FBS Conference Shuffling

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ST_Lawson
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Looks like some conference shuffling is in the cards for the near future, which may end up trickling down to the FCS level.
For anyone who hasn't heard, here's what's going on so far...

Texas going from Big 12 to SEC (2025 unless contract buyout)
Oklahoma going from Big 12 to SEC (2025 unless contract buyout)

BYU going from Independent to Big 12 (2022 or 2023)
Central Florida going from The American (AAC) to the Big 12 (2023)
Cincinnati going from The American (AAC) to the Big 12 (2023)
Houston  going from The American (AAC) to the Big 12 (2023)

And there are strong rumors now saying that the American (AAC) will add Air Force and Colorado State (both currently in the Mountain West Conference).
Where this may trickle down to the FCS is that the Mountain West might then want to add two teams that are out that direction. With the only other FBS schools out there at a "higher level" than the MWC (all others are Pac 12 or AAC), they may look to invite up a couple of well-supported top-level FCS teams in that region...for example, Montana and Montana State, or some combination of Dakota schools.
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A bit more about what's going on around the MWC and AAC: https://footballscoop.com/news/conferen ... -air-force
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Ok, so Colorado State and Air force have announced that they are staying in the Mountain West. This means that the AAC is likely to be looking elsewhere for teams to bring in. My guess is they'll have to look towards C-USA and/or Sun Belt teams. Since the Mountain West is now keeping Colorado State, Air Force, and previously-mentioned AAC targets Boise State (who is presumably holding out for a Big 12 invite) and San Diego State (maybe a Pac12 invite?), they are unlikely to be looking to pull any other teams out west into their jurisdiction.

https://footballscoop.com/news/report-a ... a-decision
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And now comes a rumor that 6 C-USA teams have submitted applications to the AAC and that 4-6 of them will be accepted as members: UAB, UTSA, FAU, Charlotte, North Texas, and Rice

That would leave C-USA at: Old Dominion, Marshall, Western Kentucky, Middle Tennessee, FIU, Southern Miss, Louisiana Tech, and UTEP.

At this point, the Sun Belt can pretty much pick who they want to add (if they want anyone). MTSU, Southern Miss, and Louisiana Tech are all within their more compact current footprint (after they let go of Idaho and New Mexico State). The others are more "fringe" but most wouldn't be too far from the existing members, and there's other reasons they may want to bring in a few more. 2 teams would get them to 12 football-playing members and 14 in the other sports, assuming UT-Arlington and/or UA-Little Rock aren't out (which is also a rumor I've seen tossed around periodically).
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A bit more information about the most recent news: https://sports.yahoo.com/sources-the-aa ... 15069.html
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ST_Lawson wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 2:04 pm


 
IMO, JMU facilities are already in the top 10-15% of all FBS.  If you are ever in the I-81 Harrisonsburg area of Virginia, it is worth taking a short detour to drive around.  You can see right into Bridgeforth stadium while driving on I-81. Only Baseball and Softball are really "off-campus".  You can get a seat at Veteran's Memorial Park where they are played and be watching  both games at the same time with excellent sight lines for both.  Your neck might get a little workout from the rotation though.  Yes, we have plenty of reason to be green with envy.  Their new basketball arena was under construction when I took my tour around.  Looks pretty nice from this video.


 
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sealhall74 wrote: Wed Oct 20, 2021 4:38 pmIMO, JMU facilities are already in the top 10-15% of all FBS.  If you are ever in the I-81 Harrisonsburg area of Virginia, it is worth taking a short detour to drive around.  You can see right into Bridgeforth stadium while driving on I-81. Only Baseball and Softball are really "off-campus".  You can get a seat at Veteran's Memorial Park where they are played and be watching  both games at the same time with excellent sight lines for both.  Your neck might get a little workout from the rotation though.  Yes, we have plenty of reason to be green with envy.  Their new basketball arena was under construction when I took my tour around.  Looks pretty nice from this video.


 
I've never seen it in person, but I've seen a lot of photos and video from it and you're not wrong...it's a very impressive stadium for the FCS level. Holds 25k fans, nice big video board...is absolutely beautiful: https://jmusports.com/facilities/bridge ... er-field/1
I don't know about top 10-15% of all FBS...it's not quite on the P5 level (for most schools)...but I'd say it's better than nearly all G5 stadiums.

It's been rumored that they've received Sun Belt and/or C-USA invites before, but were holding out for a better offer. I think they were probably hoping for an American Conference invite, but now with all the shifting around, they may have decided to go ahead and accept now, and try to position themselves for getting pulled up higher a few years down the road.
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