Deb Farris: WSU To Look into Bringing Football Back in Next 3-4 Years

[Kung Wu]

It's quite a bit more expensive to take the garage down, than build it up. Almost double.

But you retain the use of the real estate above ground -- so you get dual use of the property.

[ripemupshocks]

I'm guessing $100 doesn't even get me my own named toilet paper holder.

Heck KW, for a 100 bucks, I'll put your name on a toilet paper holder. For an extra 10, I'll even use permanent marker. :biggrin-new:

[Kung Wu]

Heck KW, for a 100 bucks, I'll put your name on a toilet paper holder. For an extra 10, I'll even use permanent marker. :biggrin-new:

Hahahaha Not exactly what I had in mind, but being the subject of bathroom graffiti has some cachet to it.

[bleed yellow]

A friend of mine from Pitt. State saw the KAKE news report and decided to tell me about it. It felt kind of weird telling him "you can't always believe everything you hear in the news." Then I proceeded to inform him that Pitt State is on the WSU basketball schedule this year. He then lost interest in the conversation and said "yeah you guys are going to destroy us.."

[1972Shocker]

It's quite a bit more expensive to take the garage down, than build it up. Almost double.

What kind of issues do you have with ground water or is that taken care of by doubling the cost. Any ongoing operating costs associated with ground water issues? Just curious, I really doubt that would be the direction they go.

[shocks771]

I think you are reading more into it than is there.

You have to have a super solid athletic department to pull this off, and obviously Dr. Beggs spent plenty of his time here shoring that up. Maybe you weren't around in the 90's but the only decent thing to talk about then was the baseball team and an aging Round House. I suppose we had success with some of the minor and non-revenue generating sports during that period, but that's not good enough.

I think Dr. Beggs fought enough battles while he was here and that putting us in a good enough position that a new president can even talk about exploring the opportunity of football says it all. Also, keep in mind the likely outcome of any future exploration is "no go".

Couldn't have said it better myself! Beggs inherited a mess and he turned it into something very special by the time he left.

[bleed yellow]

The next question is, would shocker fans care about bringing football back at all if weren't for the one good football team in kansas up in manhattan? Even though watching KU fans weep when they lose at home to a team like Rice is priceless, hold up, that could very easily be WSU one day also.. Bringing the football program back and simply having no idea how to operate/coach/recruit. The KU football team looking like they stay out partying too late before every single game is a trend that has been running strong now for 3 years. Another scary thought is, K-State was once the worst college football team in the nation. Is KU close to that level of bad over the past 3 seasons? Its debatable... The worst team in college athletics crown is often in kansas all of the sudden and not even K-State can claim they will never be that bad again. They already failed miserably once the first time Bill Snyder retired, but they weren't KU bad. So if you are a WSU fan, would YOU want to share the same miseries that have been suffered in Manhattan and Lawrence due to football over the past 25 years? A K-Stater once told me that the KSU alumni would of never let the football program get scrapped back in the 80's. The truth is, even though K-State was in the Big 8 even, their Alumni could not have saved their football program, football is simply too costly. K-State merely took one last gamble on a coach from Iowa who had a history of running above average offenses.

[AndShock]

The next question is, would shocker fans care about bringing football back at all if weren't for the one good football team in kansas up in manhattan?

Umm...yes.

[SubGod22]

Hell yes. I don't give a crap about KU or KSU and what they have or haven't done.

[pogo]

The next question is, would shocker fans care about bringing football back at all if weren't for the one good football team in kansas up in manhattan? Even though watching KU fans weep when they lose at home to a team like Rice is priceless, hold up, that could very easily be WSU one day also.. Bringing the football program back and simply having no idea how to operate/coach/recruit. The KU football team looking like they stay out partying too late before every single game is a trend that has been running strong now for 3 years. Another scary thought is, K-State was once the worst college football team in the nation. Is KU close to that level of bad over the past 3 seasons? Its debatable... The worst team in college athletics crown is often in kansas all of the sudden and not even K-State can claim they will never be that bad again. They already failed miserably once the first time Bill Snyder retired, but they weren't KU bad. So if you are a WSU fan, would YOU want to share the same miseries that have been suffered in Manhattan and Lawrence due to football over the past 25 years? A K-Stater once told me that the KSU alumni would of never let the football program get scrapped back in the 80's. The truth is, even though K-State was in the Big 8 even, their Alumni could not have saved their football program, football is simply too costly. K-State merely took one last gamble on a coach from Iowa who had a history of running above average offenses.

The only thing that kept ksu from dropping its football program was the success of nebraska and ou and the revenues from the bowl games those teams played in. They shared the revenue and was the only way ksu and the rest of the little ones were able to afford football. ksu did make a commitment to their football program in the bill snyder era but it wouldn't have been around if not for ou and nebraska. Now with the huge tv revenues and bowls they can afford football and upgrades for other sports.

[Ta Town Shocker]

Wichita State was mentioned by the commentators during the Georgia vs Missouri game last night. One of the Georgia DT's is related to Jumpy Geathers who played at WSU. Evidently he had a pretty good NFL career too.

[Aargh]

The parking discussion is significant to reviving football. The Rolling Stones concert illustrated the parking problems involved with putting 30,000 people into Cessna. It took me an hour and a half to get on the shuttle bus that took me to my car, which was parked several miles away from campus. There's little student parking on campus on weekends, but I doubt there is parking to accommodate 15,000 people on campus, unless there's a shuttle system and off-campus parking, which would seriously discourage FB attendance.

There's anothe parking situation. I took some classes in the late '90's and the students were being asked to approve a tuition increase to expand and maintain the parking lots. I don't recall the exact details, but it seems the parking lots are student funded. As I recall, t least parking lot maintenance was student funded.

Multiple requirements to raise tuition might not look attractive to a President trying to grow enrollment. If FB is going to return, it's going to have to be at least partially funded by students. The growth in enrollment has to happen before FB is considered, and the growth in enrollment can't be jeopardized by increased tuition.

FB really looks good until you dig into the details. Then the details smack you in the face repeatedly. If WSU wants to bring FB back and wants to move into FBS, I think Doc's estimate of $100 mill is accurate. That $100 mill doesn't include renovating or replacing Cessna. $100 mill provides the funding to go through a low fan support period in FCS ball playing schools like Southern Illinois and Northern Iowa (basketball would outdraw FB against no-name teams).

Football could be brought back with commitments in the range of $25 - $50 mill, but the coaching salaries, the facilities, the re4cruiting budget, and on and on and on, would be unlikely to produce a result that could convince the local FB fans to go to the games. Local FB fans wanting to attend college FB games are already fans of KU, KSU, OU, OSU. You'd either have to change their loyalties (REALLY unlikely) or attract an entirely new fanbase to WSU games (pretty unlikely). Putting butts in seats is a major challenge.

[AndShock]

I don't think attendance would be a problem for a long time...hopefully a long enough time to get the program to a place where people would want to watch it.

UTSA averaged 35k in their start-up year and had 30k+ for their game this past weekend against Texas A&M University-Commerce, whoever that is. Kansas definitely isn't Texas but you would figure the people in Texas have a lot more football options on a Saturday than a Division II school and a terrible school in it's second year.

[SpanglerFan316]

What happened to goshockers.com?

[xazshox]

Go Shockers.com

Look in the upper right hand corner, & you will see that GoShockers.com is under construction.