We need to get rid of the Wyoming Legislators that don't give a damn about UW Athletics and don't have enough pride in the State of Wyoming to fund UW Athletics to the level that we can compete and represent the State of Wyoming in the way that would give the people of Wyoming something to be really proud of. Wyoming Legislators are the biggest bunch of stuffed shirt do nothings in the entire country. No wonder we have a budget surplus that is stuffed into so many rainy day accounts that they can't even remember where it all is. By letting the UW Athletics Dept. flounder for the past dozen or so years, we are being left in a very critical situation at this time when we need to be strong. I know it's a little late now, but let's remember what they haven't done in the next elections. We are the only 4 year state funded university in the State of Wyoming and our athletics is the laughing stock of the country.
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Why wyoming should go D1 AA
- Thread starter Danmully
- Start date
Dropping a division is not the answer to Wyomings athletic problems. As one poster eluded to, we may as well tear out half the stadium because we'd be doing well to average 5000 people a game. And that would be if they were winning 8-10 games a season. Remember what Wyoming is, a state that has its small population spread out to all four corners of the state.
Montana, who keeps getting brought up, has a more concentrated population base. Comparing the cities of Laramie and Missoula isn't even close! The metropolitan area of Missoula is almost 110,000 compared to Laramie at about 31,000. So you're looking at fans driving mass distances to get to Laramie to watch the Cowboys not to mention the inclement weather that can wreck havoc at any moment.
If Wyoming were to drop down to FCS what kind of athletes do you really think they're going to get? Not anywhere near what they've gotten in the past. They'll end up getting Wyoming high school players and well that's probably about it. Comparing those recruits with other states, well they just don't match up. Wyoming gets a few solid players from time to time and the occasional stud, but they can't even recruit them to come to Laramie to play...they go to Wake Forest or other big schools and conferences.
If we all thought Wyoming was a stepping stone job before for coaches in football and basketball, just wait until we drop to the Big Sky! As somebody mentioned before, in the Big Sky we wouldn't even sniff Shyatt as our head coach. If we dropped down you can almost bet the farm that Shyatt and DC would be gone.
Montana, who keeps getting brought up, has a more concentrated population base. Comparing the cities of Laramie and Missoula isn't even close! The metropolitan area of Missoula is almost 110,000 compared to Laramie at about 31,000. So you're looking at fans driving mass distances to get to Laramie to watch the Cowboys not to mention the inclement weather that can wreck havoc at any moment.
If Wyoming were to drop down to FCS what kind of athletes do you really think they're going to get? Not anywhere near what they've gotten in the past. They'll end up getting Wyoming high school players and well that's probably about it. Comparing those recruits with other states, well they just don't match up. Wyoming gets a few solid players from time to time and the occasional stud, but they can't even recruit them to come to Laramie to play...they go to Wake Forest or other big schools and conferences.
If we all thought Wyoming was a stepping stone job before for coaches in football and basketball, just wait until we drop to the Big Sky! As somebody mentioned before, in the Big Sky we wouldn't even sniff Shyatt as our head coach. If we dropped down you can almost bet the farm that Shyatt and DC would be gone.
Fullback41
Well-known member
I don't want to offend anyone, but for me personally, my time is too valuable to spend 7 hrs driving to watch a D1 AA game. I would become a fair weather fan and come only for playoff games if we went that route. Maybe there would be enough support from the other fans, but the amount of time and money involved to support UW football just isn't worth it for a D1 AA product to me, maybe it is for others but not me. I think I would spend more time coaching the local youth kids in football if it came to that.... or I might save my money for wrestling season to support them, even though that is the busiest time of year for me.
Who knows maybe we would become a D1 AA power, but is that really anything I would brag about... not really, I would rather work towards and be conference champs in D1 and be proud of that.
