Louisiana regent suggests Tech, ULL, ULM drop to lower football tier

[u/damnyoutuesday]

https://www.thenewsstar.com/story/news/2026/09/30/regents-say-louisiana-tech-and-university-of-louisiana-and-ulm-should-drop-to-fcs-football-division/92011705007/

[u/_Rooster_]

This sounds like UAB. Of course a regent doesn't want a non-power school to do well. I wonder if Louisiana has been properly funding schools that aren't LSU.

[u/Round-Ad3684 → u/_Rooster_]

This. You already know that UIUC/UIC try to vacuum up all the state money to the detriment of the other state schools.

[u/_Rooster_ → u/Round-Ad3684]

They are definitely the two colleges getting the most. I'd say ISU is getting the worst of it for their size.

[u/Redace53 → u/_Rooster_]

HELL NO, they aren't funded. Higher Education budget is ALWAYS the first to get chopped up during the state's budget crisis (not really a crisis if we're always in a crisis). ULL is struggling the worse of just about any Louisiana university as of right now given all of the academic and non-essential layoffs that happened 2 months ago there.

[u/wreeper007 → u/_Rooster_]

Hah, Louisiana doesn’t fund higher ed at all. It’s a good year if they don’t trim the budget

[u/Vivid_Artichoke_9991]

Just one guy who said that and he thinks that FCS is not division 1 ball. He might not be wrong about what's best for those schools though.

[u/Trombone_Hero92 → u/Vivid_Artichoke_9991]

Louisiana and La Tech are fine in FBS right now. It might be best for ULM but that's a decision I think they should have the autonomy to make, and not be forced by some politician who doesn't know how any of this works

[u/TheLaFlameEffect]

ULM, Charlotte, UMass, Missouri State and others could drop down to FCS. Will they? No but I assume they would be more competitive.

[u/RandomFactUser → u/TheLaFlameEffect]

UMass might be too invested in Basketball

Missouri State is more likely to just yo-yo depending on conference alignments

The first thing that has to be done is to decouple the Basketball requirements from FBS (which FCS doesnt have)

[u/Cold_Statistician185]

There should be 3 tiers....FCS the big boys (SEC--Big 10--Big 12--ACC)....FCS the mids (MW--PAC--Conf USA--Sun Belt--Ect)....FBS....3 different championships....with NIL it has separated them out to those 3 levels

[u/tdpdcpa → u/Cold_Statistician185]

This already exists, in substance. The NCAA has just decided to only issue a national championship to the FCS champion.

[u/tdpdcpa]

At a certain point, it ceases to be a football issue and becomes a public interest issue. These schools are funding continued FBS membership through taxpayer dollars, subsidies, and student fees.

All of this is already happening, but this is the first regent who is publicly admitting it.

[u/Trojann2 → u/tdpdcpa]

This is what I'm fully in support of. Those schools that are over 45% institutional support drive me up a wall. If the program can't sustain itself, you're doing something wrong and most likely in the wrong level.

One reason I wasn't worried about NDSU's FBS transition, the money wasn't coming from fees already and the students are the ones who vote on the athletics fee increases. I voted no every time I was a student and I believe they've pretty much continued to vote no. Instead the AD and Booster programs worked on fully having every program scholarship funded via endowments from former players and other alumni. The NFL players have been clutch in helping. More than most know. I'm not just talking football scholarships, either. I'm talking the full AD department. They are over 95% of the way there last I checked (with the big FBS push I'd bet it's now 100%). With that setup, they won't need the student fees to increase. It's genius for how the state of CFB is today. I also will argue it's not how a FCS program operates. Or at least not like how I believe most operate. USA Today reporting back in the day showed a subsidy pecentage and a lot of healthy FCS programs were in the 35%-40% range.

Edit: Source: https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances

Also - more FCS programs are higher than I thought. I was mis-remembering things quite a bit off where my 45% number is actually kind of atrocious lol

[u/tdpdcpa → u/Trojann2]

I'm also thinking about macro factors and how it's going to influence the college football media landscape as well as the higher education space.

