Moving up

[JohnGotti]

Of course the quality of competition is better when moving up. That’s a given.

[BleedingBLue]

Of course the quality of competition is better when moving up. That’s a given.

Is it? A BSC team beats a MWC team on the regular. A** kickings the last 2 years by Sac State and Idaho. EWU lost in 2 OT to Fresno this year, Fresno is #24 in the FBS. Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, Hawaii, SJSU aren't much of a step up, if any.

[ThoughtUKnew14]

Of course the quality of competition is better when moving up. That’s a given.

Agree! More talent and depth. Anyone who disagrees doesn’t understand college football and will only point out a handful of FCS wins and almost wins…

[Norsky19]

Of course the quality of competition is better when moving up. That’s a given.

Is it? A BSC team beats a MWC team on the regular. A** kickings the last 2 years by Sac State and Idaho. EWU lost in 2 OT to Fresno this year, Fresno is #24 in the FBS. Nevada, UNLV, New Mexico, Hawaii, SJSU aren't much of a step up, if any.

100%

[Prodigal Cat]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

[JohnGotti]

Spot on! Very well said. We need to be proactive with all these shuffling of schools and conferences. Let’s not get left behind. After all Bozeman is a very known place now. When I first came to MSU way back about 40 years ago I think there was about 15,000 people in the city of Bozeman. Change is happening in college football. We need to be ready to accept change or we will be left behind. I think more of the local rich transplants would give mornry to the athletic department if we played teams like Boise State.

[Hawks86]

There is about to be 1 FBS conference out west. The only way there is a spot in the MWC is if the top schools leave. If they leave so does the current TV money.

[AFCAT]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

[Prodigal Cat]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

[JohnGotti]

+1

[Cataholic]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

And I will add that every school gets national exposure in a bowl game - even the Potato Bowl. As much as I love the FCS championship in Frisco, it is simply a footnote on national sports pages. The D2 championship was on national TV last year but I didn’t take any time to watch or even note who was playing. The bowl games does get national attention. Having a chance to play in the LA Bowl would be huge exposure for our university and a great goal to pursue.

You had discounted student fees as a way to pay for upgrades. I think we are at the juncture today. 17,000 students times a $100 athletics infrastructure fee is $1.7 million annually to finance new infrastructure. It seems like a low cost fee that is basically advertising as it increases the profile of the school. I had also mentioned in another post that if increased exposure of the university attracted 500 new students, that is an increase in tuition revenue of $5.5 million annually (500 students time average of $11,000 tuition). That seems like a good investment for the school.

[AFCAT]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

[Bobcat Sig]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

The fans do not and will not generate the kind of money that TV does. There is no arguing that.

I get your passionate loyalty to the Big Sky and FCS, but the fact is; college football has changed. It will pass us and every other team that does noting, right on by. So defend it all you want with emotion, but MSU must make a move.

[Cataholic]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

[Bobcat Sig]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

It is. The FCS will be comprised of the likes of Stetson, ISU, UNCU, directional commuter schools, and other do-nothing programs with no support, fans, or viable stadium.

[AFCAT]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that. Look at what everyone is excited about right now, the possibility of winning a Natty.

[Cataholic]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that.

I understand your position and would miss the FCS playoffs, but you do not seem very willing to even consider the potential benefits with FBS. I had posted above at 2:22 time stamp on financial potential to the school. The national exposure could help grow the school.

[AFCAT]

I’d rather play in the Potato Bowl than at PSU, ISU, EWU, UNC. As far as the griz I could care less about them. Never even think about the griz until we play them.

I know, right. However, PSU certainly didn’t embarrass themselves against the #3 team in the nation today. ISU only lost by 8 points to one of the best funded football programs in FCS. EWU doesn’t have the greatest stadium or funding but somehow manages to put up damn good football teams almost every year and a decent amount of players into the NFL. UNC is garbage but even they almost knocked off a ranked team today. Possibly playing in the Potato bowl in front of 10,000 fans or some sort of wished for playoff system in a FBS sub division would be so much better. I can’t wait until all these millions of dollars materialize to allow MSU to jump up. It will be awesome!

