OT: D1

[iupgroundhog]

Notable news for people who follow DI-AA/FCS football in the eastern half of the PSAC's footprint - Delaware has announced they are moving up to DI-A/FBS to join Conference USA in the 2025-26 season.

IMO, Delaware's move to FBS was increasingly likely with many of their ex-CAA foes, like James Madison, making the jump, but UD should have never joined Conference USA; they should have targeted the Sun Belt, which is where many of the stronger ex-FCS programs in the eastern U.S. have gone in recent years.

Cool. UD belongs in the FBS. As for those two conferences, I can see pluses and minuses to each. I will be able to see them play when they come to UTEP and NMSU.

Is 'Nova next?

[Fightingscot82]

Cool. UD belongs in the FBS. As for those two conferences, I can see pluses and minuses to each. I will be able to see them play when they come to UTEP and NMSU.

Is 'Nova next?

I think their stadium will hold them back but its not far off from what Delaware is working with, so who knows.

[iupgroundhog]

I think their stadium will hold them back but its not far off from what Delaware is working with, so who knows.

They would need a new stadium. probably. They have talked about that and, if you remember, they were talking about using the soccer stadium in Chester.

[Ram040506]

If you were the Big Ten, and wanted to expand the television footprint AND not have to deal with the ACC buyout/GOR nonsense, why wouldn't they target JMU and say Central Florida instead of UVA and FSU/Miami? JMU is up and coming in a big way, and UCF is the biggest school in the state of Florida. Seems like it would make a lot of sense and strike a huge blow to those ACC schools mentioned as JMU and UCF would then have access to incredible funds into their athletic programs that could put them ahead of there more well known neighbors in state.

[EastStroud13]

Notable news for people who follow DI-AA/FCS football in the eastern half of the PSAC's footprint - Delaware has announced they are moving up to DI-A/FBS to join Conference USA in the 2025-26 season.

IMO, Delaware's move to FBS was increasingly likely with many of their ex-CAA foes, like James Madison, making the jump, but UD should have never joined Conference USA; they should have targeted the Sun Belt, which is where many of the stronger ex-FCS programs in the eastern U.S. have gone in recent years.

It's one thing for Delaware to want the Sun Belt; it's another thing entirely for the Sun Belt to want them. The SBC is in a good spot with their 14 teams, and doesn't need to add a good-not-great Delaware program. So if Delaware wanted FBS, C-USA might've been their only option.

I actually think that the MAC would have benefitted from adding both Delaware and UMass and establishing their footprint further east. But they seem content with the teams they have.

[ctrabs74]

It's one thing for Delaware to want the Sun Belt; it's another thing entirely for the Sun Belt to want them. The SBC is in a good spot with their 14 teams, and doesn't need to add a good-not-great Delaware program. So if Delaware wanted FBS, C-USA might've been their only option.

I actually think that the MAC would have benefitted from adding both Delaware and UMass and establishing their footprint further east. But they seem content with the teams they have.

The MAC might be the only genuine "bus" league in FBS with a relatively small footprint from DeKalb, Ill. (which is about a couple hours west of Chicago) to Buffalo from east-to-west - a 9+ hour bus trip - and from Mount Pleasant, Mich. (CMU - about an hour north of Lansing) to Athens, Ohio (Ohio University - about an hour 15 minutes southeast of Columbus) - which is about a 6 hour trip.

Adding Delaware to that league would've been a logistical nightmare for the existing MAC schools, let alone UMass.

[Fightingscot82]

It's one thing for Delaware to want the Sun Belt; it's another thing entirely for the Sun Belt to want them. The SBC is in a good spot with their 14 teams, and doesn't need to add a good-not-great Delaware program. So if Delaware wanted FBS, C-USA might've been their only option.

I actually think that the MAC would have benefitted from adding both Delaware and UMass and establishing their footprint further east. But they seem content with the teams they have.

The MAC dabbled with UMass but didn't like what they offered plus the cost of travel to Amherst. MAC schools seem rich by our standards but are poor by FBS standards and are more of a bus league than we assume since most schools are away from big airports and close enough to just drive. But UMass also doesn't quite have the money we assume it does - but also had extensive travel costs. Those trips add up. UMass also didn't exactly win very often even in the MAC. So they agreed to part ways. I always assumed they were a cheap replacement for Temple's short stint in the MAC. Just like when we added Seton Hill after CW Post left.

But yeah, I think adding UMass and Delaware together could have offered something even if it created an awkward dead zone over Pennsylvania. Maybe they could have talked Temple back in. I enjoyed my two years working at a MAC school. The similarities to the PSAC are there to scale.

[IUPNation]

I think their stadium will hold them back but it’not far off from what Delaware is working with, so who knows.

They can play at Subaru Park in Chester if needed…

[IUPNation]

They would need a new stadium. probably. They have talked about that and, if you remember, they were talking about using the soccer stadium in Chester.

