McFeely: NDSU in FCS for 'foreseeable future,' unfortunately

Missouri State, a longtime friend in the Missouri Valley Football Conference, is movin' on up to the Football Bowl Subdivision while North Dakota State remains stuck in neutral in the watered down Football Championship Subdivision.

The question that should forever be asked until it is answered frankly is whether NDSU's administration, starting with athletic director Matt Larsen, tried in any meaningful way to get the Bison to FBS while the door was open or whether it sat passively by the phone waiting for a call it knew would never come.

Giving it the old college try and getting rejected is forgivable.

Watching the Missouri States, Delawares, Jacksonville States and Kennesaw States move up and doing exactly nothing is not.

Yeah, maybe it's 100% geography like some say. Maybe Fargo is a remote outpost so unattractive that no FBS conference would consider it. But Conference USA doesn't exactly have the proverbial "footprint," not when your members include New Mexico State, Florida Atlantic and Delaware. The Mountain West Conference flies everywhere anyway. And the Mid-American Conference? It should welcome the adrenalin injection NDSU would add.

Where was the vision? Where was the sales pitch?

Because, see, the problem now is that the window that's been open since conference upheaval began with Texas and Oklahoma jilting the Big 12 — and maybe even before in certain situations — appears to have slammed shut.

"This was likely the last opportunity for an FCS program to join an FBS league for the foreseeable future and we're honored to have been chosen," Missouri State president Clif Smart crowed at his school's official announcement it was going to Conference USA.

Some of this might be Smart dislocating his shoulder patting himself on the back, but he might be right. All the Group of Five leagues who might want to invite an FCS school are full. Missouri State was the 12th Conference USA member. Full. The Sun Belt has two seven-team divisions. Full. The Mountain West is looking to merge with what remains of the Pac-12. Full. The MAC doesn't want to expand. Full. The American Athletic Conference recently added Army as a football-only member to remain at 14 members. Full.

There's no room at the inn, even if NDSU was motivated to move.

Larsen, on the radio station Bison 1660 last week, said he's convinced there are major changes coming to Division I sports. As has been speculated by many, Larsen believes the power conferences like the Big Ten and Southeastern will split away and leave behind the Group of Five and FCS. That, Larsen and others believe, will spark the G5 conferences into banding together and having their own subdivision and 12-team playoff. That, presumably, would be NDSU's chance to move up.

Except, as Sam Herder of Hero Sports wrote, "The same reasons why an FCS conference or group of teams can’t just declare themselves FBS today could also apply to this new hypothetical G5 subdivision. There will be hope from dozens of FCS teams to get in and politicking from the G5 to keep most FCS teams out, if not all of them out. Perhaps somehow the NCAA could set the requirements to be in each subdivision, where teams or conferences need to hit a baseline of football investment to qualify."

In other words, no guarantees. NDSU would be hoping the NCAA hands it a lifeline and allows FCS teams to join the G5. But why would G5 teams like Boise State and James Madison (and Missouri State and Kennesaw State) want NSDU (or SDSU or Montana) in G5? And anyway, if you're banking on the NCAA for any reason, you're nuts.

Some call Missouri State crazy for spending the $5 million fee to make the jump to FBS. No, the Bears have it right. Get there at any cost and then you're in the club. Control your fate. Don't depend on others.

The president and AD at Missouri State had vision. One year ago, Smart said "there's not a question in my mind that, at some point, Missouri State will be playing FBS football." Many laughed. Smart had the last laugh.

For NDSU, it's FCS for the foreseeable future. And maybe longer.