CAA Lands on NBC Sports and How FBS Restructuring Impacts FCS

The recent success of the Colonial Athletic Association is well known among Championship Subdivision faithful. The conference boasted Final Four participants in 2006 and 2011, and on the gridiron put a participant in the FCS title game every year from 2006 through 2010 while graduating such recent NFL notables as Joe Flacco, Tim Hightower, and Victor Cruz.

Small wonder, then, that the conference was rewarded with an exclusive television contract on the burgeoning NBC Sports Network, beginning next season. Basketball is the focal point of the deal, which extends through 2018. Again, not surprising given George Mason and VCU each captured the nation’s attention in recent March Madness, while other CAA programs Richmond and Old Dominion have boasted solid products on the hardwood. CAA basketball will get 12 nationally televised games on the network.

But the league’s high quality football benefits with five games, a deal of nearly unprecedented proportions among its FCS brethren. Only the SWAC gets more coast-to-coast coverage via its Thursday night timeslot on ESPNU.

The CAA first appeared on the network that is now NBC Sports in 2009, when Villanova hosted William & Mary. Versus continued to give the FCS exposure, but mainly from the Ivy League. Similarly, CBS Sports scratched the surface last season with nationally televised Patriot League action. But nothing to date has been as significant as this new deal, the first providing one of the elite FCS conferences a national stage on which to shine.

The nation’s ever-expanding love affair with football, coupled with an equal growth in television broadcast hours to be filled, would seemingly make expanded FCS coverage a no-brainer. And indeed, the ESPN family of networks gave the FCS Playoffs their most exposure ever in the 2011 campaign. NBC Sports Network solidifying its lineup with CAA football suggests even greater growth for the subdivision at a time when it’s needed.

Realignment in the Bowl Championship Series conferences send a ripple effect throughout the sport that are felt through every division. The SEC expands using the Big 12? The Big 12 raids the Big East. The Big East then sustains itself with members of Conference USA and the Mountain West. The MWC and C-USA respond offering membership to members of the quickly-fading WAC, while also searching the potential of expansion from the FCS.

FBS expansion via the FCS already began with three programs making the leap in the 2012 season: UT-San Antonio, Texas State and former CAA member UMass. That brings the FBS numbers to 123; not a neat, even number by any means. Cue Appalachian State, the FCS powerhouse that won three straight national championships from 2005 to 2007, toppled a top five Michigan team to kickoff its ’07 campaign, and a stalwart of the FCS Playoffs.

ASU appointed a feasability committee to explore FBS membership, and the group recommended a move. The Mountaineers played before some of the best crowds in the subdivision, averaging over 25,000 at Kidd Brewer Stadium.

Losing ASU would be a huge blow to the FCS garnering more national attention, as the Mountaineer program is one of, if not the forerunner in representing the subdivision. Losing TSU, UTSA and UMass lacks the same impact, as none have the same success or fanbase.

The question for a program like ASU becomes is the move worth it — can our program replicate what Boise State accomplished, making the same leap 15 years ago? BSU is the shining beacon, the pinnacle of what an FBS move can do for a football program. Nevada is another recent success story.

However, ASU may find itself in a situation more akin to Marshall’s. The Herd was a Division I-AA powerhouse in the 1990s, and transitioned successfully to the MAC. However, Marshall has been unable to sustain its initial success since moving to Conference USA, the league most likely to host ASU should it move. Marshall ranked low in home attendance and lacks the national profile it boasted as a I-AA force.

Idaho failed to achieve even the same modest success Marshall has experienced. UI has reached all of two bowl games since making the jump in 1996, and last season finished 2-10. The Vandals play in a facility much more comparable to the domes of FCS members North Dakota, North Dakota State and Northern Iowa, than the renowned stadium former rival BSU calls home.

Perhaps recognizing where others have fallen short, Montana declined FBS membership when invited by the WAC in 2010. UM’s two decades of standout play have made it a premiere FCS program, a fact reflected in high attendance figures. Athletic director Jim O’Day said in an interview in November 2010 that sacrificing what the program had established chasing the possiblity of becoming another Boise wasn’t worth it. Neither was giving up its century-long rivalry with Montana State, though it’s not unreasonable to think the WAC would take both now that the league is gasping for air.

UM proves that a program doesn’t need to be in the FBS to gain notoriety, but TV certainly helps. That’s what makes the CAA-NBC Sports deal landmark, and so necessary at this time for the subdivision. With the CAA landing one first, other conferences could follow suit. The Southern Conference is ASU’s current home, and brings together some of the most noteworthy FCS programs, like Georgia Southern. The Big Sky is expanding, calls the 2010 national champion its own, and has Montana as a standard bearer. The Missouri Valley Football Conference routinely boasts top tier teams like Northern Iowa and the historic Youngstown State, as well as 2011 champion North Dakota State.

There’s no shortage of possibilities for the FCS to garner more national attention.