UNI’s winning tradition worth the FCS

More and more Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) teams, like the University of Northern Iowa, are looking at making the jump to the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), where Iowa and Iowa State reside. Teams have made the jump successfully, but many still struggle at a mediocre level, buried at the bottom of the FBS.

I’ve had the privilege of being a UNI Panther fan all my life. I grew up coming to games at the UNI-Dome and got to see a lot of great teams and players. Long-time Panther fans have also had the pleasure of seeing teams and individuals come through the Dome that made the FCS-to- FBS jump.

But Panther fans have also had to endure a long-time question from Iowa and Iowa State fans: “So when is UNI finally going to move up?” This question was especially prevalent after UNI’s domination of Iowa State last year at Jack Trice Stadium in Ames. But UNI’s history has bigger names than Iowa State. 

UNI went up against Youngstown State when their head coach was Jim Tressel, now head coach at Ohio State. The Panthers also had the daunting task of facing Marshall University in the quarterfinals on the 1996 playoffs and matching up against Marshall’s then freshman receiver Randy Moss, who would enter the NFL draft in 1998 as a sophomore. In fact, the Panthers have played a whole host of teams that moved up, before they made their moves including Idaho, Boise State, Akron and Arkansas State.

More recently UNI’s old conference rival Western Kentucky made the jump when they joined the Sun Belt Conference in the FBS.

Western Kentucky had only won one national championship at the FCS level, in 2002. In fact, leading up to their jump UNI had beat them two years in a row. So does that mean UNI should be looking to make the jump? Probably not anytime soon.

First of all, in order for UNI to even think about making the move right now we would have to build a new stadium capable of seating 30,000 fans, a minimum requirement set forth by the NCAA for any school wishing to make the jump. That’s not to say we couldn’t do it, but do we really need to? Making this move has been great for teams like Boise State and Marshall, but many others have sunk to the bottom of the barrel.

Moving from FCS to FBS has its rewards, but at great risk. Something Western Kentucky has had to come to terms with at 2-5 this season. WKU, while in FCS, put together some of the toughest teams in the country that were competitive week-in, week-out.

Now they sit at the bottom of the Sun Belt Conference and are a regular on ESPN’s bottom 10 list.

Then there’s Idaho. The Vandals were always a contender in the FCS league, earning top-ten rankings, although they never did win a national championship. Now Idaho resides in the FBS cupboard as a go-to cupcake game. Is this the fate we want to risk for the Panthers?

If UNI were to make this move we would be risking the best part of UNI football–a winning tradition. Is it really worth it to go through painful losing seasons just so we can say we’re in the FBS? No way.

Teams like Idaho, Buffalo, Troy State, Arkansas State and the rest of the cellar-dwellers that moved up from the FCS can keep the FBS for themselves. I’ll take the excitement of college playoff football, a winning UNI tradition and Missouri Valley Football Conference championships. I’ll take the FCS.

3 comments

Montana FCS fan

Thu Dec 17 2009 17:31

Dirk, you'll never see a 64 team playoff, let alone ANY playoffs, at the FBS level. Idaho remains a poor FBS team, as does Western Kentucky. The fact that those teams lose year in, year out makes them a nightmare to recruit to. Players would rather play for a winning FCS team like Appalachian State, Northern Iowa, Montana, Delaware than any of those losers.

Dirk H.

Mon Dec 22 2008 21:37

Idaho will become a more competive team in the next two years, while Troy and Arkansas State have had winning seasons. I think more FCS schools should move up to the FBS! With 85 scholorships cutting into the talent of the greedy BCS schools, could even the playing field? There are 20 FCS schools planning the move to FBS by 2016? I would like to see ALL FCS move up, and a 64 team Playoff (6 week playoff), keep the Bowls as part of the playoff system? College Football is the greatest sport in America, and it shouldn't be controlled by the BCS! Thank You

UN Fan since1979

Thu Oct 23 2008 14:18

This article makes a fantastic point! If we moved up we would become Troy State or Arkansas State! UNI is an FCS powerhouse, I'll take that over an FBS cupcake any day!! The one thing this article should mention is that there is a talent overlap. The top of the FCS can beat the middle and bottom of the FBS!!! Iowa State vs. UNI for example.

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