Villanova said to be studying moving football up to FBS

[ChicosBailBonds]

This fits in with everything else if they make the move.  They won the national title in 1-AA this past year.  The Big East commissioner is supporting it if Nova wants to make the investment.

[vacinator]

I know its been brought up 1000 times but MU needs to do this - start small and build on it.  College football at almost any level would "sell" in Milwaukee.

[chapman]

It would be great it they did it.  Hopefully they're willing to put in the funds and the Big East is willing to provide the logistical support.  It would be great for the conference and also help attract replacements should Pitt leave, and also maybe make the decision for Rutgers to leave a little more difficult if they are offered.  It would mean more scholarships, more women's scholarships, and almost certainly require they find/build a stadium or make some serious renovations with the stadium they have now to double the capacity.  Lincoln Financial Field is used by Temple, and Nova's field isn't much...I think they have the space to build a bigger stadium, but it's obviously not cheap.  Considering they still play most of their basketball games in the tiny Pavillion despite the much higher demand for tickets than there are seats, who knows if they're willing to build something up to FBS standards.  You'd have to wonder how much pressure Nova is going to feel as the possible key to holding the Big East together or making it stronger.  If they don't do it, they're in a better position than we are geographically and financially, but they're still a non-football school looking for a conference.  If they do it helps the conference tremendously, but it's not like the football schools are going to subsidize their upgrades if they can just jump ship for immediate benefit. 

[ChicosBailBonds]

If it happens, the conjecture is they would play at the Linc.  UCLA and USC for years played together at the Coliseum in L.A.  It can be done, but not ideal. 

[WellsstreetWanderer]

Anybody ever see the plaques from Marquette football from  the 30s?  We used to pummel teams like ND. Friend of the family played on some of those glory teams. i remember seeing his name in the old gym. I think it would be prohibitive to start a football program up from scratch. wasn't there a club team started back in th late 60s? what happened to that

[The Lens]

I have said since day 1, enjoy this time in "this" Big East. Eventually football will over ride tradition & as presently constructed we'll be on the outside looking in. Now maybe that will include with schools like GT & St Johns, but how idle do you expect GT to be as Nova studies FBS?   

[Buzz Williams' Spillproof Chiclets Cup]

If Marquette were to bring back football, the financial issues are obviously huge. They'd need a place to play, and renovation of say, Valley Fields to a 20k capacity, even on the cheap would be in the range of $75-125 million. (Those prices are consistent with Major League Soccer stadiums of a similar size).

If it went the Villanova route, it would likely mean a couple years in FCS to get our feet wet before moving up. We'd need to join a conference for football, as the only FCS independents are Georgia State, Lamar, Old Dominion, Savannah State, and South Alabama.

I think our best options would either be the Missouri Valley Football Conference (Illinois State, Indiana State, Missouri State, North Dakota State, Northern Iowa, South Dakota State, Southern Illinois, Western Illinois, and Youngstown State) OR

The Pioneer Football League (Butler, Campbell, Davidson, Dayton, Drake, Jacksonville, Marist, Morehead State, San Diego, Valpo) and if it came down to those two, the MVFC might be a better choice due to lower travel costs.

Historically, programs in similar situations follow a like path. Connecticut played in I-AA untill 1999, then transitioned for two years, and built a new stadium (NCAA FBS minimum capacity is 30,000). By 2002 they were a full-fledged D-1 FBS Member.


Similarly, Weestern Kentucky played in the old Gateway Conference (predecessor to today's MVFC) untill 2006, then did a two year transition and by 2008 were a full-fledged FBS team and by 2009 were members of the Sun Belt Conference. They finished their inaugural year in conference play 0-12.

So it can be done, but we may have to watch some substandard football (and watch MU rah rah get run off the field by it) in the meantime.

[Wareagle]

If it happens, the conjecture is they would play at the Linc.  UCLA and USC for years played together at the Coliseum in L.A.  It can be done, but not ideal.  

It would be interesting to see how many people they could get to go to a game.  From Nova's website they have 95k living alumni and roughly 10,000 total grad and undergrad students.  The Linc holds 67k.  

[Husker4MU]

This fits in with everything else if they make the move.  They won the national title in 1-AA this past year.  The Big East commissioner is supporting it if Nova wants to make the investment.

Do you have a link to the story Chico?

[Eye]

Why wasn't this brought up during that 20-minute gushing session they did with nova's coach early in the second half of MU's game out there?

[ecompt]

I doubt Nova would draw enough to even justify opening the Linc for a game. Does the school think 40,000 people are going to flock to watch Nova-UConn football? People in the Northeast don't care about college football.

[ChicosBailBonds]

Do you have a link to the story Chico?

There are several that you have to piece together.  One is on ESPN with the commissioner of the Big East "encouraging" Villanova to continue to build up it's program.  Dick Weiss has an article speculating that Nova will attempt to move up but is studying the idea now.

Nova football loses money right now, so that's a big part of it.  But they also just endowed their football coaches salaries with a fairly large endowment fund. 

A few other small nuggets in the Hartford Courant and New Haven Register.




ESPN: Villanova just won the FCS championship. This has been talked about before, but do you get any sense that the Wildcats are interested in moving up a level?


JM: What Villanova has been able to do is phenomenal. Our people are very supportive of Villanova and encourage them to do everything they can to improve their program and move it forward. I don't think I can publicly get into any specifics, but I know our people have always been very supportive, as they were of Connecticut years ago, in encouraging Connecticut to do everything they've done. As you know, Connecticut does everything first class and they do it well, and I think people feel the same way about Villanova. We'll explore every option and keep everything alive on the table, and in the right place and at the right time on all of these issues, we'll act.