Quote:
Originally Posted by Dark Cloud
Yeah, in the case of UMass, I think it came down to timing and realizing that the gains of spending the requisite amount of cash as a flagship outweighed playing at the lower level. UConn's football ascent probably hasn't hurt in terms of a roadmap for a fellow New England flagship sans the wildly successful basketball part.
I think Montana would've made the move if they weren't tethered with Montana State and for those programs in football-mad locales (Texas schools), it's probably worth it in the long run because you get to differentiate yourself from the regional schools in the area that can't or won't make the move up, even if it costs you.
The increased donations probably offset the move up in the longrun for a lot of these institutions too.
What was the last school to kill D-1A/FBS football? Unless there was one after this, Pacific was the last one in 1995.
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It looks like the last group to die off were some of the California schools in the early to mid-90s. Cal. State Long Beach in '91, Cal. State Northridge in '92, and Pacific in '95.
To piggyback on to my earlier post, Jacksonville State is another school that is exploring a move up:
http://www.jsugamecocksports.com/new...418110329.aspx