Recession, high gas prices, fewer college kids, How will this affect move-ups and schools already up yet are struggling?

What schools will drop down from FBS to FCS or DII or drop football and/or other sports?

Luckily, there is the moratorium to stop upgrades for the time being that will keep the schools considering upgrades (potential financial loss) safe.

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I'd actually be more worried about the Division II and Division I FCS schools than the big boys (even the newly rich). The traditional powers need their whipping boys for season openers, homecoming, etc., and there will always be a demand for the highest level of college athletics. Another mitigating circumstance is that many of the top powers are effectively at their saturation point as far as additional revenue-only so many people are going to pay for a pay-per-view telecast to see Kentucky play Virginia State in basketball, or to see Alabama play Western Carolina in football; only so many people can fit into a stadium; and ultimately, only so many people will enroll at a university.

The South Alabamas, Charlottes, UTSAs, and Western Kentuckys of the world should find that they can get by with growing enrollments, growing alumni bases, and an increasing presence in the community as a whole (not just athletics). A down economy often encourages more people to go back to school, although this has been hurt with the credit crisis.

High gas prices ultimately will not last forever-in fact, gas has gone down $1/gallon where I live in the past 3 months. The only real effect we may see is in scheduling-teams will literally play closer to home to maintain gate revenue.

The greatest threat to college athletics, in all honesty, is college tuition-even if enrollment never drops, averaging 6% increases per year (or more) makes all those athletic scholarships more expensive. Start losing students, and then a school's athletic program-not to mention the rest of the university-is in trouble.

Easy said. Tech wants no part of any conference in its region that is not CUSA.

There is no way the SEC will take Tulane and LaTech. LaTechs best bet is to hope someone leaves for the MWC and CUSA takes LaTech. Who knows if CUSA even wants LaTech.

As wbyeager says, I would expect something to happen at the smaller schools but nothing for the big guys - with respect to this issue. The big guys (BCS) expansion has been all about getting new markets and you don't do that by expanding into your same region.

Absolutely not. La Tech belongs in the Sun Belt.

Any very unlikely SEC expansion and depending on the circumstances......

Tulane, Memphis, LA Tech, Southern Miss.......almost void of probability.

Texas A&M, West Virginia, maybe Louisville....would be at least seriously considered.

FSU, GA Tech, Miami, and Clemson....already within SEC region, but certainly could not be ignored from potential consideration if certain circumstances were right for it. FSU, Miami, and GT (former member) were explored last go round or prior to.

Texas and Notre Dame....would gravitate to other options.

Another FLA school? Not with UF in the conference.

Houston and/or TCU? Nice media areas, but not perpared fits for certain dimensions.

I doubt in any of the infinite parallel universe this would happen.

Colleges and universities are in athletics to earn money. If they wanted to save money, they would eliminate their athletic programs. You will not be seeing any of the major conferences expand within their own footprint with schools like La Tech or Tulane.

Each individual SEC school would LOSE money in ANY proposed expansion here. The SEC can afford travel given the TV money they get.

The real threat is to D-2 and maybe 1-FCS. TV money = being able to defy the laws of physics. No TV money= a lot more D3 schools. TV revenues are likely to go up for over-the-air broadcasters if the economy continues this slide, so even the non-BCS FBS schools might get nailed to the wall.

Bumping up this old thread due to the timeliness of the title.

Will the recession lead dog conferences like the WAC to raid big market FCS schools to get their TV revenue up enough to cover the shortfalls facing their athletic programs?

What other economic ramifications do you see?

Will we see smaller publics dropping out of the FBS and FCS levels? Certainly there are a lot of reported schools, but which ones are actually likely?

The WAC is in a precarious position.

They can afford to lose no more than one school. They wouldn't necessarily mind parting ways with LaTech, but that gives away their breathing room on mmebership.

All their expansion candidates would seem to currently reside in Div.1 FCS. There is no NCAA-mandated transition within D-1, but there is currently a moratorium that prevents this.

Could they consider a non-football school like Denver ?

Other than the Denver market (outside of hockey, the fanbase is actually pretty small), which also gets split between the Avalanche, Nuggets, CU and CSU, UD really doesn't have anything to offer the WAC. Who they really want is Montana (market is practically the entire state, solid attendance, stadium can easily be upgraded multiple times), but they'll have to think creatively to get the MSUs board to let UM go and not Montana State, and Montana would much prefer the MWC.

Montana can forget the MWC. They don't want anyone if they had to they'd take the top 4 in the WAC or Houston or UTEP before Montana.

If La.Tech found a home in C-USA or the New SWC then the WAC could take Montana and MSU.

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