Vandals reportedly headed back to Sky

With multiple news outlets reporting Idaho is moving its football program back to the Big Sky, the University of Idaho has scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. today in Moscow to make an announcement “regarding UI’s football conference affiliation.”

Idaho president Chuck Staben, Idaho athletic director Rob Spear and Vandals head football coach Paul Petrino are all scheduled to attend.

FootballScoop.com was the first to report that Idaho would leave the Football Bowl Subdivision, which it has been a member since 1996, and move back down to the Football Championship Subdivision, where it last played in 1995.

The move would take place effective the 2018 football season. Idaho is contracted to play two more seasons in the FBS Sun Belt Conference, but the league announced in March it was kicking Idaho and New Mexico State, football-only members of the league, out of the conference following the 2017 football season.

Idaho’s other sports returned to the Big Sky two years ago.

Idaho has had a longstanding invitation from the Big Sky to return in football, where it played from 1965-95. The Vandals were also considering remaining in FBS as an independent, hopeful of landing in another conference soon. Spear has often spoke of the possibility of a “Tier 2” in FBS, which would allow the top Big Sky football programs to move up to that level, and for Idaho to join them and remain in FBS.

FBS teams are allowed 85 full-ride scholarships. FCS programs are only allowed 63 full-ride scholarships, so it’s possible Idaho would have to cut women’s scholarships and/or teams to satisfy Title IX requirements.

While Idaho’s costs would go down by playing in FCS, so would its income from “money games” from larger FBS programs. Idaho has future games scheduled at Penn State, Florida and LSU, in which the Vandals would be paid at least $1 million per game. Money games for FCS schools vs. big FBS schools command a check of less than half of that.