...I'm confident that college football can grow in popularity if they have the option of rooting for meaningful football beyond BC. Fan support doesn't just appear out of thin air though, it's going to take years to cultivate it, but it can be done.
I disagree with this. And not trying to start a fight or anything, I just don't see it ever happening, certainly not in New England. From the NE perspective, the sports fans there are entrenched in Boston sports (4 majors) or NY sports (8 majors). There is no shortage of options outside college FB on Thursday nights or Saturday afternoon.
From an overall perspective, I think sports infatuation is going to decline in the coming decades. Particularly in college athletics and definitely where there is little to no interest at present time. We are in the baby boomer age of college FB attendance... the stands are filled with 50-65 year-old bleed-their-colors fans. Unfortunately, those people aren't getting any younger. There have been articles about the changing attitudes and interests of the college kids towards athletics. When a school like Duke can start allotting unused student seating you know the interest, while still high, is no longer at its peak.
There's a paradigm shift going on right now. Who knows the root cause, is it apathy, technology, other non-sport interests, parents who no longer care therefore kids don't care? I'm not sure. Behavioral scientists and sociologists can tackle that one. But if I'm UMass, knowing the sports landscape in NE, and an already somewhat fickle fan base towards their best/biggest program, I'm not sure I'd be banking on FBS football for anything.
Along the same line of discussion - is there any FBS program that started up in the last 20 years that has an incredible fan base today? If so, where are they located? I'm thinking of USF and UCF in particular but they are in football gold mine Florida.
I'm not saying it couldn't happen, I would just think it highly unlikely, and unless a school has major economic stability with money to spare, to me, it looks like a losing proposition.