Back For The Future
Tomorrow, Youngstown State University helps kicks off the college football season with a game against Samford. This may be a make or break season for Youngstown State head coach Bo Pelini. Much of the luster from a 2016 Cinderella run to the FCS National Championship game may have worn off. Going 6–5 and then 4–7 will cause that to happen.
The YSU program has been staggering since legendary coach, and now president of the university, Jim Tressel left to take the Ohio State head coaching job at the end of the 2000 season. The program has made only two playoff appearances, and is on their third coach.
Some of this may have to do with the rise of the “Mid-Major” college football programs. Schools like Miami of Ohio, Central Michigan and Louisville may be courting a lot of the players that Youngstown State would have been able to recruit. Some may have to do with the program being more one where players were going to play for Coach Tressel more than for Youngstown State.
But some of the difficulty the program faces may be the conference they are in. The Missouri Valley Football Conference may be one of the toughest conferences in the FCS; North Dakota State has become a power and had several players drafted into the NFL, and the conference regularly sends 3 or 4 teams into the season-ending playoff.
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The case could be made, based on recent results, that the program is in over its head, and that moving to a conference where Youngstown State could be more competitive may be in order. A good fit may be a conference they were in for much of the 1980’s, The Ohio Valley Conference.
Jeff Sagarin, whose college football ratings are featured in USA Today each week during the college football season assigns Youngstown State a 53.48 rating, ahead of programs like Yale and University of Connecticut. The average rating for the Missouri Valley is 57.92 while the Ohio Valley averages 41.20.
Another argument for moving may be financial. The road games would be closer. No more need to make trips to Iowa, or North or South Dakota. The football programs that make up the Ohio Valley are mainly in Tennessee. There is Jacksonville State, which is not in Florida, but is in Alabama, and Southeast Missouri State.
One potential flaw is that Youngstown State would be basically going all in on Football. The Men’s Basketball program at Youngstown State has been mediocre at best. The Ohio Valley has become one of the better mid-major conferences for Men’s Basketball. Now the money that is being saved on football travel may go to helping upgrade recruiting, perhaps even the international recruiting many mid-major basketball programs rely on.
Of course, Youngstown State may be like a few programs at the FBS level of college football, paying the price to be part of a “power conference”. Think of Rutgers being in the Big 10, when the American Conference would be a better fit.