Who knows maybe we would become a D1 AA power, but is that really anything I would brag about... not really, I would rather work towards and be conference champs in D1 and be proud of that.
whyoh
Well-known member
i'm getting real sick of hearing about moving down to compete for a "legit" national championship...no one ever wants to say it for fear of being labeled a douche, well allow me to douche it up a little
AN FCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IS NOT A "REAL" NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
there, i said it
fact is...the vast majority of college football fans in this country would put the prestige of winning even the new mexico bowl a full head and shoulders above running the gambit in the fcs tourney
fact is we lost a big one in logan...hell no one would argue with you if you said that USU should be 5-0 by now...including against the defending national champs, i believe that we were just unfortunate enough to play them when the frustration of their season up till now came to a head and they were just plain clicking on offense and by chance our defense showed up with their pajamas and sleeping bags ready for a pillow fight this week
WE ARE NOT A LOWER CALIBER TEAM!!!
tbh, i can still see us going bowling this year, if we can remain healthy and continue to grow on offense the way we have been i could see this team closing the season remarkably strong...
AN FCS NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP IS NOT A "REAL" NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
there, i said it
fact is...the vast majority of college football fans in this country would put the prestige of winning even the new mexico bowl a full head and shoulders above running the gambit in the fcs tourney
fact is we lost a big one in logan...hell no one would argue with you if you said that USU should be 5-0 by now...including against the defending national champs, i believe that we were just unfortunate enough to play them when the frustration of their season up till now came to a head and they were just plain clicking on offense and by chance our defense showed up with their pajamas and sleeping bags ready for a pillow fight this week
WE ARE NOT A LOWER CALIBER TEAM!!!
tbh, i can still see us going bowling this year, if we can remain healthy and continue to grow on offense the way we have been i could see this team closing the season remarkably strong...
wyosteelerfan said:
Not to muck this up even further, or put myself on one side of the fence or the other, but technically, a championship decided by a computer isn't a real championship. :twocents: At least in every other division of football the championship is decided by playoffs, not an ESPN/SEC controlled computer system with some less than honest data collection going on.
Asmodeanreborn
Well-known member
Fullback41 said:
I don't think many people are offended by that. I agree that we'd draw probably 5,000 fans if we dropped down, and I can see a LOT of people deciding to just be Sheep fans instead, because that'd be the closest "real" team to people in southeastern Wyoming.
Personally, I guess I'd spend my money on Air Force, even though I don't have any real ties to them, I'm all for supporting a Service Academy.
Asmodeanreborn
Well-known member
McPeachy said:
Probably because people are pretty passionate about making sure everybody realizes how bad of an idea this is.
I definitely think it looks like a vast majority even in this thread would stop caring about Wyoming Football if this happened, and considering that we're the "hardcore" fans, guess what it'll do to the casual ones?
Disclaimer I was a chemistry major not a math major, I don't believe i made any mistakes but if I did sorry
I respect your guys opinions, but the fact is, as you all know, Wyoming has had very little sustained success since D1 split into A and D1AA in 1978. Especially the time most of us were in school. I grew up with great/decent teams during the late 80's and most of the 90's. We had several years of sustained success I'll give you that. We also had three great seasons in those 33 years, reaching double digits in those seasons. Add that to the one 9 win season and the three 8 win season in our 33 years at the D1A level you have 7 really good years out of 33. If you what to count 7 win seasons as good seasons then we also have had 5 of those. If you get really desperate and count 6 win seasons as good seasons then we have had another 6. so 18 out of 33 seasons have been decent to great that's about 55% of the time. Or 10% (3 out of 33)of the time having great seasons.
2000's 45-85
1990's 63-47
1980's 67-51
1978 & 1979 9-15
Total: 184-198 D1 A record This doesn't look that bad especially considering the last ten years. A almost respectiful .48 winning percentage. If you do subtract the around 17 wins against FCS/D1aa schools (which none of you consider as real football) the number drops.
if you take out the 2000's the record 139-113 which is a much more encouraging .55 win percentage. If Wyoming could return to the ways of the pre 2000's it would be awesome.
That being said I think college football has changed drastically in those 15 years, and I dont know if we can be competitive at this level, I honestly don't. And in the fact of sincerely being sick of the direction of Major college football and the lure of actually playing on a level playing field I hope you can see my point of view of at least pondering wither we should play FCS instead. I am not completely convinced either way, but I certainly have a open mind.