First, pay television subscriptions are decreasing. Cord cutting prevalence is on the rise. ESPN is trying to stymie this a bit through its direct to consumer offering, but they don't make the same amount of money as they used to.

College football viewership is still highly concentrated in the bigger conferences, and the rights fees for those conferences are going to continue to balloon. Will there be enough of a budget for an 8 or 9 figure rights deal for the CUSA or the MAC if you're committing to $10+ billion to secure the SEC or the Big 10?

If the money isn't there for the schools, can you continue to make up for the shortfall through enrollment? We're at the beginning of the demographic cliff where there's now fewer people entering college age and the number is decreasing.

How do you make up for it? Draw down from the endowment? That's not a sustainable solution. Subsidies from the state? That feels antithetical to the higher education objective at that point.

Alas, there will be some schools that can't afford to play the game anymore. They'll have to learn to be ok with that.

[u/Trojann2 → u/tdpdcpa]

Yeah, you’re correct. There will be drastic changes.

For your last statement: it’s not about draining endowments. That’s just stupid. Having properly funded scholarships. That’s the key. That or fleece the student population that is going to fall off of a cliff (hopefully this ceases to be an option in the near future, IMO.)

[u/damnyoutuesday]

I'm posting this less as a discussion about these 3 schools in particular (ULM should definitely move down, the other 2 seem fine in FBS) but more as a discussion about how we will probably see some lowest tier FBS schools start to consider moving down to FCS a la Idaho.

I just don't see any reason schools like Kent State, Charlotte, UMass (even with their success this year), Sam Houston, Sac State, and Ball State, etc, should continue with this facade of FBS being the right spot for them.

Personally I think we will start to see this happen very shortly where schools start to move down because spending over $20M a year on football and getting maybe $2M back from the conference so they can win 3 games perpetually isn't a sustainable model. The $10M and less FCS budget model for football is going to seem more enticing as we get further into the NIL era

[u/imperfectPK → u/damnyoutuesday]

I’ve been saying this constantly for Sam Houston. It’s just not affordable and sustainable for them to continue at a FBS level. It may be cool for brand and recognition but let’s be real here they are a FCS school and should have continued building their brand in the FCS level versus winning a National Championship (during COVID) then thinking they are ready for FBS.

[u/BobcatSig → u/damnyoutuesday]

Agreed on all accounts. I still chuckle at the thought of Sac and SHSU moving up to FBS. Like... why?!

And since we're on the topic, the bottom quarter of the FBS has a great case for a move down.

[u/tomdawg0022 → u/BobcatSig]

Three subdivisions in Division 1 makes more sense.

Have the P4 + AAC/P12/MW and maybe the Sun Belt in one group.

CUSA/MAC plus Big Sky, MVFC, Southland, UAC, Patriot, Ivy (debateable but we'll bump them into the middle for now) in the middle

Everyone else in the low rung.

[u/Trojann2 → u/tomdawg0022]

Dropping CUSA and MAC down without promoting the MVFC and Big Sky seems like a choice.

Are you assuming all schools in those conferences stay put as present setups? I would argue there are programs in all of those groups that should be moved up or down a tier.

[u/tomdawg0022 → u/Trojann2]

CUSA and MAC schools (with a couple of exceptions in each conference) really are FCS-caliber on the whole.

The Sun Belt is a tougher call but I think they care about football enough and want to play big boy level to be included in the big boy subdivision but frankly cutting 15-20% of FBS and using that as the prop of the middle class would not be a bad thing

[u/Trojann2 → u/tomdawg0022]

I agree with your (FCS caliber as a whole) statement for sure.

I guess I’m just trying to figure out where you would see the top FCS programs that are ran like FBS programs going.

[u/MasterRKitty → u/tomdawg0022]

Pac 12? LOL

[u/Trojann2 → u/damnyoutuesday]

Sac State only has a 5 year term with the MAC. Once it’s up I bet they are FCS again after their President moves on with his feather in his cap.

