The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA) introduced former University of Miami coach Larry Coker as their first head football coach today.

UTSA will start play in 2011 and play their home games in the Alamodome as an NCAA Division I school.

http://www.utsa.edu/today/2009/03/coker.cfm

I knew they were trying... congrats to them ...big name coach for a start-up program

so, ut will play itself in a few years? whats the neutral site gonna be? schlitterban? lol

I'm sure we can rent them the Lifegate field here in Seguin. They'd have to bring their own lights if they want a night game.

There not the only one moving up to D1 Texas State is also making the move up and I think Lamar is doing the same!

I've been spending some time around San Marcos lately and catching some of the talk from Texas State about moving up to the BCS level of D1 (the NCAA splits D1 football into the BCS level and FCS level, I think the other is Football Championship Series or something like that, it's what I used to think of as D1AA or something like that).

The higher level requires the university to have a certain capacity and average attendance at games. Forget the numbers, but Texas State is talking about allowing tailgate parties, etc. to draw the crowds.

Texas State has been D1. They took a vote in in 2007 to move to the FBS in the next 5 years. They called this campaign "The Drive"

I'm not sure that I'd want Larry Coker running my program. I guess he could be good for recruiting, but he ran the Miami program straight into the ground.

Well, he did win a NC for what it's worth. Granted he probably had the most talented NCAA team... well... maybe ever.

Stephen F. Austin is also exploring moving into FBS in the next few years.

Where did you find the info about Stephen F Austin moving up? I would like to read about that..Also there is rumor about UTA getting a football program started.

I am an alum of SFA...got word in an alumni letter looking for donations :)

I've heard the same about UT-Arlington also...they should use that stadium for something productive!

Might be a little much, but I got curious and looked up difference in requirements between FBS and FCS on the NCAA website and found this...

FBS (Formerly Division I-A) Standards
Number of Varsity Sports including football: 16 (7-8 mens/ 8-9 womens)
Attendance Requirements: Average minimum 15,000 paid or actual attendance
Scheduling: 60% FBS opponents, minimum 4 home games against FBS opponents
Scholarship Limit: 85
I also remember reading that schools in FBS are required to have a minimum athletic budget and their stadiums must hold a minimum of 30,000 people, but I didn't see those listed on the site.

FCS (Formerly Division I-AA) Standards
Number of Varsity Sports including football: 14 (7/7 or 6/8)
Attendance Requirements: None
Scheduling: 50% against either FCS or FBS opponents
Scholarship Limit: 63

As for the teams: Lamar will take the field in 2010, UTSA in 2011, both as members of the Southland Conference (FCS)
UTA has had discussions, but nothing more

I knew Texas State had been working toward moving up to FBS for awhile, but Stephen F. Austin is surprising

And just to throw it in there, UT-Tyler is looking to add football, albeit on a Division III level.

Of course, this is coming from a NW State person by the avatar right? You can only trust so much of what a Demon says :)

I do agree though...SFA has had many good runs in FCS and has a good recruiting base to get some good talent in FCS. I doubt they can recruit with the likes of UT, A&M and Tech. I think they'd have a hard time getting talent like those teams, or even lower tier FBS teams in Texas. The population of the school has yet to reach 15,000 also. It's sitting around 12,000-14,000 including grad students. So, it will be a while. The stadium only holds 24,000 or so if you use the grass areas too.

So, we can be rest assured that there will be many Battle of Chief Caddo's for a long time to come. :)