5-Year Strategic Objectives

[pogo]

The big difference there is we fit the American mold, outside of football. Urban research university and we had top level basketball at the time. We were also close to a lot of the western schools with Tulsa, Memphis and Dallas all being fairly easy drives, with Houston and New Orleans being a little more challenging, but drive-able. Those things matter to the non-revenue side of things. From out perspective, we were already trying to establish student recruiting drives/ties to Texas and Oklahoma and on top of being a better basketball conference, that along with being with more like minded academic institutions made sense for us as well.

The BE did take UCon, but they had a long history with them and they don't increase travel costs for most of the BE schools. We don't have that history and we're not a private/religious based university and we don't offer much to the east coast schools. Creighton is drive-able and SLU would be as well. You start stretching things with DePaul and Marquette. But all of those schools are focused on eastern recruiting mostly and adding Wichita doesn't do much. We would lose our heavy presence in OK and TX as well and heavily increase travel costs. Will it be a better basketball conference? Sure. Does it make sense for anything other than men's basketball? No. Do we make sense for them? Not really, even if we get basketball turned around.

The only question that ever really existed with the AAC was if they'd take a non-football school. Many didn't think they would because of what had happened with the BE. But many others pointed out that as long as they didn't add a large group of non-football schools there would never be the power dynamic that existed in the BE that caused friction. The NBE is in a different position where we make almost no sense when it comes down to it. They'd much rather have a city like STL with a like minded school like SLU that strives to be good in basketball and has had some success at times. Large city. Similar school makeup and SLU heavily recruits the east coast which is why they were never interested in the MVC.

The American always made more sense than the BE and still does. And for the record, the A10 doesn't make much sense for us either if they were to add. Outside of having public schools, they have all of the same drawbacks and a lesser TV deal. There's simply not another conference at the moment, or in the foreseeable future that makes better sense than the American for us, or us for them. I suppose one could try to argue the MWC, which could be debated on some level, but they face an unsure future as well.

This should be made into a sticky and should dispel ANY notion/argument of going to the BE

[Stickboy46]

The big difference there is we fit the American mold, outside of football. Urban research university and we had top level basketball at the time. We were also close to a lot of the western schools with Tulsa, Memphis and Dallas all being fairly easy drives, with Houston and New Orleans being a little more challenging, but drive-able. Those things matter to the non-revenue side of things. From out perspective, we were already trying to establish student recruiting drives/ties to Texas and Oklahoma and on top of being a better basketball conference, that along with being with more like minded academic institutions made sense for us as well.

The BE did take UCon, but they had a long history with them and they don't increase travel costs for most of the BE schools. We don't have that history and we're not a private/religious based university and we don't offer much to the east coast schools. Creighton is drive-able and SLU would be as well. You start stretching things with DePaul and Marquette. But all of those schools are focused on eastern recruiting mostly and adding Wichita doesn't do much. We would lose our heavy presence in OK and TX as well and heavily increase travel costs. Will it be a better basketball conference? Sure. Does it make sense for anything other than men's basketball? No. Do we make sense for them? Not really, even if we get basketball turned around.

The only question that ever really existed with the AAC was if they'd take a non-football school. Many didn't think they would because of what had happened with the BE. But many others pointed out that as long as they didn't add a large group of non-football schools there would never be the power dynamic that existed in the BE that caused friction. The NBE is in a different position where we make almost no sense when it comes down to it. They'd much rather have a city like STL with a like minded school like SLU that strives to be good in basketball and has had some success at times. Large city. Similar school makeup and SLU heavily recruits the east coast which is why they were never interested in the MVC.

The American always made more sense than the BE and still does. And for the record, the A10 doesn't make much sense for us either if they were to add. Outside of having public schools, they have all of the same drawbacks and a lesser TV deal. There's simply not another conference at the moment, or in the foreseeable future that makes better sense than the American for us, or us for them. I suppose one could try to argue the MWC, which could be debated on some level, but they face an unsure future as well.

From a non-athletic perspective .. recruiting STUDENTS along the I35 corridor is extremely important. With the new AAC we lose Houston which could rougly be along that corridor but add UNT (which will overlap with SMU from a market standpoint), UTSA and Rice (Houston). So we now have solid visibilty in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston.

From an overall perspective, athletic and non-athletic, the AAC still makes the most sense unless we somehow got a magical Big 12 invite (which is never happening). Big East really only makes sense from a men's basketball perspective.

