Wlu 2025

[Fightingscot82]

HUGE signing for Salisbury and West Liberty to get Pennsylvania 3A player of the year Luca Neal from Avonworth. This dude is a beast and literally is all the platitudes you hear from coaches. Great kid from a great family. Jealous he went to West Liberty and not the PSAC. He had some low D1 offers but West Liberty came in with the cash.

[Layton]

Some quality in state pickups so far too nice to see

[Layton]

Concord and Glenville are putting together tremendous in state classes

[Tdobson]

HUGE signing for Salisbury and West Liberty to get Pennsylvania 3A player of the year Luca Neal from Avonworth. This dude is a beast and literally is all the platitudes you hear from coaches. Great kid from a great family. Jealous he went to West Liberty and not the PSAC. He had some low D1 offers but West Liberty came in with the cash.

I heard about that signing. I know WL has been down. Are they building toward a good team? I usually don’t follow the MEC.

[boatcapt]

The nock on WLU was never about facilities or scholly dollars. It was about the coaching staffs desire and ability to recruit and then their ability to coach the recruits up when they did come. The early returns indicate that this staff is capable and willing to go toe to toe with anyone and pull quality players to the Hilltop but the jury is still out on weather they can coach... won't know that until at least the end of the 26 season.

We talk about what a new coach can mean to a program. If it is the right guy, the turnaround can be pretty dramatic and immediate. Like it or not, we now live in a year-to-year DII football world where a coach can truly build a winner in one year with a keen recruiting eye, the right amount of scholly dollars and a heaping helping of pixie dust. Do I think that Salisbury can take WLU to a undefeated National Championship? No, not really (but a boy can dream)...But given where WLU has been for the last 20 years, a seven win season would feel like a NC for us.

[Fightingscot82]

I heard about that signing. I know WL has been down. Are they building toward a good team? I usually don’t follow the MEC.

As has been noted, West Liberty suffered from a complacent coaching staff and an administration who kept renewing the head coach. Stadium is one-sided but nice. Scholarships are good not great - but there's money to throw around. I think the knocks on the school are that its pretty small and located in a seemingly remote area outside of Wheeling, neither of which offer much for the 18-24 crowd. West Liberty has virtually no name recognition in the Pittsburgh market, too. The MEC is a meh conference that usually has 1-2 "good" teams that can compete with the best of the region. The problem is that its a rotating mix most years (Frostburg hasn't regressed just yet) and West Liberty hasn't been one of those teams for several years.

But they made a great hire in Chad Salisbury. He was a huge recruiter at Cal and knows what WPIAL kids hear from PSAC coaches. His staff seems to be young but hungry. Great. Salisbury being hired late allowed him to use the IUP model of swooping in at the end and picking off guys by outbidding the dollars and probably selling more immediate playing time. A PSAC head coach texted me yesterday clearly upset about Luca Neal signing with West Liberty saying they got outbid. That's usually what I hear from Clarion and Edinboro coaches when IUP did that to them.

[Tdobson]

As has been noted, West Liberty suffered from a complacent coaching staff and an administration who kept renewing the head coach. Stadium is one-sided but nice. Scholarships are good not great - but there's money to throw around. I think the knocks on the school are that its pretty small and located in a seemingly remote area outside of Wheeling, neither of which offer much for the 18-24 crowd. West Liberty has virtually no name recognition in the Pittsburgh market, too. The MEC is a meh conference that usually has 1-2 "good" teams that can compete with the best of the region. The problem is that its a rotating mix most years (Frostburg hasn't regressed just yet) and West Liberty hasn't been one of those teams for several years.

But they made a great hire in Chad Salisbury. He was a huge recruiter at Cal and knows what WPIAL kids hear from PSAC coaches. His staff seems to be young but hungry. Great. Salisbury being hired late allowed him to use the IUP model of swooping in at the end and picking off guys by outbidding the dollars and probably selling more immediate playing time. A PSAC head coach texted me yesterday clearly upset about Luca Neal signing with West Liberty saying they got outbid. That's usually what I hear from Clarion and Edinboro coaches when IUP did that to them.

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you get outbidded in D2? Is the money that good in D2? I thought only d1 players got money.
I would think that any D2 school could match another's scholarship offer. Plus, WLU is out of state, so if I am right, the cost is increased.

[Ram040506]

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you get outbidded in D2? Is the money that good in D2? I thought only d1 players got money.
I would think that any D2 school could match another's scholarship offer. Plus, WLU is out of state, so if I am right, the cost is increased.

