to switch to the DI-FBS, it must either be invited by an existing DI-FBS conference or receive a hardship waiver from the NCAA. Liberty received a hardship waiver citing religious reasons. I do not believe a state school (i.e. JMU, Eastern Kentucky, etc.) would be able to receive a hardship waiver from the NCAA. So in order for a state school to make the switch, they would need to be invited by an existing FBS conference. Are there enough DI-FBS schools out there to form a new (football-only or all sports) DI-FBS conference with a minimum of 7 members?

Something else to consider is that if this new conference is going to sponsor multiple sports, then the NCAA requires the conference to (I believe) have a minimum of 6 schools play together for a certain amount of time before the conference earns an automatic bid in the NCAA Men's and Women's Basketball Tournament. This was a factor for the 8 schools that left the WAC and formed the MWC in the late 90s and why the MWC only went 1 (maybe 2) seasons without an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. It is also why the Great West Conference ultimately failed because the conference could never get the minimum number required to play long enough together for the conference to earn an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament.