As announced by the Sun Belt Conference last week, Idaho as a football-only member has been summarily dismissed. 2017 will be the last season the Vandals will compete in the Sun Belt Conference for football. There are not a lot of options left for Idaho, and most of this was their own doing. The same was announced for New Mexico State.
There were probably two reasons why the Sun Belt Conference made this move. First, it was to trim expenses. It would be better if Moscow, Idaho was located near a major hub airport, but they are not. Getting from Monroe, Louisiana to Moscow isn't cheap, and involves two or three airplane changes. Getting to the rest of the Sun Belt can easily be done by bus, which is a cheaper option. The other reason is the that Vandals have not been competitive since joining the Sun Belt. And in the current world of College Sports, the Sun Belt needs every member to excel and become competitive.
There are some options for Idaho, but they are limited. First is to try and join another conference. However, if the Mountain West or Conference USA wanted Idaho, they would already be there. I would put a caveat to that statement. Conference USA probably is a realistic option for New Mexico State, should future realignment cost that conference a member and they (the NMSU Aggies) are a natural rival with UTEP and other C-USA members. However, Idaho is well outside of the C-USA footprint, and don't really have the pull the NMSU has to get in.
Idaho could compete as an independent in football, and didn't exactly have the trouble scheduling games as an independent that people thought they would. NMSU may also compete as an independent with them. There is always BYU to schedule, and perhaps and agreement can be made to bring the Cougars to Moscow. However, this is not a sustainable model, and the only school that really seems committed to long-term independence is Army. Notre Dame has a scheduling agreement with the ACC. BYU is desperately trying to woo the Big 12.
It would not be completely off kilter for Idaho to hold on to the FBS for a couple of years, perhaps until the end of the decade. There are rumblings of more conference realignment and that could benefit the Vandals to where the MWC or C-USA would welcome them.
One other option for Idaho is to attempt to form a new FBS conference along with some of the more successful FCS programs like Montana and North Dakota State. But it seems like these schools would rather be a big fish in a little pond and you may not find enough schools willing to make the jump right now.
However, the best bet for Idaho is to take a standing invitation for returned full membership in the Big Sky Conference. There are several reason why this makes good sense. First, they could drop a couple of non-revenue sports to reduce the cost of the athletic department. They could pay their assistant coaches less. They would not have as many scholarship football athletes. They could resume rivalries against schools that are geographically close like Montana, Eastern Washington and Idaho State. The expenses may drop more dramatically than the revenue. If so, this is the best move.
The senior leaders at Idaho get paid big money to make hard decisions. At Idaho, they have a hard decision to make right now. I don't envy them. Whatever they decide to do, I hope for the best.
No comments:
Post a Comment