D2 offers sliced up scholarships. Some get a 1/4 scholarship, some 1/2, etc... Roster of 100 kids at times, most of these schools have 10-25 scholarships to divvy up amongst them.

He isn't referring to NIL.

[Tdobson]

D2 offers sliced up scholarships. Some get a 1/4 scholarship, some 1/2, etc... Roster of 100 kids at times, most of these schools have 10-25 scholarships to divvy up amongst them.

He isn't referring to NIL.

So, Luca got more of the pie. When I was at IUP, I remember the backup QB and placeholder talking to the kicker about how much money each got. If I remember correctly, the kicker got more.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

D2 offers sliced up scholarships. Some get a 1/4 scholarship, some 1/2, etc... Roster of 100 kids at times, most of these schools have 10-25 scholarships to divvy up amongst them.

He isn't referring to NIL.

"Athletic scholarship money", per se, is far from the be-all, end-all, when it comes to players getting coin in D2.

There are many paths coaches can take to legally skirt the system.

These come in the form of academic money, room/board waivers, etc.

That's just at the publics. The privates operate with a whole different level of K-Mart Blue Light Special.

We see the PSAC 'scholarship equivalency' numbers from the public programs. That's not nearly the whole story, however. I'd love to see the real numbers. There's not a chance in Hell some of the East teams are building the rosters they are with their reported 5-6 scholarship equivalencies. Makes me laugh every time.

[Ram040506]

"Athletic scholarship money", per se, is far from the be-all, end-all, when it comes to players getting coin in D2.

There are many paths coaches can take to legally skirt the system.

These come in the form of academic money, room/board waivers, etc.

That's just at the publics. The privates operate with a whole different level of K-Mart Blue Light Special.

We see the PSAC 'scholarship equivalency' numbers from the public programs. That's not nearly the whole story, however. I'd love to see the real numbers. There's not a chance in Hell some of the East teams are building the rosters they are with their reported 5-6 scholarship equivalencies. Makes me laugh every time.

It obviously just stretches further in the east.

[Fightingscot82]

Forgive my ignorance, but how do you get outbidded in D2? Is the money that good in D2? I thought only d1 players got money.
I would think that any D2 school could match another's scholarship offer. Plus, WLU is out of state, so if I am right, the cost is increased.

I can't find the source and this isn't limited to football, but the average athletic scholarship for the PASSHE PSAC schools is $2,500. That's about 15% of the estimated total cost of attendance and before also combining any income-based federal grants (Pell) or state grants (PHEAA), plus any other financial aid they may get like academic aid.

[boatcapt]

Not unique to West Virginia, but WV HS grads have access to PROMISE Grants that pay for their tuition and R&B at state 4-year colleges. Bring in a number of them then use the scholly dollars you do have on out of state recruits.

Good coaches are good at working the money angle. Heck, long time ago but my son received a more comprehensive (read BIGGER) "offer" from a non-athletic Scholly D3 than he did at WLU.

[IUPbigINDIANS]

Not unique to West Virginia, but WV HS grads have access to PROMISE Grants that pay for their tuition and R&B at state 4-year colleges. Bring in a number of them then use the scholly dollars you do have on out of state recruits.

Good coaches are good at working the money angle. Heck, long time ago but my son received a more comprehensive (read BIGGER) "offer" from a non-athletic Scholly D3 than he did at WLU.

Years back on one of Joe's big teams he allegedly had the full 10 equivalencies plus his son was at IUP for free and they had another on academic money. So, 12 full rides for the price of 10. No surprise that was one of his better teams.

If you have the resources (i.e. basically a salary cap nerd) ... there are a lot of loopholes to find. For a football program with its big roster, it's a time-consuming ordeal, but well worth it.

[Tdobson]

"Athletic scholarship money", per se, is far from the be-all, end-all, when it comes to players getting coin in D2.

There are many paths coaches can take to legally skirt the system.

These come in the form of academic money, room/board waivers, etc.

That's just at the publics. The privates operate with a whole different level of K-Mart Blue Light Special.

We see the PSAC 'scholarship equivalency' numbers from the public programs. That's not nearly the whole story, however. I'd love to see the real numbers. There's not a chance in Hell some of the East teams are building the rosters they are with their reported 5-6 scholarship equivalencies. Makes me laugh every time.

Do schools have to post or list the scholarships for the athletes? I would be interested in those numbers.