Over the course of the past two years, Idaho’s conference affiliation situation has gone from incredibly simple to utterly confusing. The dissolution of football in the Western Athletic Conference in 2012 left Idaho searching for a home, while debates raged on whether or not Idaho should run back to the FCS (Division I-AA) ranks it left in 1996.
That uncertainty remained up until April when Idaho received a football-only invitation to the Sun Belt Conference.
Put simply, the situation is this: Idaho will spend 2012 as a football independent and a non-football member of the WAC. On July 1, 2014, football will move into the Sun Belt while non-football sports enter the Big Sky Conference.
This will be Idaho’s second foray into the Sun Belt — Idaho was also a football only member of the conference from 2000-2004 when all other sports resided in the Big West. For non-football sports it’ll also be a return to the Big Sky, Idaho’s home for all sports from 1963-1995.
Idaho athletic director Rob Spear oversaw the transition, which has his athletic department contractually committed to three conferences at the moment.
“The last couple months have been pleasant compared to the prior I would say 10 months, because there was a lot of instability,” he said. “Now, we know where we’re going, we know what leagues we’re going to be in. Now it’s just a matter of transitioning.”
The transition came after nearly a year of raging debate from students, alumni and donors. The question centered around whether Idaho should take the cut in revenue and return to FCS football in the Big Sky Conference for a shot at better competitiveness, or keep the football program in FBS (Division I-A), keep the revenue that comes with that and take its chances as an independent.
Idaho chose the latter route, and was able to form a full independent
schedule for the 2013 season, and eventually landing a conference invite from the Sun Belt.
“I think we have the best of both worlds. We maintained our FBS status, that was huge. Being in the Big Sky for all other sports, we’re re-creating all of those old rivalries, that’s going to be helpful too,” Spear said.
The decision to stay FBS and move into the Sun Belt keeps the door open for Idaho to continue to collect the revenues that exist in top-tier college football. Under the new college football playoff format the “Group of Five” conferences, which includes the Sun Belt, will split up to $12 million annually between members. Idaho also will collect the game guarantees from playing marquee road opponents — Idaho is up to $1 million per game with future games against Florida, Auburn and USC.
The decision, Spear said, also allows for Idaho to be a recruiting presence in football, as Idaho is still one of a few schools playing mid-major football in the western United States.
“I think people are excited about it. I think they understand the position we were in, I think they appreciate we didn’t make a short-sighted decision, that we waited this conference re-alignment process out and found a home. I just think it will pay huge dividends down the road for us,”
Spear said.
Sean Kramer can be reached at [email protected]