Aggies Aren't Downgrading

If you’re worrying about Utah State University dropping down a level in football, you can stop.

Isn’t going to happen, according to athletics director Scott Barnes.

Barnes said this week that USU expects to remain at the Football Bowl Subdivision (formerly I-A) level, rather than going to Football Championship Subdivision (formerly I-AA).

Over the years, there has been considerable speculation that USU would wind up at the same level as Weber State, playing Division 1 in basketball, but a notch down on the gridiron.

“We never had plans to do that,” said Barnes. “Plans are moving forward, as part of a comprehensive funding plan.”

Indeed, USU doesn’t seem to be looking back. In 2007, the three-story Jim and Carol Laub Athletics Complex was completed in the north end zone. It includes meeting rooms sports medicine, locker rooms, offices, luxury suites and a student-athlete center. Plans are to add a new press box and luxury suites on the west side of Romney Stadium.

Barnes’ message is that USU athletics don’t have to be the biggest in order to give students and fans a good experience.

“We talk about that all the time,” he said. “Return on the investment. Today’s return isn’t very good in the economy, but the investment in our student-athletes, on the field and in the classroom, has been very good.”

***

USU was ranked this week as the nation’s most economically efficient athletic department (see related column in Friday’s Deseret News).

BYU and Utah ranked fifth and sixth, respectively.

An interesting offshoot of the study by the Laboratory for the Study of Intercollegiate Athletics is that the top 10 ranked schools were all non-BCS schools. http://lsia.tamu.edu/. Apparently playing in the big leagues is expensive.

The Mountain West had four teams in the top 25, including BYU, Utah, New Mexico (16) and TCU (25), while the WAC placed USU, Louisiana Tech (3), Boise State (7), Fresno State (22) and Nevada (24).

The highest-ranked BCS school was Oregon (11).