MVCfans.com

Article today:

NORMAL — The timeline remains decidedly foggy, but Illinois State president Al Bowman has not wavered from his long-term goal for the Redbird football program.
“The long, long range vision is to play football at that next level,” Bowman said of moving from the Championship Subdivision to Bowl Subdivision. “But we’ve got a lot of ground between now and then.”

Bowman does not expect the considerable nationwide upheaval in conference affiliation to result in ISU leaving the Missouri Valley Conference.
“We’re real happy with the Missouri Valley right now,” said Bowman. “The presidents in the Valley are certainly thinking about what would happen if there were more realignment changes and what schools would make sense to incorporate into the Valley. But I don’t see anything on the immediate horizon.”

Read more: http://www.pantagraph.com/sports/colleg ... z1myc0wLLg

I'm interested to know how "long term" the plan is. I think upgrading to FBS means we'd be out of the Valley also.

Beat me to the punch on posting about this.

It also looks like we are getting approval to finance the stadium renovation and the plan is to continue to add on to it at some point so that a horseshoe is formed.

It will be interesting to see what happens. I think one of the big tests will be what the turnout and buzz will be like when we play Ball St. at home.

Red, I never really thought before of the implications that those types of statements from Bowman have when other members (presidents) of our conference see them. I think a lot of us fans want to see a timetable, but from that perspective, I can understand why we wouldn't want to put a set date on it or give the impression that we are not happy with the MVC by saying this is a goal. And I suppose announcing that we want to move up in football can have the implication that one day we might no longer be a part of the MVC.

Now that conference realigment is hitting the "mid-major" level, I am hoping the possibility will be out there for us to move football only into a FBS conference and keep everything else in the MVC. Sure would be nice to have the best of both worlds, but if we were to move everything into a conference like the MAC, I am sure we will be able to maintain our rivalries with BU and SIU.

BirdmanBB wrote:Now that conference realigment is hitting the "mid-major" level, I am hoping the possibility will be out there for us to move football only into a FBS conference and keep everything else in the MVC. Sure would be nice to have the best of both worlds, but if we were to move everything into a conference like the MAC, I am sure we will be able to maintain our rivalries with BU and SIU.

If Temple moves out of the MAC as it sounds like I wonder if we would consider expediting things to try and make the jump. If the powers that be aren't looking at it now they are foolish.

We'll all be 'Division II' before it's all said and done anyway. Just enjoy the ride.