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Sports Evaluation Findings
- Thread starter djm19
- Start date
Bryoming
Well-known member
I park in the Summit View lot across the street from The War. I have an extra parking pass, but my RV is basically an oversized van that fits into a regular parking spot. I don't have an RV pass. I've stayed in the lot all night before without any problems. This year I've moved it downtown to make it easier to get to after the bars shut down.WYCowboy said:
If your RV would fit in a regular parking spot I'd be happy to give you an extra pass.
fromolwyoming
Well-known member
Plus the Laramie City Council is full of a bunch of blowhearts. For example, one of the city's building codes requires ramps to be at least 5 feet wide instead of say, 4 feet wide. Why? The ramp has to be wide enough for someone to walk BESIDE the wheelchair. As someone with relatives in wheelchairs (my own mother full time in one), why in the HELL would someone be walking BESIDE a wheelchair up a ramp (private ramp by the way). You walk behind it, regular or electric.WyoExpat said:
Also, they have plans to build the population up to 50,000 in the next 10 years, so, take it for what its worth.
One thing that I thought was particularly interesting was the point about transferring credits into Wyoming as a recruiting issue. That strikes me as potentially a campus-wide problem.
Since graduating from U.W., I have spent time as a student at two other schools. I was totally stunned by how many hot women with great legs were wondering around in short, summer dresses, skirts, and shorts. I did NOT observe such behavior in Laramie--even on nice days. The viable dating pool was quite limited, to say the least. I think that difference in culture also reflected a certain hunker-down and survive attitude in Laramie compared to a willingness to engage with the broader world I found at those other two schools.
Somewhere along the line, I finally discovered that Notre Dame's is firmly planted within the Greater Chicago market. At 95 miles and 1.5 hours away, South Bend is approximately the same distance from Chicago as Cheyenne is from Denver. Although Laramie is a little further away from Denver, we are used to spending a little more time in travel in the West and Laramie is certainly within the market orbit of Denver.
One last comparison that may or may not be relevant is this: William & Mary (a very good college/university replaced a stable internal president with a hotshot from Duke University who came in and shook things up. Even though the changes the new guy made were arguably progressive and probably challenged the intellect of the students, the Board of Visitors fairly quickly decided that the disruptive drama and resulting destabilized reputation caused more harm than good. The hotshot was removed and the Law School Dean was placed as the interim President. That arrangement became permanent, if bland. The point here is that one can rock the boat so much that it capsizes. Even if the boat is traveling in the wrong direction, it does not do anyone any good to sink it.
I was not impressed by the report, but sometimes an outside evaluation is needed to confirm an organization's internal knowledge. Besides, a consultant is usually less disruptive to daily operations than tasking internal staff to conduct the project in addition to operational duties. What we essentially discovered is that the culture at U.W. basically reflects the broader culture of Wyoming and the trade-offs that many people choose to make when electing to live and work in Wyoming as opposed to elsewhere. That said, Laramie is hardly the most remote community to be home to an excellent land grant university or to consistently field teams that compete for championships.
Look at Virginia Tech or Arkansas. In the case of Virginia Tech, they brought in a very young alumnus and stuck with him for many, many years. Even then, I think they have only ever played for one national championship in that coach's tenure. How many years did Duke stay with Coach K before he won an NCAA tournament? How many years were they willing to go without another championship after that? Also, look at Syracuse Basketball? They stuck with their alumnus-coach despite decades without the NCAA championship. Even Nebraska waited a very, long time for Tom Osborne to win it all and suffered some humiliating losses along the way.
Closer to home, Lee Moon refused to extent Tiller's contract partly on the basis that he was a career sub-.500 coach in Laramie. I bet even Purdue would like to have him and his fairly good record back despite very few Rose Bowl appearances. I will take a guy that we know will be solid in most years and can catch lightning in a bottle every now and again over a continual cycle of rebuilding from the ground up. I remain convinced that Coach Shyatt fits what we need. I do not know about DC. I would rather build for the long-haul like our neighbors to the east than continually try for a pinch hit home run like our neighbors to the south. Complacency, in my view, is trying to ask the pinch hitter to play 9-innings in the field.
Since graduating from U.W., I have spent time as a student at two other schools. I was totally stunned by how many hot women with great legs were wondering around in short, summer dresses, skirts, and shorts. I did NOT observe such behavior in Laramie--even on nice days. The viable dating pool was quite limited, to say the least. I think that difference in culture also reflected a certain hunker-down and survive attitude in Laramie compared to a willingness to engage with the broader world I found at those other two schools.
Somewhere along the line, I finally discovered that Notre Dame's is firmly planted within the Greater Chicago market. At 95 miles and 1.5 hours away, South Bend is approximately the same distance from Chicago as Cheyenne is from Denver. Although Laramie is a little further away from Denver, we are used to spending a little more time in travel in the West and Laramie is certainly within the market orbit of Denver.
One last comparison that may or may not be relevant is this: William & Mary (a very good college/university replaced a stable internal president with a hotshot from Duke University who came in and shook things up. Even though the changes the new guy made were arguably progressive and probably challenged the intellect of the students, the Board of Visitors fairly quickly decided that the disruptive drama and resulting destabilized reputation caused more harm than good. The hotshot was removed and the Law School Dean was placed as the interim President. That arrangement became permanent, if bland. The point here is that one can rock the boat so much that it capsizes. Even if the boat is traveling in the wrong direction, it does not do anyone any good to sink it.
