Are we a basketball school?

[WestWYOPoke]

Maybe you don't like that we are a Football School but fact is we are. Without Football we couldn't run Basketball and probably 75% of the athletics at the school.

Honestly, where you'd get the idea that UW football turns a profit?

Only a handful of football programs make money for their athletic department.

Who said anything about a profit?

I said Football pays for most of the sports programs at UW.

Well you just did. If the football program doesn't turn a profit, how can they pay for the other sports at UW? We are talking about PROGRAM profit, not DEPARTMENT profit.

 

[McPeachy]

Some posters want to take this whole thread literal, and others theoretical, and others financial. And then it dawned on me.

Wyoming is a skiing school. But we dropped skiing. Then we became a wrestling school.

And as much as I will never agree about dropping skiing (our last National Championship), neither one of those sports has, or will ever, pay the bills. So how does (or would) either benefit the university, if it doesn't make money or increase enrollment, or increase visibility and desire to attend (other than the obvious - a handful that attend and participate)?

 

[BeaverPoke]

Some posters want to take this whole thread literal, and others theoretical, and others financial. And then it dawned on me.

Wyoming is a skiing school. But we dropped skiing. Then we became a wrestling school.

And as much as I will never agree about dropping skiing (our last National Championship), neither one of those sports has, or will ever, pay the bills. So how does (or would) either benefit the university, if it doesn't make money or increase enrollment, or increase visibility and desire to attend (other than the obvious - a handful that attend and participate)?

Well I think if you redefine what is "benefiting the university" then you can say yes skiing does benefit the university.
I know there are a handful of students that either come to UW to ski, or decide to ski because they are already skiers, and already at UW. But how does that benefit UW? Well, it gives some kids something to do, it gets them involved. They have shown time and time again that students involved in clubs do better in school. So maybe having the club ski team helps keeps students doing well. Maybe it leads to less chaos at the bars on Friday nights. Fewer stupid injuries (Luke Martinez incident) and fewer alcohol related deaths (Halloween issues last year) and fewer suicides (last school year was a bad one) because these kids are a part of something and feel that they belong. Then maybe these kids become better advocates of UW in the future. Sure, it's not even close to having Chris Prosinksi in the NFL or Larry Nance Jr. in the NBA, but you know there are a lot of good kids out there, that are very proud to be UW Cowboys or Cowgirls, proud to be alum, and are good people to be around, and in the future might send their kids to UW. Will it result in financial contributions any bigger than a regular Cowboy Joe Club donation? Probably not, but it can help in other ways.

I guess what I am trying to say is, we might not see how it benefits UW to have a club ski team, or club baseball or whatever type of team it is, but UW would not be AS GOOD of a place without those type of things.

:twocents:

 

[McPeachy]

Some posters want to take this whole thread literal, and others theoretical, and others financial. And then it dawned on me.

Wyoming is a skiing school. But we dropped skiing. Then we became a wrestling school.

And as much as I will never agree about dropping skiing (our last National Championship), neither one of those sports has, or will ever, pay the bills. So how does (or would) either benefit the university, if it doesn't make money or increase enrollment, or increase visibility and desire to attend (other than the obvious - a handful that attend and participate)?

Well I think if you redefine what is "benefiting the university" then you can say yes skiing does benefit the university.
I know there are a handful of students that either come to UW to ski, or decide to ski because they are already skiers, and already at UW. But how does that benefit UW? Well, it gives some kids something to do, it gets them involved. They have shown time and time again that students involved in clubs do better in school. So maybe having the club ski team helps keeps students doing well. Maybe it leads to less chaos at the bars on Friday nights. Fewer stupid injuries (Luke Martinez incident) and fewer alcohol related deaths (Halloween issues last year) and fewer suicides (last school year was a bad one) because these kids are a part of something and feel that they belong. Then maybe these kids become better advocates of UW in the future. Sure, it's not even close to having Chris Prosinksi in the NFL or Larry Nance Jr. in the NBA, but you know there are a lot of good kids out there, that are very proud to be UW Cowboys or Cowgirls, proud to be alum, and are good people to be around, and in the future might send their kids to UW. Will it result in financial contributions any bigger than a regular Cowboy Joe Club donation? Probably not, but it can help in other ways.

I guess what I am trying to say is, we might not see how it benefits UW to have a club ski team, or club baseball or whatever type of team it is, but UW would not be AS GOOD of a place without those type of things.

:twocents:

You posted my point (in explanation form, without any circles to navigate around). Basically, when it comes right down to it, Wyoming isn't a football or basketball school...but Wyoming football pays most of the bills, and Wyoming football brings in most of the athletic donations (i.e. RAC, Wildshatter, IPF).

Wyoming football, is the front porch of the university. Wyoming men's basketball is a close second. And Wyoming women's basketball a distant third, with everything else a ways away.

