Originally posted by mountaineermagic
View Post
To be clear, before then they were also among the most consistent performers, except on the bottom end of the spectrum.
After the '04 football run, they essentially decided to fully fund 4 sports (football, volleyball both basketballs). If you look at those 4 programs since then, great and consistent results, in the conference and nationally. That has then allowed them to expand that funding to other sports and achieve similar success (both soccers, both cross country / tracks teams, etc.). Mines got "lucky" with that '04 football run, winning the conference, making the PO's, winning the Harlon Hill. But, they used that as a reason to fund football and other sports. The funding has allowed for the ongoing success of the entire athletic department.
Looking at that model, from within the conference, from a perpetual bottom feeder is to fully fund, even if only to a limited portion of the athletic departments budgets. That includes not only scholarships, but coaching and recruiting budgets too. Otherwise, any lucky hire of a great coach who can move the needle is just temporary as they move on to a place where they can get the budget. But based on this years results, I don't think FLC has lucked on to a great hire just yet.
Comment