Moving up

[coloradocat]

As things are currently constructed, I am with AFCAT. However, I think things are going to change, and the Power 5 or whatever they'll be calling themselves will be the highest level. At that point, the remaining teams will have some sort meaningful postseason system. Maybe the rest of the FBS moves down to FCS. Maybe the top of the FCS joins the bottom of the FBS in some other level that doesn't currently exist. MSU would need to be positioned to be in that next tier. Maybe they don't have to do anything, maybe they have to move up prior to that happening, I don't know if anybody knows.

But staying in the FCS if and when that split happens would be a mistake. Ball State and Fresno State and others would love to have a system where they play similar football programs. But they're not getting invited to play with the big boys, so they'll do something different. I'd be stunned if they opted for a meaningless bowl system. I think MSU's peer institutions are the lower part of the FBS and not what's left of the FCS, with a few exceptions. If the Dakota schools go FBS, the FCS is going to be bad. The national championship will not be what it once was. It might be better than the potato bowl, but not by much.

Having said all that, if MSU can't get a substantial piece of TV revenue, I don't know what needs to happen. We as fans are pretty close to being tapped out, and some are already there individually. I am only in favor of moving up if it generates revenue AND if there's a meaningful post-season goal. I'm not sure anybody is in favor of moving up just so we can say we're FBS.

The FBS split plus the G5 grabbing the top of the FCS has been the go-to idea among many of us (and others outside of MSU) but we might not be able to assume that will happen just because we're an established/successful program. Without the P4/5 money that the G5 currently gets, they might not be any more interested in expanding their pool than they are now. Out best hope is that the NCAA takes back full control of the G5 level and facilitates our acceptance. Otherwise we may be stuck here forever.

[tetoncat]

We're finally a good (great?) program but the FCS has largely become D2+scholarships. One of the biggest reasons to move up is that the FCS has regressed and we don't belong here any more. MWC teams don't have a lot to play for outside of a conference title and some participation award bowl games, but how is that different from the bottom 120 teams in the FCS? The only reason the top 8-10 teams are in the FCS today is because they aren't financial desirable to the FBS. An FCS title would be incredible and consistent winning is great but if someone comes calling we should jump at the chance, even if there are some downsides.

So are you saying the only reason we have moved up the food chain is because all the good teams left. I think you may see good D2 teams move up like NDSU did.

[tetoncat]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

I tend to lean this way. We may get a little more visibility, but I think conference is doing a better job with this for all sports. We will get more TV revenue but will spend that on coaching salaries and scholarships in FB and the sports we will need to add. Money for expansion and other i.provements will still come from donors. Will we get them if we are middle of pack in most sports.

[coloradocat]

We're finally a good (great?) program but the FCS has largely become D2+scholarships. One of the biggest reasons to move up is that the FCS has regressed and we don't belong here any more. MWC teams don't have a lot to play for outside of a conference title and some participation award bowl games, but how is that different from the bottom 120 teams in the FCS? The only reason the top 8-10 teams are in the FCS today is because they aren't financial desirable to the FBS. An FCS title would be incredible and consistent winning is great but if someone comes calling we should jump at the chance, even if there are some downsides.

So are you saying the only reason we have moved up the food chain is because all the good teams left. I think you may see good D2 teams move up like NDSU did.

No, I think it's equal parts our performance and the exit of multiple teams by the time we got to the top. We would still be in the top group if everyone was still around but the party is a lot smaller now. D2 teams moving up to the FCS really only makes sense to me if it's part of a longer term plan to keep moving up. Without the top teams the FCS doesn't really make sense any more.

[Cataholic]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that.

I understand your position and would miss the FCS playoffs, but you do not seem very willing to even consider the potential benefits with FBS. I had posted above at 2:22 time stamp on financial potential to the school. The national exposure could help grow the school.

Sounds good but MSU has grown a lot over the past 15 years, not because of its football or sports programs, but for entirely different reasons. And I'm not trying to get in a fight with anyone over this, I'm just stating my opinion.

MSU has definitely grown the past 15 years, but that doesn’t mean MSU should forego other ways to grow the school. I think MSU should consider anything that could lead to a larger student population in the future.

