Azusa to drop football

[laker]

Terrible news- just saw this- Azusa Pacific to drop football permanently. What will happen to GNAC football???

https://footballscoop.com/news/sourc...tball-program/

[catfan92]

Its over now for D2 football on the west coast. Either we move to FCS, or they should shut the program down. I've been screaming for years about this. I'm done, now. Still love my Alma Mater! But, football is gone in Ellensburg.Sad day.

[Wildcat Khan]

3 teams, I wonder if RMAC would look into them at all. Only other conference though needing teams is in Texas and this would be a longer trip than when WWU and CWU joined the NCC. I see CWU probably looking to do something like that though for football only again.

[catfan92]

Kahn, I think you're grasping at straws. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm not. It's over unless we step up. That's for sure. And, with Covid, its not likely..

[CWU Wildcat Nation]

https://athletics.apu.edu/news/2020/...-football.aspx

Even with the scheduling alliance in place with the LSC, it's going to be very hard to schedule six or seven non-con games each year. Joining the RMAC would be ideal. Otherwise, CWU will need to jump to FCS if they want for football programs to survive.

[SINGLE MALT]

Damn! I thought that Azusa was making noise about going FCS!! Now to shut down the program is astounding!! So there is no Div. 2 football in the state of California, amazing!! How this and the whole Covid-19 thing will impact SFU Football could be frightening!! All this crap happening just when SFU finally gets a Football Stadium!!!

GO CLAN....... OH DAMN CAN'T SAY THAT ANYMORE EITHER!! WHAT A S..T SHOW!!!!!

[tsull]

Very sad day for football in the West Coast. it's really unbelievable about these schools but what they want to do is join division one so they can lose by 50 in the first round of the tournament. I wish had the NCAA would make an entrance fee of $20 million to enter division one to see who is serious and who's not and kick all the d-wannabes out.

I'veI've said it a hundred times and I'll say it again: The last thing this world needs is another division one basketball program and actually 150 of them are completely worthless piles of turd that play in gyms smaller than most high schools.

Feel bad for the coaches, players, former players, and the fans at Azusa Pacific. California has a zillion great division two football players, it's too bad their opportunities are so limited.

Most people making these decisions, like the president of Western Washington and the president of Humboldt State, are people who really hate athletics and at a smaller school they can get away with chopping programs. At a bigger school the alumni would have them fired within the hour if they thought about that. They know they can get away with it and that's why they do it.

[tsull]

Honestly the athletic director should be fired tonight for getting rid of his biggest program. If you are in a business and you get rid of your biggest item that you sell you would be fired. The president and the trustees and that cabinet they're talking about should all be fired for being inept. Instead of finding ways to save it they chickened out. They're what I call losers in life and they should all be fired.

I learned a long time ago that college administrators are complete Teflon they could be completely inept, like what Western Oregon is going through right now with their president, and they keep their six-figure job. At a lot of places if you were this incompetent you're shown the door.

* I once saw the Western Washington University president, the one who cut football, talking to himself out loud, it was a chilling view. Looked like one of those crazies on the streets.

[crixus]

https://athletics.apu.edu/news/2020/...-football.aspx

Even with the scheduling alliance in place with the LSC, it's going to be very hard to schedule six or seven non-con games each year. Joining the RMAC would be ideal. Otherwise, CWU will need to jump to FCS if they want for football programs to survive.

I hope they'll join the RMAC. I love D2 football and want the three remaining GNAC teams to keep playing. Going the Indie route is an option, but it's the hardest way.

[tsull]

The RMAC has 10 football playing members, with Dixie State leaving for the WAC. I was surprised they even let Dixie stayed in is everyone knew it was just going to be a stopover.

I won't speak for the other schools, but for Western Oregon this is really a tough thing to swallow with Azuzu Pacific dropping football.

Western Oregon doesn't have the booster power, the money, the population to go FCS or be one of those stupid low-level D1 basketball schools. They've done well in division 2 and don't really profile with Corbin, Warner Pacific, and the religious schools that make up the nei league and the Pacific Northwest.

I'm hoping they can go independent or get something going with the Rocky Mountain or staying with the Lone Star or a combination of the two.

[tsull]

Never forget that a college administrator makes six figures and does quite well for himself and there is absolutely no incentive to be a good fundraiser.

A president at Central Washington University could cut their fine music program. He would get some heat for about a month and then he would move on. He could do it because well, he can. They can turn around and lay off a hundred people because they can. There's absolutely no alumni or media or booster pressure at the smaller schools. These presidents run their little empires with little accountability.

They know they can't raise money, they are not good at it, they have bad personalities and don't know how to connect with people. So they can cut football, or music, or earth science like they did at Western Oregon, or anything they want and walk away with a nice pension and six-figure salary.

The only heat is coming from the people who criticize what they're doing. I just wrote a letter to the newspaper that serves the Monmouth area. It will print tomorrow; I am expecting push back. People who are keeping their eyes on things get push back. Rich administrators walk away unscathed.

[Goods]

RMAC is a bus league. No flights. Same with MIAA and NSIC. Or if there are flights, it's few and far between. No way would they want to add a 1000 to 2000 mile flight and a bus ride to/ from airport to Ellensburg and Monmouth every year. You'll notice I'm not even including SFU here.

