LSC saves football for GNAC schools

[tsull]

I heard that if the LSC didn't invite the GNAC, CWU and WOU were going to cut football -- which I think is insane. Reliable source. Anyway, thank you Lone Star Conference for keeping football alive in the Northwest.

This kind of begs the question to me: Why is a small college division more important than having a Saturday of football? I'd guess in Oregon outside of students, athletes, and their families, others wouldn't know what division WOU is in. I've seen the media call them Division I (the Seattle Times when talking about a former WOU player in a summer hoop tourney), and Division 3 recently.

By far the best sporting event at WOU, in Monmouth, and in Polk County, is a home football game by WOU ... and it's not even close. Our hoop games draw poorly as do other sports. If we win in hoops, they'll show up ... maybe. Women's hoop has had 10 straight losing seasons or more. People aren't going. Our men's team just lost an exhibition to an NAIA religious school. Not a good start.

So I'm puzzled as to why being D2 is such an obsession for WOU and CWU. I mean I hope they stay D2, but to sacrifice decades of tradition in football if not a century? Makes no sense to me. NAIA football is better than no football. Staying D2 just to be D2 and leave the other two small state schools -- EOU and SOU -- having football as well as the private schools? Crazy.

Thanks again, Lone Star Conference, for preventing our own stupid administrations from making a horrific mistake. I swear, WOU really has a hard time getting out of its own way athletically.

[WT_TKW]

I heard that if the LSC didn't invite the GNAC, CWU and WOU were going to cut football -- which I think is insane. Reliable source. Anyway, thank you Lone Star Conference for keeping football alive in the Northwest.

This kind of begs the question to me: Why is a small college division more important than having a Saturday of football? I'd guess in Oregon outside of students, athletes, and their families, others wouldn't know what division WOU is in. I've seen the media call them Division I (the Seattle Times when talking about a former WOU player in a summer hoop tourney), and Division 3 recently.

By far the best sporting event at WOU, in Monmouth, and in Polk County, is a home football game by WOU ... and it's not even close. Our hoop games draw poorly as do other sports. If we win in hoops, they'll show up ... maybe. Women's hoop has had 10 straight losing seasons or more. People aren't going. Our men's team just lost an exhibition to an NAIA religious school. Not a good start.

So I'm puzzled as to why being D2 is such an obsession for WOU and CWU. I mean I hope they stay D2, but to sacrifice decades of tradition in football if not a century? Makes no sense to me. NAIA football is better than no football. Staying D2 just to be D2 and leave the other two small state schools -- EOU and SOU -- having football as well as the private schools? Crazy.

Thanks again, Lone Star Conference, for preventing our own stupid administrations from making a horrific mistake. I swear, WOU really has a hard time getting out of its own way athletically.

Wow, I am glad that didn't happen!

I can recommend an AD that specializes in women's sports. Football won't get be much above .500 but you might get a new stadium, even if the current one is popular.

[tsull]

Wow, I am glad that didn't happen!

I can recommend an AD that specializes in women's sports. Football won't get be much above .500 but you might get a new stadium, even if the current one is popular.

We need a much better football stadium, I'd recommend expansion and renovation of the current one. We also need more scholarships. Glad we're still playing football. I've found admins over the years have no clue what alums and fans want. We have no creativity in how to grow the program, none, zip, nada. It's very status quo ... but I'm glad we still have football.

[Pounder]

We need a much better football stadium, I'd recommend expansion and renovation of the current one. We also need more scholarships. Glad we're still playing football. I've found admins over the years have no clue what alums and fans want. We have no creativity in how to grow the program, none, zip, nada. It's very status quo ... but I'm glad we still have football.

Meanwhile, 22 miles down the road, Oregon State is spending $153 million to replace the old main grandstand with a setup that increases luxury options and decreases capacity by about 7,000.

I don’t doubt that modernization is a good goal at WOU. Expansion? Eh…

But I have a question. Why did WOU start up mens soccer this year? Are we sure that football isn’t still in question? Or does adding sports lead to maybe jumping to D-1? Or, as someone else I kind of know suggests, was that meant to help stabilize enrollment?

