Quote Originally Posted by PaladinFan View Post
Yeah, but football isn't played to meet our expectations about what is and what isn't watered down.

I'd like to see a lot of the G5 back in the FCS. I think it would make for fun football. Most of those G5 teams are far closer to the FCS than they are to the P5 anyway.

I recall App posters on here a few years back noting that they understood a move to the SunBelt was not a move to "big time" football. They just saw that while football used to have two divisions, the move was now essentially to three divisions - P5, G5, and FCS. They wanted App to stay in the second division.
It is all about the money but I think many G5s truly need to drop down. SBC, just like it would be for JMU or Liberty if either goes, is a stepping stone to get into the AAC in the eyes of those who have moved up recently. They all can't get there but you never get there if you don't try. Can always move back down if you don't succeed.

The reason some of their fans did not want to move up was fear they would not succeed and fear that they could not financially support 85 scholarships. I am also sure some felt the more spread out conference makes less games to attend. I don't know about you but I don't blame GSU and App. I don't think you would find of any of their fans upset they moved up. They are beating P5s, ranked in the top 25, and feel like they can compete with Boise, UCF, and Memphis now.

With that said, there are a lot of G5 programs who should move down. I scoured attendance, overall success, etc and here are the schools I came up with who truly need to drop down to FCS.

Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Central Michigan, Charlotte, Coastal Carolina, Connecticut, Kent State, UL Monroe, Mass, MTSU, New Mexico, Northern Illinois, San Jose State, and Western Kentucky as far as attendance. Most of those plus ODU, UTEP, UTSA, New Mexico St, South Alabama, and Texas State based on performance.

If that happened you could have MAC, CUSA, and SBC combine to form a much stronger G5 league. A couple of the current AAC teams would go to Big 12 and then AAC would pull from top SBC and CUSA. Then have the CUSA, SBC, and MAC combine into one much stronger conference. FCS would get a lot better at the top and G5 would not be so watered down at the bottom.