As the news hits

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Interesting reading from NDSU perspective.
from thedickinsinpress.com

Published March 26, 2013, 11:10 PM
Georgia Southern, Appalachian State look to jump to FBS
FARGO — Two of the premier residents of the Division I Football Championship Subdivision house are moving out after this season. Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are Football Bowl Subdivision-bound, according to multiple reports, and will join the Sun Belt Conference.
By: Jeff Kolpack, Forum News Service

— Two of the premier residents of the Division I Football Championship Subdivision house are moving out after this season. Georgia Southern and Appalachian State are Football Bowl Subdivision-bound, according to multiple reports, and will join the Sun Belt Conference.

The two combined for nine national titles, 26 percent of the total, and are perennial big names on a national FCS scale. Both will be ineligible for the 2013 playoffs and will be FBS eligible in 2015.

It’s a strength-of-division departure that could have North Dakota State thinking hard about its FCS standing — if more schools follow suit. For now, athletic director Gene Taylor said the threshold has not been met.

“I don’t know if it’s a number, it’s more about who (leaves),” he said. “I don’t think it’s a problem right now, I still think there’s a lot of strength in the division, but if more programs go, I will get a little concerned.”

So what schools would cause concern? What if Delaware and James Madison left? Like Taylor, University of North Dakota athletic director Brian Faison said he could not put a specific number of schools on what it would take, “but it would take some kind of migration. … I think we’ll know it when we see it.”

NDSU saw the migration in the 1980s and 1990s when a multitude of schools like Montana State, Montana and Northern Iowa made the Division I move — while the Bison remained in Division II until beginning a reclassification process in 2004. The Division I move has been considered a success, even though it came later than some wanted.

“There were internal struggles as I remember with some of our coaches,” said former NDSU men’s basketball coach and assistant athletic director Erv Inniger. “There were several of us who really wanted to go. Some Team Makers members got involved but there really was never a push. The big thing was the administration wasn’t totally backing it.”

Whether it was a mistake not to move to Division I in the 1980s will forever be debated. But Taylor said it’s doubtful NDSU would sit in the background if another similar movement hit the football program.

“Ultimately, the playoffs is where the strength is and I don’t want it to become hollow winning a championship,” he said. “Right now that’s not the case and I don’t see that being the case with those two leaving. But if more of the strength of the FCS would leave, it would become hollow at some point.”

Inniger, for one, would like to see NDSU move to FBS. “Absolutely, I think it would be fantastic,” he said.

But the problem, he said, is a tough one to fix: the size of the Fargodome. There is no room to grow in the 18,700-seat indoor arena.

It means there is limited room to grow ticket-sales revenue. Moreover, Inniger said, on-campus schools like Appalachian State and Georgia Southern don’t have to share advertising revenue like NDSU does with the city-owned Fargodome.

“You have to have the money,” Inniger said. “You have to put the product on the field and to put the product on the field you have to have money. Where are you going to get it?”

The defection of GSU and Appalachian State — both have set Wednesday press conferences to announce their intentions — leaves the Southern Conference, which includes NDSU quarterfinal opponent Wofford College, with seven football members next year. NDSU defeated Georgia Southern the last two years in the FCS semifinals at the Fargodome.

The advantage of GSU and Appalachian State, in the move, is having an available FBS conference like the Sun Belt to take them in. It’s an NCAA requirement that a school must have conference affiliation before being allowed to jump from FCS to FBS.

Geography played into both schools’ favor — something that NDSU and UND do not currently have going for them. Faison could only guess that the Mid-American Conference may be a possibility should the day come.

“From a financial standpoint, it’s a significant investment,” he said. “At the same time, I can see the benefits of FBS.”

UND is a member of the Big Sky Conference, which along with the Missouri Valley Football Conference is now the two most stable FCS leagues. Both have added teams in recent years, not lost any.

Montana of the Big Sky was said to be flirting with Western Athletic Conference membership a few years ago. The WAC no longer has football.

Other than the MAC, the Mountain West Conference would be about the only reasonable FBS possibility for Big Sky or western-based Missouri Valley programs.

But for now, athletic directors like Taylor are in a wait-and-see mood.