[SubGod22]

From a non-athletic perspective .. recruiting STUDENTS along the I35 corridor is extremely important. With the new AAC we lose Houston which could rougly be along that corridor but add UNT (which will overlap with SMU from a market standpoint), UTSA and Rice (Houston). So we now have solid visibilty in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston.

From an overall perspective, athletic and non-athletic, the AAC still makes the most sense unless we somehow got a magical Big 12 invite (which is never happening). Big East really only makes sense from a men's basketball perspective.

From the Student perspective, adding San Antonio, which I believe is now in our special rates area or whatever, could be a big deal. Dallas is huge for us because it's relatively close in being about a 6 hour drive I think. Plus, many of our sports have recruited Texas as well for athletes and will continue to. Being able to sell them on playing in front of friends and family some never hurts.


I also agree with pogo about UCF not being a huge loss for basketball. They haven't sucked, but they've never lived up to expectations and we're adding a couple of teams that are probably going to be better than them from the start. Losing Houston sucks and Cincinnati isn't great. But we're going to be alright

[SubGod22]

Looking at the map, I kind of wonder if we will expand the Shocker City Partnership or Shocker Select options to LA. I forgot that it had expanded to IL and AR.

I'm not sure how far they want to expand those options as it does decrease the costs for those students, but I do think it's had a positive impact on recruitment and is generally seen as a positive. Just kind of thinking since New Orleans is a part of the American and LA has a decent population and is connected to both AR and TX, that it might make sense. Expanding the sphere of influence helps build the school. I have liked the more aggressive approach that was put into place under The Bardo with this as a method of growing the student population as well as the area of influence we have. Both help future growth opportunities and can lead to more potential giving in the future. Which was also one of the perks I felt football could have added had we ever brought it back.

[Veritas]

From a non-athletic perspective .. recruiting STUDENTS along the I35 corridor is extremely important. With the new AAC we lose Houston which could rougly be along that corridor but add UNT (which will overlap with SMU from a market standpoint), UTSA and Rice (Houston). So we now have solid visibilty in Dallas, San Antonio and Houston.

From an overall perspective, athletic and non-athletic, the AAC still makes the most sense unless we somehow got a magical Big 12 invite (which is never happening). Big East really only makes sense from a men's basketball perspective.

BE should be the target. Gonzaga supposedly in final discussions to join the BigXII.

[AndShock]

BE should be the target. Gonzaga supposedly in final discussions to join the BigXII.

This makes me think the Big XII would have been a legit possibility for WSU if not for KU and K-State.

[SubGod22]

This makes me think the Big XII would have been a legit possibility for WSU if not for KU and K-State.

Not with the current state of the program

[Stickboy46]

BE should be the target. Gonzaga supposedly in final discussions to join the BigXII.

Spokane to Orlando road trips will be fun for the softball teams

[Maizerunner08]

Big East or bust. Playing FAU and Rice doesn't get anyone excited. Memphis and SMU are next to leave.

[SubGod22]

Big East or bust. Playing FAU and Rice doesn't get anyone excited. Memphis and SMU are next to leave.

Where are they going?

The Big East does nothing for Wichita State as a whole. It might benefit a good men's basketball program, but outside of that it would do more harm than good. It would be a much bigger financial burden for the athletic department. Very few schools are in areas where we recruit regular students, which could hamper enrollment numbers. Fewer schools within what most fans would consider a reasonable drive. And even fewer in what might be an excessive but reasonable drive. Also, why would all of those private schools back east want to add a public school in the middle of Kansas?

And as much as some like to forget about it, academics is still a major factor in conference moves as well. Especially when we're not talking crazy ass money. We are aligned with like minded institutions. Urban based and research focused. That does a lot for the school and academic potential. Trying to join a bunch of east coast private schools, which is what most of the conference still is, does nothing for us or them from an academic point of view. They would never see us as a peer institution, nor would we them.

It's likely that two of the incoming schools will be better than us and be competing for top spots from day one. A couple of others have made strides in recent years and they're all investing.

Houston is the only major loss for us in basketball. Cincy is a loss as they should get better. UCF has done nothing on the court. Let's not act like them leaving guts the conference.

We also need to stop being so high and mighty about affiliation when we have a program that's an unknown quantity right now and there's a real lack of faith surrounding it. Who the hell would want to take that on? The Big East would look at us and just say, it was all Marshall. They're falling apart without him. No need to add dead weight that does nothing for the conference on the court or in the classrooms.

Sorry for the mini-rant. I'm just tired of seeing people ***** about the AAC and begging to suck the cock of whatever priest would let us join the Catholic Club + Ucon. It's not going to happen and it doesn't really make any sense for either side.