[WT_TKW]

We need a much better football stadium, I'd recommend expansion and renovation of the current one. We also need more scholarships. Glad we're still playing football. I've found admins over the years have no clue what alums and fans want. We have no creativity in how to grow the program, none, zip, nada. It's very status quo ... but I'm glad we still have football.

It could be your admins just don't care what you want. We have that at WT.

I'm glad you are still playing football too.

[SPWOU]

Wow, I hadn’t heard that. Very glad there is still FB. New president this year, not sure where he stands but he has a spot in the tailgate lot and was at all but the last game. New AD has been visible at games and tailgate too. Much better than last year, I wasn’t around before that.

WOU needs a football field before anything. I talked to HC Ferg about it after last game. They installed that field when he was playing in 1985. It doesn’t drain anymore. He knows it’s needed, just a matter of money.

[tsull]

WOU has had a revolving door of presidents and athletic directors, including ones who were visible at games and they didn't do anything besides be visible. They need to start playing division 2 athletics with division 2 scholarship amounts. I'd like to see all the sports be supported instead of just hoping to win with a low number of scholarships.

Yes the field is not good even though I do like natural turf and on a warm day it looks fine, but when it starts to rain it is not good. They put in a nice field turf intramural field a few years ago, they'll need to raise some money to get field turf for the football stadium.

I'm confused about what their identity is for athletics right now. I guess I've been baffled for a long time. They don't seem to want to get bigger crowds within the local community. They just kind of exist instead of trying harder.

Maybe the new leadership will try harder.. I've said that for many years with many different presidents and athletic directors. They do well in sports based on a few things, their location and they've made some pretty savvy hires in some sports. Now they need to take it to the next level and get the local community involved. That will take work and I'm not sure if the new administration will work it or not.

[tsull]

Meanwhile, 22 miles down the road, Oregon State is spending $153 million to replace the old main grandstand with a setup that increases luxury options and decreases capacity by about 7,000.

I don’t doubt that modernization is a good goal at WOU. Expansion? Eh…

But I have a question. Why did WOU start up mens soccer this year? Are we sure that football isn’t still in question? Or does adding sports lead to maybe jumping to D-1? Or, as someone else I kind of know suggests, was that meant to help stabilize enrollment?

I guarantee you they're not playing division 1 in anything. The football stadium looks like a high school 2A stadium, the field should probably be priority one as would be getting more scholarships. They've been doing this division 2 game for about 20 years it's probably time to start actually trying to be in that division.

I went to the game against NAIA Corban in men's basketball last week. They lost. Last year they opened the season against division 3 Linfield and lost. I was told many times that division 2 would separate us from the other small colleges. Then quit losing to them.

Do something more than just existing. Get the local community involved. Get kids from the local towns to come to the games, Make specials for families of four or more. Do something to get more people there, invite high school marching bands, all of their parents will come. Just do something besides an annual auction every year. Try harder.

[cwfenn]

As with so many things, it comes down to money. If WO doesn’t have it, they need a president who is a very strong fundraiser who can convince especially wealthy alumni to give to the university along with an AD who is on the same page. That’s what my school did back in 2008 after they had dropped football in 2003 (and we played for the national championship a few years before!). It didn’t hurt that the university had NFL connections, but the money they raised didn’t just impact football, it helped all the programs.

[tsull]

As with so many things, it comes down to money. If WO doesn’t have it, they need a president who is a very strong fundraiser who can convince especially wealthy alumni to give to the university along with an AD who is on the same page. That’s what my school did back in 2008 after they had dropped football in 2003 (and we played for the national championship a few years before!). It didn’t hurt that the university had NFL connections, but the money they raised didn’t just impact football, it helped all the programs.

Thus the problem, the school doesn't have a lot of wealthy alumni, that's OK. But at the same time they haven't had many (or any) movers and shakers on the fund raising front. The move to D2 was doing without any plan to fund raise, if you can believe that ... or they had a plan and didn't follow it. The good ideas of alumni engagement have come from the alums, not the university. The successful men's basketball night (which raises money for scholarships) was put together by a former player. The highly successful new football Hall of Fame was organized by a former player. I went to the game for the initial induction, lots of former players with big smiles on their faces. How does the school get them involved? Fund raising starts with developing relationships first. The alums often pick up the ball to get these things going, which is good. I'm just curious as to why outside of homecoming the school doesn't have more alumni events to get alums involved. OK, I'm boring people on a football board ... let's see how the season finale goes today.