“It’s something to keep my eye on, that’s for sure,” he said.

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Youngstown State
http://www.vindy.com/news/2013/mar/27/y ... ?newswatch

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Atlanta Journal Constitution
http://www.ajc.com/weblogs/georgia-stat ... neighbors/

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http://www.maizenbrew.com/2013/3/26/415 ... linebacker

Michigan football team moves end Brennan Beyer back to linebacker to combat Ryan’s injuryBy Brandon Folsom on Mar 26 2013, 4:23p  @Brandon_Folsom +
Stay connected for news and updates Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE
Defensive end Brennan Beyer is the next man up for Michigan's defense, integrating himself at the outside linebacker position to help fill the void left by injured Jake Ryan (knee).
 Share on Facebook (1)  Tweet post (5) + Comments Jake Ryan’s knee injury continues to force Michigan’s defense to play musical chairs.
Defensive end Brennan Beyer has changed positions, going from rush end to outside linebacker, according to Angelique Chenglis of the Detroit News. Beyer has played linebacker in the past.
"Everybody knows how much we love Jake, but you have to be ready for that at every position," Michigan defensive coordinator Greg Mattison told DetNews.com. "You can’t go through a season without injuries—that’s why it’s football."
This move was made solely to get Beyer more experience at the linebacker position in case more injuries occur. Mattison added that Beyer will move back to end as soon as Ryan is back on the playing field.
"(Beyer’s) done some very good things for only being moved back a couple of days," Mattison added.
Michigan will have plenty of depth at the linebacker position this season and will likely utilize a combination of several different players.
Briefly: Appalachian State, the FCS team that upset Michigan 34-32 in the Big House on Sept. 1, 2007, is making the move up to FBS play.
According to ESPN’s Brett McMurphy, both Appalachian State and Georgia Southern will join the Sun Belt conference for the 2014 season. However, neither school will be eligible to win the conference title or get selected for a bowl game until 2015.
Michigan hosts Appalachian State for a rematch on Aug. 30, 2014. With the Mountaineers joining the Sun Belt, this game will now place two FBS squads against each other, meaning Michigan’s strength of schedule will look a little bit better than how it previously did on paper.U-M is also scheduled to host Miami (OH) and Utah, and visit Notre Dame in 2014.

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http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/03/2 ... s-looming/


In the FCS Huddle: End of the FCS as we know it is looming
Published March 26, 2013
Sports Network

Philadelphia, PA – Offseasons are supposed to be about optimism, but the offseason in the FCS has been about as ugly as it gets.

On a level of college football that is high on product but short on its identity nationally, the word over the winter that the Big Ten wants to phase out games against FCS schools, perhaps leading to other major conferences to follow suit in the future, was bad enough news as schools try to gain a recruiting foothold and scrap for ways to fund their programs.

But Wednesday's anticipated announcements of the one-two loss of Southern Conference powers Appalachian State and Georgia Southern to the FBS level and a reconfigured Sun Belt Conference is further indication that the idea of being a big fish in a smaller pond isn't good enough today.

The continued shifting landscape of college football still has people spooked into thinking the FCS pond will dry up.

It won't, no doubt, there will be FCS football in the future. But the stature of the FCS will only slip further amid the upheaval.

In the latest losses, the FCS sees a six-time national champion (Georgia Southern) and a three-time national champion (Appalachian State) getting set to go out the door in 2014 with a transitional season to the FBS before gaining full-fledged Sun Belt membership in 2015.

They are two high-drawing programs on the short list that casual college football fans associate heavily with the FCS, and they come on top of other recent losses to the FBS, including programs at Massachusetts, a former FCS national champion; Old Dominion, one of the great programs to come along in years; Texas State; UTSA; and South Alabama.

With other programs still considering the move to the FBS, including Liberty, James Madison, Villanova and Jacksonville State, it seems the FCS level can only take so many more hits while it grasps for national relevance in college football.

Another mini-exodus of programs or some unforeseen hit would bring more important strikes against what is still strong on-the-field football. National interest in the FCS could water down to regional interest if the big games and big teams just aren't there anymore.

Hopefully they will. But there's just too much uncertainty to feel confident in that idea.



Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/03/2 ... z2OkASOdcQ