Schools that could be FBS in the blink of an eye

[Twentysix]

This thread isn't about schools that are going to be FBS. Rather it is about FCS/DII/DIII/NAIA schools that could be FBS in the blink of an eye if they would just decide to have football, or to bolster its resources.

Most importantly it is a hypothetical thread.


State the name of the school, enrollment, academic ranking (Found here: http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU2015.html ), why it could be FBS, and what conference it would be in.

For the first school I submit my grad school.


School: University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
Enrollment: 33,735
US Academic ranking: 12 (World rank 14/US Public rank 4)
Conference: Pac 12
Why: UCSD obviously should have been in the Pac 12 in 1960 when the school was created. Its sister campuses UC-Berkeley and UCLA are the corner stones of the conference. With a student enrollment of 33,735 and Roughly 30 million people living within 2 hours of the school (SD, LA, TJ), and 5 million within 30 miles of the school. it could obviously support FBS football. On top of everything else its academic profile makes it a logical Pac 12 conference member. Many exorbitantly wealthy alumni, the school has received multiple 100 million dollar donations unsolicited. The students vote down the fee for FBS football every 3 years.

The UC currently runs on 7 billion dollars, the ability to raise money to institute football is obviously there.

[Laker]

D2- Grand Valley. If you want'to tick them off, bring it up. But they have great well rounded programs.

[Catatonic]

There are probably dozens of schools that could easily move to FBS if they chose to go that direction, several from California. Cal Irvine and Pepperdine come to mind. Cal Irvine for the PAC and Pepperdine for the Mountain West. I don't get the sense that many of these universities have any desire to start FBS programs though.

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[Twentysix]

There are probably dozens of schools that could easily move to FBS if they chose to go that direction, several from California. Cal Irvine and Pepperdine come to mind. Cal Irvine for the PAC and Pepperdine for the Mountain West. I don't get the sense that many of these universities have any desire to start FBS programs though.

Yeah, most of the UC's could be PAC/MWC schools if they wanted to pump the resources into football. Some of the Cal states could be MWC schools, especially CalPoly.

[Twentysix]

D2- Grand Valley. If you want'to tick them off, bring it up. But they have great well rounded programs.

Any Minnesota schools that could do it? Marquette (AAC), UW-Milwuakee (MAC), UW-Green Bay (MAC) come to mind for Wisconsin.

Also UChicago for the Big Ten.

[Laker]

Any Minnesota schools that could do it? Marquette (AAC), UW-Milwuakee (MAC), UW-Green Bay (MAC) come to mind for Wisconsin.

I think that MSU-Mankato is close to 17,000 students- but the Gophers won't let anyone compete with them in anything but hockey. So UMD, St. Cloud and Mankato will stay D2.

I think that some of these schools would be better off in FCS- the Mavs could never be in FBS. They had there chance back around 1999 when the whole NCC thought about moving up to FCS. That was a great D2 conference and could have made the jump. I loved the rivalries with the Dakota schools and even Northern Colorado and UN-Omaha. If you go back to when I was in college UNI was still in the NCC.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Wayne State, Grand Valley State and Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) always come to mind.

Wayne State is very similar to Temple. Why EMU became D1 over Wayne State I'll never know....

[OhioHen]

UW-Milwuakee (MAC), UW-Green Bay (MAC) come to mind for Wisconsin.



The flagship campus in Madison will never let this happen. That's the reason all the Wisconsin-(name of city or region) football teams are D-III.

[Catatonic]

The University of the South (aka, Sewanee) is a charter member of the SEC. I'm sure the SEC would take them back if they built a big enough stadium, pumped a bazillion dollars into their athletic program, and increased their enrollment to 25,000 or so. xdrunkyx

[Laker]

The flagship campus in Madison will never let this happen. That's the reason all the Wisconsin-(name of city or region) football teams are D-III.

Yes! This is very much like Minnesota and Nebraska. I still think that there was some kind of deal Trev Albert made with UNL when UNO went D1 but had to drop football and wrestling to do it.

[centennial]

I think that MSU-Mankato is close to 17,000 students- but the Gophers won't let anyone compete with them in anything but hockey. So UMD, St. Cloud and Mankato will stay D2.

