Moving forward

[Brandon]

No worries at all. I just didn't want my position to be misinterpreted.

[badboyblynn]

Tsull; NAIA guy here, (used to be D2 till 2001). The 'D2 West Coast Football' which you bemoan, is managed by non-football people for the most part and if your schools were based in other (Red?) states, I do not think you'd be going through this, (personal opinion based on my 66 years). It's political in the sense that the West Coast has not, in general, showed as much fiscal responsibility as other states, so there is money spent toward things rather than athletics, which are not spent in that manner in other states. (hopefully that reads better than its written).
Would love to have CWU and WOU decided to 'drop down' to the Frontier.

[njmav1]

It's political in the sense that the West Coast has not, in general, showed as much fiscal responsibility as other states, so there is money spent toward things rather than athletics, which are not spent in that manner in other states. (hopefully that reads better than its written).

So fiscal responsibility means spending on athletics. Got it.

[tsull]

I don't think these moves to cut football are political as much as administrative greed. The most recent elimination of football came from a church school.

What gets me is when the money is in hand, see Humboldt State University, the administrators still cut the sport. Beyond a university activity, college football in Eureka / Arcadia was an enormous community event. Every single restaurant and business that donated to Humbolt State should have pulled their money when that move was made.

Administrators swoop in from the Midwest or east coast, make huge slashes and then retire or take another job. That seems to be what happens at small colleges on the West Coast.

Very few people pay attention, that's why they can cut football. Most of the people on the message boards are paying attention. They don't like us paying attention. They went to collect their six-figure checks and go on with life. The president and athletic director at Azusa Pacific are glad everybody's now quiet and gone home, as they can live their cushy lives. Look at the athletic director, he's never been anywhere else, he's never challenged himself. Challenging himself would mean fighting for Azusa Pacific football. He was never going to do that.

[Wildcat Khan]

I don't think these moves to cut football are political as much as administrative greed. The most recent elimination of football came from a church school.

What gets me is when the money is in hand, see Humboldt State University, the administrators still cut the sport. Beyond a university activity, college football in Eureka / Arcadia was an enormous community event. Every single restaurant and business that donated to Humbolt State should have pulled their money when that move was made.

Administrators swoop in from the Midwest or east coast, make huge slashes and then retire or take another job. That seems to be what happens at small colleges on the West Coast.

Very few people pay attention, that's why they can cut football. Most of the people on the message boards are paying attention. They don't like us paying attention. They went to collect their six-figure checks and go on with life. The president and athletic director at Azusa Pacific are glad everybody's now quiet and gone home, as they can live their cushy lives. Look at the athletic director, he's never been anywhere else, he's never challenged himself. Challenging himself would mean fighting for Azusa Pacific football. He was never going to do that.

Add on the fact that HSU lied about how much money was raised and didn't even include the money the GNAC was giving in their numbers. At least WWU used "can't beat CWU" and the NCC travel costs they had payed as excuses and were a little more honest about it.

[ram_boy]

I agree that cutting football is a result of administrative laziness. No one wants to put in the effort and end up taking the easy way out. With the financial position of a lot of west coast states, cut to universities are probably coming. More cuts to athletic departments would go with them.

[Wildcat Khan]

I agree that cutting football is a result of administrative laziness. No one wants to put in the effort and end up taking the easy way out. With the financial position of a lot of west coast states, cut to universities are probably coming. More cuts to athletic departments would go with them.

With the 3 left, if there are no scheduling opportunities I'm not sure it would be laziness. We can't expect the schools to play each other 4 times each just to have 8 games can we? It would be a quadruple round robin which hopefully can be avoided.

[tsull]

I agree that cutting football is a result of administrative laziness. No one wants to put in the effort and end up taking the easy way out. With the financial position of a lot of west coast states, cut to universities are probably coming. More cuts to athletic departments would go with them.

So true Ram. having covered college football at the small and major college levels, the biggest difference is not in talent, it is in funding the programs. Oregon, for example, can just call up Phil Knight and he'll write a huge check for an enormous scoreboard, or locker rooms, or scholarships, or whatever they want. Marcus Mariota wrote a check for $8 million for their speed and strength center.

Small colleges don't need this glitz and don't have that money, but they need hard work and actually you have to work harder at the small college level to make it work. Faced with the fact of having to grind it and raise money and fight for your football program, or just mail it in and still collect your check because you are not going to be fired for cutting football, most administrators know the easy way out.

My alma mater currently has dipped in enrollment dramatically in the last decade, despite that the state of Oregon has boomed in population. I can only draw from the fact that they are lazy and not working it. Azusa Pacific, was lazy, and didn't want to put in the work. No one is losing their jobs except for the football coaches and support staff. If anything the administrators are yucking it up right now at some kind of brilliant move they think they made.

It takes hard work, bottom line a lot of hard work, and a lot of people don't want to do the work.

[HardRockin'Nerd]

And a lot more teams lost from football, WWU (dropped football), Dixie State (moved to RMAC), and SD Mines (moved to RMAC). They even had Grand Canyon University as a new school to come in that instead dropped football and went D1. The only conference that may have lost more in D2 that I can think of is the NCC.

To be completely frank, the only reason we (SD Mines) went GNAC at all was because our AD at the time did not do well with the DAC (Dakota Athletic Conference-NAIA) collapse and D2 transition. Minot State and Mary were accepted into the NSIC and that was enough outlier schools for them. Black Hills State got an invite to the RMAC and we had to wait a few years before the RMAC would take us. My redshirt freshman year was our last one in the GNAC, and we were all thankful to be done with it. The travel was just not sustainable. The year before I was on the team, they bussed from Rapid City to Arcata in a straight shot. The RMAC was the natural fit for us all along and allowed us to start playing Chadron again. I do think that SD Mines can handle one west coast swing a year, hopefully enough RMAC schools will schedule GNAC teams for the out of conference game

[tsull]

To be completely frank, the only reason we (SD Mines) went GNAC at all was because our AD at the time did not do well with the DAC (Dakota Athletic Conference-NAIA) collapse and D2 transition. Minot State and Mary were accepted into the NSIC and that was enough outlier schools for them. Black Hills State got an invite to the RMAC and we had to wait a few years before the RMAC would take us. My redshirt freshman year was our last one in the GNAC, and we were all thankful to be done with it. The travel was just not sustainable. The year before I was on the team, they bussed from Rapid City to Arcata in a straight shot. The RMAC was the natural fit for us all along and allowed us to start playing Chadron again. I do think that SD Mines can handle one west coast swing a year, hopefully enough RMAC schools will schedule GNAC teams for the out of conference game

Mines wasn't a GNAC fit, what's incredible is the D2/D3/NAIA divisions in the Northwest, and the largest state not having any D2 ball.

When WOU went D2, Chico, Hayward, and Sonoma dumped football. How did the WOU admin not know this was happening? I was told WOU went D2 because WWU and CWU did. I say do your own thing, forge your own path. CWU and WWU would never join a division just because WOU did.

Basically, stupid division jumping and public vs. private ended the nice regional Columbia Football Association.

I tire of administrative stupidity, but it's important to hold them accountable.