Also, please understand that I am not trying to be argumentative or pick a fight. I am just trying to better understand your reluctance to move up. You are one of the most loyal MSU fans and it concerns me that such a fan could be so against moving up that they would stop coming to games. I love FCS football, the Big Sky and the playoff system, but I also recognize that it may be time to move up.

[tetoncat]

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that.

I understand your position and would miss the FCS playoffs, but you do not seem very willing to even consider the potential benefits with FBS. I had posted above at 2:22 time stamp on financial potential to the school. The national exposure could help grow the school.

Sounds good but MSU has grown a lot over the past 15 years, not because of its football or sports programs, but for entirely different reasons. And I'm not trying to get in a fight with anyone over this, I'm just stating my opinion.

MSU has definitely grown the past 15 years, but that doesn’t mean MSU should forego other ways to grow the school. I think MSU should consider anything that could lead to a larger student population in the future.

Also, please understand that I am not trying to be argumentative or pick a fight. I am just trying to better understand your reluctance to move up. You are one of the most loyal MSU fans and it concerns me that such a fan could be so against moving up that they would stop coming to games. I love FCS football, the Big Sky and the playoff system, but I also recognize that it may be time to move up.

My resistance is going back to middle of pack team and losing the momentum we have built that is helping all of our programs. Will we be a Boise or an Idaho?

[Cataholic]

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that.

I understand your position and would miss the FCS playoffs, but you do not seem very willing to even consider the potential benefits with FBS. I had posted above at 2:22 time stamp on financial potential to the school. The national exposure could help grow the school.

Sounds good but MSU has grown a lot over the past 15 years, not because of its football or sports programs, but for entirely different reasons. And I'm not trying to get in a fight with anyone over this, I'm just stating my opinion.

MSU has definitely grown the past 15 years, but that doesn’t mean MSU should forego other ways to grow the school. I think MSU should consider anything that could lead to a larger student population in the future.

Also, please understand that I am not trying to be argumentative or pick a fight. I am just trying to better understand your reluctance to move up. You are one of the most loyal MSU fans and it concerns me that such a fan could be so against moving up that they would stop coming to games. I love FCS football, the Big Sky and the playoff system, but I also recognize that it may be time to move up.

My resistance is going back to middle of pack team and losing the momentum we have built that is helping all of our programs. Will we be a Boise or an Idaho?

Definite concern. However, I don’t see any reason we can’t compete in the MW. This years team would probably be competitive for a league title. Especially looking at how EWU fared with Fresno and Idaho beating Nevada this year. And if we stay in the Big Sky, there is no guarantee that we will be good in the Big Sky going forward either.

[Prodigal Cat]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that. Look at what everyone is excited about right now, the possibility of winning a Natty.

Some benefits to moving up:

Playing other engaged fanbases that travel and are excited about their team. (boosts local economy) Go look at the Wyoming game thread.
Travel to other like facilities and better venues. No playing in a highschool stadium, feed lot backyard's, quonsets.
Not lose local talent because we aren't FBS. Yes maybe a P5 scalps a kid or 2 but a Matt Miller plays for the Cats instead of Boise
Better overall exposure for the University and more corporate donors. This is really the big one and it will allow-
Better facilities and more scholarships for student athletes.
B-Ball teams don't have to rely on winning the tournament to make the dance. They will make it on their body of work.
Others that i can't think of right now.

I get it. I went to Frisco and I'm enjoying the hell out this current run. Already have my tix for the next one. But I think the FCS is a dying party and I think it won't be much fun if we are the 20 something that goes to the YMCA to whoop up on 6th graders. If the xDSU's get the invite, and you bet your ass they are wanting one, this division gets pretty crappy. I'd rather be proactive instead of reactive.

[AFCAT]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that. Look at what everyone is excited about right now, the possibility of winning a Natty.

Some benefits to moving up:

Playing other engaged fanbases that travel and are excited about their team. (boosts local economy) Go look at the Wyoming game thread.
Travel to other like facilities and better venues. No playing in a highschool stadium, feed lot backyard's, quonsets.
Not lose local talent because we aren't FBS. Yes maybe a P5 scalps a kid or 2 but a Matt Miller plays for the Cats instead of Boise
Better overall exposure for the University and more corporate donors. This is really the big one and it will allow-
Better facilities and more scholarships for student athletes.
B-Ball teams don't have to rely on winning the tournament to make the dance. They will make it on their body of work.
Others that i can't think of right now.