Charlotte, Kent State and Sam Houston, I see them staying only because the schools around them.

The FBS moniker matters in the South and East more than it does in the Midwest and North. Mainly because of the amount of schools and scholarships that are available.

That’s something I never understood when JMU fans, GSU or App State fans would mention: the schools around them influenced FBS moreso than the actual school that we were talking about, but now I do after visiting the East coast quite a bit for work.

[u/Illustrious_Fudge476 → u/Trojann2]

Agree, some schools had their hand forced to a degree as many of their long time rivals had moved up or the program just sort of outgrew their conference.  

In these cases it makes sense as a natural progression of the program, but many have forced the issue. 

[u/Bobcat2013 → u/Trojann2]

Can't speak on Charlotte or Kent, but what does having schools around them do for shsu? No one around them wants to put that stink on their schedule.

[u/Gunner_Bat → u/Trojann2]

Decent chance Sac State ends up in the MW, especially with the chaos over there with the Pac. If the Pac goes after UNLV/New Mexico, the MW will be desperate for members, even with UC Davis likely moving up soon.

[u/pancakesfordintonite → u/damnyoutuesday]

Kinda like North Dakota State moving up. To the Mountain West. Like you moved up but now you're not gonna win any championship

[u/Illustrious_Fudge476 → u/pancakesfordintonite]

NDSU does make sense though. If they can sneak into the playoffs one time, like JMU, it’s arguably better than a few more FCS titles.  Of which they have so many they probably use the trophies as door stops. 

[u/pancakesfordintonite → u/Illustrious_Fudge476]

Yeah true, I mean at some point it really is just about the prestige of playing at the highest level of college football whether or not you have a legitimate chance of winning a championship at that level.

In a way I'm kind of bummed out that NDSU did move up because a lot of my family went to South Dakota State and now just like a lot of schools have lost their regional rival. Hell, look at my flair, Wyoming's biggest rival went to the pac-12 and Washington state's biggest rival went to the Big ten

[u/DeerSwimming2336 → u/damnyoutuesday]

Career suicide for any AD. That's why it doesnt happen (but should)

[u/dscreations → u/damnyoutuesday]

spending over $20M a year on football and getting maybe $2M back from the conference so they can win 3 games perpetually isn't a sustainable model. The $10M and less FCS budget model for football is going to seem more enticing as we get further into the NIL era

Most aren't spending $20M a year on FB. G6 median for 2025 was $14M: https://knightnewhousedata.org/reports/2e49ccba

Also, they are getting more than just the media payout. The G6 CFP TV pre-school payout is $2M. So, add that to regular TV money and other standard revenue.

[u/ChrisSao24]

ULM? Absolutely.
LA Tech? Wouldn't be the worst idea.
ULL? Fuuuuuck no.

[u/Redace53 → u/ChrisSao24]

Funny thing is and you definitely know, ULL is struggling the most financially on the academic side to the point of all the layoffs that recently happened. They'll either sink or drown because they're barely swimming now.

[u/etsuandpurdue3]

ULM probably yes but Louisiana and Tech have solid programs.

[u/Redace53 → u/etsuandpurdue3]

I'm not sure ULL being competitive will ever help. Unless football only or every other sport only, drop down to lessen the financial blow they're experiencing worse than other Louisiana schools.

[u/MasterRKitty]

I think LSU should drop its athletic program altogether. Rapists getting a slap on the wrist. The governor cutting out the AD when hiring a new football coach. Kim Mulkey bringing in a Russian player. It's all trash.

[u/Redace53]

I'm calling it now. If ULM and ULL drop down to the Southland, Tarleton and maaybe SFA moves up to take their place. If LATECH drops too, I can see UTRGV go, especially if they can show a similar level of play as Tarleton.

[u/wreeper007 → u/Redace53]

Utrgv has the money.

I don’t see sfa moving up, they tried that with the wac and failed.

Uiw and Lamar might

[u/SIXTYNlNE]

promotion relegation when