Big Sky's Mystery 12th School is...

[Herky]

Question. what is a travel partner?

It's that long ribbed cylindrical thing you keep in your fanny pack along with your KY, you know, that thing you can't go anywhere without.

[S F State Gaters]

Ok, my point is basically made. 1982 was a long time ago. I was born in 1982. I'm saying that over the past TWO DECADES, teams either stay where they are, move up, or drop football. And in California, you drop football. Since 1985, California has lost fully a dozen college football teams; this is the list:

University of California, Santa Barbara (1991)
California State University, Fullerton (1992)
California State University, Long Beach (1991)
California State University, Northridge (2001)
University of the Pacific (1995)
St. Mary's College of California (2003)
Santa Clara University (1992)
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) (1985)
California State University, Hayward (Cal State East Bay) (1993)
California State University, Chico (Chico State) (1996)
San Francisco State University (1994)
Sonoma State University (1997)

That's two whole conferences worth. Each and every one of those programs was faced with a choice to stay where they were, go up, go down, or drop football. each one dropped football. The biggest issue is, each and every one of the above schools' athletic departments gets constant solicitations from fans, alums, and students, saying, 'where is the football team? wouldn't it be great if we played football?' and the administration responds, "getting rid of football saved us millions of dollars. it's the best decision we ever made". Admin thinks it's great- but students, alums and fans don't agree.

The two FBS schools in the most difficult positions are Idaho and San Jose State. Idaho might very well look at their situation, look at the Big Sky and the teams playing near them in the Big Sky, and make the decision to move down; it would be unprecedented, but it could happen. But San Jose State is just going to drop football if things get difficult in the coming year or two.

[Willie]

Question. what is a travel partner?

Who are you trying to kid? You've had MULTIPLE travel partners.

[SDHornet]

Probably the place in the BSC with the best transportation and best accommodations...

Could you imagine the money conference would make off this game? It's gonna be so sweet! It would be like having a bowl game before the playoffs.

I think they are planning on just rotating the sites each year so that every team get a chance to host it.

God damn it Ursus, look what you started.

[native]

Since the term FBS is fairly new, that's true. However, a couple dozen schools have reclassified from I-A to I-AA.

who are the 24 drop downs? FBS, DI, I-A whatever...

Simmer down, brother. Just as henfan stated, before there was such a thing as "FBS" and "FCS," a number of current FCS (Alcorn State, Jackson State) and D II schools (West Texas A&M) played in the same upper football division as Oklahoma, Texas, USC, et al.

[SDHornet]

Ok, my point is basically made. 1982 was a long time ago. I was born in 1982. I'm saying that over the past TWO DECADES, teams either stay where they are, move up, or drop football. And in California, you drop football. Since 1985, California has lost fully a dozen college football teams; this is the list:

University of California, Santa Barbara (1991)
California State University, Fullerton (1992)
California State University, Long Beach (1991)
California State University, Northridge (2001)
University of the Pacific (1995)
St. Mary's College of California (2003)
Santa Clara University (1992)
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) (1985)
California State University, Hayward (Cal State East Bay) (1993)
California State University, Chico (Chico State) (1996)
San Francisco State University (1994)
Sonoma State University (1997)

That's two whole conferences worth. Each and every one of those programs was faced with a choice to stay where they were, go up, go down, or drop football. each one dropped football. The biggest issue is, each and every one of the above schools' athletic departments gets constant solicitations from fans, alums, and students, saying, 'where is the football team? wouldn't it be great if we played football?' and the administration responds, "getting rid of football saved us millions of dollars. it's the best decision we ever made". Admin thinks it's great- but students, alums and fans don't agree.

The two FBS schools in the most difficult positions are Idaho and San Jose State. Idaho might very well look at their situation, look at the Big Sky and the teams playing near them in the Big Sky, and make the decision to move down; it would be unprecedented, but it could happen. But San Jose State is just going to drop football if things get difficult in the coming year or two.

The rub here is a lot of those schools have the population to implement or add a $100+ per semester fee and a significant portion of the budget issue goes away to some extent. The big factor is just having leaders in place who has the balls to do what is needed to keep the football program/athletic department alive via student fees. Fortunately Sac State has had and hopefully always has a President who supports football and is willing to make things happen.

[bjtheflamesfan]

Question. what is a travel partner?

In the interest of offering somewhat of a serious answer to your question, I believe its a school within relatively close proximity who you would work with to schedule your games at the same time so as to share travel costs with them thus working for the mutual benefit of your programs (Liberty/VMI, Coastal Carolina/Charleston Southern, Washington/Washington State, USC/UCLA, Virginia Tech/UVA, MIssissippi/MIssissippi State, Montana/Montana State, etc)

[SuperHornet]

Ah, cheap-shotting St Mary's....

Six months after they gave up the ghost, their fans were on a previous incarnation of SacBuzz claiming that they were going to kick Sac's tail.

Idiots don't even listen to their own AD....

[SloStang]

Since 1985, California has lost fully a dozen college football teams; this is the list:

California State Polytechnic University, Pomona (Cal Poly Pomona) (1985)

Cal Poly Pomona dropped football after the 1982 season. I know, I was on the team and they also dropped my scholarship. I was p!ssed at the time, but it turned out for the best because I transfered to the real Cal Poly, the one in San Luis Obispo.

[eagle1]

The Big Sky wants Idaho back and if they figure out that they don't belong at the FBS level then they will be the mystery team but if they don't it will be SUU. Prefer Idaho but I am okay with SUU so I don't really give a rats ass.

[henfan]

You know while it's an 'option' it hasn't happened in recent memory. Furthermore, instituional egos and public perceptions will not allow any school to drop down in football classification from FBS, unless there are some wholesale transformations iniatiated by the NCAA.

Well, I remember the activity quite clearly? Does that count?

Schools and conferences in the early '80's who made decisions to reclassify often did so in the face of similar institutional pressures and negative public perceptions. Granted, there have not been any schools who have reclassified from I-A to I-AA or FBS to FCS since then. That doesn't mean that mounting financial and competitive considerations won't someday drive schools or conferences who want to keep D-I football to make that choice in the future, particularly if the economy continues to struggle. The NCAA leaves the FBS to FCS reclassification option open for a reason. I would agree that the option will not likely be exercised soon by any school, though I've been surprised before.

To make a correction in an earlier post by someone else, Villanova did not move directly from I-A to I-AA. They actually cancelled their I-A program and revived in a few years later as a I-AA. Interesting that they are now considering whether or not to reclassify as an FBS.

[frinq]

SFState - That's quite a list of California schools that have dropped football. Must say something. Like, losing lots of money isn't fun for colleges and universities whose primary purpose is education? Like it or not, there IS an argument against college football, at least as it's constituted now. You say the students want it back. Are you sure? Depends on the campus, surely. Here at PSU the idea of raising student fees $100 for football would raise the roof. We here on the forum like football, sure. But there are plenty who don't.

[henfan]

In the interest of offering somewhat of a serious answer to your question, I believe its a school within relatively close proximity who you would work with to schedule your games at the same time so as to share travel costs with them thus working for the mutual benefit of your programs (Liberty/VMI, Coastal Carolina/Charleston Southern, Washington/Washington State, USC/UCLA, Virginia Tech/UVA, MIssissippi/MIssissippi State, Montana/Montana State, etc)

Alas, the travel partner concept is mostly outdated in today's NCAA D-I.