Message Board

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

I'm not sure what it's like in Texas, but in the Northwest, the only time small colleges received media coverage was when Linfield and Pacific Lutheran won NAIA and D3 national football championships. The Seattle Times doesn't and never has covered small college football; the Oregonian barely covers it, maybe a brief now and then. Yes, the coverage was better at smaller papers years ago, that has ended. But really, has the world changed that much? Was West Texas and Kingsville dominating the major media markets in Texas back in the day? Because they're not big on stupid social media doesn't mean the sport is dying. It means they're not getting the clicks that cat videos get. Who cares?

Small college football provides great athletic and educational opportunities for thousands of prep players across the country. I would rather support that than online buffoonery.

Back in the day is context.

There was a several year span from 2007-2013 where West Texas was having their road games televised and all the local stations would run ads and promotions for the home games.

Back in the 90s and 2000s, Texas A&M-Kingsville was the only South Texas football team in any division South of San Antonio (probably anywhere south of I-10) so they dominated any college football headline especially during their semi final and national championship final runs.

Not having a D2+ football university within 120 miles in either direction for both programs back then also helped being the main attraction.

The demise of their consistent football programs (just like any team that starts too and keeps losing) is the main reason.

WT still gets covered in the local paper but its a column here and there and TV coverage stopped when the suck started.

To be fair I think the TV coverage would have stopped either way with the conference streaming services not far behind.

[ASUPops]

The primary struggle isn't necessarily that DII interest is completely gone, but that it is swiftly shifting. The rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the tranfser portal has significantly altered college football, with fans of smaller programs experiencing less interest due to their best players frequently transferring to larger schools.

DII was always the middle ground. But now it is all but forgotten by the average American football fan. Especially in Texas. Texans love their BIG University football.....like all America does. But as stated, the big boys get ALL the attention and money.

[Rockofwesties]

The primary struggle isn't necessarily that DII interest is completely gone, but that it is swiftly shifting. The rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the tranfser portal has significantly altered college football, with fans of smaller programs experiencing less interest due to their best players frequently transferring to larger schools.

DII was always the middle ground. But now it is all but forgotten by the average American football fan. Especially in Texas. Texans love their BIG University football.....like all America does. But as stated, the big boys get ALL the attention and money.

True

Some alert and proactive university administrators saw this coming and positioned their university to survive or even thrive in the changing college athletic landscape. D2 is not where you want to be in the current NIL era

[WT_TKW]

The primary struggle isn't necessarily that DII interest is completely gone, but that it is swiftly shifting. The rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the tranfser portal has significantly altered college football, with fans of smaller programs experiencing less interest due to their best players frequently transferring to larger schools.

DII was always the middle ground. But now it is all but forgotten by the average American football fan. Especially in Texas. Texans love their BIG University football.....like all America does. But as stated, the big boys get ALL the attention and money.

NIL is the worst thing that has happened to college sports. One of the Tech softball pitchers is getting paid a million dollars for the second straight year. I would like to know what Emilee Boyer is getting at Ole Miss. Her pitching stats are 9-8 with a respectable 3.81 ERA. Her losses are mainly against the biggest names (Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama). Her hitting is NOT good.

[Rockofwesties]

NIL is the worst thing that has happened to college sports. One of the Tech softball pitchers is getting paid a million dollars for the second straight year. I would like to know what Emilee Boyer is getting at Ole Miss. Her pitching stats are 9-8 with a respectable 3.81 ERA. Her losses are mainly against the biggest names (Texas, Texas A&M, Alabama). Her hitting is NOT good.

I agree that NIL has ruined college sports but the NCAA was too restrictive. The athletes weren’t able to get donuts for breakfast meetings.

On YouTube there is a recent video of Jon Gruden interviewing Mack Brown, Mack articulated the problems and how to solve them. It’s a good video.

[WT_TKW]

I agree that NIL has ruined college sports but the NCAA was too restrictive. The athletes weren’t able to get donuts for breakfast meetings.

On YouTube there is a recent video of Jon Gruden interviewing Mack Brown, Mack articulated the problems and how to solve them. It’s a good video.

Or Ranger tickets.

[tsull]

The primary struggle isn't necessarily that DII interest is completely gone, but that it is swiftly shifting. The rise of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the tranfser portal has significantly altered college football, with fans of smaller programs experiencing less interest due to their best players frequently transferring to larger schools.

DII was always the middle ground. But now it is all but forgotten by the average American football fan. Especially in Texas. Texans love their BIG University football.....like all America does. But as stated, the big boys get ALL the attention and money.

Agree with this. The bigger problem I see is overall, today's social media saturation has high school kids gravitating towards the bigger schools. Oregon State is a fine school and has exploded in enrollment. Twenty miles up the road in Monmouth, enrollment has stagnated. Granted, we've had admission directors come and go through a revolving door the last decade, one dude they hyped up didn't even make it a year, and didn't freaking try in anything.

