Should UM move up if they can?

[GrizMadman]

If UM can move from the FCS to the FBS, albeit the WAC, it should, ASAP. I believe UM wants to do it, but is holding its cards to its chest. None of us know what financial deals are happening behind the scenes, but I think there is financing going on for UM to move to the WAC. There are many financial and prestigial advantages, TV contracts, etc. I'm not sure who UM plays is that important to the fans. It may well be that UM as a perennial FCS championship contender is a reason for the 25k plus fans in WaGriz Statdium. Yet, I believe UM playing Wyoming, Utah State, etc., will be no less exciting for UM fans as playing unheard-of southern and eastern schools for some ephemeral national championship. IT'S THE WINNING, STUPID! And I believe UM will win well in the WAC, not in the MWC. Yes, the Griz win now, but it'll mean more (at least to me) if they win in the WAC, because of the regional competition.

[SACCAT]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5479730" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

This article says that the WAC has contacted Montana State, Sac State, and Montana

[Screamin_Eagle174]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5479730

This article says that the WAC has contacted Montana State, Sac State, and Montana

and UC-Davis and Cal Poly.

[VictorG]

So let me get this straight...The griz are looking to move up? Do they have new unis? How big is there stadium?

GOOD GOD PEOPLE!!! SHUT THE F*** UP

Griz envy, eh?

Good points here. Anyone have some recent pictures of the stadium that can be posted. If we move up we can take new pictures and compare them!

[AZGrizFan]

Griz envy, eh?

Good points here. Anyone have some recent pictures of the stadium that can be posted. If we move up we can take new pictures and compare them!

Why didn't I think of that? Here's one where the Griz are playing the Rolling Stones in a night game...

[VictorG]

Only reason I be for a "move up" is if it looked like we'd have no one left to play in the west and the only other option would be to drop to DII.


BTW, will we get a better "class" of posters at the FBS level?

[AZGrizFan]

Only reason I be for a "move up" is if it looked like we'd have no one left to play in the west and the only other option would be to drop to DII.


BTW, will we get a better "class" of posters at the FBS level?

Yeah, but at the expense of guys like you and me.

[frinq]

The ESPN article said Sac St. etc. "have been in contact" with the WAC. Don't know if they've contacted WAC or WAC contacted them. Makes quite a difference.

[VictorG]

Only reason I be for a "move up" is if it looked like we'd have no one left to play in the west and the only other option would be to drop to DII.


BTW, will we get a better "class" of posters at the FBS level?

Yeah, but at the expense of guys like you and me.

Can tell you don't go out with Grizo much..............some of us are already paying for it!

[SuperHornet]

The ESPN article said Sac St. etc. "have been in contact" with the WAC. Don't know if they've contacted WAC or WAC contacted them. Makes quite a difference.

The word at SacBuzz is that Benson called Wanless. Sac is sitting tight for the time being....

[frinq]

Wanless and Chisholm are probably moaning " If only...." right now. The reality is, the Cal State system is broke, the Oregon universities system is broke, and there's precious little wiggle room for individual schools. Lousy timing for a conference change.

[SDHornet]

Wanless and Chisholm are probably moaning " If only...." right now. The reality is, the Cal State system is broke, the Oregon universities system is broke, and there's precious little wiggle room for individual schools. Lousy timing for a conference change.

Cuts would definitely be involved if Sac State makes a move. The cuts would be budgetary as well as to maintain Title IX compliance. I think the issue holding us back is the fact that joining an unstable conference wouldn't be such a wise move.

[frinq]

Cuts? You mean cuts in academic programs to fund the WAC move? That would be insane. But I agree; the WAC looks pretty unstable right now.

[SDHornet]

Cuts? You mean cuts in academic programs to fund the WAC move? That would be insane. But I agree; the WAC looks pretty unstable right now.

I was referring to cuts within the athletic department.

[UCABEAR]

Let's define "move up" shall we:

NCAA Division I - BCS level- top teams from the BCS conferences. They get a chance to play for the National Bowl title. No one else. Ohio State is one of these.

NCAA Division I- FBS level- top teams from outside the BCS conferences who get a "good" bowl game but ZERO chance to play for a national title. Arkansas State is one of these.

Division I - FCS level - top teams get to enter a playoff for THE NCAA National championship. We're all familiar with these.

Division II- same as FCS with playoffs.

...and the list goes on.

