Why wyoming should go D1 AA

[Danmully]

The game of Major college football is changing so drastically. Im afraid the days of small media market colleges such as wyoming being competitive is coming to an end. We are being left in the dust. I used to be so opposed to us ever becoming a FCS team, but we just aren't competitive anymore. Even more I don't really want to sell out to the ESPN's of the world. Contrary to popular belief athletics isn't everything in life, I think the people of wyoming understand that, and thats why UW is better suited for FCS competitions.
Some reasons why:


1. There is a fair tournament. Even if Wyoming went undefeated every year (which is never going to happen) we still would never get a shot a National Championship. The big boys are never going to allow mid majors into their system.

2. I would prefer a conference of regional teams. A conference of Weber, Utah state, Wyoming, No. Colorado, Montana, Montana State, Idaho, and Idaho state makes sense to me. All these schools that are currently D1 are gonna be left out of any super conference alignment.

3. We would still be D1 basketball. Basketball is the only sport that Wyoming can be competitive year in and year out. I know heath Killed the basketball program, but its much easier for Wyoming to be competitive in basketball compared to football.

4. The emphasis is greater on the STUDENT part of student athlete. Athletes can still go pro. We'll still get the wyoming kids to come play here, Maybe even more.

 

[OrediggerPoke]

Not just no, HELL NO! ...you honestly think people are going to come to watch that crappy schedule? f that

 

[fromolwyoming]

I think I speak for all sane Poke fans and ones that want us to succeed when I say;

Fuck. No.

 

[ELKMT]

I don't think we should just for the fact that most D1AA teams don't make money on their football teams. I realize money isn't everything but most D1AA teams will start looking at moving up to D1 for the simple fact of making a more healthy athletic budget.

What happens when Montana & Montana State move up to D1? I think they will with in the next decade.

 

[Danmully]

honestly yes i suspect they will. . If you want to we can schedule our yearly ass raping from Top ten programs. We certainly have held our own in those games(yeah right). I mean seriously we have trouble holding our own against Mid tier Big sky teams right now(Weber). In the coming seasons We wont play any of our natural rivals minus CSU anyways. After the realignment is finished what is the conference that will have wyoming in it. My guess is we might be able to stick with the other shitty WAC and MWC schools, that is if we are lucky. Does the current MWC minus boise, af, and TCU really excite anyone. The schedule will be shitty next year no matter what.

 

[Danmully]

I think I speak for all sane Poke fans and ones that want us to succeed when I say;

f##k. No.

Cause I don't want us to succeed? On the contrary I do want us to succeed. What success have we had at this level? Over 20 years since our last Conference championship in football. Its been damn near 15 since we have competed for one.

 

[Danmully]

Not just no, HELL NO! ...you honestly think people are going to come to watch that crappy schedule? f that

Our conference schedule in the near future is not gonnna excite anyone. I'm scared to see what the MWC will consist of in a few years

 

[ELKMT]

honestly yes i suspect they will. . If you want to we can schedule our yearly ass raping from Top ten programs. We certainly have held our own in those games(yeah right). I mean seriously we have trouble holding our own against Mid tier Big sky teams right now(Weber). In the coming seasons We wont play any of our natural rivals minus CSU anyways. After the realignment is finished what is the conference that will have wyoming in it. My guess is we might be able to stick with the other s##tty WAC and MWC schools, that is if we are lucky. Does the current MWC minus boise, af, and TCU really excite anyone. The schedule will be s##tty next year no matter what.

Here is my ramblings on the scheduling and on going to DIAA (my opinion of course, I could be wrong).

I agree about the schedule. I don't see how having a guaranteed loss on the schedule really helps the program, even if people like having Texas and Nebraska on the schedule. I believe we would have greater fan support if we went to bowl games consistently and actually competed for conference championships. I just don't believe going down to D1AA is the answer for that. When Boise and AF leave the conference (I'm sure they will at some point) than we will be stuck in a conference likely made up of regional D1 schools (what remains of the WAC and the MWC). If we play those teams we should have our sights set on going undefeated, and at the least playing for a conference championship. Again, follow the Boise St model. Play shitty teams and go undefeated (play a few mid quality BCS opponents or lower tier BCS opponents if you like). I think we would all take a conference championship, bowl games, and top twenty five rankings( which will happen if you get 10 plus win seasons).

