Idaho getting the boot from Sun Belt

The University of Idaho’s two-decades-long foray into Division I football could be coming to an end.

The Sun Belt Conference announced Tuesday that, effective at the end of the 2017 football season, Idaho (and New Mexico State) will no longer be members of the conference.

Idaho has been a football-playing member of NCAA Division I (now called FBS) since 1996.

Idaho president Chuck Staben said Tuesday the Vandals were “disappointed by the Sun Belt’s decision.”

He said Idaho’s “two primary options” are to become FBS independent, which the Vandals did for one season in 2013 after the Western Athletic Conference dissolved and Idaho returned to the Sun Belt in football, or go back to the FCS-level Big Sky Conference, in which Idaho was a member until 1995, and enjoyed great success in the 1980s and early ’90s.

“I really don’t think that we have one option that we prefer over the other,” Idaho athletic director Rob Spear said.

Spear said he and Staben plan to “explore all options.” Idaho has an invitation to join the Big Sky, an invitation that expires May 4, though the Vandals could ask for that deadline to be extended.

Either way, Staben said “at this point, we are anticipating playing in the Sun Belt through 2017.”

When Idaho and New Mexico State were accepted into the Sun Belt as football-playing only members in 2013 (beginning with the 2014 football season), it was a four-year agreement with the stipulation the agreement could be revisited after two years.

In 2013, the addition of Idaho and New Mexico State gave the Sun Belt a total of 11 football-playing members, getting the league closer to the magic number of 12 teams required in a conference for the league to be able to hold a potentially lucrative conference title game. With Coastal Carolina scheduled to join the conference in all sports but football this fall, then join in football in 2018, the Sun Belt would be at 12 football-playing schools.

But in January, the NCAA voted that conferences need only 10 teams, not 12, to hold a conference title game, with certain caveats. Also, the formula for distributing College Football Playoff money was changed, and the Sun Belt now can split its share 10 ways, rather than 12.

So, no longer with the need to have Idaho and New Mexico State in their mostly southern league — with teams in Texas, Arkansas, Georgia, Louisiana and North Carolina — the Sun Belt invited presidents from Idaho and New Mexico State to make presentations on why they should be allowed to stay in the league.

Sun Belt officials were supposed to vote on March 10 and announce their decision then.

But following the schools’ presentations last month, several members of the conference’s executive committee discussed their thoughts and “it did not appear that the votes were there, so to speak (to keep Idaho and New Mexico State in the conference),” Sun Belt commissioner Karl Benson said.

So the announcement was moved up nine days “when it became evident the presidents and chancellors were unified in moving forward with a 10-team league,” Benson said.

Benson said the change where leagues now only need 10 teams, not 12, to hold a conference title game “certainly had a main factor” in the Sun Belt’s decision to boot Idaho and New Mexico State. So did the option of splitting the same revenue 10 ways instead of 12.

Benson said performance on the football field also played a factor in the decision. Idaho and New Mexico State have perennially been among the worst college football teams in FBS, though this past season Idaho defeated three Sun Belt teams. New Mexico State also won three Sun Belt games last fall — including one over Idaho.

In addition to Idaho and New Mexico State, other Sun Belt members in football include Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Louisiana-Lafayette, Louisiana-Monroe, South Alabama, Texas State and Troy.

Since moving up to NCAA Division I in 1996, Idaho was in the Big West (’96-2000), Sun Belt (2001-05), Western Athletic Conference (2005-12) independent (2013) and Sun Belt again (2014-present). The Vandals have had four winning seasons since moving up to Division I — just one since 1999. Idaho has played in two bowl games since 1996, both times winning the Humanitarian Bowl (in 1998 and 2009). Coming off a 4-8 season last fall — Idaho’s best record since 2010 — the Vandals are expected to contend for a bowl bid.

Idaho’s record as a Division I program is 73-162.

“We have been an independent before,” Staben said. “It’s not an easy thing.”

A lot of factors could come into play if Idaho opts to drop back down into the Big Sky level. Football scholarships would be reduced from 85 in FBS to 63 in FCS, and playing in a lower-revenue league could have a trickle-down effect on the number of scholarships for other sports.

“We will control our own destiny,” Spear said. “We’ve been in reactionary mode for too long.”