I was not impressed by the report, but sometimes an outside evaluation is needed to confirm an organization's internal knowledge. Besides, a consultant is usually less disruptive to daily operations than tasking internal staff to conduct the project in addition to operational duties. What we essentially discovered is that the culture at U.W. basically reflects the broader culture of Wyoming and the trade-offs that many people choose to make when electing to live and work in Wyoming as opposed to elsewhere. That said, Laramie is hardly the most remote community to be home to an excellent land grant university or to consistently field teams that compete for championships.
Look at Virginia Tech or Arkansas. In the case of Virginia Tech, they brought in a very young alumnus and stuck with him for many, many years. Even then, I think they have only ever played for one national championship in that coach's tenure. How many years did Duke stay with Coach K before he won an NCAA tournament? How many years were they willing to go without another championship after that? Also, look at Syracuse Basketball? They stuck with their alumnus-coach despite decades without the NCAA championship. Even Nebraska waited a very, long time for Tom Osborne to win it all and suffered some humiliating losses along the way.
Closer to home, Lee Moon refused to extent Tiller's contract partly on the basis that he was a career sub-.500 coach in Laramie. I bet even Purdue would like to have him and his fairly good record back despite very few Rose Bowl appearances. I will take a guy that we know will be solid in most years and can catch lightning in a bottle every now and again over a continual cycle of rebuilding from the ground up. I remain convinced that Coach Shyatt fits what we need. I do not know about DC. I would rather build for the long-haul like our neighbors to the east than continually try for a pinch hit home run like our neighbors to the south. Complacency, in my view, is trying to ask the pinch hitter to play 9-innings in the field.
fromolwyoming
Well-known member
Yeah, now you know how we felt when we were about to build the ramp.Wyokie said:
fromolwyoming
Well-known member
Hell if I know.whyoh said:
nashvillepoke
Well-known member
whyoh said:
Forced breeding. This is a plan I can really get behind. We will need a definite order though. We will have to breed in 24 hour shifts, first shift will be the 60 - 80 year old men, second shift will be the 40 - 60 year old men, and then the third shift will be the 20 - 40 year old men. We will also need legions of women, who volunteers to bring the legions in?
Did anyone post this link to Gagliardi's column? If not, you should read it.
http://www.wyosports.net/university_of_wyoming/football/gagliardi-column-it-s-time-for-a-strategic-plan-for/article_c674c494-4767-11e3-bc3e-001a4bcf887a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
http://www.wyosports.net/university_of_wyoming/football/gagliardi-column-it-s-time-for-a-strategic-plan-for/article_c674c494-4767-11e3-bc3e-001a4bcf887a.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
SnowyRange
Well-known member
As I recall, this was mentioned along with creating easier majors.
It makes sense, as there are essentially two components moving an athletic program up a notch: 1) money, and 2) lowered academic standards...or, if you prefer, making absolutely sure that big, strong, fast boys can get into your school and stay forever eligible.
So, the value of the report wasn't that it pointed out these truisms, but that it reviewed what Wyoming should specifically think about in those two areas. (By the way, I sure can't understand the crabbing about the price of this report. 35K? You can't buy a one year old Suburban for that.)
I think it was valuable to have a quick review on the money issues. How do we rate in terms of spending? Where should we direct more money, assuming we have it: salaries, planes, facilities, what?
I think it said the hard truth about the academic issue too. Watch an FSU game, for instance...you may learn that a DB is "great in the classroom" because he is carrying a 2.9 GPA. His major? Packaging. Or you can read about how schools like Michigan do it. They have their classes -- like "Fundamentals of Volleyball" -- in their giant athletic facility. Some classes are taught by coaches.
It was also interesting on other issues that don't fall neatly in either category. For instance, I thought some of the branding/recruiting thoughts were intriguing...i.e., to appeal to the guys we're after it has to be a lot more hip-hop and lot less Garth Brooks and pictures of John Wayne. I liked how they confronted the problem of school colors (and don't jump all over this, it's a simple fact) and said, hey, get some professional help on uniform designs, as this stuff is important to kids.
Anyway, for a short, cheap review, I liked it...or I should say liked how it tried to walk through our issues, and gives us a lot to think about.
They didn't mention our school colors as a negative, they explained that it can be used as positive to be unique from every other school. We do have one of the most iconic logos in college sports. Whenever a best college football helmets list is put together we are usually on that list.SnowyRange said:
I also think the "branding" idea can be balanced between recruits and fans. Play all that hip hop thug stuff recruits like; hell go pick up recruits at the airport in impala with 20 inch spinner rims... I don't care..... but for me as fan I hope they keep the gameday experience and attitude towards the fans as "cowboy tough" Afterall a majority of fans attending come from that kind of background. I hope they find that right balance between recruits and fans.
SnowyRange
Well-known member
Well, they did the passive "some may view UW's colors as a hindrance," or something like that, which is consultant-speak for "you've got an issue there." There is a reason the color brown does not pervade uniforms in college.
But, as you pointed out, they said we should try to figure out how to make that distinction work in our favor -- and you are so right about the logo -- by getting professional design advice. I think they're right.
