The future of University of Idaho football may be no more clearer today than it was last week. But Athletic Director Rob Spear assured Vandal Nation and other media members in a conference call today that the athletic department will continue their ongoing process to find the best possible situation for Vandal football and athletics as a whole with an “emphasis on maintaining our FBS status.”
“I have received a series of emails. People are concerned,” Spear said. “What I have told them is that we have been resilient; we will continue to be resilient. We are going to land on our feet. No matter the outcome, the University of Idaho is going to be fine.”
Idaho will need that resilience, since a resolution doesn’t seem likely to be coming any time soon.
By this time next year the Western Athletic Conferences will, in all likeliness, cease to exist as a football playing conference and Idaho is one of only two schools that still hasn’t found a home yet. Idaho made a concerted effort to join their peers in the new look Mountain West, but was ultimately shown the cold shoulder.
“The main reason (we weren’t extended an invitation) was our marketplace and our demographics…they emphasized we didn’t have enough televisions in our area,” Spear said. “We made the case that we have a great presence in the Northwest but the MWC did not think that that was enough.”
Now, the University of Idaho is left to pick up the pieces after getting shafted in this game conference re-alignment musical chairs.
“The next step is for us to do a lot of evaluation. There are a lot of moving parts here and it’s not done,” Spear said.
Spear laid out four different scenarios that could play out for the Idaho:
- Finding an FBS conference home for all sports.
- Placing football in a separate conference than the olympic sports. This would likely be the Sun Belt option. The problem would therein lie in finding the olympic sport home. Salvaging the WAC as a non-football conference could be a solution.
- Independence. That comes with its own can of worms of complications. Finding a bowl tie in, consistent scheduling partners and enough teams willing to come to Moscow become a huge challenge.
- FCS football and the Big Sky, only if it could lead a return back to the FBS. More on that a little later.
The ideal situation is, of course, to find a conference right now willing to house not only football, but all Vandal sports. But that probably went out the window with the Mountain West saying “No, thanks.” Which means the preferred situation would be to turn towards the Sun Belt and see what opportunities lie there in terms of being a football only member.
Spear wouldn’t be specific in terms of which conferences correlated to which scenarios, even going as far as saying there are “more options” than the Sun Belt, but again, didn’t clarify beyond that.
For the latter two scenarios Spear made sure to make one thing clear – Whatever path Idaho eventually chooses to go down, it will be with an eye towards the future as a member of big time college football, including the Big Sky option.
Spear believes that the conference re-alignment game will continue to heat up, and as the bigger conferences move to establish themselves with the best possible opportunities for television revenue, the reverberation will bounce down to the “second tier” conferences.
“There is high probability of overall restructuring in two years that can separate the big five conferences away from the rest of the FBS. If and when that happens we want the University of Idaho in those conversations,” he said. “There is interest across the country that if there is overall re structuring and the big five conferences go away there are a lot of schools that are going to want to be in that second tier, including the University of Idaho.”
It will be those shifts that Idaho will be counting on if they are going to salvage their future in major college football should a conference invite not come from the Sun Belt or Mountain West in the immediate future.
Making a move down to the Big Sky would only happen with the hope that the vision of the conference would be to incorporate itself in to the highest levels of college football once the dominoes fall with the major conference powers.
Should Idaho go independent it will be with a plan to jump on a conference invitation when the dominoes fall from the big time conferences. The most recent comparison to a program going independent to salvage it’s Division I FBS status would be Temple, which was ousted from the Big East in 2005 only to join the Mid-American Conference two years later.
Spear says there is no definitive time table towards making a decision on Idaho’s path but that discussions are “ongoing.”
“There are a lot of discussions that have to happen between now and the first of July. At this time because we are involved in various conversations with a lot of different people. We are going to do our evaluations and make sure we make the right decisions for the University of Idaho.”
Me
Not going to happen. To many small stadiums and small budgets to make it work. Not to mention schools fresh from D2 like N Colorado and S Utah who would have no chance of competing.
Wilinsalem
I am a 95 grad living in Oregon. I think there is another solution. I think the big sky could be looking to move up. I may be wrong, but there are pluses to the regional nature of the big sky, what if they absorbed Idaho and nmsu and tried to move up as a league? Living here, I would love to go see the vandals when they play psu, but hate to see them drop. What if the whole league moved up to d1?
Realist
@Student- I appreciate your passion, and I can understand the frustration of this seeming 'demotion,' but I'm glad to see you standing strong behind the future of Vandal football, whatever form that takes. As for playing schools like UND, are they really that different from a fellow Western land-grant like UI? Greater Grand Forks is 100,000, UND is the flagship university of its state, 11k undergrads (vs. UI's 10k), they play good football with lots of local support- I think that's a far better cultural fit than chasing big programs at big schools in big cities or non-flagship universities across the country, and I truly think Idaho can flourish and find itself at the FCS level.
Sean Kramer of Vandal Nation
The University has since continued to re-iterate a staunch position against moving to the Big Sky at this point and time.
