what will the conference do about the "natural rivals" that each team plays every year? Everyone already has their 2. The logical choices would Idaho would be ISU, EWU and UM, but EWU and UM already have 2 HUGE games for their yearly rivalries. Does the FCS allow 9 conference games per team? If so they could add a 3rd rival that each team play every year opening up all 3 of the afore mentioned teams for Idaho. That would leave 10 teams to rotate through for the other 6 conference games every year just like it is now.

I would be in favor of something like this. I'm sure there's no rule against playing 9 conference games...several FBS conferences play 9 game schedules. I'm in favor of playing as many conference games as possible, just to minimize the schedule imbalances. Many BSC teams have been playing a 9th conference opponent as a NC game anyway, ever since the league expanded, so why not have all of them play 9, and count the extra one in the standings?

[BleedingBLue]

Aside from 14 teams and possible divisions and so on and so forth what will the conference do about the "natural rivals" that each team plays every year? Everyone already has their 2. The logical choices would Idaho would be ISU, EWU and UM, but EWU and UM already have 2 HUGE games for their yearly rivalries. Does the FCS allow 9 conference games per team? If so they could add a 3rd rival that each team play every year opening up all 3 of the afore mentioned teams for Idaho. That would leave 10 teams to rotate through for the other 6 conference games every year just like it is now.

I would be in favor of something like this. I'm sure there's no rule against playing 9 conference games...several FBS conferences play 9 game schedules. I'm in favor of playing as many conference games as possible, just to minimize the schedule imbalances. Many BSC teams have been playing a 9th conference opponent as a NC game anyway, ever since the league expanded, so why not have all of them play 9, and count the extra one in the standings?

It sounds like a great plan to me. Then you schedule a MVFC team and a team from the BSC that isn't a conference game and viola an 11 game schedule WITH NO D II teams! And in the years that a team is willing to come here from the east you don't schedule a non-conference BSC team, unless it's a 12 game year. I would love to see the 9 game conference schedule. It works well for the Pac 12 and Big 12. And I believe the Big 10 is implementing it in 2017 or 2018 as well.

[John K]

UMass faculty to push for dropping out of FBS
By Zach Barnett Apr 27, 2016

It hasn’t been a good week for the lower rungs of FBS. Just a day ago Eastern Michigan warded off rumors the school would drop to Division II, and earlier today word broke Idaho will leave FBS for FCS. Now UMass will have to join the inauspicious group, as the university’s faculty senate will push to leave FBS or drop football altogether.

http://collegefootballtalk.nbcsports.co ... ut-of-fbs/

And of course it seems almost certain that NMSU will also be dropping down to FCS.

[MSU01]

Aside from 14 teams and possible divisions and so on and so forth what will the conference do about the "natural rivals" that each team plays every year? Everyone already has their 2. The logical choices would Idaho would be ISU, EWU and UM, but EWU and UM already have 2 HUGE games for their yearly rivalries. Does the FCS allow 9 conference games per team? If so they could add a 3rd rival that each team play every year opening up all 3 of the afore mentioned teams for Idaho. That would leave 10 teams to rotate through for the other 6 conference games every year just like it is now.

I would be in favor of something like this. I'm sure there's no rule against playing 9 conference games...several FBS conferences play 9 game schedules. I'm in favor of playing as many conference games as possible, just to minimize the schedule imbalances. Many BSC teams have been playing a 9th conference opponent as a NC game anyway, ever since the league expanded, so why not have all of them play 9, and count the extra one in the standings?

The Southland and SWAC conferences both play 9-games schedules at the FCS level. It's a good idea but my guess is some of the Big Sky schools wouldn't like any proposal which might make it tougher for them to schedule money games against FBS opponents, which this would appear to do. Personally I'm all for any idea that will move MSU towards the ability to play an all-FCS schedule every year.

[John K]

Aside from 14 teams and possible divisions and so on and so forth what will the conference do about the "natural rivals" that each team plays every year? Everyone already has their 2. The logical choices would Idaho would be ISU, EWU and UM, but EWU and UM already have 2 HUGE games for their yearly rivalries. Does the FCS allow 9 conference games per team? If so they could add a 3rd rival that each team play every year opening up all 3 of the afore mentioned teams for Idaho. That would leave 10 teams to rotate through for the other 6 conference games every year just like it is now.

I would be in favor of something like this. I'm sure there's no rule against playing 9 conference games...several FBS conferences play 9 game schedules. I'm in favor of playing as many conference games as possible, just to minimize the schedule imbalances. Many BSC teams have been playing a 9th conference opponent as a NC game anyway, ever since the league expanded, so why not have all of them play 9, and count the extra one in the standings?

The Southland and SWAC conferences both play 9-games schedules at the FCS level. It's a good idea but my guess is some of the Big Sky schools wouldn't like any proposal which might make it tougher for them to schedule money games against FBS opponents, which this would appear to do. Personally I'm all for any idea that will move MSU towards the ability to play an all-FCS schedule every year.

That's a valid point, but they could still schedule an FBS opponent for one of their two remaining NC games, so I don't really see that as a major issue. Without looking it up, I'll bet that more than half of the BSC teams have played a NC game against a fellow BSC team in each of the last four seasons, since the league expanded, so this must not be a big problem for most BSC teams.

[GoCats18]

We better beat them when we play them this year. Show their fans now where Idaho really belongs.

[TomCat88]

Good luck to Paul Petrino (Helena Capital/CC), Troy Purcell (Helena Capital, CC, BHS), Bobby Daly (Helena Capital, MSU), Kris Cinkovich (CC).

[TomCat88]

We better beat them when we play them this year. Show their fans now where Idaho really belongs.

It's an instant rivalry. CC vs WMC. Throw in Daly and Miller. Cozzie has ties to CC. It's gonna get real interesting, real fast.