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

[SB Shock]

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

That might be the answer - maybe going to a new web hosting service (one that is cheaper so they can save for football), but might not be the answer either. It also says:

About This Page
This "Under Construction" page is an automatically generated placeholder Web page for a domain that is not yet attached to an active Web site. This page replaces the "Not Found" error pages and notifies visitors that a Web site is coming soon.
How Do I Replace This Page?
Publishing your Web site, updating the name servers, or forwarding to another domain name will automatically replace this default page.

If you do not have an existing Web site hosting package or web forwarding, further information to get your Web site online can be found by clicking the following links.

Because I do find it odd they would choose to complete rebuild once fall sports started and not during the slow summer months.

[1972Shocker]

And the parking we do have is somewhat inflated by using the absolute minimum wiidth you can get away with. Works fine for sub-compacts and maybe compacts but anything bigger than that are really squeezed in pretty tight.

[WstateU]

What happened to goshockers.com?

https://www.goshockers.com

Looks like they're finally putting an end to the yellow/gold debate... we're goin' GREEN! :)

"Long wave the green and the orange..."

[Ricardo del Rio]

That might be the answer - maybe going to a new web hosting service (one that is cheaper so they can save for football), but might not be the answer either. It also says:



Because I do find it odd they would choose to complete rebuild once fall sports started and not during the slow summer months.

"You expect way too much from that crowd on N. Hillside.

I am still looking for the electronic media guide."

[ShockerFever]

Because I do find it odd they would choose to complete rebuild once fall sports started and not during the slow summer months.

Yep, that would make too much sense doing a site overhaul in the slow summer months. Let's do it now with the fall sports season underway.

Once again, another trademark of the current administration. Another blip on the Division III level radar.

[Metalkatz]

Godaddy got hacked and any sites associate with it are down, or at least were down today. This may explain the outage of goshockers.

[_kai_]

Godaddy got hacked and any sites associate with it are down, or at least were down today. This may explain the outage of goshockers.

I was just going to post this.

[BOBB]

Two ways to guarantee a long thread: "just read this on phog.net" and "football being discussed for revival."

[_kai_]

Two ways to guarantee a long thread: "just read this on phog.net" and "football being discussed for revival."

"Grey uniforms"

"Half time shows"

"The athletic department didn't return my call"

[Kung Wu]

"Grey uniforms"

"Half time shows"

"The athletic department didn't return my call"

"Niiiice pic @WstateU:!"

[Kung Wu]

I was just going to post this.

Just got this from a friend:


Knock knock.
-Who's there?
Any website hosted on Godaddy.
-Any website hosted on Godaddy, who?
<DNS lookup failed.>

[Signman]

For the past several years (decades) I have watched the leadership at my alma mater fail to admit that falling enrollment is a problem.
We had over 17,000 students in the fall of 1986 when football was dropped and the population of the six counties of South Central Kansas was around 595,000. Roughly 3% of the population were attending classes at WSU!

Now we have slightly less than 15,000 students and a population of over 725,000 in the same six counties. This is roughly 2% of the population. Or a 33% reduction in market share. While I don’t have the numbers at hand I know WSU enjoyed fairly steady growth commensurate with area population from 1964 to 1986. In addition I would guess that a higher % of the population is attending college now as opposed to 1986. Had we maintained this 3% number we would easily have over 20,000 students enrolled at WSU. Just using the above numbers and multiplying $20,000 annual expense per student times 5,000 missing students represents $100 million annual lost revenue to this community. The students and their dollars went somewhere.

KU, K-State, Emporia State, Pitt State, Ft Hays State, Washburn and nearly all of the JUCO’s and DII schools have grown in step with their respective population base and some have grown dramatically (Ft Hays & Johnson CCC). WSU is the notable exception. Why? In my opinion when football was dropped what little collegiate atmosphere WSU had nearly disappeared. There may and probably are other reasons for the decline: bad marketing, subsidies from Sedgwick County to Butler CCC for tuition, bad basketball and perhaps many others.

