The MVFC can't even make the jump if they wanted to. An FBS conference needs 8 teams, and only 7 MVFC stadiums seat the FBS minimum 15,000:
Illinois State Hancock Stadium 13,391
Indiana State Memorial Stadium 12,764
Missouri State Plaster Sports Complex 17,500North Dakota Alerus Center 12,283
North Dakota State Fargodome 19,000Northern Iowa UNI-Dome 16,324South Dakota DakotaDome 10,000
South Dakota State Dana J. Dykhouse Stadium 19,340
Southern Illinois Saluki Stadium 15,000
Western Illinois Hanson Field 17,168
Youngstown State Stambaugh Stadium 20,630But let's say ISU Red decides to expand another 2,000 seats to their stadium to meet the minimum. Here's the average attendance for the remaining schools:
MSU averages 10,097
ISU Red averages 10,166
NDSU averages 18,556
UNI averages 12,123
SDSU averages 13,753
SIU averages 7,919
WIU averages 4,910
YSU averages 12,439
Congrats, you're now on the hook for 20 something more scholarships (and any previously partial scholarships are now full). Now, what's your solution to that? Turn your September noncon into four buy games? That means you don't get your first home game until October, and looking at the attendances of these schools, they take a big dive as the games get colder. And are you going to follow the MAC model to get an ESPN contract? That means you play your home games on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Good luck with that. Even ISU Red, as good as they've ever been, can't top 8,000 past mid October, and that's with Saturday games. Attendance dives even further. Where are WIU, SIU and ISU Red coming up with this extra money? The state of Illinois? HA. A $2000 per student FBS tax (given WIU's small enrollment, more like $5k for them)? Are the fans going to be so much more excited about the prospect of playing a Youngstown with 20 more scholarships that attendance jumps by thousands?
The Valley is what it is. These are basketball first schools, smaller schools than you'll find even in the MAC. NDSU is an odd man out. Maybe they can angle for a MAC or Mountain West invite if those conferences lose a school, but the MAC seems content as a bus league and since the NCAA pulled their 12-team-minimum-for-a-title-game rule they might not decide to add another even then.
Edit: Even NDSU football finished in the red last year. FBS is an expensive venture that will probably require basketball cuts at schools like UNI and ISU Red that have pretty good things going, and for WIU to mortgage its campus.
http://bismarcktribune.com/news/state-a ... 69df0.html