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Why wyoming should go D1 AA
- Thread starter Danmully
- Start date
One thing danmully keeps forgetting, or just is disregarding it, is that in the Big Sky Wyoming won't be getting the recruits they are now. You play in a lesser conference you get less quality recruits, not to mention the quality of coaches. Therefore making it more difficult to build a winning basketball program. Besides what recruiting pitch do you use on a recruit:
Coach:"Hey we'd love to have you come and play for us, we used to play in the MWC but we dropped down to the Big Sky because our football team couldn't hack it for us"
Recruit: "Ummmmm, yeah don't call me I'll call you"
Coach:"Hey we'd love to have you come and play for us, we used to play in the MWC but we dropped down to the Big Sky because our football team couldn't hack it for us"
Recruit: "Ummmmm, yeah don't call me I'll call you"
gbpoke said:
Exactly right. It's not like we'd move down and still attract the same quality or quantity of players. If that was the case we would indeed dominate. It's not the case. In fact, we could end up competing worse as we wouldn't have the "local" second tier players to build with. Scholarships go down, budget goes down, interest goes down... I can't see it working successfully. I'd still be interested and still follow the program, but as an earlier poster said, I'd probably find a new team to support. However, it wouldn't CSU even if they moved their home games to the War.
I in no way believe that Wyoming should drop a conference. D1 football is the most exciting an entertaining sport in our country, and switching to D1aa would be like switching from the majors to the minors (but that would not stop me from being a UW fan). However, to say that a team that dropped down to D1aa would only a draw 5k fan is ridiculous. The sample size of 12 wyonation message board posters who say they won’t attend games doesn’t equal a 15,000 person drop in attendance. Is the student population at UW magically going drop if we go to D1aa? I believe we would still have about the same number of student fans attending games. College football is at the center of the college social scene, and most students don’t need a good product on the field as an excuse to party. I would agree that we would lose some fan support from minor donors, or lose fans that would have to drive a far distance to the games (fans that are unlikely to attend most games anyways). The majority of fans that fill the AA and the War come from the Cheyenne, Laramie, and Rawlins corridor. The Cheyenne-Laramie-Rawlins corridor actually has a larger population than either the Missoula-Urban area or the Bozeman area, so I believe the population would be large enough to support a D1aa team (Cheyenne Urban area has 91,000 people in the last census). If a game is in driving distance a large number of fans would still attend (likely a lower number than before, but not a 15,000 fan drop) the majority of major donors are alumni and families that have been tied to UW for years. Those donations aren’t going anywhere. So I would expect about a 5,000 fan drop if we moved down, but if we were successful (i.e. consistent playoff team) fan support would likely be the same as we have now
The big loss comes from TV revenue, bowl revenue, and corporate sponsorship. This revenue keeps other sports at UW going so dropping would be a bad idea. I do believe the basketball program would be damaged going to the Big Sky, but probably no more so than having heath schroyer as your coach.
I am personally looking forward to the MW’s future as a conference. I like how most of the teams are balanced when it comes athletic budgets, and I believe that Wyoming has a fair chance of competing for conference championships (basketball) and bowl games in the future. I think it may be tough to win a football championship if Boise continues to be dominant. Is it true that Boise has lower academic regulations for accepting athletes (regulations that don’t match other MW schools)? Maybe they will have a drop off after Kellen Moore leaves, or maybe Peterson will take a Pac-12 job.
The big loss comes from TV revenue, bowl revenue, and corporate sponsorship. This revenue keeps other sports at UW going so dropping would be a bad idea. I do believe the basketball program would be damaged going to the Big Sky, but probably no more so than having heath schroyer as your coach.
I am personally looking forward to the MW’s future as a conference. I like how most of the teams are balanced when it comes athletic budgets, and I believe that Wyoming has a fair chance of competing for conference championships (basketball) and bowl games in the future. I think it may be tough to win a football championship if Boise continues to be dominant. Is it true that Boise has lower academic regulations for accepting athletes (regulations that don’t match other MW schools)? Maybe they will have a drop off after Kellen Moore leaves, or maybe Peterson will take a Pac-12 job.
I wonder how many scholarships in non-Football sports we would cut and complete programs that would have to go. Big SKy sponsors fewer programs than the Wyoming does and with lower revenue we would be cutting total sports programs. My guess is that Wrestling would be in danger along with Swimming.
marcuswyo said:
I'd go a step further and say they are important for the athletes as well. I'm not exactly sure exactly how it works with all the other non-revenue sports. Do the student-athletes get full ride scholarships or are they partial? Regardless you know they aren't going professional in the sport they play, so they are getting an education they may not otherwise receive.