I believe football is the key to reviving a true collegiate atmosphere at Wichita State University. Indeed, the last several years have proven that football is the cash cow as far as conferences, realignment and television revenue are concerned. There may be other ways to develop this atmosphere and I hope Dr. Bardo has some ideas here. He has stated he wants more students living on campus and that will certainly help. But how do you get them to "want" to be there. How do you convince the parents that their children will receive a "collegiate experience" and "superb education". Our campus is dull this time of year, in fact many of us are just counting down the days till basketball as we are starved for our Shockers.

In the meantime our competition has a blizzard of PR, marketing and news about their respective institutions. Sports talk shows are buzzing about K-State, Bill Snyder, Charlie Weis, Butler vs Blinn, HS football, Big 12 football and this will continue for several more weeks. I walked in to a Dillons less than two miles from WSU and was bombarded with KU & K-state colors as the main motif for the store...no Shocker gear in sight. (I left).


When Dr. Beggs arrived on campus in the late 90’s one of the first questions I asked is what are we going to do about declining enrollment. His response was; “I’m not sure WSU should try to grow.” I found that alarming and said so.
I believe a strong and growing Wichita State is instrumental to this areas’ economic health. For too long our city and our school have been the poor step child of the state system. “Wichita State is like Denny’s, it’s not a destination but you end up there”. We can train dental assistants at WSU but not dentists. We can train paralegals in Wichita but not lawyers. We can train nurses in Wichita but not Doctors. Why is everything 2nd tier at WSU? This is the largest metro area anchored in this state but all of the top programs are reserved for the KC area. Our love affair with KU & K-State is not good for the City of Wichita.

I’m encouraged that Dr. Bardo might be the agent of change. Everything I have read allows me to believe that he will embrace growth and a mission that is Wichita first. Our choice is clear we can continue to slide in market share, we can continue to watch our alumni send their children to other schools (I'm guilty of this) and not see them return. Or we can choose a new dynamic vision for Wichita. Bravely Onward is a campaign that Fidelity Bank is running and it strikes a chord. I would change it slightly to Bravely Upward.

What is my vision for Wichita State! I turned 61 yesterday and before I turn 70 I would like to go to a football game featuring our Shockers in front of 50,000 screaming fans (half of whom are students) as we qualify for a BCS Bowl Playoff (probably a 16 team tournament by then). I would like to recommend in an unqualified manner that my grandson (hopefully grandchildren by then) become a Shocker(s) and receive an outstanding education while enjoying a true collegiate experience.

Aargh...you would then be right. "The future's so bright that I gotta wear shades".

Go Shockers

[Kung Wu]

For the past several years (decades) I have watched the leadership at my alma mater fail to admit that falling enrollment is a problem.
We had over 17,000 students in the fall of 1986 when football was dropped and the population of the six counties of South Central Kansas was around 595,000. Roughly 3% of the population were attending classes at WSU!

Now we have slightly less than 15,000 students and a population of over 725,000 in the same six counties. This is roughly 2% of the population. Or a 33% reduction in market share. While I don’t have the numbers at hand I know WSU enjoyed fairly steady growth commensurate with area population from 1964 to 1986. In addition I would guess that a higher % of the population is attending college now as opposed to 1986. Had we maintained this 3% number we would easily have over 20,000 students enrolled at WSU. Just using the above numbers and multiplying $20,000 annual expense per student times 5,000 missing students represents $100 million annual lost revenue to this community. The students and their dollars went somewhere.

KU, K-State, Emporia State, Pitt State, Ft Hays State, Washburn and nearly all of the JUCO’s and DII schools have grown in step with their respective population base and some have grown dramatically (Ft Hays & Johnson CCC). WSU is the notable exception. Why, in my opinion when football was dropped what little collegiate atmosphere WSU had nearly disappeared. There may and probably are other reasons for the decline: bad marketing, subsidies from Sedgwick County to Butler CCC for tuition, bad basketball and perhaps many others.