But a lot of small town kids, who would be great fits at WOU, gravitate towards OSU and UO, and get lost in the shuffle. We need to get those kids back. I was down in Eugene last year and at 10 a.m., I drove through several blocks of enormous parties with drunk students. They were getting ready for the UO spring game, I kid you not. Lots of rich kids walking around with milk cartons of alcohol. I know a lot of small school students where that wouldn't be a fit, but hey, that spring game is probably on some social media and they get seen.

Yes, NIL or what I call direct payment (I've never seen a college sports commercial) is killing collegiate sports. The money is insane out there and it's trickled down to hurt D2 not just in athletics, but also enrollment.

[IUPNation]

If you think the LSC forum is slow...you should see the OT.

All of the people from this forum who used to post there....are all MIA on the OT.

I wonder why? Hmmmmmmmmm.......

[Rockofwesties]

D2 is all but finished. Part of ncaa history. There is no interest in D2 sports because so many universities moved up that there are no strong rivalry left. WT strong rivalry with ACU has hurt WT sports.

[tsull]

Going to be interesting is how long these schools hang in d1. Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said that right now about 10 schools or less can afford what's it's going to take to win a National Title or compete and that's 50 million dollars a year just for football.

I believe for athletic departments it's going to take 100 million a year to be semi-relevant. What strange is the Cincinnati's, Rutgers, Oregon States, of the world, think they can all compete, but they can't. So really about 90% of division 1 schools really can't pull this off even though they think they can.

Even in FCS it's going to take a good $25 million a year to stay relevant near the top. These college presidents are perfectly willing to bankrupt their institutions to play the shell game. I'm hoping D2 keeps its sanity little bit I'm happy with it. Sure there's some losses of rivalries and things but those FCS schools are going to have to start shutting down their athletic departments or eliminating Sports and academic programs just to play the lowest level of division 1. I can't believe they're willing to do that.

[BuffaloChip]

Going to be interesting is how long these schools hang in d1. Michigan coach Kyle Whittingham said that right now about 10 schools or less can afford what's it's going to take to win a National Title or compete and that's 50 million dollars a year just for football.

I believe for athletic departments it's going to take 100 million a year to be semi-relevant. What strange is the Cincinnati's, Rutgers, Oregon States, of the world, think they can all compete, but they can't. So really about 90% of division 1 schools really can't pull this off even though they think they can.

Even in FCS it's going to take a good $25 million a year to stay relevant near the top. These college presidents are perfectly willing to bankrupt their institutions to play the shell game. I'm hoping D2 keeps its sanity little bit I'm happy with it. Sure there's some losses of rivalries and things but those FCS schools are going to have to start shutting down their athletic departments or eliminating Sports and academic programs just to play the lowest level of division 1. I can't believe they're willing to do that.

D1 non-revenue sports are done. Was it Tennessee that just dropped tennis?

[AngeloFan]

D2 is all but finished. Part of ncaa history. There is no interest in D2 sports because so many universities moved up that there are no strong rivalry left. WT strong rivalry with ACU has hurt WT sports.

There has never been a lot of interest in D2. It is pretty much a local event, always has been and always will be. Back in the 70s & 80s ASU drew 12-15 thousand but as more D1 games became televised, the attendance dwindled.

[Buffalo/Islander Alum]

D1 non-revenue sports are done. Was it Tennessee that just dropped tennis?

Arkansas but yeah dozens of schools have dropped it which irks me because that is the sport I grew up playing/coaching and watching thousands of people I have known personally during my lifetime use college tennis as a means to get full scholarships and become pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, etc.

[ASUPops]

Arkansas but yeah dozens of schools have dropped it which irks me because that is the sport I grew up playing/coaching and watching thousands of people I have known personally during my lifetime use college tennis as a means to get full scholarships and become pharmacists, doctors, lawyers, etc.

You personally know THOUSANDS of people that obtained full tennis scholarships AND those THOUSANDS became pharmacists, physicians, and attorneys?

🤔 hmm.

*Let me get my boots and shovel before you answer.*

[MooseLodge]

There is going to some big canyons separating groups of programs that will go about like this:

The Top 10. Texas, Ohio State, Michigan, aTm, and a few others. And as long as you have a billionaire sugar daddy willing to spend, any program can be in the top 10. These will always be your playoff winners from now on, because they have the $$ to hoard the talent.

The Second 30. Mostly a number of flagship state universities that are still easily in the $150+ million athletic budget situation. Most of the Big 12, UNC, UVA, a number of Big 10 and SEC middling schools.

The Third 20. The private schools and other flagship state schools that are in the $100 million athletic budget situation. Arizona, Colorado, Kansas State, Houston.

The final 20. Higher level G5s that will still have a national audience. Oregon State, WSU, Memphis, Tulane, the service academies.

Below the final 20, there isn't going to be media money to worry about. You might as well just be Division 3.