Student
@Realist At the time of my last post, I was so severely opposed to the move that I did make some assumptions and quick conclusions. You do bring up some very good points and I appreciate the thoughtful response to mine. I just want to make sure you understand the frustration I feel from this. My freshman year (2010), we played North Dakota in the season opener. I remember saying distinctively to my friends and family back home in Seattle that this was a prep game against a podunk little school from the FCS. We have a great town, school, alumni and student body; but all we will ever be seen as is WSU and BSU's shrimpy little brother. However, as the months have gone by and the options dwindle to nothing, I have come to accept the move to the Big Sky. I cant say that I am happy about it, but seeing as we have totally run out of options for FBS football so I am willing to go into this with an open mind. My hope for this move is that good things do happen; people begin to get interested again, crowds get bigger, we are competitive. I suppose I cant abandon the Vandals now, so lets make the most of the situation. Roll Vandals.
Realist
Sportisfun's inability to coherently explain his beliefs aside (protip: if you can't explain and support your beliefs with more than random anecdotes, you should probably examine them a bit more closely), I appreciate Student's attempt to provide some insight from the student body. That said, your argument is based on a number of assumptions which you cannot simply take for granted in order to prove your point. A few that stick out: 1. UI would lose its 'best' players by moving to FCS. First, it's unclear that the NCAA would make UI immediately shed 22 scholarships. There's no recent precedent for this kind of move (nor is it clear that transfers wouldn't still be penalized by losing a year of eligibility), so it's possible UI could phase out those extra grants. Even assuming they couldn't, there are still two major problems with this assumption. 1. that all Idaho's 'best' players would voluntarily transfer out because of the FCS move: some players might just like attending UI and would prefer to play a more competitive, less travel-heavy schedule. 2. that 22 players even could find other FBS landing spots. UI's trend of poor performance suggests a lower talent level, so it's unlikely other FBS programs would be falling over themselves to sign UI transfers. Your proposed "shrinking pains" COULD occur, but this would by no means be a guaranteed result. Besides, if as sportsisfun suggests, FBS is so far superior to FCS, shouldn't UI be able to run roughshod even with a few defections? 2. fans are more interested in WAC football/ teams can't "take pride in success at a lower level". You sort of negate the first half of this assumption by pointing that most people don't pay enough attention to WAC games to care about Fresno St.; taking the analogy you use (MLB vs. Triple-A), if Big Sky football doesn't matter, then does WAC football? Who wants to watch WAC football versus Pac-12 football or the NFL anyway? Basically you pose this relativistic question about the level at which success 'matters' (a point which I, and any other athlete at any level would disagree with you over), but then neglect that UI does truly play at the highest level, nor is it highly competitive at that lower level. Do you really think most fans understand football well enough to appreciate comparative on-field play more than wins versus losses? That's essentially what your argument hinges on, and I don't think the average UI student would know the difference. 3. If BSU can, why can't UI? Technically speaking, UI "can" but have yet to do so. Why would this be a relevant argument for staying FBS? Any team potentially "can"- but there are 120+ other FBS teams trying to do the exact same thing: it's not a simple question of more support, more money, better facilities when everybody else is doing the same thing. Again, I appreciate the thoughtful response, but I would caution you against jumping to quick conclusions based on specious and conclusory assumptions. Embrace the future: Idaho as a Big Sky power. Sounds a lot better than WAC doormat.
Student
The biggest argument on here is that people believe that the Vandals will be competitive at the FCS level versus being uncompetitive in the FBS. However, it is important to note that FBS schools can provide 85 scholarships while FCS schools can only provide 63. We will lose 22 players right out of the gate. After that, we will lose players that came to Idaho to play in the FBS and have a potential shot at the next level. Now we have lost our best players to transfer at that point. A rebuilding period would likely be needed as we transition through loss of players, player transfers and bad recruiting classes. My point is that dropping down to the FCS most certainly does not mean we will be competitive based on how many "shrinking pains" we will have to go through. I also don't believe games against Montana State and ISU will be anymore interesting than games against NMSU. Being in a conference for a few years builds rivalries, like how Fresno State beat us in 2010 by a field goal and knocked us out of bowl contention. Don't we want to get them back for that? I did, and then they spoiled Dad's weekend by thumping us at home. Bulldogs are a bunch of punks... Anyways, we don't need an annual game against ISU, Montana or BSU to keep interest, we just need the fans to actually pay attention to the games. Maybe then they'd see that our WAC games can be interesting if you knew what happened the last time we played or the last few times. Besides all that, who wants to watch Triple-A baseball versus the Major Leagues anyways? Being in a lower league just isn't the same, you cant take pride in success at a lower level. You can go watch EWU all you want but at the end of the day it wont be the same as seeing a BSU or WSU game or whatever FBS team you want to watch. And hey, if BSU came from absolutely nothing to where they are now, who says we cant? We just need a little support, more money, and a vastly better facility.
sportsisfun
Ha! Dude! Foreget it this conversation...your realist view is dim...I cannot help somebody like you see the light...good luck to you...
Realist
@sportsisfun- it's obvious that you're really good at relying on circular logic and unsupported ad hominem attacks. Clearly you're much smarter than me so explain the good Dr.'s report and how it somehow gives magic gravity to being an FBS bottom-dweller. Also, moderate optimism can be a good thing, but I fail to see how stubbornly refusing to call a spade a spade is healthy for the future of UI football. The program stunk even when it had a conference, it's going to be even worse trying to cobble together some FCS upgrades or playing as an independent. At some point, surely it has to make sense to join the Big Sky and try to make Idaho the next Montana, don't you think?
sportsisfun
@realist...it's obvious you don't care and half a glass 1/2 full mentality. And, its clear you aren't a fan. Therefore, its obvious you didn't understand what Dr Spear outlined in the report published.