I get it. I went to Frisco and I'm enjoying the hell out this current run. Already have my tix for the next one. But I think the FCS is a dying party and I think it won't be much fun if we are the 20 something that goes to the YMCA to whoop up on 6th graders. If the xDSU's get the invite, and you bet your ass they are wanting one, this division gets pretty crappy. I'd rather be proactive instead of reactive.

Okay, you’ve convinced me.

[cats2506]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

+1

My nephew is a SHSU grad and a football fan, went to a few games a year and always knew how they were doing. Since they left the FCS he hasn't gone, College Station is closer to where he lives, so watches A&M with his brother.

[kmax]

My nephew is a SHSU grad and a football fan, went to a few games a year and always knew how they were doing. Since they left the FCS he hasn't gone, College Station is closer to where he lives, so watches A&M with his brother.

In some ways the same things that are likely keeping us from getting an FBS invite are also ones that kind of insulate us from that scenario a bit. We are amazingly unique in that there are no other options around outside of Frontier Conf. Aside from the very Western part of the state with Pullman there is no other DI football to watch without a day's drive. You aren't quickly jumping over to a Big 10 game like you could from the *DSU's or SEC/Big 12 game like from the texas schools.

While attendance may lag if the team completely tanks I don't think we are headed back to the 2000's in terms of literally being able to count the people in the stands. The gameday event itself has a draw now that it never did previously and teams like SHSU never did have that before moving up so of course they aren't going to suddenly have interest now.

[Bobcat Sig]

This thread can be summed up with the following: perfect is the enemy of good.

[rivercat]

I'll preface this with stating for the immediate future, I'm good with the FCS but want MSU positioned to make a change if it is advantageous.

I just counted 16 G5 teams ranked higher than MSU in the Sagarin rankings. Out of 65 total G5 teams, MSU is currently the #17 team with 22 less scholarships and a lot less money. MSU would definitely be competitive.

[Cataholic]

I'll preface this with stating for the immediate future, I'm good with the FCS but want MSU positioned to make a change if it is advantageous.

I just counted 16 G5 teams ranked higher than MSU in the Sagarin rankings. Out of 65 total G5 teams, MSU is currently the #17 team with 22 less scholarships and a lot less money. MSU would definitely be competitive.

That is pretty interesting. Sagarin also has only 3 Mountain West teams ranked about MSU right now: Air Force, Fresno State and Boise State. The next MWC team is Wyoming at 9 slots behind us.

http://sagarin.com/sports/cfsend.htm

[Hawks86]

[coloradocat]

/thread

[CelticCat]

I really don't see the fee as much of a roadblock for MSU. For one I think there would be some excitement and I don't think raising $5 million would be very hard, but even then just one season in the MWC could pay it off, as the conference paid out about $6 million per member last year. I can't find the Big Sky Conf figures but it can't be more than $250k per school, and there isn't much for extra payouts like there would be in the MWC from bowl wins or NCAA tournament units. Then we are back to square one on how to increase the overall budget to meet the other financial demands of going FBS.

[Marana CAT]

I really don't see the fee as much of a roadblock for MSU. For one I think there would be some excitement and I don't think raising $5 million would be very hard, but even then just one season in the MWC could pay it off, as the conference paid out about $6 million per member last year. I can't find the Big Sky Conf figures but it can't be more than $250k per school, and there isn't much for extra payouts like there would be in the MWC from bowl wins or NCAA tournament units. Then we are back to square one on how to increase the overall budget to meet the other financial demands of going FBS.

Just curious but if you think it would be that easy to raise 5 million to move up how come it is not as easy to raise money to replace the East side of the stadium? Granted it’s a lot more money to raise to fix the East side but would MSU be in a position to throw that money to the NCAA instead of keeping it to apply later to the East side?
Just a question not an argument.

[91catAlum]

That is some serious inflation! Thanks alot, Biden!

[allcat]

I read that as " we have our club, now the rest of you go away."