If Wyoming wanted to grow enrollment by 5,000 in the next few years (and had the infrastructure to actually do that) - it should start with investing as heavy as possible in football, IMO.

 

[BeaverPoke]

Some posters want to take this whole thread literal, and others theoretical, and others financial. And then it dawned on me.

Wyoming is a skiing school. But we dropped skiing. Then we became a wrestling school.

And as much as I will never agree about dropping skiing (our last National Championship), neither one of those sports has, or will ever, pay the bills. So how does (or would) either benefit the university, if it doesn't make money or increase enrollment, or increase visibility and desire to attend (other than the obvious - a handful that attend and participate)?

Well I think if you redefine what is "benefiting the university" then you can say yes skiing does benefit the university.
I know there are a handful of students that either come to UW to ski, or decide to ski because they are already skiers, and already at UW. But how does that benefit UW? Well, it gives some kids something to do, it gets them involved. They have shown time and time again that students involved in clubs do better in school. So maybe having the club ski team helps keeps students doing well. Maybe it leads to less chaos at the bars on Friday nights. Fewer stupid injuries (Luke Martinez incident) and fewer alcohol related deaths (Halloween issues last year) and fewer suicides (last school year was a bad one) because these kids are a part of something and feel that they belong. Then maybe these kids become better advocates of UW in the future. Sure, it's not even close to having Chris Prosinksi in the NFL or Larry Nance Jr. in the NBA, but you know there are a lot of good kids out there, that are very proud to be UW Cowboys or Cowgirls, proud to be alum, and are good people to be around, and in the future might send their kids to UW. Will it result in financial contributions any bigger than a regular Cowboy Joe Club donation? Probably not, but it can help in other ways.

I guess what I am trying to say is, we might not see how it benefits UW to have a club ski team, or club baseball or whatever type of team it is, but UW would not be AS GOOD of a place without those type of things.

:twocents:

You posted my point (in explanation form, without any circles to navigate around). Basically, when it comes right down to it, Wyoming isn't a football or basketball school...but Wyoming football pays most of the bills, and Wyoming football brings in most of the athletic donations (i.e. RAC, Wildshatter, IPF).

Wyoming football, is the front porch of the university. Wyoming men's basketball is a close second. And Wyoming women's basketball a distant third, with everything else a ways away.

If Wyoming wanted to grow enrollment by 5,000 in the next few years (and had the infrastructure to actually do that) - it should start with investing as heavy as possible in football, IMO.

If UW wanted to grow by 5K they could either invest heavily in football like you said (think of the Utes from 15 years ago to now). Or, we could get rid of people in the state legislature and the higher ups with the University itself like the BOT that are afraid of Wyoming to make any real progress.

Nothing screams small minded and small-time like those people who at the first sign of growth say "I don't want Laramie to be like Fort Collins". Like growing and trying to improve are inherently bad.

But, again, that is something that has been beaten to death on here. Lack of vision by the people calling the shots.

 

[joshvanklomp]

FWIW when you type in Wyoming Cowboys on google, the first autofill suggestion on the list is "Wyoming Cowboys football"

 

[BeaverPoke]

FWIW when you type in Wyoming Cowboys on google, the first autofill suggestion on the list is "Wyoming Cowboys football"

FWIW... it's worth nothing.

Same search for Arizona Wildcats comes up with football not basketball.
Indiana Hoosiers gets football.

UCLA gets baseball.

 

[stymeman]

I've always said we should focus on one just a bit more than the other, and yes I think we could build a heck of a program with Papa Shy, but we remain trying to focus on the 2 sports equally, oh well, guess it's fun either way

 

[ELKMT]

I think we are football school until we fire an ad for a bad bball hire. Moon was fired for Vic koening, Burman wasn't fired for schroyer.

 

[SnowyRange]

Maybe we should do this year-by-year.

"For 2015, Wyoming is a basketball school."

 

[McPeachy]

Maybe we should do this year-by-year.

"For 2015, Wyoming is a basketball school."

Agree - year by year!

Jury is still out on the hoops team though, lots of youngsters. Although I think we are competitive no matter what - unlike our youngsters on the gridiron.

For 2015, Wyoming is a volleyball school? :shock:

 

[SnowyRange]

Jury is still out on the hoops team though, lots of youngsters. Although I think we are competitive no matter what - unlike our youngsters on the gridiron.

You mean we have to do more in 2015? I was kind of hoping that the MWC tourney and NCCA deal covered us.

Goddamnit. It's neverending.

 

[McPeachy]

Jury is still out on the hoops team though, lots of youngsters. Although I think we are competitive no matter what - unlike our youngsters on the gridiron.

You mean we have to do more in 2015? I was kind of hoping that the MWC tourney and NCCA deal covered us.

Goddamnit. It's neverending.

I was thinking 2015 - 2016

You were thinking 2014 -2015

So...we are both right. Or wrong.

 

[stymeman]

i wish Burman's contract was on a year to year basis