I believe football is the key to reviving a true collegiate atmosphere at Wichita State University. Indeed, the last several years have proven that football is the cash cow as far as conferences, realignment and television revenue are concerned. There may be other ways to develop this atmosphere and I hope Dr. Bardo has some ideas here. He has stated he wants more students living on campus and that will certainly help. But how do you get them to "want" to be there. How do you convince the parents that their children will receive a "collegiate experience" and "superb education". Our campus is dull this time of year, in fact many of us are just counting down the days till basketball as we are starved for our Shockers.

In the meantime our competition has a blizzard of PR, marketing and news about their respective institutions. Sports talk shows are buzzing about K-State, Bill Snyder, Charlie Weis, Butler vs Blinn, HS football, Big 12 football and this will continue for several more weeks. I walked in to a Dillons less than two miles from WSU and was bombarded with KU & K-state colors as the main motif for the store...no Shocker gear in sight. (I left).


When Dr. Beggs arrived on campus in the late 90’s one of the first questions I asked is what are we going to do about declining enrollment. His response was; “I’m not sure WSU should try to grow.” I found that alarming and said so.
I believe a strong and growing Wichita State is instrumental to this areas’ economic health. For too long our city and our school have been the poor step child of the state system. “Wichita State is like Denny’s, it’s not a destination but you end up there”. We can train dental assistants at WSU but not dentists. We can train paralegals in Wichita but not lawyers. We can train nurses in Wichita but not Doctors. Why is everything 2nd tier at WSU? This is the largest metro area anchored in this state but all of the top programs are reserved for the KC area. Our love affair with KU & K-State is not good for the City of Wichita.

I’m encouraged that Dr. Bardo might be the agent of change. Everything I have read allows me to believe that he will embrace growth and a mission that is Wichita first. Our choice is clear we can continue to slide in market share, we can continue to watch our alumni send their children to other schools (I'm guilty of this) and not see them return. Or we can choose a new dynamic vision for Wichita. Bravely Onward is a campaign that Fidelity Bank is running and it strikes a chord. I would change it slightly to Bravely Upward.

What is my vision for Wichita State! I turned 61 yesterday and before I turn 70 I would like to go to a football game featuring our Shockers in front of 50,000 screaming fans (half of whom are students) as we qualify for a BCS Bowl Playoff (probably a 16 team tournament by then). I would like to recommend in an unqualified manner that my grandson (hopefully grandchildren by then) become a Shocker(s) and receive an outstanding education while enjoying a true collegiate experience.

Aargh...you would then be right. "The future's so bright that I gotta wear shades".

Go Shockers

What a great, well thought out post!

I love your passion!

Go Shoxers!

[bleed yellow]

Speaking of 2nd tier... I feel that playing not 1, but both of our instate rivals in baseball is 2nd tier. Just to give everyone an idea of how bad WSU's relationship is with KU and K-State, KSU is scheduled to play Gonzaga the next 2 seasons in basketball. If either one of the instate rivals was to take a serious jab at WSU in public, this is a major one. I think the biggest question here is, what exactly changed in the time frame from the Turgeon era when WSU was able to at least get K-State on their basketball schedule, to now? Playing our instate rivals in basketball would be another great way to get peoples attention and possibly increase enrollment. So many people have asked me if WSU is d-1 or d-2.. The simple answer is, everyone would know the answer if WSU played KU and K-State more often than they do right now in Mens basketball because obviously playing a home and home with those 2 schools in baseball just has not gotten enough attention over the years. But once again I feel that like some of the academics on campus that were listed on this thread, that never playing our instate rivals in basketball pretty much anymore is the states way of keeping WSU's athletic department as 2nd tier as they can. I've spoke to WSU athletic department officials in the past about the KU basketball situation and have gotten a very frustrated response.. But now that K-State has gone and scheduled Gonzaga, I might ask the next AD official that I see about it, just to see if I get a similar response.

[Kung Wu]

I don't understand what KSU playing Gonzaga has to do with anything? The powers that be at KSU and KU are d-bags for avoiding WSU -- but who they schedule against other than us is immaterial unless I am missing something.