***This is the third of a four part series looking at the biggest factors surrounding a move to the FBS.
Part 1: Competition
Facilities & TV
The next thing that would likely need to be addressed with a potential FBS move? An expansion of Dana J Dykhouse Stadium. While it would be a smaller stadium in the MAC or CUSA, it would be acceptable. However, a move to the MWC or the AAC would likely necessitate an expansion along with other facilities upgrades just for the sake of being on pace in the world of facility arms races. For example, here are the rough sizes of the stadiums in the Mountain West:
- Colorado St: 41,000
- Utah St: 25,000
- Boise St: 36,000
- New Mexico: 40,000
- Air Force: 47,000
- Wyoming: 29,181
- UNLV: 65,000 (they play at Allegiant Stadium, home of the Raiders. Doesn’t count IMO because NFL)
- Fresno St: 41,000
- San Jose St: 30,000
- Nevada: 30,000
- San Diego (not a) State: 35,000
- Hawaii: In the middle of a mess because Aloha Stadium was condemned. Temporarily has 9,000 at a temporary stadium. Formerly 50,000.
As you can see, there would likely be a need to eventually expand the stadium. Fortunately, it was built with that in mind. It just might be difficult after all the funds recently put into athletics facilities in the last decade, the need for an on campus soccer stadium, along with the general costs to move to FBS. As we all know, no stadium expansion, renovation, or building is cheap.
Now on to television contracts, something that is severely undervalued when it comes to the FCS is access to all of the games. As a FCS fan, all you need is a ESPN+ subscription and you can watch almost every team’s games outside of the CAA. That’s truly incredible. When you get into the G5 and FBS, there are games on CBSSN, Fox, ESPN, YouTube, Facebook, individual leagues TV networks (anybody else buy the Iowa St network for the game that got cancelled?), or various other cable packages you need to purchase or add. Its not nearly as simple, or as cheap to be honest. As it sits right now, the majority of SDSU fans can have Midco in their cable package or buy the Midco app for less than $10/month, or simply get ESPN+ and see virtually every SDSU football game, the majority of basketball games, plus some softball, baseball, and soccer on occasion. In addition, you get to watch almost every other game in the subdivision. Plus, its very rare to have a midweek game. Which, every once in a while can work, but I think most of our followers have seen the “crowd” shots of MACtion and the dozens of fans that make it to those games. I do believe this is an underrated portion of what the FCS has going for it.
As previously mentioned, when you can get local contracts that are as valuable, if not more valuable than a couple of G5 conferences media payouts, that’s a pretty sweet deal. Even if the SDSU current media rights deal isn’t worth the $750k right now, that deal expires in 2025-2026. That should end up as a much more lucrative deal for SDSU, particularly with the amount that the SDSU fanbase has grown but also with the very fortuitous events of Forum Communications moving into Sioux Falls. Say what you will about Forum, but they give a massive amount of coverage to NDSU, and pay a very large amount of money to carry NDSU sports. I have been told that Forum Communications intends to cover SDSU in a similar way to what they do up north, that adds quite the competition to Midco for the tv rights to SDSU athletics. I highly doubt that Midco would be happy to end up with carrying just the UxD’s and relying on the Fighting Hawks hockey games to carry their viewership. This should be a very, very good opportunity for SDSU to add to the athletic department’s coffers. When it comes down to it, beyond the opportunity to become a national media darling, which we have also seen happen at the FCS level, when it comes to tv coverage SDSU is arguably in a much better spot than if they were in CUSA or the MAC.
How can you say that SDSU, or even NDSU, is in a better spot than if they were in CUSA or the MAC when it comes to tv coverage and contracts? Well, lets peek at the media contracts for the conferences I mentioned. CUSA comes in with their shiny new contract. It pays out a whopping $750,000 per school annually. They signed with CBS SN for their football games, with also having ESPN to cover their Olympic sports. Part of that deal makes them have *all* of their games in October as mid week games. That sucks out loud, particularly for SDSU in that scenario where a large amount of fans bring families from 45 minutes away. Not a great formula during the school year when people work the next day as well.
Then you have the MAC, or as it is affectionately/mockingly known as, MACtion. Everyone knows about the regularity that those schools play mid week on ESPN. They are entertaining but we all know the fan interest for the MAC is low, we’ve all seen the crowd shots from those games. For all that glory the MAC signed a very long term deal that goes sometime into the 2030’s and each school gets a whopping $670,000 per school annually. This is worse than CUSA in my opinion and that surprised me when I looked it up.
The next one that is more desirable is the Mountain West Conference. The MWC has a contract with Fox and a secondary contract with CBS to carry their games. Its an odd contract, where because of their value nationally as a brand, Boise St gets a larger portion due to being able to negotiate their own price for home games. Also for some reason Hawaii gets less, which I assume is to help cover the costs of other schools sending their teams that far. But in the end its estimated at $4 million annually for each team. Now that’s a healthy amount! Especially when you include the opportunity to have your games on network television. It doesn’t even begin to cover the gap in average budget between SDSU and the rest of the Mountain West, but its at least much more than can be attained with a local media rights deal.
After that would be the AAC, which I included because NDSU head coach Matt Entz brought them up for some reason and I said why the hell not, he must know something I don’t. Or he doesn’t. Anyways, the AAC contract is the best of the bunch, not surprisingly. They get $7 million per school annually with ESPN, which immediately makes it even more valuable in my book because ESPN+ coverage for your non-football sports.
Go Jacks,
Brendan
Brendan is a cohost of the wildly successful “B-Team Podcast” and the author of this four part series.