This is handpicking stats at its worst. Yes the Potato Bowl had an attendance of 10K but do you know how many people watched it? About 2.4 million or close 4 times as many that watched the FCS title game that was on network TV. It didn't even have the best 2 teams from the MWC. The MWC title game had 24k people attending and 1.9 million people watching and the winner, Fresno went to the LA Bowl to play Wash St. It had over 30K people in attendance, was played in the brand spanking new $5.5B SOFI stadium in LA. It was watched by 2.5 million people. I think the Cats as they are constructed RIGHT NOW would compete to do that exact thing. Sign me up for that.
You are correct about materializing a significant amount of money. Right now it seems like we are struggling to get the funding to build the IPF that was planned so coming up with several million a year without state subsidies or student activity fees seems far fetched. But acting like no one cares about G5 games or teams is incorrect. The only people that care about FCS is us... the people in it. MWC and G5 has a much larger following.

I really don’t care how many people are watching the Potato bowl on TV, winning it means absolutely nothing. Even if the Cats win a conference title, there is nothing to look forward to other than a meaningless bowl game that only exists as a promotional tool for some company. Great, the coach gets to dump a barrel of mayonnaise on his head for the team winning the Dukes Mayo bowl. Count me out. I’ll take a true playoff system and national championship any day over some marketing ploy to get people to watch 6-5 football teams. I loved the excitement of going to the Natty two years ago. That won’t happen with a Potato bowl invite. None of this is going to matter anyway, because I doubt the Cats can come up with the cash needed to make it happen.

Cool, you don't care how many people watch. You know who does? Corporate sponsors, advertisers, TV execs, NCAA, conferences, university presidents and ADs. Basically the people that matter and make College football what it is. And it means EVERYTHING to College football.

The people that matter are the fans. Without the fans, you don't have these games. Keep watering down your FBS product with a bunch more teams and a bunch of meaningless BS games and people will eventually look for entertainment elsewhere. All of these teams moving up to FBS doesn't mean there is all of a sudden an abundance of talent being recruited. There are only so many good football players. If the Cats move up, MSU will come calling all of us that donate to the program to give more. Ticket prices will increase, a lot. Everything will be more expensive and the talent we get to watch in the games won't be much different than what you see now, but hey, MSU gets to call themselves an FBS program and, hopefully, get a sliver of some TV revenue. I will personally become less willing to shell out money to watch the Cats play meaningless football games. I'll may watch Cat-gris and the conference slate on tv, but then I'm done. I think this would be a mistake to move up but that's just my opinion.

Bolded your comment above in red. Isn’t that what is happening in FCS right now?

How so? What does MSU gain from moving up that will be so wonderful? I have yet to get a great answer on that.

I understand your position and would miss the FCS playoffs, but you do not seem very willing to even consider the potential benefits with FBS. I had posted above at 2:22 time stamp on financial potential to the school. The national exposure could help grow the school.

Sounds good but MSU has grown a lot over the past 15 years, not because of its football or sports programs, but for entirely different reasons. And I'm not trying to get in a fight with anyone over this, I'm just stating my opinion.

[coloradocat]

We're finally a good (great?) program but the FCS has largely become D2+scholarships. One of the biggest reasons to move up is that the FCS has regressed and we don't belong here any more. MWC teams don't have a lot to play for outside of a conference title and some participation award bowl games, but how is that different from the bottom 120 teams in the FCS? The only reason the top 8-10 teams are in the FCS today is because they aren't financial desirable to the FBS. An FCS title would be incredible and consistent winning is great but if someone comes calling we should jump at the chance, even if there are some downsides.

[kennethnoisewater]

As things are currently constructed, I am with AFCAT. However, I think things are going to change, and the Power 5 or whatever they'll be calling themselves will be the highest level. At that point, the remaining teams will have some sort meaningful postseason system. Maybe the rest of the FBS moves down to FCS. Maybe the top of the FCS joins the bottom of the FBS in some other level that doesn't currently exist. MSU would need to be positioned to be in that next tier. Maybe they don't have to do anything, maybe they have to move up prior to that happening, I don't know if anybody knows.

But staying in the FCS if and when that split happens would be a mistake. Ball State and Fresno State and others would love to have a system where they play similar football programs. But they're not getting invited to play with the big boys, so they'll do something different. I'd be stunned if they opted for a meaningless bowl system. I think MSU's peer institutions are the lower part of the FBS and not what's left of the FCS, with a few exceptions. If the Dakota schools go FBS, the FCS is going to be bad. The national championship will not be what it once was. It might be better than the potato bowl, but not by much.

Having said all that, if MSU can't get a substantial piece of TV revenue, I don't know what needs to happen. We as fans are pretty close to being tapped out, and some are already there individually. I am only in favor of moving up if it generates revenue AND if there's a meaningful post-season goal. I'm not sure anybody is in favor of moving up just so we can say we're FBS.