They’ll be down to 7 teams as early as next year (in football, maybe all sports) - several of the teams are joining the PAC-2. For now, neither the PAC-2 (soon to be PAC-7) nor the MWC will be a real conference (NCAA requires 8).
There’s a handful of big-sky-country teams that utterly dominate FCS (formerly known as 1B) football, and have crowds (about 25,000) about double the guidelines (15,000) for admission to FBS (1A), or on the high side of current MWC teams: Montana, North Dakota, North Dakota State, South Dakota, South Dakota State. I’m sorta surprised none of them has made the move, yet.
There’s a handful of big-sky-country teams that utterly dominate FCS (formerly known as 1B) football, and have crowds (about 25,000) about double the guidelines (15,000) for admission to FBS (1A), or on the high side of current MWC teams: North Dakota State (#1), Montana State (#2), South Dakota State (#3), South Dakota (#4). Each of these is perennially in the top ten, and typically competing with the others for the championship. Montana, North Dakota and Idaho are also up there, in the top ten. I’m sorta surprised none of them has made the move, yet.