any UCO fans here..

[D2Rover]

There's a fundamental misunderstanding among many of what the move do D1 looks like. First, it isn't a "football decision". It's an athletic department decision. If the WAC or the Southland or the Missouri Valley or whatever conference is willing to take you on as a member, your basketball teams now have the chance to win a conf. tournament and go to the big dance. That's big pub for a University. Also, judging how a team will do at the next level based on how a team has done at the lower level is a fallacy. You change the rules of the game when you go to D1 (FCS in Football) with scholarships, perception among recruits, etc. You are no longer "D2". Oklahoma doesn't have an FCS school, so a lot of those kids that are not quite Tulsa recruits end up going to Missouri State or Weber State or other FCS school out of Oklahoma. Now, you would have a "D1" school to attract recruits. Fan support is a fair point. You wouldn't just, overnight, have increased fan support. However, you do get the opportunity to play FBS non-con games early in the season in football. You get the chance to play D1 basketball powers. Those are exciting events for a fanbase and can help build support.

It's not really about the success you had, or didn't, at the D2 level. It's how you manage the new parameters to compete. Will be interesting to see if UCO progresses this direction. I feel like they should.

All of this, yes. And the lack of FCS schools in Kansas as well as Oklahoma works as a recruiting advantage when a lot of those guys are staying D2 right now if they want to be close to home. The step up helps get better guys out of the Texas area as well. On a football level especially, UCO's profile feels like it's better suited to succeed in FCS than D2. It also creates stability for sports like Wrestling and Rowing.

When I said teams that don't win have less to lose by moving up, this is kind of what I'm pointing at. If a school like Grand Valley decides to move up, most of these positive possibilities are in play, but you sacrifice constantly competing for championships in multiple sports. UCO does not have this problem right now. Competing for WAC championships might be easier than MIAA championships in some sports anyway.

[Pure cool]

Great conversation here folks. My take. Conferences DO NOT want to die. Last year, all the "experts" said the Pac-12 was dying. Now, we hearing (via ESPN) that Boise State, Fresno State, Colorado State, and San Diego State want to jump to the Pac-12. Now, the Mountain West will have to grab FOUR teams from somewhere to fill the void left behind by the four mentioned teams. As you can see, the cycle keeps going with four teams going to the Mountain West to be replaced by wherever they came. Another interesting thing is Florida State wants to leave the ACC. Rumors are that Florida State is looking at the Big 10, but the SEC does not want a Big 10 flag in the SEC Country. Honing back down to UCO in this case, they do have a Rowing and wrestling team that the Big 12 would love to have. the biggest "HOWEVER" I can see is competitiveness. I think Pitt and NWMO would be more competitive in football.

[jimbo slice]

right. Tarleton state is one of the more recent examples. they are currently ranked 16 in the country and have had a good amount of success since moving up. UCO is 3-2 against them since 2004 with a bowl victory over them in 2017 and then Tarleton rattled off a 12-1 record the next time the took the field in 2018. they jumped in 2020 and are well above 500 since. to include a D2 loss to East Central Oklahoma the year they jumped. GAC is arguably not a better conference than the LSC that they left. then we look at how Lindenwood has done. haven't followed very closely all the time but i have seen in passing, they are winning more than they were in the MIAA.

i guess my whole point is, FCS is better a better brand for the most part but i don't think it automatically means UCO would continue on its current path. same number of scholarships as currently but with 105?? going to FBS next season, i would guess D1 money would pull people in to UCO as well. not that OU or OSU would use UCO as a farm team but its logical to think it may head that direction with the number of kids moving up to D1 right now. could definitely mean more success. all those kids that stay home because being D2, they could do the same in Texas. or all of those Oklahoma kids that decide emporia wins regardless of how bad the school is or how down the team is would now come to UCO for maybe a chance of playing in the big 12 or SEC.

heck, i remember Switzer saying decades ago he would offer a kid a scholarship just to keep him out of Asstin. the money is in Edmond and in the alums. now just have to get them to open the check books.


and we are almost exclusively talking football right now, but wrestling has been beating D1 "FCS" schools for many years. not sure the move would slow them down nor do i think rowing would suffer.
i wonder if they could bring up the hockey team to legitimate college play. they are a club team right now but have regularly beaten traditional D1 schools since they formed the club back in 2006 with 3 NCs and multiple division championships

[UCObluejay]

I take the other side on the issue. I don't think it will be financially viable to go D1. I like what UCO is doing to try to get attendance increases this year, but we will see what it looks like in October and November. You have to get people to show up to see the facility improvements that have been made for the last decade or so.

People were talking about this 20 years ago, and it made more sense back then.

Let's say it does happen. Let's say the WAC, the SLC, or MVC takes UCO. UCO would have to add a men's sport. Salaries, NIL, transportation and recruiting budgets would have to go up overnight. UCO is already around 130,000,000 in debt. I will just flat out say it, UCO's Field House is a dump. Especially when you compare it to many local HS gyms that were built even decades ago.

Wrestling conferences at the D1 level are a mess (just like other sports).

The Big 12 has: Air Force, Arizona State, Cal Baptist, Iowa State, Mizzou, North Dakota State, Northern Colorado, OU, OSU, South Dakota State, Utah Valley, and Wyoming.
I just don't see OSU wanting UCO in the Big 12 for wrestling.
The Pac 12 has: Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Oregon State, and LITTLE ROCK.
Honestly, I could see a mass exodus of the western schools to the Pac 12 for wrestling since Stanford is no longer an impediment for expansion. I don't see Air Force staying in the MWC.

This all is a moot point, college sports as we know it will be dead in the next 10 years. NIL, paying players, etc. is one issue but with online education (as much as a farce as it is) taking a more active role, the name brand schools will be more accessible to people that live in remote areas. Colleges like NWOSU, OPSU, SEOSU will be adversely impacted, because those kids can just take classes at OU online. As has been discussed in other forums on this board, many of the small private colleges are being eradicated. Who/what will be left?