Archive For The “FBS” Category
Recently, I wrote an entire article about how the way the NCAA allows schools to become FBS is broken.
It turns out I had no idea exactly how broken until I was guided towards the Idaho Vandals Football Consultant report, helpfully posted in full on the University of Idaho’s website.
In that report, one of the possible avenues that Idaho was mulling over was to join the WAC.
I was confused – the WAC had stopped sponsoring FBS football long ago, a couple of years after then-commissioner Karl Benson finished his uncanny impersonation of Baghdad Bob in regards to saving FBS football for that conference – only to leave his job to take over at the Sun Belt Conference.
But it turns out, after a fresh read of the NCAA rulebook, it is indeed true.
Like a bad horror movie, the zombified WAC football conference could indeed resurrect itself – and, in the process, shows how royally screwed up this system of FCS and FBS movement really is.
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People rightfully can paint me as an FCS football fan. I love Football Championship Subdivision, the section of Division I where Lehigh and the rest of the Patriot League competes. I find the quality of the games tremendous, and the emphasis on football and competition as the exact right balance.
From that fact, some might also think I’m performing cartwheels around my office now that the University of Idaho, after they were unceremoniously cast out of the Sun Belt as football-only members, have decided that their only choice to retain football is to join the rest of the Big Sky in sponsoring football at the FCS level, starting in 2018.
You’d be wrong about that.
What Idaho’s decision really should be telling us is that the process for switching subdivisions is a senseless, conference-driven exercise that forces schools into making tough decisions that they shouldn’t be forced to make.
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Cruel doesn’t begin to describe what Stan Kroenke has done to fans of the St. Louis Rams.
He didn’t only move the Rams back to LA this week. “On his way out he decided he had to torch the city, saying ‘Any NFL club who signs on to this proposal in St. Louis will be well on the road to financial ruin,'” a not-so-cheery recap from the fans recapped on MMQB. “This from a guy who proudly claims he was named after two amazing St. Louis baseball players. It was a completely classless act of revenge from a little man who profited greatly by being in St. Louis. He not only made himself look pitiful, he also made the NFL look like a heartless organization that only cares about money.”
St. Louis is now left with a stadium that isn’t yet paid off, the Edward Jones Dome, and no football team to play games there.
Nobody asked me, but to me, this presents the opportunity of a lifetime for the private, Jesuit Division I school in St. Louis.
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To many sportswriters who have followed English Premier League soccer in any capacity, the holy grail is promotion and relegation.
United States sports leagues, for a wide variety of reasons, do not allow its teams or franchises the ability to get “promoted” to the top flights of their professional leagues. That’s largely to protect the teams at the bottom, which can stink as much as they’d like, but will still share in the profits of the league.
In the EPL, however, the teams that finish in the bottom are “relegated” to the “Championship” division, and the teams that finish on top get “promoted” to the EPL.
Many sportswriters have tried, and failed, to devise a promotion/relegation system for a variety of pro sports. But I think where it could best work is in the worlds of FCS and FBS football.
Hear me out.
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Let’s get something straight off the bat: I am not against bowl subdivision football.
Sure, it’s patently unfair in that more than half of the “subdivision” is essentially unable to compete for their championship. Yes, it’s a money play. Yes, it’s overhyped.
But that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy it. I’m a huge college football fan. I love Army/Navy, big rivalry games (as long as they don’t interrupt my Rivalry game), and marquee matchups. When Temple played Notre Dame, I listened, and watched. College football narratives remain the best narratives.
Tonight I’ll be watching Alabama play Clemson, a most worthy conclusion to the FBS football season. Let’s take a look at what the CFP did right, and what to expect tonight.
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Did you think you would get off easy on watching college football simply because it’s Lehigh’s bye week?First of all, it gives you time to catch up on watching ESPN’s College Football Gameday, where you can see the Lehigh flag that frequently makes an …
If you’re not able to catch the Bucknell game in person, you can stream the game here from the Patriot League Digital Network. It’s a 1:00 PM start and it’s the only available video broadcast of the game. The link is below:Patriot Lea…
Coastal Carolina is nuts.
The Sun Belt is crazy.
These will not be among the official statements you will be reading today in regards to Coastal Carolina’s whirlwind acceptance of their athletic program into the Sun Belt.
The Sun Belt did not make this decision because Coastal Carolina was the most qualified candidate. They were not convinced by an impressive attendance number or a plan of action that stated exactly how the Chanticleers were going to be able to pay for an expensive, permanent upgrade to the costs and expenses of FBS football.
They picked them because they were in the right place, and were willing to go.
And that’s precisely why someone at the NCAA needs to put a stop to the the madness that is the current structure for drafting FBS teams.
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It may not have seemed like much, a bit of news quietly released during the news dumping ground of Friday afternoon by ESPN Stats and Info.
“Upgrades sharpen ESPN’s college FPI model,” the release was titled, a piece which explained some changes that were being made to ESPN’s “Football Power Index”.
One of those changes involve how FCS wins and losses were represented in their model.
And it’s actually a bigger deal than you think.
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When most people think of the University of Notre Dame, they generally think of three things, and not necessarily in this order: Catholicism, academics, and football.
Nobody questions the role that football has at Notre Dame. Football was what allowed the South Bend, Indiana school to grow from a growing Catholic university to a national, iconic institution.
But what allowed Notre Dame to become Notre Dame was a path that isn’t available to religious institutions today.
Much virtual ink has been spilled about the effects of collegiate realignment, how some conferences have been torn asunder, how some schools are stuck in places that don’t make sense, how other conferences are receiving piles of money that would make Scrooge McDuck envious.
But one of the biggest losers in this conference-driven realignment is the idea of independent football-playing schools, either loosely-tied or untied from the conference structure that drives the bus today.
When realignment articles come out today, floating schools like BYU or Liberty as potential conference-mates for schools like Texas or Old Dominion, they ignore the issue that they dare not speak publicly – mixing religion and football is not something they’re comfortable doing.
