Quick Hits 8/19/07

Go FGCU!
So how much would it cost to go D1? Florida Gulf Coast University has crunched the numbers and the price to get into the college football business includes:
Most of the stiff-arm has to do with money matters. It would take a minimum of $50 million to build a stadium today, more likely toward $100 million to do it first-class. McAloose figures it would take an additional $10 million to start the program and at least $5 million per year for scholarship and salary funding.

McAloose said the student population likely would need to be around 20,000-25,000 to support the sport, about triple the current enrollment.

This is low side estimate as it only looks at the start up costs not the losses incurred while getting the program off the ground(See FIU/FAU).

Army/Navy and BE Combo Reconsidered
Although Navy has been performing well enough to qualify for bowl games they have the problem of finding an alliance that works for them as they are an independent and the bowls like to have the predictability of conference tie ins. Therefore reconsidering the problem pointed out in Spit and Bailing Wirethere is a trade to be made conference games in exchange for bowl access. Navy and Army (with the exception of Notre Dame) could play each other, Air Force, Notre Dame, four Big East schools and still have five open games with a good chance of making a bowl. We could see some move on this as the bowls will be revising their deals in the next few years.

Jumping In?
UMass is again considering the move to D1. Nothing more than exploration but they should be considering their options.