Report: Delaware move to FBS, Conference USA coming soon

The University of Delaware's widely anticipated move to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision and Conference USA appears set.

The Blue Hens' addition to C-USA is "expected" for the 2025-26 school year and will soon be formalized, ESPN's Pete Thamel reported today.

UD athletic director Chrissi Rawak was not made available for comment this morning with a UD spokesperson saying there will be more information in the coming days.

"We'll have some news here in the coming days and I'm sure that would be exciting news coming forward for you," Delaware coach Ryan Carty said this morning, "but I don't really have anything to say right now about it."

The league’s present nine members are Sam Houston State and UTEP in Texas, New Mexico State, Louisiana Tech, Jacksonville State in Alabama, Florida International, Middle Tennessee, Western Kentucky and Liberty in Virginia. Next year, Georgia’s Kennesaw State makes the move up from the Football Championship Subdivision.

Sam Houston is coached by former Delaware football coach K,C. Keeler and is where Carty worked before being hired by Delaware in December of 2021.

Such a move would likely be for all 21 UD teams, though field hockey, men’s soccer, men's and women's swimming, men’s and women's lacrosse and women’s rowing are sports C-USA does not sponsor. Delaware teams would still be able to compete for Coastal Athletic Association titles in sports other than football because the CAA changed its rules after JMU teams were barred in 2020-21 with its departure to the Sun Belt Conference looming.

The recent blessing given UD athletic officials by the school's board of Trustees to pursue a climb to FBS and Conference USA, despite its widely scattered geographic footprint, emerging as a logical destination made such a move appear imminent.

Delaware has long had one of the nation's most successful programs at college football's second highest level, presently the Football Championship Subdivision. Delaware has won six national titles, the last in 2003, and come close on several other occasions.

But it has watched a slew of former FCS rivals and foes move up to FBS in recent years, such as James Madison, Jacksonville State, Appalachian State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Old Dominion, Western Kentucky, UMass, UConn and Marshall. Since JMU's departure from the CAA after the 2021 football season, the conference has added Stony Brook, Monmouth, North Carolina A&T, Hampton and Campbell, with Bryant joining next year.

"I am happy," said Russ Crook, president of the Blue Hen Touchdown Club fans group, "because the CAA has changed all around us in a way that I don't like it. The schools that we brought in don't match us in any way that I can say. "

Crook added with a laugh: "Yes, it's a far-flung league. That's a bit of a problem. But I've always wanted to go to New Mexico."

Another UD fan was less enamored.

"We won’t be able to contend for a championship," Michael Potts said. "We will be playing for a bowl game berth and not even a New Year's bowl game. Look at JMU. One loss and not even in the Top 25. I like FCS because we can win a championship."

In the steady swirl of conference realignment, Delaware may even be viewing the move as an initial step with potentially lucrative future benefits.

A fund-raising effort for a proposed $85 million indoor practice/office facility connected to a newly enclosed north end of Delaware Stadium begun last year increased the sense a move to FBS was likely with its financial and competitive advantages. That is likely to make this year's FCS playoffs, in which Delaware visits Montana Saturday night in the round of 16, the Blue Hens' final such excursion.

"You never know when your last run at anything is going to be," Carty said Monday morning. "I think we have to treat everything like it's the most important time we're doing something. Whether that's Monday night practice, Tuesday morning practice . . . We get an opportunity to go out there and have a ton of fun in a great environment. That's what FCS football's all about and we're excited to be a part of that right now."

Delaware would be ineligible for the 2024 FCS tournament as it transitions to FBS in 2025. The climb up would allow Delaware to offer 85 scholarships rather than the FCS limit of 63. Title IX gender-equity ramifications may require Delaware to cut a men's team or add a women's team, with the addition of a women's ice hockey squad believed to be a possible solution.

But Delaware does appear quite capable of financially fitting into C-USA, as it spends more money on athletics now than each of the other C-USA schools except Liberty, according to USA Today’s annual NCAA finances report and U.S. Department of Education Equity in Athletics Data Analysis. Delaware has a $48 million athletics budget, according to USA Today’s 2022 college finances report.

However, the NCAA recently decided to put a $5 million price tag on moving up to FBS

Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware Blue Hens move to FBS, Conference USA likely coming soon