Idaho Vandals and New Mexico State have a new home

[TrueOrange]

Moving to the Sun Belt.

Good for them; these two looked like they were going to be the two FBS casualties of the conference realignment / the WAC's collapse. Quite a bit were expecting that, being without a conference, they would try to be independent for a while, but eventually they were going to have to drop football down to the FCS level.


Idaho Vandals, New Mexico State Aggies headed for Sun Belt Conference in 2014, sources say - ESPN

Idaho and New Mexico State, who were left without a conference when the WAC imploded, will join the Sun Belt as football-only members in 2014, sources said Tuesday.

The two schools were members of the WAC but were the only remaining football programs that didn't have a new conference home for this fall. The Aggies and Vandals will remain independents this fall before joining the Sun Belt in 2014.

On Monday, ESPN reported that Appalachian State and Georgia Southern were moving from the FCS to the FBS ranks of the Sun Belt. While transitioning from FCS to FBS, Appalachian State and Georgia Southern will be full-fledged members in all Sun Belt sports but football in 2014, before becoming eligible for the Sun Belt football championship and bowl games in 2015.

When the new schools join, the Sun Belt will have a 12-member football and basketball conference. Full members will be Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State, Troy and Western Kentucky.

Idaho and New Mexico State will be football-only members. Arkansas-Little Rock and Texas-Arlington will be full members in all sports except football.

The Sun Belt sought new teams after losing Florida Atlantic, Florida International, North Texas and Middle Tennessee to Conference USA.

 

[rockytop9808]

I thought for sure Idaho at least would drop to FCS, but good for them.

 

[ukvols]

If my count is correct, there will be 128 FBS teams by 2016. There are 10 conferences. All of them have at least 12 members, except the former Big East (11) and the Big 12 (10). There are also three Independents (Army,BYU,ND) who have not agreed to join a conference for football.

So, there's room for 10 conference championship games if everyone joined a conference. Four conferences have 14 members (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, C-USA).

I'm sure we're not nearly done seeing teams move around though.

 

[bamawriter]

The Sun Belt is a really spread out conference.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I figured they would, mainly because there wasn't anywhere else for them to go in FBS.

 

[ukvols]

If my count is correct, there will be 128 FBS teams by 2016. There are 10 conferences. All of them have at least 12 members, except the former Big East (11) and the Big 12 (10). There are also three Independents (Army,BYU,ND) who have not agreed to join a conference for football.

So, there's room for 10 conference championship games if everyone joined a conference. Four conferences have 14 members (ACC, Big Ten, SEC, C-USA).

I'm sure we're not nearly done seeing teams move around though.

With Tulsa also joining the former Big East, that league will have 12 teams by 2015. C-USA is left with 13 by my count. So, all conferences are now projected to have enough teams for a conference championship game within the next few years, except the Big 12.

 

[milohimself]

I doubt it's sustainable. The Sun Belt seems to be the one BCS conference that doesn't collect a lot of revenue from football. Plus I'm sure traveling from Moscow or Las Cruces out east multiple times a year doesn't come cheap.

I expected them to be back in FCS before this, and I suspect, barring some run of crazy success, that it will still happen in the next 5 or so years.

 

[ukvols]

They're only in the Sun Belt for football. They won't be taking every sport on those long road trips.

 

[VolsSportsFan]

I doubt it's sustainable. The Sun Belt seems to be the one BCS conference that doesn't collect a lot of revenue from football. Plus I'm sure traveling from Moscow or Las Cruces out east multiple times a year doesn't come cheap.

I expected them to be back in FCS before this, and I suspect, barring some run of crazy success, that it will still happen in the next 5 or so years.

I'm going to assume you meant FBS conference.