If Montana moves up , they will not be in a BCS conference and have no chance at a national title in the forseeable future. But the benefits of a good bowl game, national exposure, and 20 more schollys are good incentives. Guess Montana Admin. will have to decide. Tough choice, become yet another ULM or ASU type school or keep the hype of a national title run alive yearly and enjoy the game. Hmmm...

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

Griz envy, eh?

NO!!!...o.k. maybe...well yes a little

I don't care what your reasoning was Sac...I fully agree that this is way over scrutinized and hell I wasn't even gonna read this one after the initial couple of commments...and yet, here I am adding to the bandwidth of it.

It is my hope that one of these days on this site, this topic will come up and I will be able to watch it slide off the pages and into oblivion without ONE SINGLE reply to it. These are not those days however.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I never understand some of the move up argument though. We'll get to play better competition...really? If we went to the MWC then I can go with that but the WAC?

In our OOC games we could play the big boys....we could do that now but we don't. The reason we don't is that we like to have our games in Missoula because they are big events and make money.

If we want to play the big boys they ain't coming to Missoula to do it...sorry Charlie...that just doesn't happen very often. If the big boys ain't coming here then who do we get...we get other shit FBS or more likely some FCS to come play us in Missoula. The fan base is gonna bitch about that just like they do for a D2 home game now.

So then the AD has a choice. Do we keep scheduling shitty teams so we can have the 6 or 7 home games or do we go down to to the 4 or 5 home games per year and play at whatever big team will schedule us?

There will be years when we will have 5 home games, that's not much football being played IN MISSOULA anymore people. Now go ahead and compare that with the normal amount of football games that we have in Missoula each year which is about 8,9, or sometimes 10 games. We're sown to about 1/2 the meaningful games in our stadium.

That sounds like a pure and simple SHIT deal to me. But hey those low tier bowls that have been manufactured and have zero history are a real big deal right?

Calling where we would likely be headed and the teams we would be playing the highest level of D! football is a god damn joke.

[BigSkyBears]

I never understand some of the move up argument though. We'll get to play better competition...really? If we went to the MWC then I can go with that but the WAC?

In our OOC games we could play the big boys....we could do that now but we don't. The reason we don't is that we like to have our games in Missoula because they are big events and make money.

If we want to play the big boys they ain't coming to Missoula to do it...sorry Charlie...that just doesn't happen very often. If the big boys ain't coming here then who do we get...we get other **** FBS or more likely some FCS to come play us in Missoula. The fan base is gonna bitch about that just like they do for a D2 home game now.

So then the AD has a choice. Do we keep scheduling shitty teams so we can have the 6 or 7 home games or do we go down to to the 4 or 5 home games per year and play at whatever big team will schedule us?

There will be years when we will have 5 home games, that's not much football being played IN MISSOULA anymore people. Now go ahead and compare that with the normal amount of football games that we have in Missoula each year which is about 8,9, or sometimes 10 games. We're sown to about 1/2 the meaningful games in our stadium.

That sounds like a pure and simple **** deal to me. But hey those low tier bowls that have been manufactured and have zero history are a real big deal right?

Calling where we would likely be headed and the teams we would be playing the highest level of D! football is a god damn joke.

I couldn't agree more. Would the cost of adding more sports and cost of actually applying to FBS (I think $1million) justify moving to a WAC conference that isn't much better than the Big Sky? I don't think so.

[BigSkyBears]

Cuts? You mean cuts in academic programs to fund the WAC move? That would be insane. But I agree; the WAC looks pretty unstable right now.

I was referring to cuts within the athletic department.

Wouldn't you have to staff more people?

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I never understand some of the move up argument though. We'll get to play better competition...really? If we went to the MWC then I can go with that but the WAC?

In our OOC games we could play the big boys....we could do that now but we don't. The reason we don't is that we like to have our games in Missoula because they are big events and make money.

If we want to play the big boys they ain't coming to Missoula to do it...sorry Charlie...that just doesn't happen very often. If the big boys ain't coming here then who do we get...we get other **** FBS or more likely some FCS to come play us in Missoula. The fan base is gonna bitch about that just like they do for a D2 home game now.

So then the AD has a choice. Do we keep scheduling shitty teams so we can have the 6 or 7 home games or do we go down to to the 4 or 5 home games per year and play at whatever big team will schedule us?

There will be years when we will have 5 home games, that's not much football being played IN MISSOULA anymore people. Now go ahead and compare that with the normal amount of football games that we have in Missoula each year which is about 8,9, or sometimes 10 games. We're sown to about 1/2 the meaningful games in our stadium.

That sounds like a pure and simple **** deal to me. But hey those low tier bowls that have been manufactured and have zero history are a real big deal right?

Calling where we would likely be headed and the teams we would be playing the highest level of D! football is a god damn joke.

I couldn't agree more. Would the cost of adding more sports and cost of actually applying to FBS (I think $1million) justify moving to a WAC conference that isn't much better than the Big Sky? I don't think so.

I have no idea how it could be considered AS GOOD as the Big Sky right now, let alone better. I don't see how the increased cost could be off set by increased revenue either unless, as I said, we are constantly on the road playing for good money. That option takes a whole lot away from the experience of Griz football in Missoula between Sept. and December. It also takes a lot away from the local businesses.

[SDHornet]

I was referring to cuts within the athletic department.

Wouldn't you have to staff more people?

Cuts more specific to getting rid of mens sports (golf & tennis for example) to make up the 22 additional football scholarships. If Sac State makes the move, they will no doubt have to do it on a shoe string budget, so the 20 sports we sponsor will no doubt be reduce to the minimum required number. Title IX will no doubt decide what changes occur.

[AZGrizFan]

I have no idea how it could be considered AS GOOD as the Big Sky right now, let alone better. I don't see how the increased cost could be off set by increased revenue either unless, as I said, we are constantly on the road playing for good money. That option takes a whole lot away from the experience of Griz football in Missoula between Sept. and December. It also takes a lot away from the local businesses.

Personally, I like the thought of H/H with Idaho, Utah State, San Jose State and NM State more than H/H with UNC, PSU, NAU and ISU. I also think being in the WAC would significantly increase the chances of H/H with Washington State, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, etc. IMHO, the only thing this move really does (and this is a GOOD thing) is gets rid of the Western States, Central Washingtons, and Fort Lewis's of the world off the schedule, so it probably DOES mean one fewer home game a year, but a significant step UP in terms of quality of OTHER teams coming into Wa/Griz.


And one final note not given much consideration....being in WAC for basketball would be a great move too.

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

I have no idea how it could be considered AS GOOD as the Big Sky right now, let alone better. I don't see how the increased cost could be off set by increased revenue either unless, as I said, we are constantly on the road playing for good money. That option takes a whole lot away from the experience of Griz football in Missoula between Sept. and December. It also takes a lot away from the local businesses.

Personally, I like the thought of H/H with Idaho, Utah State, San Jose State and NM State more than H/H with UNC, PSU, NAU and ISU. I also think being in the WAC would significantly increase the chances of H/H with Washington State, Boise State, Wyoming, Utah, BYU, Colorado, Colorado State, etc. IMHO, the only thing this move really does (and this is a GOOD thing) is gets rid of the Western States, Central Washingtons, and Fort Lewis's of the world off the schedule, so it probably DOES mean one fewer home game a year, but a significant step UP in terms of quality of OTHER teams coming into Wa/Griz.


And one final note not given much consideration....being in WAC for basketball would be a great move too.

We had 9 home games each of the last two years. Every one of the playoff games have a great "big time" feel to them because you have to win or you're done. That will be gone...never to return.

Maybe there will be interest in having WAC conference mate games...I personally ain't jumping up and down about it but I may be solo on that one. We will have less "big time" atmosphere games of that I have zero doubt. We may get one moderately good progam in here each year, and one pretty damn good program in every other or every third or fourth year because any real good team is gonna want at least a two fer on coming here.

You gripe about Western State but if you just completely eliminate them from the discussion we still had 8 home games the last two years. I think if we ever do see six or seven it's gonna be because we brought in some shit FCS team that will give you and everyone else the exact same argument you use about Western State right now.

Thing is AZ, I go to all of these games...they are a shit load of fun. You always watch them on TV or the internet except for the couple of times you've been able to get here and watch them in the last 20 yrs. so from your point of view I can see it not making a great deal of difference but to me it makes a whole lot of difference cuz I don't miss them...any of them.

It will be a major hurt to the restaurants, bars, hotels and so on because there will be no chance of having games in Missoula in December any longer that adds a lot of money and lot of festivity to the town in that time period.

[Silenoz]

Yeah well, no December home games means I don't have to risk my life going over the pass anymore

j/k, sortof

[Ursus A. Horribilis]

Yeah well, no December home games means I don't have to risk my life going over the pass anymore

j/k, sortof

The only reason you do it though is because what I've said about it is true.