-I have heard and confirmed that Big Sky school officials recently voted to increase the exit fee from $250K to $1 million. I also heard there was only one dissenting vote. It’s a pretty safe guess who voted no.
-There is also a $5 million transition fee for an FCS team to move to the FBS.
-Sac State would have to find another conference to park its Olympic sports in.
-What happens if this waiver isn’t approved? That could happen. But Sac State president Luke Wood and NCAA president Charlie Baker have met. I assume Sac State feels confident that this move will get approved, or else it’d be odd for the university president to be publically promising they will be FBS.
-Going from FCS to FBS independent is unorthodox, unstable, and expensive. Liberty, with piles of money, pulled it off in the 2010s and eventually landed in CUSA. But it’s a gamble that may make sense for Sac State. More on this below, but in short: Get better positioned for an FBS conference invite and potential for massive community engagement and financial support.
It’s no secret that FBS leaders, especially those in the Power 4, do not want to see the FBS grow by adding more FCS teams. Some within the Mountain West Conference wanted to add North Dakota State, but MWC presidents instead voted to invite Northern Illinois as a football-only member, and a big reason for that was wanting to add an already-established FBS program.
Sac State has a strong pitch to join the FBS as an independent due to its location, facility upgrades, and reported community financial support.
However, its fate is essentially up to other FBS schools and conference representatives. Will these FBS leaders deny Sac State’s request to join their subdivision as an independent? Will a “no” answer result in a lawsuit from Sac State, so they’ll say “yes” to avoid that headache? Is there a concern of opening the floodgates and a precedent if they say yes and we see other FCS programs try to take this same FBS independent route? How does the future pathway from FCS to FBS look as NCAA governance sees some changes?
It’ll certainly be interesting to see how it unfolds. Liberty was able to make a similar jump in the 2010s. Sac State hopes to follow that same path.
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