In recent years, several schools have explored moving from the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly known as I-AA) to the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision. The most recent team to make the move was the Western Kentucky University Hilltoppers in 2009. However, there are four more teams scheduled to be promoted in 2012 to 2013. These include the University of South Alabama Jaguars, the University of Massachusetts “UMass” Minutemen and the San Diego Bobcats. Mark from Texas State University. A fourth program, University of Texas – San Antonio Roadrunners, is a startup program with no FCS history that goes directly to FBS.
There are several candidates to move from FCS to FBS. Knowing who will be next up requires a thorough examination of the college football landscape. An arms race is underway among major college football programs that has led to conference expansion into major conferences like the PAC-12 and Big Ten, as well as large television rights deals with individual college conferences and networks like the Longhorn. Network and BYUtv. . Budgets have skyrocketed and it has become increasingly expensive to build and operate world-class facilities and provide the best tools for 85 scholarship soccer players to compete at the highest level.
While less prestigious conferences like the Mountain West, Mid American Conference, and Conference USA have had a harder time keeping up financially with the big boys, they are likely to benefit from the fact that college football is so popular right now that Major television networks like ESPN and Fox are looking for whatever college football programming they can get, and these conferences are in a position to provide networks with a reasonable return for less investment. Schools like the University of Montana are likely looking at these TV deals and thinking, while we like the playoff format at FCS, could we benefit from the money and TV exposure that comes with playing on an FBS conference in mid-season? road?
Villanova is actively considering moving from FCS to FBS. Already a member of the Big East Conference for all other sports, they would be in the enviable position of immediately being a member of an Automatic Qualifier (AQ) conference. In addition to the aforementioned University of Montana Grizzlies, other schools that have been mentioned more frequently include the Montana State University Bobcats, the Lamar University Cardinals, the University of California – Davis Aggies, the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Mustangs and Appalachian State Mountaineers. . All of these schools, with the exception of Appalachian State, are likely candidates for the Western Athletic Conference (WAC), which has been decimated by dropouts from Boise State University, University of Hawaii – Manoa, California State University – Fresno and the University of Nevada. -Reindeer. The Appalachian state would be a strong candidate for the Sun Belt or possibly even Conference USA. Another program to consider is the University of North Carolina – Charlotte. They are starting an FCS program in 2013 and it could be a fast moving program.