LORMAN— If you’re thinking the 16-2 vote that was cast last Thursday to approve autonomy for college football’s Power 5 conferences worries Alcorn State head coach Jay Hopson, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Hopson said he thinks the autonomy measures, which will grant the Atlantic Coastal Conference, Big Ten, Big 12, Southeastern Conference and Pacific-12 conferences the authority to decide recruiting rules, mandatory hours spent on campus, insurance benefits for players and cost-of-attendance stipends, won’t impact Alcorn State’s ability to recruit and attract student athletes. He actually believes it won’t hurt any Football Championship Subdivision teams.

“It doesn’t have a major affect on FCS schools because most of the time, we’re not battling major conferences in recruiting,” Hopson said. “Most of the time, our recruiting battles take place with lower FBS (Football Bowl Subdivision) schools, who are really the ones that will hurt from this.”

Hopson, who just signed a three-year contract extension with Alcorn State and is coming off a 9-3 season with the Braves, said the change wouldn’t affect the way he recruits in the least.

“What we do is we find a kid that wants to come to Alcorn,” Hopson said. “And we’re fortunate enough to have so many people support our conference (Southwestern Athletic Conference) that we have big games. I’ve seen games in this conference involving Jackson State, Southern and Grambling that had close to 60,000 people attend. That attracts young men.”

Hopson said he believes the NCAA is on track to set aside the top five major conferences from the rest of the conferences like the American Conference, for example, in the FBS.

“I don’t know what will happen to those conferences,” Hopson said. “They just made it harder for those lower conferences to compete on that level, so it looks like they’re either going to get their own division or drop to FCS one day.”