[Maizerunner08]

Where are they going?

The Big East does nothing for Wichita State as a whole. It might benefit a good men's basketball program, but outside of that it would do more harm than good. It would be a much bigger financial burden for the athletic department. Very few schools are in areas where we recruit regular students, which could hamper enrollment numbers. Fewer schools within what most fans would consider a reasonable drive. And even fewer in what might be an excessive but reasonable drive. Also, why would all of those private schools back east want to add a public school in the middle of Kansas?

And as much as some like to forget about it, academics is still a major factor in conference moves as well. Especially when we're not talking crazy ass money. We are aligned with like minded institutions. Urban based and research focused. That does a lot for the school and academic potential. Trying to join a bunch of east coast private schools, which is what most of the conference still is, does nothing for us or them from an academic point of view. They would never see us as a peer institution, nor would we them.

It's likely that two of the incoming schools will be better than us and be competing for top spots from day one. A couple of others have made strides in recent years and they're all investing.

Houston is the only major loss for us in basketball. Cincy is a loss as they should get better. UCF has done nothing on the court. Let's not act like them leaving guts the conference.

We also need to stop being so high and mighty about affiliation when we have a program that's an unknown quantity right now and there's a real lack of faith surrounding it. Who the hell would want to take that on? The Big East would look at us and just say, it was all Marshall. They're falling apart without him. No need to add dead weight that does nothing for the conference on the court or in the classrooms.

Sorry for the mini-rant. I'm just tired of seeing people ***** about the AAC and begging to suck the cock of whatever priest would let us join the Catholic Club + Ucon. It's not going to happen and it doesn't really make any sense for either side.

No, you really make a lot of good points. My ultimate worry is WSU finds itself super irrelevant (on a university level, not basketball program level) in 10-15 years. Whatever outcomes avoids that is critical.

[Stickboy46]

No, you really make a lot of good points. My ultimate worry is WSU finds itself super irrelevant (on a university level, not basketball program level) in 10-15 years. Whatever outcomes avoids that is critical.

From a university level... Rice is pretty dang good company.

[SubGod22]

I'd just add that if we think back and remember, The Bardo often talked about institutional fit and academics when making the move to the AAC. Some of that is also why the conference invited who they did. There were some popular athletics choices that are a fit for basketball or football but also don't fit the profile on the academic/research side of things. I also do think that they see potential in a few of the adds on the athletics side.

UAB and UNT are both setup to be successful and compete in basketball and could rise in football.

UTSA has been a top 25 football program in recent years and they've only had that program for around a decade. They've publicly announced their intentions of a focused effort on basketball and that includes a new arena.

FAU is in a great area and has had some minor football success out of CUSA, and if I remember correctly, has been better in basketball than I had previously thought.

Rice has the ability to be a factor and they're recruiting well. They also committed to spending more and attempting to boost their programs. Only Rice can hold Rice back.

Charlotte desperately wants to be a factor in basketball. They've had struggles getting there.

All of these schools are also now recruiting to a higher level conference. We've added six schools and two of them will compete in the upper level of the conference from the start. Two or so in the mid level, which still may be above us, and the other two definitely have work to do, but are putting work in.

And we still have Memphis. We still have SMU. Tulane is on the rise. Temple, like Wichita, has been disappointing and should be better. Adding in UAB and UNT still gives us a pretty good conference. We can't do anything about ECU and USF continues to disappoint. They really don't have an excuse to not be better than they are. Tulsa is always an enigma that can put a good product on the floor.

We're going to be alright.

[WuShock16]

No, you really make a lot of good points. My ultimate worry is WSU finds itself super irrelevant (on a university level, not basketball program level) in 10-15 years. Whatever outcomes avoids that is critical.

Take a look at enrollment numbers. Every single KBoR school is losing enrollment...except for WSU. A colleague told me that Muma said that WSU has positioned itself to where at some point in the future (can't exactly remember timeline...20 years or so maybe), WSU will have the largest enrollment in KBoR system. Of my worries about WSU, the university side isn't one of them.

[SubGod22]

Take a look at enrollment numbers. Every single KBoR school is losing enrollment...except for WSU. A colleague told me that Muma said that WSU has positioned itself to where at some point in the future (can't exactly remember timeline...20 years or so maybe), WSU will have the largest enrollment in KBoR system. Of my worries about WSU, the university side isn't one of them.

The Bardo really did begin something special here and I'm glad to see Muma sticking with it and pushing it forward, and even expanding upon it.