We have a FOOTBALL team again. (CLUB LEVEL)

[WSUwatcher]

I've noted this before elsewhere, but just a reminder: last year's NCAA men's soccer champions were the Akron Zips(!). If they can do it, who can believe WSU couldn't?

And yes, I know this has absolutely nothing to do with football (nor does Quidditch, but who's counting?) -- that's why I posted it in, of course, the basketball forum.

[Metalkatz]

I want to see the business plan. If there was a 5-10 year plan with the ultimate goal of reaching Div 1A then I think it would be easier to fund raise knowing for sure where the intended goal is with the Athletic Depts blessing. As of now its just hope. Still excited though!

[Zardoz]

This is just a first step, but any journey has to begin with a single step. Whether this step is one that will bring football as we want it back remains to be seen.

[Aargh]

The stated "intention" is to progress to D1 FB. If that's going to have the slightest chance of success, it's going to have to move to Cessna and have 5-8K people showing up.

I think that's possible. If the games are competitive, the fact that they are pretty low-level can be overlooked by fans. To have any chance of moving to the next level, the Club Team will have to prove that local fans want to watch FB at WSU. That's going to require cooperation from the athletic department and butts in seats in Cessna.

200 fans watching from the sidelines at a Heskett facility will not do anything to advance FB past the club level at WSU.

[Kung Wu]

The stated "intention" is to progress to D1 FB. If that's going to have the slightest chance of success, it's going to have to move to Cessna and have 5-8K people showing up.

I think that's possible. If the games are competitive, the fact that they are pretty low-level can be overlooked by fans. To have any chance of moving to the next level, the Club Team will have to prove that local fans want to watch FB at WSU. That's going to require cooperation from the athletic department and butts in seats in Cessna.

200 fans watching from the sidelines at a Heskett facility will not do anything to advance FB past the club level at WSU.

This is sorta right but the emphasis is backwards. Success breeds success and it will be upon the club team to generate excitement by winning to get people interested and not the other way around.

[DUShock]

Hockey gear is just over $600 to fully equip a player. I hope they pull it off but it will be a tough row to hoe.

Go Shocks!

[bleed yellow]

I think this WSU student is messing with a skeleton in the state of Kansas's closet. WSU football is like a folklore myth. Nobody seems to know why WSU actually discontinued football. There's 3 popular folklore tales... 1. WSU couldn't support a football team and it nearly bankrupted their athletic department. 2. The team never recovered from the devastating plane crash. 3. The KU alumni dominated board of regents pulled the plug on WSU football.

As much hoopla as this whole club level idea is causing, I highly doubt it will turn into D-1 football anytime soon. But it will be interesting to see what kind of obstacles get thrown at them if they do try and take it beyond club level in the coming years. Very interesting actually.

[Ta town]

To me the first goal would be to actually get it started. Then the goal should be to eventually get it moved over to the Athletic department and switched to FCS non scholarship in the pioneer league. That would be the first step anyways and should be the goal.

[The Mad Hatter]

The stated "intention" is to progress to D1 FB. If that's going to have the slightest chance of success, it's going to have to move to Cessna and have 5-8K people showing up.

I think that's possible. If the games are competitive, the fact that they are pretty low-level can be overlooked by fans. To have any chance of moving to the next level, the Club Team will have to prove that local fans want to watch FB at WSU. That's going to require cooperation from the athletic department and butts in seats in Cessna.

200 fans watching from the sidelines at a Heskett facility will not do anything to advance FB past the club level at WSU.

If the proposed path is Club Football --> Non-Scholarship FCS Football (Pioneer League) --> Scholarship FCS Football (MVC Football) --> FBS Football (League Upgrade), I don't think the initial club football attendance needs to be 5k-8k (although it would need to be well more than 200). Since the early 90s, average attendance in the Pioneer League has been around 3k-4k (with the highest year being 4,662 in 2000). To move from club to Pioneer League will probably require more that range of attendance. Now moving up to MVC football (which has averaged between 9k-10k over the past decade) would require a bump in attendance over time and obviously moving to FBS would require a run of success on the field and having among the best attendance in the nation at the FCS level (which in 2010 was App St. with an average of 25,715).

