Colton McWilliams Sports Editor
In 2012 Texas State made the jump to Football Bowl Subdivision joining the Western Athletic Conference before finding their home in the Sun Belt Conference.
The reason for the jump was simple. After 27 years playing Football Championship Subdivision, this was the goal the university wanted to achieve dating back as 2000.
Playing at the FBS level meant your university was on par with Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, TCU and SMU.
It also meant that the university was now going to have more exposure on television with games on the ESPN linear channels, which theoretically meant more people would now know who and where Texas State. That would drive up interest in the school and potential students.
Not that Texas State has had any problems attracting students, but now the university was appealing to a larger audience rather than a local one.
In turn, the school could now get more money for being on television, which could improve the university as a whole.
Everything positive about making the jump to FBS is provign to pay dividends for Texas State despite the long road to get there.
Unfortunately for the university, the time of playing in the FBS alongside the big schools is being threatened.
Realignment has thrown caution into the wind and has uprooted what we know about college athletics.
Gone are the days of playing regional rivals. Those are replaced with conferences that stretch from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean. 100-year-old rivalries are now thrown away in favor of playing a conference opponent thousands of miles away.
But most critically, the powers that be at the biggest universities are doing their darnedest to get away from the perceived smaller schools.
We are seeing the SEC and Big Ten conferences adding more schools to their membership with Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC and Oregon, UCLA, USC and Washington moving to the Big Ten.
In contrast, the Big 12 moved to poach Arizona, Arizona State, Colorado and Utah while the ACC picked California, Stanford and SMU.
With membership now bloating up, the super leagues are now talking of splitting away and forming in their own division to separate themselves.
A recent article by Dave Campbell’s Texas Football magazine talked about a possible split between the members of the Power Four (Members of the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12 and SEC) and the members of the Group of Five (American Athletic, Conference USA, Mid American, Mountain West and Sun Belt).
Some of the coaches were even advocating for the Group of Five to have their own playoff system that will determine a national championship while mentioning that a split was coming.
It sparked so much controversy that even Texas State President Kelly Damphousse tweeted that “contrary to recent commentary, we all play the same game - same ball, same rules, same high quality coaches & same heart. Can’t wait to show it!”
While there is an understanding of the appeal of a potential, more regional based G5 division with their own playoff and conferences, Texas State fight this, and they very well may be.
Since the jump to the Sun Belt, Texas State has shown time and time again that they can not only compete with the bigger schools but also beat them.
Texas State baseball has routinely beat up on the Texas Longhorns. Texas State softball swept a Big Ten Contender in Penn State and defeated Texas A&M. Texas State volleyball has proven to be one of the top destinations for volleyball players, and Texas State football embarrassed Baylor on their home field last season in the opener.
Texas State elevated their university to prove they were just as worthy as Texas or Baylor to compete for a national championship.
Nothing separates Texas State from the rest of the Texas P5 other than money and history.
Is the split coming? Unfortunately, it probably is. But Texas State would be damned if they do not go out fighting.
cmcwilliams @sanmarcosrecord.com Twitter: @ColtonBMc
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