I think that some of these schools would be better off in FCS- the Mavs could never be in FBS. They had there chance back around 1999 when the whole NCC thought about moving up to FCS. That was a great D2 conference and could have made the jump. I loved the rivalries with the Dakota schools and even Northern Colorado and UN-Omaha. If you go back to when I was in college UNI was still in the NCC.
NDSU should thank UM for this gift. We basically get to pick most players in MN that don't go to the U. Not only that we have wrecked UM's walk on program.

[Laker]

NDSU should thank UM for this gift. We basically get to pick most players in MN that don't go to the U. Not only that we have wrecked UM's walk on program.

Idiot Tim Brewster on why he wan't going to play NDSU anymore (before his last loss to the Bison): We don't recruit that area so why play them?

I guess he never heard of Greg Eslinger, among many others who I could name. My contempt for Mr. Hot Chili knows no bounds. What an arrogant ass!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Eslinger

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Idiot Tim Brewster on why he wan't going to play NDSU anymore (before his last loss to the Bison): We don't recruit that area so why play them?

I guess he never heard of Greg Eslinger, among many others who I could name. My contempt for Mr. Hot Chili knows no bounds. What an arrogant ass!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Eslinger

He won the Outland AND Rimington but never played in a NFL regular season game? That's a dubious distinction.....

[Hammerhead]

Lots of Bison football players also come from Wisconsin where it's just the Badgers and then D-III programs as mentioned above.


NDSU should thank UM for this gift. We basically get to pick most players in MN that don't go to the U. Not only that we have wrecked UM's walk on program.

[Gil Dobie]

Marquette dropped major college football after 1960.

[AshevilleApp2]

Any Minnesota schools that could do it? Marquette (AAC), UW-Milwuakee (MAC), UW-Green Bay (MAC) come to mind for Wisconsin.

Also UChicago for the Big Ten.

Not sure about Chicago. They had their time in the Big 10 and appear happy at D-3. Attendance is about 15,000 as well, with nearly 2/3rds being post-graduate. (Wiki Source on attendance).

[ngineer]

Not sure about Chicago. They had their time in the Big 10 and appear happy at D-3. Attendance is about 15,000 as well, with nearly 2/3rds being post-graduate. (Wiki Source on attendance).

Chicago was a big Midwestern power back in the 30's-40s..same as University of Detroit.

[AshevilleApp2]

Chicago was a big Midwestern power back in the 30's-40s..same as University of Detroit.

And before. "The Victors" was written on the train back to Ann Arbor after a big Michigan win in Chicago in 1898.

Didn't know U of D was, I always thought of them as a basketball school. Had a sister graduate from there though.

[Laker]

Chicago dropped football in 1939 and withdrew from the Big Ten in 1946.
They won the Big Ten in 1899, 1905, 1907. 1908, 1913, 1922 and 1924. National champs in 1905 and 1913. Had the first Heisman Trophy winner in Jay Berwanger in 1935.


According to Wikipedia: In explaining the reason to drop football, Robert Maynard Hutchins, the university’s president, had written acidly in The Saturday Evening Post “In many colleges, it is possible for a boy to win 12 letters without learning how to write one.”

[Laker]

I found out some crazy stuff looking this up.

The original On Wisconsin song was supposed to be for Minnesota, but a Wisconsin grad convinced the writer to let him have it.

And the original lyrics were "Run the ball clear 'round Chicago" instead of "Run the ball clear down the field".

This is why I love college football so much more than the pros. History and tradition.

[Twentysix]

The University of Chicago is one of the best academic schools in the nation and one of the richest schools in the nation. If they get the itch to start an NFL team they could make it happen, I wouldn't doubt them being capable of becoming an FBS team should they ever desire to do so. They likely won't, but that doesn't change the fact that they could. They also have an alumni pool that includes numerous billionaires including the third richest person in the world; and with who they are, that list will just continue to grow.

Saying UChicago couldn't do it is like saying Harvard or Yale couldn't do it. They simply choose not to.

[Laker]

Mack Brown to be on a committee that looks at UTRGV football. Since they don't have it but are D1 in other sports they could go FCS.

http://goutrgv.com/news/2016/2/19/GEN_0219165130.aspx