[Aargh]

Nobody seems to know why WSU actually discontinued football. There's 3 popular folklore tales... 1. WSU couldn't support a football team and it nearly bankrupted their athletic department. 2. The team never recovered from the devastating plane crash. 3. The KU alumni dominated board of regents pulled the plug on WSU football.

As to your 3 reasons for FB disppearing at WSU:
1. - Bingo.
2. - The plane crash only changed the margin of victory in Shocker losses by about 10 points a game. Prince McJunkins got WSU to a bowl game, so that has to be considered a "recovery". Top-tier teams were lined up to give WSU big payouts from playing them at their places. Most of those games were 60-point blowouts, but that's about what was happening before the plane went down.
3. - Not everything bad that happens at WSU is the fault of KU. The BoR and KU had nothing to do with FB disappearing at WSU.

Probably involved in FB disappearing was a University President (Armstrong) who didn't seem to support athletics. Throw in an Athletic Director (Lew Perkins) with an "at this level" attitude, who didn't get along with the locals, and didn't feel he needed to get off his butt to raise money for lowly WSU, and you have an environment where a money-losing program gets axed rather than fixed.

[SubGod22]

I have no idea what kind of attendance a club team would get and I'm not entirely sure it matters that much. If they can win games and generate a little excitement and the University is ready to move, Pioneer or MVFC would be the next step. Scholarship football in the MVFC would generate a crowd. I'm guessing, with an average team, we'd average over 10k early. Build up some success, and it doesn't have to be dominating, and we could get 15k or so. That would probably be enough to catch the eye of a conference that may want to upgrade basketball and add what may be an up and coming football team. Getting an FBS team would get us over 20k early and probably more. If they start now, it appears they may have 10-12 years before having to worry about FBS. Word is a 10 year moritorium on FCS call ups is around the corner. That would at least give WSU a window to work within and sell the public on. That we will build up a football program with that goal in mind.

I don't think WSU is forward thinking enough to make that commitment. And I won't believe that's in their sites until I hear about the addition of Women's Soccer.

[shoxlax]

As to your 3 reasons for FB disppearing at WSU:
1. - Bingo.
2. - The plane crash only changed the margin of victory in Shocker losses by about 10 points a game. Prince McJunkins got WSU to a bowl game, so that has to be considered a "recovery". Top-tier teams were lined up to give WSU big payouts from playing them at their places. Most of those games were 60-point blowouts, but that's about what was happening before the plane went down.
3. - Not everything bad that happens at WSU is the fault of KU. The BoR and KU had nothing to do with FB disappearing at WSU.

Probably involved in FB disappearing was a University President (Armstrong) who didn't seem to support athletics. Throw in an Athletic Director (Lew Perkins) with an "at this level" attitude, who didn't get along with the locals, and didn't feel he needed to get off his butt to raise money for lowly WSU, and you have an environment where a money-losing program gets axed rather than fixed.

When did Prince McJunkins get us to a bowl game?

[WstateU]

When did Prince McJunkins get us to a bowl game?

????

[xazshox]

Football

Why is this thread under basketball? It should be refiled under Men's sports and then more people would see it.

What I wanted to add here is that for a long time, one of the arguments against WSU having football at the Div 1A level is that it would detract from their other sports including the so called minor sports. So what just happened? Mo State that fields a Div 1A football team just won the MVC All Sports trophy.

[SubGod22]

Why is this thread under basketball? It should be refiled under Men's sports and then more people would see it.

What I wanted to add here is that for a long time, one of the arguments against WSU having football at the Div 1A level is that it would detract from their other sports including the so called minor sports. So what just happened? Mo State that fields a Div 1A football team just won the MVC All Sports trophy.

ISU also had football and wants to move up to FBS and they're always in the hunt for the All Sports Trophy as well. It can be done. The argument will come that they also can't afford to pay their coaches like we do. But football doesn't have to hurt that either if done correctly.