It's great that we have a scheduling partnership with the LSC, but that's a budget killer even without COVID. It's not sustainable.

FCS? No way. CWU would be the Washington state version of U of Northern Colorado. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they've never seen the bright side of .500 since they left D2. If they have, it hasn't been against a 10-11 game FCS slate. Plus.....i remember seeing where if CWU doubled their athletics budget, they'd still be last in the Big Sky.

Reality? Beg the NAIA Frontier Conference dominant programs to join GNAC, but they've said no multiple times already. Then instead of begging them to join CWU should beg to join the Frontier. Yes, it's NAIA. Other reality? Have a recently remodeled football stadium with no football team and hope students and alums like homecoming in January during bball season. Tsull just threw up in his mouth reading that...... and I did too.

[mountaineermagic]

RMAC is a bus league. No flights. Same with MIAA and NSIC. Or if there are flights, it's few and far between. No way would they want to add a 1000 to 2000 mile flight and a bus ride to/ from airport to Ellensburg and Monmouth every year. You'll notice I'm not even including SFU here.

It's great that we have a scheduling partnership with the LSC, but that's a budget killer even without COVID. It's not sustainable.

FCS? No way. CWU would be the Washington state version of U of Northern Colorado. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they've never seen the bright side of .500 since they left D2. If they have, it hasn't been against a 10-11 game FCS slate. Plus.....i remember seeing where if CWU doubled their athletics budget, they'd still be last in the Big Sky.

Reality? Beg the NAIA Frontier Conference dominant programs to join GNAC, but they've said no multiple times already. Then instead of begging them to join CWU should beg to join the Frontier. Yes, it's NAIA. Other reality? Have a recently remodeled football stadium with no football team and hope students and alums like homecoming in January during bball season. Tsull just threw up in his mouth reading that...... and I did too.

You're about right on UNC. I think they went 4-5 in 2015. The Bears could really be good in a year or so. The momentum from Ed McCaffrey has been huge. It sounds like Dylan may be transferring from Michigan too. The recruiting class is supposed to be their best ever.

Always was interested in APU from interviewing their DC while he was the HC at Fort Lewis. He was a nice guy fighting an uphill battle in Durango. Sad news for the GNAC. Hopefully the RMAC can work out some matchups at the least. RMAC fans would gladly have new road trips.

[Wildcat Khan]

RMAC is a bus league. No flights. Same with MIAA and NSIC. Or if there are flights, it's few and far between. No way would they want to add a 1000 to 2000 mile flight and a bus ride to/ from airport to Ellensburg and Monmouth every year. You'll notice I'm not even including SFU here.

It's great that we have a scheduling partnership with the LSC, but that's a budget killer even without COVID. It's not sustainable.

FCS? No way. CWU would be the Washington state version of U of Northern Colorado. Correct me if I'm wrong, but they've never seen the bright side of .500 since they left D2. If they have, it hasn't been against a 10-11 game FCS slate. Plus.....i remember seeing where if CWU doubled their athletics budget, they'd still be last in the Big Sky.

Reality? Beg the NAIA Frontier Conference dominant programs to join GNAC, but they've said no multiple times already. Then instead of begging them to join CWU should beg to join the Frontier. Yes, it's NAIA. Other reality? Have a recently remodeled football stadium with no football team and hope students and alums like homecoming in January during bball season. Tsull just threw up in his mouth reading that...... and I did too.

You bring up a very good point about 2 of the 3 remaining GNAC football schools, they've just sunk a lot of money into their football stadiums. I in no way think CWU is ready for D1-FCS and we already know it is very unlikely the D3 schools in the Pacific Northwest wouldn't accept WOU and CWU after what happened 20 or so years ago. I suggested RMAC as back in the 90's when CWU was NAIA the now defunct wrestling program wrestled in the RMAC, so I wonder if with one less GNAC team the RMAC might put in those trips.

Too bad it isn't like for Hermiston when they were to move to 6A in Oregon and found a home 30 miles away in the Mid Columbia Conference in Washington instead of having to bus 200 miles each way in all sports for every game if they'd stayed in Oregon. I know everyone is mentioning the Big Sky, but also remember that the WAC is now a FCS conference too with Dixie State and that would possibly be a win for CWU and WOU. I doubt the the NCAA would give a waiver for the 3 schools to play FCS football in the WAC, rest of sports at D2 in GNAC which may be one of the better options in theory.

[tsull]

No way could Western Oregon play FCS Football let's just put that on the table right now and be completely clear about it. We are 20 years into division 2 and one of the lowest scholarship division 2 schools in the country period we would go 0-12 in FCS football until the end of time.

The options are to hope for the College of Idaho, Eastern Oregon, and Southern Oregon, to go division 2. College of Idaho wouldn't mind doing it as they have 24 scholarships and their natural rival is division 2 Northwest Nazarene 7 miles away. With perhaps an expensive football trip to Los Angeles now sadly out of the way, maybe they would join. I have heard the Frontier League would like to dump Southern Oregon as they don't like the 17-hour one-way trip to Ashland.

I'm not convinced Southernn Oregon would want to go division 2, they like beating up on the 500-person enrollment Bible schools in other sports.

I won't speak for Simon Frazier or Central Washington, but I know Western Oregon is not in any way, shape or form to play FCS football.