The NCAA Division I Council approved a proposal Wednesday afternoon allowing Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) conferences without 12 members to hold a conference championship game.
An additional requirement of the proposal states that any league with less than 12 members must play a round robin schedule if it is to hold a conference championship game.
The Sun Belt Conference, which will have 12 football members during the 2017 season, will vote on March 10 whether or not to offer a contract extension to football-only members Idaho and New Mexico State.
“(The NCAA vote) wasn’t unexpected,” said Idaho Athletic Director Rob Spear. “We look forward to our presentation to the Sun Belt.”
Idaho is currently a member of the Sun Belt Conference as part of a four-year contract that is scheduled to end at the conclusion of the 2017 season.
The league voted last fall to add Coastal Carolina to the conference in 2017 as a way to meet the former NCAA requirement of twelve conference members to host a conference championship game.
With the recent decision by the NCAA to deregulate conference championships, the Sun Belt will vote in the conference’s spring meeting on the future of the Idaho football program in the league.
“We’ve had many conversations over the past couple years regarding a championship game,” Sun Belt Commisioner Karl Benson said Wednesday. “Today’s change in NCAA legislation doesn’t affect conferences that will have 12 teams.”
“We are expecting that with the addition of Coastal Carolina we will have 12 teams effective 2017,” Benson said.
If the Sun Belt were to opt out of offering a contract extension to Idaho and New Mexico State, the league would be forced to play a round robin schedule in order to host a conference championship game.
This recent requirement may actually play into Idaho’s favor, as a round robin schedule for the Sun Belt would require a total of nine league games for each team. This would interfere with proposed future schedules for teams, as well as negatively impact potential revenue for programs that depend on contracts for out-of-conference road games.
In an interview with the Idaho Statesmen last week, University of Idaho President Chuck Staben addressed several of the options available for the Idaho football program.
“We certainly don’t have a guarantee of renewal (in the Sun Belt),” Staben said. “We’ve had some pretty tough years in Idaho football. We had a better year this year.”
Among one of the options discussed by Staben was the possibility of the Idaho football program dropping from the FBS to the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) in order to become a member of the Big Sky Conference.
“Some of our natural rivals are in the Big Sky…There’s some interesting things about that, but that change is a challenge,” Staben said.
The downside of a transition to the Big Sky Conference is that it would limit the number of available football scholarships from 85 to 63, and result in a loss of revenue from scheduled FBS opponents.
The Vandals finished the 2015 season with a 3-5 Sun Belt record and a 4-8 overall record.
The Sun Belt Conference is currently scheduled to vote on possible football-only contract extensions for Idaho and New Mexico State on March 10.
Josh Grissom can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @GoshJrissom