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NMSU and Idaho Dropped from Sunbelt?


jdcurran235

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You can't really blame the SBC for this.

 

Idaho was way out of the foot print...in fact it's 2,000 miles for the nearest remaining conference member in Arkansas St (Jonesboro, AR).

 

New Mexico State on the other hand is 7-29 since being accepted into the league and has been under .500 every season since 2002...not something you want to see from a school who is not participating in that one sport...

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I wonder if any Southland school will get the chance to go FBS. Seems like membership is pretty locked at that level now.

 

I was big on LU moving to FBS a while back but now I'm not sure it would make that much of a difference. In the Sun Belt their televised football games are during the week and I think that would absolutely suck as a fan. Also it seems the power 5 conferences are getting the money and exposure and the lower FBS conferences (Sun Belt and the MAC) are turning into glorified FCS conferences.

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I'm thinking if the power five conferences continue a push to quit playing FCS schools for their non-conference games because of the FBS Championship series then there is room for a few more independent FBS schools. That might be where Idaho and New Mexico are forced to fall. If you schedule four to six power five schools as away games and collect fat checks for them and are able to get decent quality FCS or lower level FBS schools for your home games the overall payout might be pretty good. The hard part would be maintaining the attendance minimums. Eventually the independent has to prove it can compete by coming up with a schedule that would make them bowl eligible. I don't think I would recommend a school like Lamar try it, but I think a lot of Southeast Texas fans might look favorably on bringing teams like Louisiana Lafayette, North Texas, Texas State and maybe Rice to Beaumont as opposed to Langston, Texas College and others. Probably the hardest part of scheduling would be getting conferences to open up dates later in the year to allow the independents access to play their schools later in the year. Having contemplated the possibilities I am hoping that the power five conferences would continue to schedule FCS schools in the future. Scheduling an FCS school hasn't hurt Alabama but then no one notices that they do it as it is usually around week 9 or 10 and by that time they are established as a contender and have several conference games in the bag. For them it kind of gives them an extra by week when nobody is paying attention as everyone else appears to be worried about their conference games at that point of the season.
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