I am not saying it can't be done, but we know the rules to get it done and thus you would think that there would signs of progress to that fact. 1. NCAA is not approving any conference to move up together, as they took care of that loop hole years ago. Unless the SWAC is planning one of the lawsuits against the NCAA that was file on the behalf of HBCUs, then it is a mute point talking about moving up as whole conference. 2, Not all the schools are equal in the SWAC when it comes to finances, so even with a influx of clash through any type of deals, you will still have teams unable to make the jump to d1. 3. If the SWAC schools really plan to jump as a group of schools that could make it, then they will need to find a conference home that will take that many number of schools and then you have to consider what will happen to the schools like Valley that will have to stay behind or go back to D2. 4. The only conference that will really make sense would be conference USA, which would plug geographic issues with their current school line, but the flip side of that schools will have to deal with an increase in travel cost given the wide foot print of conference usa
I am not down on SWAC or even MEAC schools moving up, but people need to be realistic how it can be done. Expecting for ESPN deal to generate a massive income is as logically as me planning my life around winning the lottery. ESPN parent company is in trouble and they are laying off people, so I would not expect a massive increase in media rights for ESPN to the SWAC. What I would like to see if the SWAC or MEAC schools are planning to move up then, they need to start setting the ground work to do so, but at least supporting all scholarships on FCS level. If you can't even do that, then how are the schools expecting to all of sudden support the same scholarships at a D1 one level.
Our people have succeed regardless of all the hardships that we have been put through in this country, so I believe we can do things if we set our minds to it by having a logical and realistic long term plan to reach the goal. What I don't want to see is us setting goals or doing things and hoping that everything will turn out alright, as that mind set it what help lead to St. Paul closing (they brought back football when they was having hard financial times and end up loosing money every football season).