I respect your guys opinions, but the fact is, as you all know, Wyoming has had very little sustained success since D1 split into A and D1AA in 1978. Especially the time most of us were in school. I grew up with great/decent teams during the late 80's and most of the 90's. We had several years of sustained success I'll give you that. We also had three great seasons in those 33 years, reaching double digits in those seasons. Add that to the one 9 win season and the three 8 win season in our 33 years at the D1A level you have 7 really good years out of 33. If you what to count 7 win seasons as good seasons then we also have had 5 of those. If you get really desperate and count 6 win seasons as good seasons then we have had another 6. so 18 out of 33 seasons have been decent to great that's about 55% of the time. Or 10% (3 out of 33)of the time having great seasons.
2000's 45-85
1990's 63-47
1980's 67-51
1978 & 1979 9-15
Total: 184-198 D1 A record This doesn't look that bad especially considering the last ten years. A almost respectiful .48 winning percentage. If you do subtract the around 17 wins against FCS/D1aa schools (which none of you consider as real football) the number drops.
if you take out the 2000's the record 139-113 which is a much more encouraging .55 win percentage. If Wyoming could return to the ways of the pre 2000's it would be awesome.
That being said I think college football has changed drastically in those 15 years, and I dont know if we can be competitive at this level, I honestly don't. And in the fact of sincerely being sick of the direction of Major college football and the lure of actually playing on a level playing field I hope you can see my point of view of at least pondering wither we should play FCS instead. I am not completely convinced either way, but I certainly have a open mind.
calpoke25
Well-known member
Danmully said:
Not to be rude, but I don't have an open mind. FCS=Death of Wyoming Athletics. You haven't addressed one point we have made about mens BBall dying in the Big Sky or whatever godforsaken place dropping would mean, or the withering, dying fan support that would produce. Long term I think we probably have a better chance of sustaining basketball success than football success. The AA is larger than many BCS arenas and should be easily upgraded in the near future. That coupled with the fact that a good bball team requires only a good coach and the gelling of 10-12 guys, compared to the 80 people needed for a successful football team makes BBall probably a safer bet. However football dropping would kill BBall as well.
But football success isn't ever out of the question with the proper hire. I believe you are always one coach away. The jury is out as to whether DC is that guy or not. If even Utah St. can build a respectable program (they aren't there yet, but certainly on the way) in the shadows of BYU and Utah, there's no reason we can't either with better facilities, a bigger fanbase and bigger budget.
And I don't believe we will ever be successful if we have a certain segment of the fanbase that yearns for FCS after every big loss. It creates a negative and defeated attitude around the program that is hardly conducive to success.
b]Disclaimer I was a chemistry major not a math major, I don't believe i made any mistakes but if I did sorry [/b]
I respect your guys opinions, but the fact is, as you all know, Wyoming has had very little sustained success since D1 split into A and D1AA in 1978. Especially the time most of us were in school. I grew up with great/decent teams during the late 80's and most of the 90's. We had several years of sustained success I'll give you that. We also had three great seasons in those 33 years, reaching double digits in those seasons. Add that to the one 9 win season and the three 8 win season in our 33 years at the D1A level you have 7 really good years out of 33. If you what to count 7 win seasons as good seasons then we also have had 5 of those. If you get really desperate and count 6 win seasons as good seasons then we have had another 6. so 18 out of 33 seasons have been decent to great that's about 55% of the time. Or 10% (3 out of 33)of the time having great seasons.
2000's 45-85
1990's 63-47
1980's 67-51
1978 & 1979 9-15
Total: 184-198 D1 A record This doesn't look that bad especially considering the last ten years. A almost respectiful .48 winning percentage. If you do subtract the around 17 wins against FCS/D1aa schools (which none of you consider as real football) the number drops.
if you take out the 2000's the record 139-113 which is a much more encouraging .55 win percentage. If Wyoming could return to the ways of the pre 2000's it would be awesome.
What has changed? For the most part, all I've seen us do is shoot ourselves in the foot, bad athletic directors and semi-ok to terrible coaching.
Not to mention, if you make a mistake and hire the wrong coach, you lose 4-5 years. We've built ourselves an ugly image which isn't easy to shake.
Paul Roach kept athletics going. Lee Moon destroyed it. The jury is still out on Burman.
