That is exactly what is happening. The PAC 12 brand is really just the MWC plus a couple of stray animals. The MWC looks like the old WAC with some randoms. Neither of these conferences are particularly appealing to casual football fans in the Sac market. Plus, in five years the media deals wind down and it’s back to the drawing board.
Oh, I'm well aware. I lurk around on most of the active forums for the Big Sky and theirs is the most openly hostile and like you said, not just to fans of other teams.
No, the FCS does not have 105 full scholarships, it's still 63.
From Sam Herder:
FCS schools that opt-in to the House settlement can go above the 63 scholarship limit and it won’t impact playoff eligibility. However, an FCS conference can set a cap on number of football scholarships. Even if the Big Sky, for example, set the cap at 63, a team that opts in can spread their 63 scholarships over 105 players instead of the current 63 scholarships spread over 85 players. (FCS can offer partial scholarships.) So opting in gives you better flexibility to get more players scholarship $. A team could also hypothetically offer a number of “non-scholarship” players an in-house NIL deal that pays their tuition, so they could creatively go over the scholarship minimum anyway even if a conference set a cap. FCS schools that opt in could create a good competitive advantage, but mid-major athletic departments don’t just have extra $ laying around to throw a ton of more scholarship $ to players, so it’d take some fundraising help
Not getting into the FBS doesn't seem to be affecting Marion's ability to continue to bring in some of the top talent in the nation. This kid had over 20 FBS offers including schools like Alabama, Auburn, Miami, Florida State, Penn State, Colorado and Tennessee among others. Marion's recruiting must have those programs dumbfounded by what they are seeing.
An FCS conference can set a limit and some do. The Big Sky limit is 63.
Last week the Missouri Valley Football Conference, just decided not to set a cap, joining these listed from google AI:
CAA: The CAA has mandated that all member institutions opt-in to the new NCAA rules, effectively removing the scholarship cap.
NEC: The Northeast Conference has also opted into the new rules, allowing for up to 105 scholarships, mirroring the new NCAA roster limit.
Southland: The Southland Conference will not enforce a football scholarship cap, allowing its members to distribute scholarships as they choose within the 105-player roster limit.
Here is why, also from google AI
NCAA Changes: The NCAA has eliminated the previous scholarship caps for most Division 1 sports, including football, and implemented roster limits instead.
House Settlement: The House vs. NCAA settlement, which includes provisions for revenue sharing and the changes to scholarship limits, is prompting these changes.
Conference Autonomy: While the NCAA has made these changes, individual conferences, like the MVFC, have the ability to set their own rules and scholarship caps.
For purposes of athletics, what is a “scholarship”? Tuition, while certainly not inexpensive, is the lesser compared to housing, fees, insurance, etc. and many California residents already qualify for discounted or free tuition based on income, with the non-tuition costs frequently being the larger challenge for an ordinary student. Do athletic scholarships include cash allowance for all the non-tuition costs like housing, fees, books, etc? And let’s say a particular recruit was already eligible for discounted tuition based on income, would the athletic scholarship count as whole or partial in that case? Said another way, could a partial athletic scholarship stack with other kinds of scholarships or financial aid to equal full cost of attendance?