I think instead of New Mexico and UNLV, you might see Cal and Stanford instead. Those are traditional FBS schools but they geographically stunted and if the next deal gets reduced, I’d expect the ACC to push them out because the ROI will not be good enough. If that happens where does Cal and Stanford go?
Montana and Montana State, who compete in a tier below Wyoming, each spend $2.2 million on NIL, while Wyoming spends $1.4 million. "That's embarrassing," one Wyoming booster said. "Schools that don't sit on the wealth of money we do are outspending us."
UW Athletic Director Tom Burman offered a pointed rebuttal to those suggesting Wyoming consider the FCS route.
"The better question is, why are Montana, Montana State begging to get into the Mountain West?" Burman told Cowboy State Daily. "I can tell you that the top tier of the FCS is willing to pay money to join the Mountain West."
"Maybe the Big Sky doesn't want us,” Ortiz said. "Maybe we're in a league with Chadron State. From an enrollment standpoint, there's a lot of Division II and Division III schools that have the same enrollment as Laramie does.”
Cal and Stanford will wind up back aligned with UCLA, Arizona, ASU, Utah, Colorado, Oregon State, and Washington State for football. The real interesting thing will be the next rung down, the Fresno/Boise/SDSU types, and whether the Montana’s and Dakota’s level up to that world.
They are basically irrelevant - however, they can serve as building blocks for programs looking to boost up their image (see Penn State win at Yankee Stadium, or maybe Michigan outcome vs. Texas) or at least give their alumni one last hurrah for the year. The only downside being that most of the star players do not play if they're declaring for the draft - or the Portal...so the rate of return on the game is somewhat diminished.
Me personally however, I've found most of the bowl games to be entertaining, my Dad and I were invested watching the New Mexico vs. Minnesota game - Eck had those Lobos flying around the field, but the play by the Gophers to seal the win was phenomenal, we were yelling out loud "Did he catch that? Whoa! What a play, what the hell was that safety doing over the top?"
Still entertaining, that's my two cents...it's also a chance for players-to-be in the program to come out and shine when the declaring players aren't in there.