Realignment Megathread (All The Moves)

[Cyclonsin]

They're going to win 8-9 games a year and play in the New Mexico Bowl.

I guess if they think that's better than winning natties, more power to them.

I've been in a minor debate on Twitter with an NDSU fan after I tweeted "NDSU is guaranteed to never win a national championship in football ever again. What a wild and depressing thought."

Some of them genuinely believe they can compete with the true top of the sport because they've racked up a few wins against P4 teams, despite the fact their last win over an FBS team came a decade ago now.

They're in for a rude awakening. Feels like an incredibly short-sighted decision.

 

[Al_4_State]

I've been in a minor debate on Twitter with an NDSU fan after I tweeted "NDSU is guaranteed to never win a national championship in football ever again. What a wild and depressing thought."

Some of them genuinely believe they can compete with the true top of the sport because they've racked up a few wins against P4 teams, despite the fact their last win over an FBS team came a decade ago now.

They're in for a rude awakening. Feels like an incredibly short-sighted decision.

Not so fast, my friend.

 

[BCClone]

I've been in a minor debate on Twitter with an NDSU fan after I tweeted "NDSU is guaranteed to never win a national championship in football ever again. What a wild and depressing thought."

Some of them genuinely believe they can compete with the true top of the sport because they've racked up a few wins against P4 teams, despite the fact their last win over an FBS team came a decade ago now.

They're in for a rude awakening. Feels like an incredibly short-sighted decision.

Being in the MWC, the competition won’t be a drastic step up. It will be interesting who they schedule for noncon. Do they schedule SDSU and if they lose to them, feel the embarrassment that other D1 did losing to them?

 

[Al_4_State]

I've been in a minor debate on Twitter with an NDSU fan after I tweeted "NDSU is guaranteed to never win a national championship in football ever again. What a wild and depressing thought."

Some of them genuinely believe they can compete with the true top of the sport because they've racked up a few wins against P4 teams, despite the fact their last win over an FBS team came a decade ago now.

They're in for a rude awakening. Feels like an incredibly short-sighted decision.

If there was some separation of the top 40 schools into it's own division, and we'd somehow make the cut, our fans as a group would be ecstatic.

I would personally be dejected, because we'd never be playing for anything other than being a guaranteed win for some blue bloods (a role we've all lived through before).

Point being, I'm not surprised that they're excited, but I agree with you in that they're not going to be happy 5 years from now.

 

[Cyclonsin]

Not so fast, my friend.

Care to tell me what year that was? (okay, we're not technically at a decade for another few months, but close enough)

Being in the MWC, the competition won’t be a drastic step up. It will be interesting who they schedule for noncon. Do they schedule SDSU and if they lose to them, feel the embarrassment that other D1 did losing to them?

I think they can absolutely be competitive for conference titles and almost expect as much. But will that be enough to satiate a fan base used to winning natties? I also worry about them losing their regional rivalries with SDSU, UND, and (to a lesser extent) SD.

If there was some separation of the top 40 schools into it's own division, and we'd somehow make the cut, our fans as a group would be ecstatic.

I would personally be dejected, because we'd never be playing for anything other than being a guaranteed win for some blue bloods (a role we've all lived through before).

Point being, I'm not surprised that they're excited, but I agree with you in that they're not going to be happy 5 years from now.

I agree with your overall point but want to point out one key difference: in that scenario our fan base would be excited, but we'd also understand ISU won't be winning championships in that format. But that's nothing new to us, considering we've never been in a position to win national championships.

On the other hand, at least a vocal portion of the Bison fan base believes they can not only consistently make the CFP but be competitive in it against the best teams in the country. And I'd bet every penny I have on them being sorely mistaken.

 

[BCClone]

Care to tell me what year that was? (okay, we're not technically at a decade for another few months, but close enough)


I think they can absolutely be competitive for conference titles and almost expect as much. But will that be enough to satiate a fan base used to winning natties? I also worry about them losing their regional rivalries with SDSU, UND, and (to a lesser extent) SD.


I agree with your overall point but want to point out one key difference: in that scenario our fan base would be excited, but we'd also understand ISU won't be winning championships in that format. But that's nothing new to us, considering we've never been in a position to win national championships.

On the other hand, at least a vocal portion of the Bison fan base believes they can not only consistently make the CFP but be competitive in it against the best teams in the country. And I'd bet every penny I have on them being sorely mistaken.

I just thought about what if a G5 like NDSU somehow made the playoffs if they expanded it and got a home game. The P4 stadiums are sold out and they have 40k or so minimum requirements to be in the conference. How do you have it at Fargo with less than 20k seating?

 

[Kinch]

By all means take them back, I don’t think a single person would notice or miss them and they are an academic anchor/outlier

The big 10 might. Nebby draws about 20 - 30 percent more in ratings than the squawks. 2.4 million vs. 1.8 million.

 

[CascadeClone]

By all means take them back, I don’t think a single person would notice or miss them and they are an academic anchor/outlier

 

[CascadeClone]

If there was some separation of the top 40 schools into it's own division, and we'd somehow make the cut, our fans as a group would be ecstatic.

Agree. But if it was 40, and ISU didn't make the cut, that would kind of be worse. We'd be a huge fish in Division 2. Yuck.

