What is the Future of GSC Football?

[D2Rover]

I wonder if all the schools that moved up from the GSC look back and think it was all worth it.

I mean is Jacksonville State and Troy better off now? Will UNA be better off?

I won't be surprised to see schools that moved up fall back to D2 and weaker D2 schools give up and fall back to D3. St Anselm is doing that now. St Francis in PA is going from D1 to D3.

Are we asking if Troy would be better off in the GSC than drawing 24,000 a game in the Sun Belt with a TV deal that has them on ESPN multiple times a year?

FCS and even C-USA I can see the case for staying D2, even support it, but I wouldn't have thought a single person at Troy would second guess that decision with where they are now. Especially as long as they've been D1. Am I missing something?

[canadarican]

Are we asking if Troy would be better off in the GSC than drawing 24,000 a game in the Sun Belt with a TV deal that has them on ESPN multiple times a year?

FCS and even C-USA I can see the case for staying D2, even support it, but I wouldn't have thought a single person at Troy would second guess that decision with where they are now. Especially as long as they've been D1. Am I missing something?

Honestly, if you aren't in the Missouri Valley or Big Sky you're playing pretend D1 at the FCS level (for the most part). Nearly 75% of all national semifinalist over the past decade came from those two leagues, and neither school who won a title since 2016 NOT in those two leagues are FBS now.

[D2Rover]

Honestly, if you aren't in the Missouri Valley or Big Sky you're playing pretend D1 at the FCS level (for the most part). Nearly 75% of all national semifinalist over the past decade came from those two leagues, and neither school who won a title since 2016 NOT in those two leagues are FBS now.

I would say the MVFC and Big Sky are close to MAC/CUSA/MW level now that the Mountain West split. After about 8-10 more schools, the rest of FCS isn't really distinguishable from the top of D2. Might be a little better now because they have the draw of being D1, but the top D2 programs would pass most of FCS pretty quickly if they played at the same level.

[Rational Observer]

The Big Sky and MV didn’t rise until the top of the Southern Conference all moved to FBS and Furman dropped off. Mercer is on the rise.

[zimmy21]

The Big Sky and MV didn’t rise until the top of the Southern Conference all moved to FBS and Furman dropped off. Mercer is on the rise.

The MV didn't rise until the Dakota schools arrived.

[cneagle99]

So, I went down a bit a rabbit hole last night waiting for my kid to get home. But the SAC has 10 members and CC/GSC have 10 members combined. As the GSC lost their automatic qualifier. It seems to me that a possible solution would be for the CC to admit the GSC as affiliate members. That way both conferences have 10 members and then schedule two cross-over games between them. Your cross-over opponents would be based on your previous years finish to ensure that the stronger teams get quality SOS opponents and the weaker teams get opponents that are on par with them.

That would eliminate the headache of scheduling and also not keep the schedules siloed as those two opponents would rotate every year (in theory).

Week 0--SAC hosts
Week 1-CC/GSC hosts
Week 2-11-Conference Play

But I do realize that travel could be a bear for Delta State--so it may not be workable for them--AND--it only works if both conferences remain at 10, which these days seems unlikely to last long.

Just my ramblings...