Lost amidst the long-expected approval of Power Five autonomy was the expected approval of a non-Power Five program’s official, full move to the highest level of college football.
Not that there was ever actually any doubt, but UT-San Antonio became fully-vested members of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS) Thursday. Technically, as the release stated "[t]he NCAA Division I Board of Directors approved the recommendation from the NCAA Division I Administration Cabinet to elect UTSA to Football Bowl Subdivision active membership.”
The football program’s first season was in 2011 as a member of the FCS; the Roadrunners have spent the past two seasons as provisional FBS members.
The fact that UTSA is now a full-fledged FBS member means that the Roadrunners will be bowl-eligible in 2014. In 2012 and 2013, during UTSA’s FBS transition phase, the Roadrunners went 8-4 and 7-5, respectively, which would’ve made the school bowl-eligible.
The Roadrunners, coached by BCS title-winning coach Larry Coker, will compete in Conference USA -- they were in that conference last year, in the now-defunct WAC the year before -- and will be eligible for that league’s championship game as well.
For the record, UTSA opens 2014 with games against Houston, Arizona and Oklahoma State.
