American Athletic Conference

[shocka khan]

It wouldn't happen, but imagine the look on the KSU's and KU's faces if WSU added football and got invited to the B12!!

If anything, the AAC would be a possibility/fit with schools like Houston, Cinci, Memphis. Or the MWC of course.

Could always go back to being private and try getting into the BE! (Fairmount College sounds pretty fancy)

Not to be raining on your parade, but U of H's stadium, Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU) stadium cost $128 million to build. It seats 40,000 people.

It's not a fancy stadium, just a pretty basic stadium that was built with expansion in mind. The old Robertson Stadium seated 26,000 people.

Not to mention that the current football coach had to have his salary raised to $2.8M per year. His buyout clauses require an upgrade in the practice facilities, meeting rooms and workout rooms or the buyout amount goes down.

I'd say if we were going to do this at a U of H level, it will probably take $130-140 million.

Lastly, Hoffheinz pavilion is a dump. Good thing Guy Lewis died, he would be embarrassed at how it looks now. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that you can buy beer at the games. The rest of the basketball facilities are also woeful.

If WSU wants to play with the big boys, the best and first thing they can do is get to be a Tier-1 institution. Even then, though, you will have to starve at least one of your major sports for capital. Dr. Katur (U of H's president) made a calculated decision that a great football program coupled with Tier-1 status would get them on the map.

It wouldn't be a bad model to follow.

It's going to take a lot of jack to build even a basic football stadium.

[SHOCKvalue]

Not to be raining on your parade, but U of H's stadium, Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU) stadium cost $128 million to build. It seats 40,000 people.

It's not a fancy stadium, just a pretty basic stadium that was built with expansion in mind. The old Robertson Stadium seated 26,000 people.

It's going to take a lot of jack to build even a basic football stadium.

That a pretty darn nice facility, in a much larger town, at a much larger school.

North Texas built theirs for $78K, and is probably a better analog for what WSU might do, in this hypothetical parallel universe that's probably not going to happen that we're talking about.

The B12 talk is dream world. MWC and AAC would be the end game targets.

[RoyalShock]

KWCH has an unedited interview with Bardo on this subject. Scroll to the bottom.

http://www.kwch.com/news/local-news/...etics/36865798

Interesting that K-State has been very cooperative sharing information.

[rayc]

Curious if in recent history if there are any schools that have gone from no football program to a competitive FBS program? Any case studies to look at to see what it takes?

The only one I know for sure is USF in Tampa. But they never had to build a stadium, they got a deal from the Bucs to use Raymond James Stadium. But they went from no football to FBS in minimun time.

Another possibility would be UCF in Orlando. They are fairly recent to D1 football and are with USF in the AAC. Florida International might be another to look into.

[shocka khan]

That a pretty darn nice facility, in a much larger town, at a much larger school.

North Texas built theirs for $78K, and is probably a better analog for what WSU might do, in this hypothetical parallel universe that's probably not going to happen that we're talking about.

The B12 talk is dream world. MWC and AAC would be the end game targets.

I checked it out and liked they were able to construct the stadium for such an economical price. Of course, you still need all the support facilities and that will take additional dollars. I'd say probably $10M or so, if they want top-notch faclilities.

The students approved a $10 per credit hour athletic fee to build the stadium.

I also noted that although they draw more people to their games than Missouri State, their attendance at the end of the season was hovering around 10K.

That kind of reminds me of the 'crowds' at Cessna Stadium when I was a kid. If we go that route, will Steffen's dairy have $2 tickets like they used to have? :)

[Shock Top]

Not to be raining on your parade, but U of H's stadium, Texas Dow Employees Credit Union (TDECU) stadium cost $128 million to build. It seats 40,000 people.

It's not a fancy stadium, just a pretty basic stadium that was built with expansion in mind. The old Robertson Stadium seated 26,000 people.

Not to mention that the current football coach had to have his salary raised to $2.8M per year. His buyout clauses require an upgrade in the practice facilities, meeting rooms and workout rooms or the buyout amount goes down.

I'd say if we were going to do this at a U of H level, it will probably take $130-140 million.

Lastly, Hoffheinz pavilion is a dump. Good thing Guy Lewis died, he would be embarrassed at how it looks now. Perhaps the best thing I can say is that you can buy beer at the games. The rest of the basketball facilities are also woeful.

If WSU wants to play with the big boys, the best and first thing they can do is get to be a Tier-1 institution. Even then, though, you will have to starve at least one of your major sports for capital. Dr. Katur (U of H's president) made a calculated decision that a great football program coupled with Tier-1 status would get them on the map.

It wouldn't be a bad model to follow.

It's going to take a lot of jack to build even a basic football stadium.

I was talking about school fit; university in a city (with the city in the name too coincidentally)

Of course it will take a lot of $$$. Good thing we have some affluent alumni.

[Cdizzle]

That a pretty darn nice facility, in a much larger town, at a much larger school.

North Texas built theirs for $78K, and is probably a better analog for what WSU might do, in this hypothetical parallel universe that's probably not going to happen that we're talking about.

The B12 talk is dream world. MWC and AAC would be the end game targets.

If it's only going to take $78K, I think we should go for it.

[SHOCKvalue]

If it's only going to take $78K, I think we should go for it.

Damnit!

[SB Shock]

If it's only going to take $78K, I think we should go for it.

I think he dropped some zero's or meant "M" instead of "K"

[1972Shocker]

If it's only going to take $78K, I think we should go for it.

I think a capital K stands for Katrillion.

[shockmonster]

I'm not sure that Bardo is going out on limb trying to make this happen. But some big donors did want to keep Marshall here and were willing to step up to make it happen. I think that this an entire University and City evaluation and probably some donors would like to see us in another conference, long term. There is t any way that conference affiliation should be discussed without football being a part of that discussion. If there is any interest from deep pockets that include football as a part of that discussion, they need to speak out now or forever hold your peace. That way in the future, there will be much reason for criticism if the deep pockets disagree. Everyone will know how much money is needed and whether there is support at the level of the money that is needed.

[shock]

If we could get it started well for $10 million, that might be worth it. We aren't going to spend the $$$ if we stay in the MVC. So at what point do go ahead with football? It would take 30 seconds to put one together to beat KU, but I'm sure we want a better team than that. Do we shop ourselves as willing to add football and start a program in the MVCF after being extended an invite and a three year transition period? Or do we just go for it and build the stadium and hire Coach Cowher and hope that attracts the kind of talent to compete at a high level?

[Dan]

Building a stadium is the entry fee. You still have to build the other facilities to support the football program, hire the coaches, staff and and everything that goes along with the personnel, then you have to fund the scholarships for 85 players. After you do that, you have to add more female sports to account for the additional 85 football scholarships. No idea how much all this cost but it's a lot.

[ShockdaWorld]

Maybe we could get Bill Parcells to come back to the ICT.

[1972Shocker]

then you have to fund the scholarships for 85 players

Then you have to find 85 D-1 quality players. If this happens look for WSU to expand its in-state tuition waiver program to include the entire state of Oklahoma and Texas.