[CTcard]

... why are schools like Old Dominion and Georgia State moving up to "Division 1"?

That's a very good question. There's about 10 such schools recently.
[Strictly speaking they are already division 1, they are trying to move up from FCS (former Div 1-AA) to FBS (former Div 1-A).]

Broadly speaking they are not moving up for financial reasons.* Take Ga State. They only began a football team in 2010. I think it is essentially impossible that football itself hasn't been, and won't, lose money. The USA Today chart on college athletics financing notes that Ga State subsidizes their AD at an 85% rate on a budget of $27 million. At Old Dominion it's only 73% subsidized on a budget of $36 million.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/s.../finances/

Now it might be possible that going to FBS will increase revenues more than expenses, and they'll be ahead of where they were in FCS. Again by the USA Today chart, the atheltic departments with the biggest subsidies are mixed between FCS and FBS. Of the schools with the 20 biggest absolute subsidies (over $20 million), 12 are FBS and 8 FCS. Also, 6 are among the schools who have either recently moved to FBS, or are about to do so.


My guess as to why in most cases is ego and pressure.
Many administrators, alums, and locals view having a top-level football team as a certification of being a top level university - or at least as defining "Big Time" in some broad sense. Career administrators are looking to establish something they built to put on their resume for the next job - and a football team is high profile, alums want to cheer for their team on TV (look at us), and locals (and thus their elected politicians) often see more connection to a football team than anything else a university does.



* I can think of an exception to the "not for financial reasons" statement, but it didn't work out well in the end. UConn moved to FBS football in 2000 - 2002. In their case they had a guaranteed entry into a BCS conference (the now defunct Big East) and while there wasn't that much state interest in football, they felt they needed high level football to protect their basketball program. More recently, UConn has been perhaps the biggest loser in the conference reshuffling, as Louisville beat them out for ACC membership. Now UConn transitions from a major conference team to a minor conference team. Cincinnati and South Florida also find themselves with a drop in status, but they had only just moved into the Big East as replacements for those fleeing.

[CTcard]

... why are schools like Old Dominion and Georgia State moving up to "Division 1"?

That's a very good question. There's about 10 such schools recently.
[Strictly speaking they are already division 1, they are trying to move up from FCS (former Div 1-AA) to FBS (former Div 1-A).]

Broadly speaking they are not moving up for financial reasons.* Take Ga State. They only began a football team in 2010. I think it is essentially impossible that football itself hasn't been, and won't, lose money. The USA Today chart on college athletics financing notes that Ga State subsidizes their AD at an 85% rate on a budget of $27 million. At Old Dominion it's only 73% subsidized on a budget of $36 million.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/s.../finances/

Now it might be possible that going to FBS will increase revenues more than expenses, and they'll be ahead of where they were in FCS. Again by the USA Today chart, the atheltic departments with the biggest subsidies are mixed between FCS and FBS. Of the schools with the 20 biggest absolute subsidies (over $20 million), 12 are FBS and 8 FCS. Also, 6 are among the schools who have either recently moved to FBS, or are about to do so.


My guess as to why in most cases is ego and pressure.
Many administrators, alums, and locals view having a top-level football team as a certification of being a top level university - or at least as defining "Big Time" in some broad sense. Career administrators are looking to establish something they built to put on their resume for the next job - and a football team is high profile, alums want to cheer for their team on TV (look at us), and locals (and thus their elected politicians) often see more connection to a football team than anything else a university does.



* I can think of an exception to the "not for financial reasons" statement, but it didn't work out well in the end. UConn moved to FBS football in 2000 - 2002. In their case they had a guaranteed entry into a BCS conference (the now defunct Big East) and while there wasn't that much state interest in football, they felt they needed high level football to protect their basketball program. More recently, UConn has been perhaps the biggest loser in the conference reshuffling, as Louisville beat them out for ACC membership. Now UConn transitions from a major conference team to a minor conference team. Cincinnati and South Florida also find themselves with a drop in status, but they had only just moved into the Big East as replacements for those fleeing.