Sam Houston's move to Conference USA brings questions

Nov. 9—Sam Houston is set to join Conference USA on July 1, 2023, and with that, the football program will head for the Football Bowl Subdivision.

We may also see the addition of two more women's programs in the coming years.

Moving to FBS for Sam Houston at this point seems like a reach for the program, with major hurdles to jump over.

The first hurdle, money.

The five remaining programs left in Conference USA averaged a $31.5 million budget, while Sam Houston's is still under $20 million. The lowest budget in Conference USA is Louisiana Tech, which runs at a budget of $23 million — still $5 million more than Sam Houston's.

Over the last month, Sam Houston had a student body vote to increase the athletic fee by $3 per credit hour and it was voted down. That proposed increase would have seen a near-$2 million revenue increase by the students towards athletics, which could have potentially been enough to make the move, as approximately 72% of the funding comes from student fees and university funding.

While funding still seems to be in question, one additional source of revenue will come from the conference.

"Well for one, our budget is not that far off from some of the FBS schools in a variety of conferences," Sam Houston State University President Dr. Alisa White said in a press conference on Friday. "We don't have a huge gap to close anyways. We also have opportunities for revenue that we didn't have before in conference distribution. There are more pots from which to draw in a FBS environment than a FCS. We will have to spend some money on some facilities... We need to do some things in the press box area, for instance, and we would be doing that whether we stayed FCS. It would be a matter of when and time and how the money can flow. The financial picture is one where we have somewhat of a gap, but not a huge gap, and we will have access to pots of revenue that we didn't have before."

The second hurdle, Elliot T. Bowers Stadium.

Bowers stadium was opened in 1986 and has since had little face-work. The FBS minimum requirement for attendance is 15,000 over a rolling two-year period, Sam Houston averages about 8,000, or so, on a good day. The maximum attendance at Bowers is 14,000 attendees, so stadium renovations would be expected with a move to FBS.

As for the rolling numbers, Sam Houston can use the Battle of the Piney Woods game to help bring the numbers up, and that attendance averages approximately 20,000 people per year.

"We are going to reallocate the seating, there will be some things that we will have to do so that we can get to the 15,000 person or more mark," Sam Houston Athletics Director Bobby Williams said. "There are plans to move that forward. With the Battle of the Piney Woods game being at NRG we will be able to utilize that. We sell 85% of those tickets at 26,000, that's going to help us as well. Hopefully, with scheduling, we will be able to bring in some teams that will be very attractive and will travel well. I know several schools in Conference USA travel well."

While the move doesn't make sense from a revenue and fan attendance point of view, there could still be bonuses.

Being an FBS program will allow schools to schedule additional revenue games, with only one FCS victory counting towards bowl eligibility. The additional revenue generating games against Power 5 schools could help bring financial relief to the program.

Conference USA is also likely to bring in television revenue that goes above and beyond what Sam Houston is receiving from the WAC. Conference USA has had previous media deals that paid around $400,000 per school.

Hurdle 3... facilities.

Other facilities could also see some housekeeping done to them. Williams mentioned that the addition of an indoor practice facility, as well as a practice gym, has been on their list.

"We've been dealing with master plans of facilities for a long time, going back to when we built baseball and softball facilities in the mid-2000s," Williams added. "When we added the weight room, we began the renovations of the coliseum. We are in the process of adding our tennis programs along with future additions of women's sports. Renovations of the fields and tracks has always been there. Hopefully, this particular move is going to help us accelerate those and help it become sooner, rather than later. This move is going to help us open up those revenue streams to make it happen faster."