Idaho Football dropping to FCS in 2018

[oedipuss]

Scheduling and what the Big Sky Conference will look like in the future really depends on who becomes the next commissioner. It seems to be Ron Loghry's job to lose. If he does get it, he's the guy who has said the conference would split into 2 football conferences - probably the northern teams in the Big Sky and a new, football only conference (completely kosher in the FCS) of southern schools - also would make room for NMSU if they were to need a home and San Jose St. if they were to leave the Mountain West for the Big West . Also look for Loghry to kill the WAC and create a 16 team Oly sport league with 2 divisions of 8 teams. Should be interesting.

[RationalGriz]

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?

I think you split into (2) 7 teams divisions. You play all 6 teams in your division every year and 2-3 games per year from the other division.

[Mr Lisle]

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.

Our old friends at Arkansas State have covered the board over the years...like this:
1937-52 Junior College
1953-72 Small College Division
1973-74 Division II
1975-77 Division I
1978-81 Division 1A
1982-91 Division 1AA
1992-Now FBS

[FBCat]

I like how the Vandal fans are saying how much their attendance is going to plummet. I wasn't aware they had any attendance. I don't understand how being the bottom of the barrel is appealing to some fans. I believe they will do very well in the BSC. My first thought was "great, another powerhouse to play every year".

[Montanabob]

I got money that says more Idaho fans are missing the game then Montana State fans are in the seats for the opener of a 2016

[luckyirishguy25]

I got money that says more Idaho fans are missing the game then Montana State fans are in the seats for the opener of a 2016

I really hope we pack the S*** out of the Kibbie Dome, I'm going to try to make and bring as many people as possible

[allcat]

I wonder how they will handle the salary differences for the coaches.

[FBCat]

I was wondering about that also. I don't think there is any BSC limit on coach salaries. They'll just be the highest paid in the conference and they're going to need to sell some tickets to pay those salaries.

[John K]

I was wondering about that also. I don't think there is any BSC limit on coach salaries. They'll just be the highest paid in the conference and they're going to need to sell some tickets to pay those salaries.

How much does Petrino make? Is he up into seven figures?

[91catAlum]

I was wondering about that also. I don't think there is any BSC limit on coach salaries. They'll just be the highest paid in the conference and they're going to need to sell some tickets to pay those salaries.

How much does Petrino make? Is he up into seven figures?

I looked it up a couple months ago, it was around $800K. One of the lowest for FBS coaches, but significantly more than the top FCS coaches.

[John K]

I was wondering about that also. I don't think there is any BSC limit on coach salaries. They'll just be the highest paid in the conference and they're going to need to sell some tickets to pay those salaries.

How much does Petrino make? Is he up into seven figures?

I looked it up a couple months ago, it was around $800K. One of the lowest for FBS coaches, but significantly more than the top FCS coaches.

That could be sort of a tricky situation. I'm sure he's not going to accept a pay cut, just because they're dropping down, but i'ts hard to justify paying an FCS coach that much dough. What do the highest paid FCS coaches make? There must be a few that are at or close to the $500,000 range?

[91catAlum]

Ya it could be tricky for Idaho. Petrino could probably go back to being OC for his big brother again and keep making what he makes now, so he presumably wouldn't take a big cut. Then again, he probably wants to be a head coach, so that's worth something too. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

[John K]

Ya it could be tricky for Idaho. Petrino could probably go back to being OC for his big brother again and keep making what he makes now, so he presumably wouldn't take a big cut. Then again, he probably wants to be a head coach, so that's worth something too. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Plus, there are more dominoes to fall. His assistants are also probably much higher paid than any other FCS assistants. Will they ask all of them to take pay cuts too? Would they make a coaching change after this season, just as a means of purging the salaries of this staff, and hiring a new staff at much lower pay? Assuming they have yet another dismal season, it wouldn't be hard to justify doing that.

[DaCats21]

I wonder how they will handle the salary differences for the coaches.

"Petrino also has a clause in his contract to have it revisited should Idaho change conferences"

http://www.idahostatesman.com/sports/co ... 59832.html

[Mr Lisle]

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

Plus AD Rob Spear, Butte Central.

[91catAlum]

Ya it could be tricky for Idaho. Petrino could probably go back to being OC for his big brother again and keep making what he makes now, so he presumably wouldn't take a big cut. Then again, he probably wants to be a head coach, so that's worth something too. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Plus, there are more dominoes to fall. His assistants are also probably much higher paid than any other FCS assistants. Will they ask all of them to take pay cuts too? Would they make a coaching change after this season, just as a means of purging the salaries of this staff, and hiring a new staff at much lower pay? Assuming they have yet another dismal season, it wouldn't be hard to justify doing that.

Good point, I didn't think about the assistants. I'd think that everyone on staff will be required to take a pay cut, or be let go.

[John K]

Ya it could be tricky for Idaho. Petrino could probably go back to being OC for his big brother again and keep making what he makes now, so he presumably wouldn't take a big cut. Then again, he probably wants to be a head coach, so that's worth something too. Will be interesting to see how that plays out.

Plus, there are more dominoes to fall. His assistants are also probably much higher paid than any other FCS assistants. Will they ask all of them to take pay cuts too? Would they make a coaching change after this season, just as a means of purging the salaries of this staff, and hiring a new staff at much lower pay? Assuming they have yet another dismal season, it wouldn't be hard to justify doing that.

Good point, I didn't think about the assistants. I'd think that everyone on staff will be required to take a pay cut, or be let go.

It almost might be better for them if they just dumped this staff at the end of the season. Staff wide pay cuts would be a real moral killer. Whether you're making $30,000 a year, or seven figures, being forced to accept a significant pay cut is a tough pill to swallow.

[Joe Bobcat]

IMO if they all took a pay cut they would be earning far closer to what they are actually worth then they currently are. How their egos handle that I'm not sure.

[John K]

IMO if they all took a pay cut they would be earning far closer to what they are actually worth then they currently are. How their egos handle that I'm not sure.

In the coaching profession, the market determines "worth", and the market for their coaches just changed significantly. But coaches have big egos, even at the FCS level, and as I said before, it's not easy for anyone to accept a pay cut, especially when it's not tied to job performance, but rather to external factors that are beyond the coach's control.

[John K]

This is why it's not as easy for schools to drop down, as some people think. There are lots of logistic issues, i.e. coaching salaries, getting down to the lower number of scholarships, etc. I'm still curious to see how that will work too. I guess if a large number of players defect, then the problem will solve itself, If not, they'll only be able to give out a very small number of schollies in each of the next two years. Of course that also depends upon the makeup of their current roster, the number of freshman/sophomores versus juniors/seniors. It could leave them with a real hole in their roster though, a few years down the road, when their next two recruiting classes are juniors and seniors. They may end up having to play a bunch of young players at that point.