Our program might be better off playing in a regional based non-AQ conference if it means conference championships and undefeated seasons. I would rather play for a conference championship than be the doormat of the Pac-12 (Utah :rofl: ).

If we can't compete with the MWC/WAC scraps then it might be time to look at going down to D1AA or DII. At this point it might take a "Helen Keller miracle" for UW to catch up with schools like Boise St. by playing in the same conference as them. I don't see us ever beating teams like Boise for a conference championship, so as long as they are in the conference we won't be a top ranked school. But I guess thats why we play the game and I get myself believing that Wyoming can win before every game.

D1AA should be the very last option on the table for UW.

 

[Danmully]

I don't think we should just for the fact that most D1AA teams don't make money on their football teams. I realize money isn't everything but most D1AA teams will start looking at moving up to D1 for the simple fact of making a more healthy athletic budget.

What happens when Montana & Montana State move up to D1? I think they will with in the next decade.

Good points, Maybe we need to keep football at D1 to supplement other sports. But I wonder how well Montana's football does at drawing money. Certainly their game atmosphere isn't compromised for being FCS.
I guess titleist would know more on that

 

[Danmully]

honestly yes i suspect they will. . If you want to we can schedule our yearly ass raping from Top ten programs. We certainly have held our own in those games(yeah right). I mean seriously we have trouble holding our own against Mid tier Big sky teams right now(Weber). In the coming seasons We wont play any of our natural rivals minus CSU anyways. After the realignment is finished what is the conference that will have wyoming in it. My guess is we might be able to stick with the other s##tty WAC and MWC schools, that is if we are lucky. Does the current MWC minus boise, af, and TCU really excite anyone. The schedule will be s##tty next year no matter what.

Here is my ramblings on the scheduling and on going to DIAA (my opinion of course, I could be wrong).

I agree about the schedule. I don't see how having a guaranteed loss on the schedule really helps the program, even if people like having Texas and Nebraska on the schedule. I believe we would have greater fan support if we went to bowl games consistently and actually competed for conference championships. I just don't believe going down to D1AA is the answer for that. When Boise and AF leave the conference (I'm sure they will at some point) than we will be stuck in a conference likely made up of regional D1 schools (what remains of the WAC and the MWC). If we play those teams we should have our sights set on going undefeated, and at the least playing for a conference championship. Again, follow the Boise St model. Play s##tty teams and go undefeated (play a few mid quality BCS opponents or lower tier BCS opponents if you like). I think we would all take a conference championship, bowl games, and top twenty five rankings( which will happen if you get 10 plus win seasons).

Our program might be better off playing in a regional based non-AQ conference if it means conference championships and undefeated seasons. I would rather play for a conference championship than be the doormat of the Pac-12 (Utah :rofl: ).

If we can't compete with the MWC/WAC scraps then it might be time to look at going down to D1AA or DII. At this point it might take a "Helen Keller miracle" for UW to catch up with schools like Boise St. by playing in the same conference as them. I don't see us ever beat them for a conference championship, so as long as they are in the conference we won't be a top ranked school. But I guess thats why we play the game and I get myself believing that Wyoming can win before every game.

I agree with everything you said, I also know Its been awhile since a UW team could dominate the current WAC, although i think we could beat most of the teams(minus the current Utah sT)

 

[ELKMT]

Good points, Maybe we need to keep football at D1 to supplement other sports. But I wonder how well Montana's football does at drawing money. Certainly their game atmosphere isn't compromised for being FCS.
I guess titleist would know more on that

I believe their attendance figures are close to Wyomings, but they make nearly nothing on tv revenue. Even the MW tv package pays schools a considerable amount compared with the money FCS schools recieve.