[tsull]

Here's the other issue and I was rough on the Azusa Pacific A.D. for dropping football and he deserved it. If WOU fixes their field or not, the A.D. faces no pressure. If they downgrade football, the A.D. faces no pressure. Alums are upset for a little while, but in D1 they get you fired. In D2, you collect your check. If 50 people show up in a men's hoop game (like last year once), the A.D. faces no pressure and neither does the coach. If 2,500 show up for a hoop game, kudos. I'm not sure of the rest of the LSC, but at WOU and probably Simon Fraser and maybe CWU -- though CWU alums got a successful football coach fired -- there's no pressure, none.

I've long questioned whether they can finance D2. Eventually I came around and supported the move thanks to some exciting basketball seasons.There is zero local media coverage, one paper reprints the school's press releases. I've had a few college friends say, "What division are they in again?"

If there's zero pressure to raise funds, improve facilities, get more scholarships, and crank up things a bit, things will stay the same, which is pretty average across the board right now in all sports. Like I said, I don't know what the mission statement is or if the athletic dept. has a vision. People complain about various college presidents and A.D.'s. Often with the exception of two presidents in the last several years, I haven't noticed the difference. Again, there's no pressure on them to even boost enrollment 1% or reach out to the local community. If you have to pressure at all, they're not going to work it.

[Runnin' Cat]

Here's the other issue and I was rough on the Azusa Pacific A.D. for dropping football and he deserved it. If WOU fixes their field or not, the A.D. faces no pressure. If they downgrade football, the A.D. faces no pressure. Alums are upset for a little while, but in D1 they get you fired. In D2, you collect your check. If 50 people show up in a men's hoop game (like last year once), the A.D. faces no pressure and neither does the coach. If 2,500 show up for a hoop game, kudos. I'm not sure of the rest of the LSC, but at WOU and probably Simon Fraser and maybe CWU -- though CWU alums got a successful football coach fired -- there's no pressure, none.

I've long questioned whether they can finance D2. Eventually I came around and supported the move thanks to some exciting basketball seasons.There is zero local media coverage, one paper reprints the school's press releases. I've had a few college friends say, "What division are they in again?"

If there's zero pressure to raise funds, improve facilities, get more scholarships, and crank up things a bit, things will stay the same, which is pretty average across the board right now in all sports. Like I said, I don't know what the mission statement is or if the athletic dept. has a vision. People complain about various college presidents and A.D.'s. Often with the exception of two presidents in the last several years, I haven't noticed the difference. Again, there's no pressure on them to even boost enrollment 1% or reach out to the local community. If you have to pressure at all, they're not going to work it.

Are you talking about Bennet?

[the tav]

I heard that if the LSC didn't invite the GNAC, CWU and WOU were going to cut football -- which I think is insane. Reliable source. Anyway, thank you Lone Starli Conference for keeping football alive in the Northwest.

This kind of begs the question to me: Why is a small college division more important than having a Saturday of football? I'd guess in Oregon outside of students, athletes, and their families, others wouldn't know what division WOU is in. I've seen the media call them Division I (the Seattle Times when talking about a former WOU player in a summer hoop tourney), and Division 3 recently.

By far the best sporting event at WOU, in Monmouth, and in Polk County, is a home football game by WOU ... and it's not even close. Our hoop games draw poorly as do other sports. If we win in hoops, they'll show up ... maybe. Women's hoop has had 10 straight losing seasons or more. People aren't going. Our men's team just lost an exhibition to an NAIA religious school. Not a good start.

So I'm puzzled as to why being D2 is such an obsession for WOU and CWU. I mean I hope they stay D2, but to sacrifice decades of tradition in football if not a century? Makes no sense to me. NAIA football is better than no football. Staying D2 just to be D2 and leave the other two small state schools -- EOU and SOU -- having football as well as the private schools? Crazy.

Thanks again, Lone Star Conference, for preventing our own stupid administrations from making a horrific mistake. I swear, WOU really has a hard time getting out of its own way athletically.

Reliable Source. 🤣 CWU was never going to drop football. Don't lump in CWU to WOU issues.