They’ll never get a new campus stadium at Nova. The neighbors would fight that tooth and nail. Their baseball team plays in Plymouth Meeting.

I don’t see Nova following suit.

Delaware does need to demolish and replace Blue Chicken Stadium.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

They’ll never get a new campus stadium at Nova. The neighbors would fight that tooth and nail. Their baseball team plays in Plymouth Meeting.

I don’t see Nova following suit.

Delaware does need to demolish and replace Blue Chicken Stadium.

I remember when Delaware was a real power in football. It doesn't seem that long ago but I guess it's been some time.

Last time I saw them they played a whore game at Pitt and lost like 70-0.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Dana is going to get $15m as his going away present.

Poor guy.

[iupgroundhog]

They’ll never get a new campus stadium at Nova. The neighbors would fight that tooth and nail. Their baseball team plays in Plymouth Meeting.

True. The neighbors held up the Blue Route for over 30 years.

[Fightingscot82]

Dana is going to get $15m as his going away present.

Poor guy.

Dude at Indiana is getting $20M. Fired FBS football coach is the best job in the world.

[EyeoftheHawk]

Dude at Indiana is getting $20M. Fired FBS football coach is the best job in the world.

This is all completely out of hand. There have been a lot of headlines like this lately. I wonder if at some point we will see legislative hearings on this issue.

[IUP24]

If you were the Big Ten, and wanted to expand the television footprint AND not have to deal with the ACC buyout/GOR nonsense, why wouldn't they target JMU and say Central Florida instead of UVA and FSU/Miami? JMU is up and coming in a big way, and UCF is the biggest school in the state of Florida. Seems like it would make a lot of sense and strike a huge blow to those ACC schools mentioned as JMU and UCF would then have access to incredible funds into their athletic programs that could put them ahead of there more well known neighbors in state.

Because Central Florida is in the Big 12 now and that conference has a GOR that runs through 2029-2030. They can't just up and leave like they left the American.

What many fail to realize is that the Big 12 is going to get poached before the ACC's current GOR deal expires in 2033. The Big 12 survived everything that's occurred recently because their remaining 8 or 9 member schools (after Texas and OU decided to leave) all decided to stick together because they weren't wanted as individual members elsewhere. They all wanted a home, so they stuck together and just added teams who would join - in steps UCF, Cincy, and Houston. Then the Pac 12 schools all went where they could find a home because the Pac 12 couldn't orchestrate a television deal that would be competitive with the ACC. The issue is that the Big 12 now has, I think, fourteen members, and over half of them have no allegiance to the conference or charter members.

So when 2028-2029 rolls around, I'm not sure Arizona and Arizona State are going to really care about Baylor or Iowa State. They'll go where they can go; and where they can get the most money. This is mostly temporary for some of those schools in my opinion. If you take an in-depth look at the revenue dollars and the television deals, the Big 12 is WAY short of the money that the SEC, Big 10, and ACC is accruing in their TV deals. And when you consider the towns/cities and areas where most of the Big 12 is located, they aren't in large television markets. It's going to be tough for that league to get comparable money. The SEC and Big 10 have huge deals, but the dollar values in the deal aren't growing annually. The ACC is far short of the annual revenue of those two leagues now, but every year, the money in their deal grows. By the time the ACC's television deal expires, it will be much closer to the SEC and Big 10 figures than it is now (not equal to, but very close - which often gets left out of the conversation by everyone).

In hindsight, the ACC should have added UCF, WVU, and Cincy when they had the chance. I still want WVU to join the ACC, and hopefully that happens in 5 years when it becomes open season on the Big 12 (which will be the first of the remaining Power 4 leagues to have a GOR deal expire). It would be good for WVU in terms of geography and regional affiliation with old Big East members and rivals like Pitt and Virginia Tech. There was interest from the ACC in adding UCF previously from my understanding, but Miami and Florida State offered some resistance to that. I agree with your assessment regarding James Madison. I said to folks even before this season that JMU is a gold mine. It's in a beautiful and growing area of VA. Their university is booming and growing. They have excellent facilities and enough alumni with resources and connections to support their athletic programs. I sense that VT and UVA would scoff at the idea, but I think JMU would be a great addition to the ACC. They may not be at a P5 level with everything now, but with the resources, funding, and support, I believe they will be sooner rather than later. People may laugh at you for doing it now, but it's a good business decision long term.

And one nugget to add: Any team in the ACC is free to leave. But it's approximately half a billion dollars to do so in an up front cost. Additionally, every cent of television revenue in your new conference goes back to the ACC and gets evenly distributed amongst conference members until the ACC GOR expires at the end of 2033. The only way either element of that exit clause get waived is every member school unanimously votes to allow someone to leave without penalty, which would never happen. So any league can actively try to recruit an ACC school at any point, but those are terms that every ACC school agreed to regarding exiting the conference. It wouldn't be the new conference paying that fee, it would be the exiting school.