 

[ELKMT]

http://www.montanakaimin.com/sports/wac-wants-montana-1.1657662

Here is a link explaining Montana's athletic revenue. They only bring in 72,000 a year on tv revenue, but thye bring in 4.2 million from ticket, concessions, etc. The WAC schools actually bring 500,000 from tv revenue, and I believe MW schools recieve 1.2 to 1.5 (can't find that for sure). So it could be likely that many FCS school move up to D1 just for revenue (got to support womens field hockey somehow). Wyoming would be better off staying in D1 although money isn't everything ( someone should tell that to AF).

 

[MrTitleist]

Montana/MSU aren't going to be FCS for much longer. On the upside, in FCS Wyoming would have one of the largest stadiums in the division. I think only some HBUs might have bigger.. maybe. Montana makes a shit load of money for football, doesn't make much on the other sports, so football really helps float the other sports. Mens and womens basketball have been good, but aren't all that sustainable. TV contract is ass, but they do have a local TV deal that gets the game to all of Montana, Northern Wyoming, and parts of Idaho. Montana's average attendance is higher than Wyoming's, WY averages about 21-22K a game, Montana averages close to 26K. Playoffs >>>> Bowls. God I love FCS playoff season, especially when the games are right here at home.. best games I've ever been to in Washington-Grizzly are playoff games. That said, Wyoming did a study kind of recently and they decided that moving to FCS would be a huge mistake. The feasibility study is out on the interwebs, you can Google and find it I'm sure. However, I think a conference of Wyoming, Idaho, MT, MT State, Colorado State, UNLV, UNM, NMSU, SDSU, and maybe a couple Texas schools wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, we'd be competing against many of our peers athletically.

 

[calpoke25]

Every time we lose a big game this argument comes up. And it's simply not sustainable.

It's not like we would take the team, staff (for what thats worth, but the ability to hire), support and infrastructure we have right now and transfer them down to FCS. All of those things would dissolve instantly.

We'd be lucky to average 10K.

Yesterday sucked. Go outside and enjoy life, but dropping to FCS isn't going to solve anything.

 

[ELKMT]

I highly doubt our attendance would go down to 10k a game if we were competing for conference and national championships at the FCS leve. As Mr. Titleist pointed out Montana averages more fans than we do. I don't think our future lies in the FCS ranks though, and I don't think it is a viable option at this point.

 

[Danmully]

Every time we lose a big game this argument comes up. And it's simply not sustainable.

It's not like we would take the team, staff (for what thats worth, but the ability to hire), support and infrastructure we have right now and transfer them down to FCS. All of those things would dissolve instantly.

We'd be lucky to average 10K.

Yesterday sucked. Go outside and enjoy life, but dropping to FCS isn't going to solve anything.

Where would our infrastructure go

 

[calpoke25]

Fuck it. We might as well give up and throw in the towel because we lost to Utah St. That's what dropping to FCS represents to me. Throwing in the towel, giving up, being a quitter, all the things I detest.

 

[msuhunter]

Montana/MSU aren't going to be FCS for much longer.

I disagree. I don't think many fans in Montana actually want to see their team go to the [insert some company here] Bowl, when either team realistically has a shot to compete for a national championship. There is a good reason why UM didn't go to the WAC and turned them down. I find it ironic when some, not all, UW fans knock the competition at the FCS level seeing as UW would be lucky to be a middle of the pack Big Sky team. MSU and UM would handle UW soundly and I'm sure several other BSC teams would give UW more than a run for their money. :twocents:

That said, likely neither UW or UI will drop down for two reasons: Money and pride.

 

[Danmully]

f##k it. We might as well give up and throw in the towel because we lost to Utah St. That's what dropping to FCS represents to me. Throwing in the towel, giving up, being a quitter, all the things I detest.

I guess thats where i disagree, I'd be proud to be apart of an uncorrupt system and have a true national championship, that everyone has a equal shot of competing for. I would rather tell the BCS to go fuck off, take less money, and settle the argument on the field.

 

[calpoke25]

I guess thats where i disagree, I'd be proud to be apart of an uncorrupt system and have a true national championship, that everyone has a equal shot of competing for. I would rather tell the BCS to go f##k off, take less money, and settle the argument on the field.

Funny thing though, I bet had we won last night you'd feel a lot different about dropping to FCS. That is a big, LONG TERM decision that shouldn't be made on the heels of one devastating loss.