My Plan to Save UNO Football.

The Omaha World Herald is reporting today that some donors have announced that they will be cancelling donations to the University if they drop football. Enough to off-set the cost of keeping football, no one has said, but if it is, it is time to back track. That is not part of my plan. I plan to keep donating. But I may donate more if the University gives me a reason to. Any plan to cut donations to the school would be unwise at it will hurt students. I've never known the Omaha World Herald to tell the entire story, so I am not surprised to find that no one in crunching the numbers.

Now for the plan.

1. Join the Big Sky Conference on the agreement that there will be no intra-divisional road games in California or Oregon for the first two seasons. This can be done if the intra-divisional games are Eastern Washington, Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. Other conference possibilities for the Mavericks include the Ohio Valley Conference and the Southland Conference. This can be a football-only invite to allow the Mavericks to join the more regionally-aligned Summit Conference for other sports as planned.
The Big Sky is the most prestigious potential conference for the Mavericks. They are home to the reigning national champion, and regularly put teams at least as far as the title game. It has also been a launching pad for many other successful sports programs such as Boise State and Nevada.

2. Normally a team transitioning from Division II to Division I FCS can not play a game against an FBS school for four seasons. Ask the NCAA for a waiver to make that two years. There are plenty of nearby FBS schools nearby that would result in a big payday for the Mavericks. It could cover at least 1/3 of the football team's expenses. I do not need to mention the Big School just to the southwest of Omaha...but there are others, like the one just east of Nebraska and few others in the two conferences that do not know how to count that could give the Mavs a money game.

3. Make the DI/FCS kick off a major fund-raising event. Push hard for alumni donations. Hopefully, the first DI/FCS game would be against a Giant FCS school like Montana, William and Mary, Appalachian State or James Madison.