I respect your guys opinions, but the fact is, as you all know, Wyoming has had very little sustained success since D1 split into A and D1AA in 1978. Especially the time most of us were in school. I grew up with great/decent teams during the late 80's and most of the 90's. We had several years of sustained success I'll give you that. We also had three great seasons in those 33 years, reaching double digits in those seasons. Add that to the one 9 win season and the three 8 win season in our 33 years at the D1A level you have 7 really good years out of 33. If you what to count 7 win seasons as good seasons then we also have had 5 of those. If you get really desperate and count 6 win seasons as good seasons then we have had another 6. so 18 out of 33 seasons have been decent to great that's about 55% of the time. Or 10% (3 out of 33)of the time having great seasons.
2000's 45-85
1990's 63-47
1980's 67-51
1978 & 1979 9-15
Total: 184-198 D1 A record This doesn't look that bad especially considering the last ten years. A almost respectiful .48 winning percentage. If you do subtract the around 17 wins against FCS/D1aa schools (which none of you consider as real football) the number drops.
if you take out the 2000's the record 139-113 which is a much more encouraging .55 win percentage. If Wyoming could return to the ways of the pre 2000's it would be awesome.
Danmully said:
What has changed? For the most part, all I've seen us do is shoot ourselves in the foot, bad athletic directors and semi-ok to terrible coaching.
Not to mention, if you make a mistake and hire the wrong coach, you lose 4-5 years. We've built ourselves an ugly image which isn't easy to shake.
Paul Roach kept athletics going. Lee Moon destroyed it. The jury is still out on Burman.
I guess I dont see how basketball success would be any worse in the Big Sky. We would win more conference tournament and make more NCAA's. Instead of Making the NCAA every twenty years we could potentially be a power house. If your going to a lot Of NCAA's people will attend your games, win a couple of games in the tourny and you will start getting respect, and with our facilities we would have a leg up on anyone in the conference. And before you say it would be embarrassing to play in smaller stadiums Look at St Joes in the A-10 or average capacity for An A-10 school or WCC schools(Big sky has better faciities for the most part). There are plenty of Basketball conference's that aren't D1A in football that are multiple bid leagues. WCC, A10,MVC, and Horizon league and in some years others. Granted It would take some time or maybe is stretch for Wyoming to build a reputation Like Gonzaga or Butler, but I would also say it would be easier for Wyoming to build a Gonzaga in basketball than it would be to build a Boise State in football.
There are Big Sky teams with awful facilities, like Portland State, Northern Colorado.. Wyoming going to the Big Sky wouldn't necessarily be easier.. it's been a conference dominated by Weber State for a long time, and now Montana coming on as a perennial power as well.. Big Sky basketball isn't cake, plus it's only 1 bid into the Big Dance, usually a 15 seed..
WestWYOPoke
Well-known member
Let me make this simple. It would make much more fiscal sense for Wyoming to drop football entirely than to drop to FCS. That makes the debate real simple...either stay in FBS or drop football all together. Having said that, I would really like to see UW stay in FBS as I enjoy watching them play football, even if it means we have to watch the occasional USU defeat.
'Nuf said.
'Nuf said.
We should go ahead and field two teams going forward:
1.) Wyoming Cowboys - FBS
2.) Wyoming Cowboys Jr - FCS
In doing so, our younger players can play on the FCS team, and as they get older/better, they can move up to the FBS team.
Then everyone that wants to see Wyoming play an FCS game can, and we can still play FBS. Plus we could schedule two home games on the weekends giving people 6 hours of football to travel for!
1.) Wyoming Cowboys - FBS
2.) Wyoming Cowboys Jr - FCS
In doing so, our younger players can play on the FCS team, and as they get older/better, they can move up to the FBS team.
Then everyone that wants to see Wyoming play an FCS game can, and we can still play FBS. Plus we could schedule two home games on the weekends giving people 6 hours of football to travel for!
WestWYOPoke said:
ACtuallY i agree with that. Gonzaga is big as they have no Football and pump all the $$ into Basketball. If you want that then join the MVC not the Big Sky. Must be why he is comparing us to teams with no football programs.
No BB powerhouses will ever be built out of the Big Sky. a few decent teams from time to time yea but then they lose that coach quickly and can't sustain it.
Simply put it is easier to rebuild Wyo basketball and become a player again in the MWC then it ever would be in the Big Sky.
utter insanity here.
