The move would give the America East (9) members for the 2013-2014 season, and help after the loss of Boston University. The America East has had it’s eyes on Northeast Conference members for expansion, but at this time, it appears that Umass Lowell is a cleaner fit. The expected addition of UMass Lowell would be yet another blow for N.J.I.T. which has hoped for an America East or Northeast Conference invitation over the past few years, only to be passed over.

As has been expected over the past few weeks, the Southland Conference is set to expand by adding University of the Incarnate Word, Abilene Christian University and University of New Orleans. UIW and ACU will join for FCS football as well, upgrading from Division 2, with UNO set to join for non-football sports on Thursday. The addition of the 3 schools follows the additions of Oral Roberts and Houston Baptist, bringing a total of 5 new schools to the conference. The Southland recently lost Texas St., UTSA and Texas-Arlington to the WAC, although those 3 schools will all be leaving the WAC next season.

But when Liberty announced they were putting together a study to look into upgrading to FBS, the hiring (specifically, Gill accepting the job) made sense.

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NKU will pay the Atlantic Sun $200,000 over the span of 5 years and will join in 2012, as the first year of their upgrade to Division 1 athletics.

Appalachian St. has been the subject of many FBS upgrade rumors over the past decade due to it’s success at the FCS level of football.

Over the past year, Appalachian St. has seen other FCS schools such as UMass, Texas St. and FCS newcomer UTSA make the leap to FBS. Meanwhile, other schools such as Montana have flirted with the idea of upgrading to an FBS conference and Villanova has been working with the Big East over the past year to explore an upgrade. Other schools such as Georgia Southern, Jacksonville St., Charlotte, Georgia St. and even JMU have either  publicly stated some desire to upgrade or are rumored to be potential FBS upgrade candidates.

With the changing landscape in college sports, it appears that Appalachian St. does not want to risk being left behind. Even with the hypothetical risk of the top BCS schools leaving the NCAA, such a move would send FCS football down another rung.

The issue Appalachian St. would face with an upgrade would be an NCAA rule requiring that an existing FBS conference must extend an invitation to an upgrade candidate in order for that school to transition to FBS.

In other words, just because a school wants to upgrade, does not mean that they CAN upgrade. Schools like Texas St. and UTSA have been fortunate that the WAC needed schools and gladly invited both. Others like Montana, Sacramento St., Portland St., Cal Poly and Montana St. have similar chances as 1-2 of those schools could still join the WAC. UMass has hoped to join the Big East but gladly accepted the MAC invite as it was their only way to upgrade.

But in the south, it is more complicated.

You have Appalachian St. who would ideally like to join CUSA, the same conference that Charlotte would one day hope to rejoin once it is active in football sponsorship. But CUSA has not yet offered ASU the type of deal that the WAC did for it’s newest Texas members.

So for Appalachian St. the first move would be to court a conference.

CUSA will be the top option.

If rejected, which at this time is very likely, Appalachian St. would likely approach the Sun Belt. Geographically, the Sun Belt would be a good fit. But if the Sun Belt rejects them, ASU would need to hope the WAC would be interested in adding them, and extend their footprint from the Pacific to the Atlantic ocean.

UMass is expected to play the majority of their FBS games at Gillette Stadium in eastern Massachusetts, up to 5 games per year and 1 game in Amherst. The specifics will likely be revealed at the press conference.

As part of the football-only membership agreement, UMass will schedule two annual road basketball games versus MAC  opponents. The other football-only member, Temple, has the same arrangement. When looking at the quality of the MAC versus other mid-major basketball conferences, the basketball game concession might actually be an advantage ans MAC schools are usually ranked higher than many of the recent UMass OOC opponents.

In upgrading to FBS, UMass will remain tied in with their rival, Temple, for the near future. Both schools have higher aspirations such as the Big East. But at this time, the MAC remains the best option for both schools.

As part of the NCAA rules for upgrades, a school upgrading from FCS to FBS must have an invitation from an existing FBS conference. With the only conference seemingly with room for FCS schools being the WAC, based in the Texas to California region, the MAC invite is an important one for UMass. Had the 14th football spot gone to another school, UMass would have had no other options to upgrade.

Update: 5/3/11:

Per Matt Vautour, here are the UMass/MAC contract specs:

Gillette Stadium contract:

* Revenue will be split between Gillette and UMass up to the first $300,000 made in ticket sales
* Average ticket price will be $24.50
* Gillette will gain all concession sales revenue including beer
* Gillette will cover all staffing costs at the stadium
*  UMass will control 5 of the 86 stadium suites
* UMass will control 1 of the 2 super suites
* Parking is free

Scheduling:

* UMass will have 5 home games at Gillette, likely meaning they will have 7 road games (including higher revenue OOC road games)
* UMass will have 4 MAC conference home games at Gillette and 1 OOC game

MAC Membership:

*  membership is open ended, not based on a set number of years. If UMass opts to leave, they are free to do so.
* UMass would have a $2.5 million exit fee though, and required 2 year notice
* UMass is a full voting member on all MAC football related issues

UMass and Temple MAC Tandem: ”
* If either Temple or UMass opted to leave the MAC, the other school would be able to do so with a $500,000 exit fee

MAC Entry Costs:
* UMass paid $500,000 to  join the MAC
* UMass, like all MAC members, pays an annual fee of $100,000 (likely taken out of TV revenue)

Basketball Concession:

* UMass men’s and women’s basketball teams will play 4 games each year against MAC schools. 2 games at home, 2 on the road.

