Conference realignment by Pat Forde

brett108

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May 1, 2010
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How awesome would it be to have 4 games against North Dakota State and all of the directional Michigan schools?!!! What great television. :confused:


Why is Pat Forde doing this anyway? Is it long term, or is it for Covid reasons?
This is more built for fans in the stands type viewing. TV would be pretty sparse for these affairs.
 

brett108

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NDSU has wins over five of those teams in the last decade. (Kansas, Minnesota, KSU, ISU, Iowa)
We have all seen what happens to teams like that when they get into a large conference though. Upgrading a TCU team that won the MWC half their time there turned them into a middle of the pack team. Believing it would be different for NDSU is foolish.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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NDSU has wins over five of those teams in the last decade. (Kansas, Minnesota, KSU, ISU, Iowa)

Now try playing those teams every week.... It's one thing to get up for a shot at the big boys but no way is NDSU built to play a big boy schedule.
 

jdoggivjc

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ND State would be a great game with huge fan support for both teams. Michigan schools...no. But then again we are playing South Dakota St and UNLV this year...not exactly great television.

Absolutely agree about the directional Michigan schools, especially Eastern. Eastern is in the shadow of the U of M (figuratively - but it is only miles away) and nearly every student there is a Walmart Wolverine. Imagine if instead of Cedar Falls, UNI were located in Coralville. While it more than likely wouldn't change my mind, I'd at least listen to arguments for Western and Central, as both of those schools at least have their own small following of fans.

Of those small schools listed, the only one I'd seriously listen to is NDSU, as their school has a large cult following, but even as respected as they are, even I'm not sure how well they'd transition to FBS.
 

madguy30

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Nov 15, 2011
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The TV networks would never go for this. Talk about diluted programming quality.

Nah you just show replays of it later and label it 'Classic College Football' like the B1G Network does for some Illinois/Rutgers showdown and it's gravy.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Schools like N. Dakota state would then struggle with not being able to bring in former P5 players and have them play immediately like they can currently do.
They would be able to expand their roster size, but look at any school that has moved up to either G5 or P5 level, it took them a few years to be able to compete in the higher league.

Mark Farley talked about it on KXNO this past fall but at the FCS level NDSU basically has double the scholarships as most schools. They are able to offer partial scholarships which is why they have been able to bring in so many out of state kids. Iowa and a lot of other states don't allow this. They also offer instate tuition to kids from certain states which is something else that Iowa doesn't do. v It was really interesting listening to Farley put it all out there because he really didn't sugar coat it.
 

cycloneG

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We have all seen what happens to teams like that when they get into a large conference though. Upgrading a TCU team that won the MWC half their time there turned them into a middle of the pack team. Believing it would be different for NDSU is foolish.

TCU has been in the Big 12 for eight years. They've been to six bowl games and won a share of a conference championship. That's better than ISU over the same time period.
 

Sigmapolis

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Yeah, doing this at 10 conferences of 12 = 120 total is too many.

Something like 8 conference of 10 = 80 is about the right amount.

That gives you all the P5, high-powered independents like Notre Dame and BYU, and lets you bring up the best few G5 programs (e.g., Houston and Cincinnati) before setting something up along historical and geographical lines.
 

Sigmapolis

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upload_2020-7-1_14-43-40.png

That conference honestly might improve Clemson's strength of schedule.
 

LivntheCyLife

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The only way this would be interesting is if you divided each conference into a top 6 and bottom 6 with possible promotion and relegation between the two divisions. But I don't see anybody signing up for it and I don't know if I like it that much.

I'd love to see the Power 5 restructure to 6 or 8 team conferences where there's round robin within the conference and dynamic scheduling of inter-conference games of 1 vs 1, 2 vs 2 ... from the previous year.
 

1UNI2ISU

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Mark Farley talked about it on KXNO this past fall but at the FCS level NDSU basically has double the scholarships as most schools. They are able to offer partial scholarships which is why they have been able to bring in so many out of state kids. Iowa and a lot of other states don't allow this. They also offer instate tuition to kids from certain states which is something else that Iowa doesn't do. v It was really interesting listening to Farley put it all out there because he really didn't sugar coat it.

Nailed it. The state of North Dakota being able to offer instate tuition to MInnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Wisconsin is the single biggest reason they are where they are. They are also allowed to offer in-state tuition to any minority student that comes from any state with a Top 25 population.

On their books, it basically looks like they're paying 63 in-state scholarships.

They're also spending over double what every other team in FCS is on football to be relevant for one weekend a year but that's a totally different discussion.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Nailed it. The state of North Dakota being able to offer instate tuition to MInnesota, Iowa, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Wisconsin is the single biggest reason they are where they are. They are also allowed to offer in-state tuition to any minority student that comes from any state with a Top 25 population.

On their books, it basically looks like they're paying 63 in-state scholarships.

They're also spending over double what every other team in FCS is on football to be relevant for one weekend a year but that's a totally different discussion.

Yeah, everyone thinks that NDSU has built this powerhouse FCS program out of nowhere but their advantages out weigh most schools by a long shot. Once they figured out how the take advantage of what they have the rest has been history.
 

BryceC

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I can’t think of a worse one of these I’ve seen.

Agreed, this is simply awful. Someone slowly close the lid on his laptop, unplug it, them summarily beat him with it.
 

BoxsterCy

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