EWU suffering financially; D2 move being considered

[tsull]

Eastern Washington, a former NAIA and D2 school, is hemorrhaging money -- this was before the virus -- and are having serious talks of moving to D2. Now EWU has been quite successful in FCS -- a national title in the last decade or so -- and in D1 hoops has gone to the Big Dance a couple times.

Their on-field/on-court success has been used by some CWU fans as the reason CWU should move up. However, I noted that the hidden item amidst their success is the bleeding of money. They draw horrifically at the gate in football and men's hoops and frankly, don't have the booster/donor support to finance a D-1 program. I doubt they'd move down; Idaho went from FBS to FCS and their fans are still going ballistic. However, EWU athletics might be on their D-1 last legs:

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/20...risis-due-to-/

[ESU Warrior]

Lets be honest here, there are many schools that can not afford the D-1 life. The GNAC needs schools, and this addition would be huge. Just imagine if the Lumberjacks and Western Washington were still around, There is your conference! Selfishly, I hope they move for you'r sake.

[ESU Warrior]

Lets be honest here, there are many schools that can not afford the D-1 life. The GNAC needs schools, and this addition would be huge. Just imagine if the Lumberjacks and Western Washington were still around, There is your conference! Selfishly, I hope they move for you'r sake.

[IronOre]

Well, they'd immediately have the nicest field in the GNAC... Even if it's red...

[tsull]

Well, they'd immediately have the nicest field in the GNAC... Even if it's red...

Easily the worst field in all of collegiate football, very ugly. Stadium is marginal for FCS, actually below average. They had plans for a new stadium, no money. Their hoops arena is solid, but about 800 people a game go there.

They are your typical D1wannabe, though they've had some success. Their business model is like most mid-majors: Hope, pray, beg, play your way into the NCAA D1 men's basketball tournament and get that huge 1st round playoff money. Doesn't matter if they lose by 50 as a 15 seed, they want that money to fund their department because they don't have the donations and fan support to run a D1/FCS department without that D1 tourney money.

It's a crazy financial model. It would be like you're the mom-and-pop tiny grocery store/mini-mart hoping Safeway makes it big in sales so they can give you some.

What happens when G5 pulls away? Their financial model is gone. Half the Big Sky if not more is in the same boat. Sac State plays in a 1,300-seat gym that resembles a bad junior high gym. How is this D-1? Southern Utah should not have jumped up; Northern Colorado, same thing. UC Davis has a nice 10K stadium and 40K students and gets under 10K a game for football. I'm always surprised college presidents let this go, just happy to dip into student funds, crank up tuition, or make the students (most who don't go to games) fork it out. But with no state oversight, they can get away with it.