The official statement is available on their website.

Jacksonville St. is part one of a few current FCS schools that have explored an FBS move. Others include Appalachian St., Georgia Southern, Lamar and UMass. Others with long term FBS goals include Charlotte, ODU and Georgia St. And schools like JMU and Delaware have expressed less public interest but are perhaps the best poised schools to upgrade.

The biggest obstacle to Jacksonville St. or any other FCS schools seeking to upgrade is a set rule that states that a school upgrading to FBS from FCS needs to have an invitation to join a current FBS conference. UMass has been in talks with the MAC to join as that conference’s 14th member. There has been speculation that the Sun Belt was considering adding an 11th football school. However, the same rumors claim the Sun Belt is only interested in current FBS schools. When you read between the lines, that would seem to include only LA Tech or NMSU of the WAC.

With CUSA, MAC, MWC and BCS conferences not a likely option for a school like Jacksonville St., the only option they might have would be to join the WAC if they opted to upgrade. The WAC is desperate for football members and is adding Texas St. and UTSA to it’s membership. At this time, it seems that due to the existing NCAA rules, the WAC might be the only option for any potential FCS upgrade.

In order to upgrade to Division 1, a school must have an invitation to join an existing all-sports conference. This eliminates upgrades we’ve seen in the past from Division 2 to Division 1 independence such as NDSU, UND, SDSU, USD, Seattle, CSU Bakersfield, UTPA, Houston Baptist and others. The Atlantic Sun, OVC and Summit League have been the primary homes for recent upgrade invites such as SIUE to the OVC, UNO to Summit League, and Kennessaw St., North Florida, and FGCU to the Atlantic Sun.

Based on their geography, NKU could have multiple options. The Summit League seems like the best fit, as the conference does not sponsor football, a sport NKU does not currently have. If NKU were extended an invitation, it would bring the Summit League membership to 11. With NKU located in the Cincinnati DMA, it would give the Summit League some access to that market. And the school is also nearby two current Summit League members, IUPUI in Indianapolis and IPFW in Fort Wayne.

The Ohio Valley Conference would seem like a stretch for the same reason that NKU does not have football.

The ball is clearly in Tom Douple and the Summit Leagues court now. If they want another member, it would seem they would have one in KNU.

Initially, it appeared that the UNO and Summit discussions would likely mean and FCS football invitation for UNO by the MVFC, the Summit’s “partner” FCS football league of sorts and home to it’s members WIU, SDSU, NDSU and soon to be USD. This past year, South Dakota appeared set to join the Big Sky with North Dakota and Southern Utah but at the last second, was issued an invitation by the MVFC to join as it’s 10th member, a move that also enabled USD to join the Summit League for other sports. The rationale given for the exclusion of North Dakota was that the MVFC only wanted to expand in even numbers. As Southern Utah was in favor of the Big Sky for all sports, it meant that the MVFC would not be able to bring all three schools for an even 12. Instead, only USD for #10.

But as the UNO discussions progressed, it appeared that a door could be opening for North Dakota to join the MVFC after all. UNO would be the 11th member of the MVFC and the conference would then need UND as the 12th member. That door for UND now appears to be closed, whether it was their option or not.

The new developments now mean that for better or for worse, North Dakota will be isolated from any and all regional schools for some time. NDSU, SDSU and USD will be members of the Summit League and MVFC while UND will be joining the Big Sky. UND will for likely decades to come, be sending all of it’s sports programs as far as Portland, OR and Sacramento, CA and south to Flagstaff, AZ, the home of Northern Arizona.

In addition to dropping football, UNO will also be dropping wrestling. That too is shocking as the program just won it’s 3rd straight national championship.

As for North Dakota and the Big Sky, the move by UNO to the Summit and dropping of football means that with no expansion candidates on the horizon and little interest right now by the Big Sky schools to upgrade and join the WAC, that the Big Sky will remain at 11 all-sports members and 13 for football.

Well, it now appears that UCSD is preparing to officially make the move. The only hold-up will be that due to NCAA rules, UCSD will need to have a formal invitation from the Big West to join as schools are no longer permitted to upgrade to D1 without a conference invite.

The North County Times and SignOnSanDiego have pieces laying out the timeline and what types of votes are needed for an upgrade. At this point, it appears there is enough support so the Big West invite is the final piece. That could be a problem though. With Hawaii slated to become the 10th member, it means a UCSD invite would create an awkward 11 school lineup. The Big West might be less interested in the scenario. The alternative would be to expand to 12 and include CSU-Bakersfield, although there has been some opposition to do such. Big West commissioner Dennis Farrell praised UCSD but again pointed to the membership number problem in the Big West regarding a spot for UCSD. Such a reference could hint to CSU Bakersfield opposition.