In a split, best for ISU would be if the Premier League only had about 24 teams. Then there would be PLENTY of interest and mojo and money around the 2nd tier league, and ISU would be competitive as heck as well. The downside to that is if Iowa makes the cut, you'd never hear the end of it - but then they wouldn't win much either so...

 

[Al_4_State]

Agree. But if it was 40, and ISU didn't make the cut, that would kind of be worse. We'd be a huge fish in Division 2. Yuck.

In a split, best for ISU would be if the Premier League only had about 24 teams. Then there would be PLENTY of interest and mojo and money around the 2nd tier league, and ISU would be competitive as heck as well. The downside to that is if Iowa makes the cut, you'd never hear the end of it - but then they wouldn't win much either so...

We'd be in with a lot of our peers. It wouldn't bother me that much.

Personally, I hope if there's a formal separation it's either the Top 70ish or the Top 16-20ish. What's most important to me is playing against our traditional rivals with the same potential end of year stakes. If we're in a second division, but Iowa, KSU, Kansas, Mizzou, OK State, etc are in that second division, then I would be perfectly fine with it.

What would suck the hardest is to be the biggest school in a second division while everyone we care about playing gets into the top one.

 

[Gonzo]

I've been in a minor debate on Twitter with an NDSU fan after I tweeted "NDSU is guaranteed to never win a national championship in football ever again. What a wild and depressing thought."

Some of them genuinely believe they can compete with the true top of the sport because they've racked up a few wins against P4 teams, despite the fact their last win over an FBS team came a decade ago now.

They're in for a rude awakening. Feels like an incredibly short-sighted decision.

It's a different thing to get up for 1 actual FBS opponent for the season and then fall back to a bunch of FCS patsies, and playing an actual FBS schedule for an entire season.

Put them through the weekly grind of a P4 regular season schedule and I think they'd prove to be very mid very quickly. They won't get that in the MWC, so maybe they'll do well. But to think they'd make any kind of noise in the CFP is beyond delusional.

 

[Al_4_State]

It's a different thing to get up for 1 actual FBS opponent for the season and then fall back to a bunch of FCS patsies, and playing an actual FBS schedule for an entire season.

Put them through the weekly grind of a P4 regular season schedule and I think they'd prove to be very mid very quickly. They won't get that in the MWC, so maybe they'll do well. But to think they'd make any kind of noise in the CFP is beyond delusional.

They're probably going to be an above average MWC program, but that won't get them anywhere near the CFP. They'd have to go undefeated and have at least 1 P4 win

 

[FriendlySpartan]

Agree. But if it was 40, and ISU didn't make the cut, that would kind of be worse. We'd be a huge fish in Division 2. Yuck.

In a split, best for ISU would be if the Premier League only had about 24 teams. Then there would be PLENTY of interest and mojo and money around the 2nd tier league, and ISU would be competitive as heck as well. The downside to that is if Iowa makes the cut, you'd never hear the end of it - but then they wouldn't win much either so...

Except there wouldn’t be any real interest unless there was relegation/promotion which will never happen. It would basicly turn the second division into how people treat the G5 currently

 

[Al_4_State]

Except there wouldn’t be any real interest unless there was relegation/promotion which will never happen. It would basicly turn the second division into how people treat the G5 currently

That's not true at all.

There would be a lot of schools with big followings in that 70-25 range. It's the bulk of the current P4. TV needs the inventory, coaches and players need opportunities to be on the field.

 

[Al_4_State]

Agree. But if it was 40, and ISU didn't make the cut, that would kind of be worse. We'd be a huge fish in Division 2. Yuck.

In a split, best for ISU would be if the Premier League only had about 24 teams. Then there would be PLENTY of interest and mojo and money around the 2nd tier league, and ISU would be competitive as heck as well. The downside to that is if Iowa makes the cut, you'd never hear the end of it - but then they wouldn't win much either so...

Iowa's not making a Top 20ish cut. If they did, they'd get their heads kicked in.

You would either have Iowa barely make that cut, get murdered on the reg, but their fans would brag ceaselessly about being in the bigger league, OR they don't make the cut and are one of the most dominant programs in the next division. Either option is annoying.

 

[FriendlySpartan]

That's not true at all.

There would be a lot of schools with big followings in that 70-25 range. It's the bulk of the current P4. TV needs the inventory, coaches and players need opportunities to be on the field.

Those followings would slowly if not immediately vanish if playing in a lower division. TV doesn’t need inventory anymore in a streaming world

 

[Al_4_State]

Those followings would slowly if not immediately vanish if playing in a lower division. TV doesn’t need inventory anymore in a streaming world

 

[cyfanatic]

That's not true at all.

There would be a lot of schools with big followings in that 70-25 range. It's the bulk of the current P4. TV needs the inventory, coaches and players need opportunities to be on the field.

I am not sure about that...there are people that around CyWorld that moan and groan about missing games vs Oklahoma and Texas...those schools getting replaced by Cincinatti and Houston aren't the same...and who knows what would happen if the top 24 break away? Some schools might just give football up?

 

[FriendlySpartan]

You can laugh but your also insanely outdated with this concept

 

[FriendlySpartan]

I am not sure about that...there are people that around CyWorld that moan and groan about missing games vs Oklahoma and Texas...those schools getting replaced by Cincinatti and Houston aren't the same...and who knows what would happen if the top 24 break away? Some schools might just give football up?

Most would give up a lot of sports as their media dollars cratered to almost nothing