Comments on: Big Sky Expansion Rumor: Southern Utah, South Dakota, North Dakota

By: The 2010 Year in Conference Realignment | CollegeSportsInfo.com

The 2010 Year in Conference Realignment | CollegeSportsInfo.com — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 21:31:31 +0000

[...] options, the Big Sky went again on the offense, in preparation of a potential loss of Montana. Rumors started that the Big Sky was interested in bringing in SUU, Noth Dakota and South Dakota. With a Montana departure, it would mean 12 all-sports members and 14 for [...]

By: KenXC

KenXC — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 11:10:04 +0000

Actually FCS schools can have a championship game & still play in the FCS playoffs, they just don't for a myriad of understandable reasons. If you have 12+ teams at any NCAA level, you can divide into divisions and stage a championship game that does not count as your 1 postseason opportunity.

Let's say the CAA played their allotted championship game after expansion to ODU & GSU and look at the consequences:
1) Short lead up time to promote a non-terminal game. (Likely one week for the higher seeded division champion to put everything together and for the lower seed to make travel arrangements).
2) One of your top 2 (or nearly top 2) suffers an extra loss going into the playoffs, damaging seeding or at-large status.
3) Compression of the league schedule so that the title game can be played before the tournament.
4) With the new 20 team field, there's the potential of a double-bye for teams not in the championship, but recieving NCAA at-large bids. If the league expands to 13 (if, say, VCU adds football), you're looking at a potential triple-bye.

Since it would also be unlikely to make a profit, there's just no incentive to play the game.

The SWAC is a separate case. Since they have less than 12 teams, accepting a bid into their league championship game counts as a school's post-season opportunity, so even if they moved their championship to the week before the playoffs, the participating teams would be ineligible.

By: Nathan Brice

Nathan Brice — Sat, 23 Oct 2010 21:51:31 +0000

I would say North Dakota would be more likely with South Dakota already accepting membership in the Summit League. Southern Utah would be extremely likely to try for full membership with football being in the very unstable Great West and basketball being in the Summit. The Great West Conference's future is looking more and more bleak.