Sun Belt drops 2 teams

[Sean Miller Fan]

This info is a little old but for the fhose interested in conference shuffling, the Big 12's conference title game deregulation win pretty much cost New Mexico State and Idaho, 1-A football programs.

The Sun Belt, which expands to 12 teams on July 1 with the addition of Coastal Carolina, voted to evict football-only members, New Mexico State and Idaho. Those 2 programs will almost definitely drop to 1-AA with no conference options remaining and playing as an independent, not a good option with requirement to schedule 5 home games (which would be hard to do). Idaho will most likely move to the Big Sky where they are for all other sports. For NMSU, its the Big Sky or Southland, I'd guess. The Sun Belt will hold a title game with 10 teams. If that's not a must-watch, I don't know what is.

It'll also be interesting to see what the American does if it loses 2 teams to the Big 12. They would be at 10 football teams and 9 all-sports members. They could still hold a title game with 10 so not sure they'd expand, but I'm sure UMass is holding out hope.

 

[9nationalchampionships]

All the WVU fans are getting their road atlases out!

 

[yourhired]

The idaho decision had nothing to do with the conference the school has decided to drop down a level because of cost and success. NMSU has struggled financially and has to make a decision if they want to have football. Umass is currently evaluating there football program.

 

[TempleBAPittMPA]

Umass is currently evaluating there football program.

You mean they didn't do that BEFORE applying to be FBS?

 

[PhPanther1]

Good. Time for the rest of the crappy programs to drop down and keep about 60 to 80 teams up and not allow them to play down.

 

[yourhired]

From what I gather concerning umass that the stadium is 35 miles away from campus that student turnout has been poor and I believe they had to believe a conference was going to be interested and it hasn't happened and the school administration is evaluating the idea of having a football program.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

From what I gather concerning umass that the stadium is 35 miles away from campus

Gillette Stadium is waaaaay more than 35 miles from campus. It's actually closer to 100 miles. Not round trip. Each way.

UMass has declined an offer to become full members of the MAC. They are playing the next two seasons as an independent while they try to figure out what they should do next.

 

[Sean Miller Fan]

Gillette Stadium is waaaaay more than 35 miles from campus. It's actually closer to 100 miles. Not round trip. Each way.

UMass has declined an offer to become full members of the MAC. They are playing the next two seasons as an independent while they try to figure out what they should do next.

UMass should just play on-campus and wait for an American or CUSA bid. One will come in the next decade.

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

I think the idea is that they are gradually moving games back to campus now that they have done some renovations. Their contract with Gillette only runs a couple more seasons. I think the end game for them is that instead of playing one or two games on campus per season (this year they are playing two games on campus) they will instead play one or two games at Gillette and the rest on campus. The problem is that they probably need to add more seats to their on campus stadium to make that viable, as their on campus stadium only seats something like 17,000.

 

[Old School1]

All the WVU fans are getting their road atlases out!

As you can see they're not worried these things come with Triple A road maps as standard equipment. Kinda like the GPS everyone else has except the hoopies. They drive their homes to the games.