Syracuse needs a 12th game - but WT is still in D2

[west-texan]

Syracuse might want a closer game opponent.

But WT is still missing out on big revenue and a recruiting advantage

By not being in D1 and playing money games.

Syracuse is going to pay someone BIG BUCKS to play at the Carrier Dome.

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WT has played money games up a level in the past:

WT beat Oklahoma St in 1980 and went to the wire with Iowa St in 1981.

And WT only lost by 14 points to Iowa St in 1984 when WT was not even good.

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WT is only playing at the D2 level to satisfy some older folks on the Buffalo Club board.

And after 25 years at D2 it's now time for WT to move forward and upward.

Because WT is now just spinning wheels in place with football and basketball.

It's time for us to take the blocks out from in front of the wheels and go back where WT used to be.

[west-texan]

suathletics.syr.edu/schedule.aspx?path=football

[willard]

"WT is only playing at the D2 level to satisfy some older folks on the Buffalo Club board."

W-T, where do you get your info.?,,,,,,,That statement is totally unfounded and ridiculous!.....No member of the Buffalo Club board, including "older folks", are keeping WT in D-II......

If it weren't for the Buffalo Club, WT wouldn't even be able to compete as it is now......Scholarships would go away.....

WT is in D-II and will remain in D-II for the foreseeable future for one reason: money or, more accurately, lack thereof.....If you can pony up $50MM, at least, just to get started, or know someone willing to do so, then here we go to D-I.....Otherwise, it ain't happenin'.....

And don't say O'Brien & McBroom need to find a corporate sponsor.....Don't you think they realize that?......They are constantly trying to find the golden egg......

As it stands now, WT is fortunate, compared to other D-II schools and a lot of lesser D-I schools, to be where it is, particularly with the impending budget cuts.......

You can gripe all you want, but WT is in D-II until that goose with the golden egg shows up.....Go Buffs!

[west-texan]

Not trying to pick a fight with you, but I have done some research into this:

• I don't think it will cost $50 million to run a decent D1AA/FCS program.
  
  Why?
  
  Because Texas Tech's entire D1A/FBS budget in 2008:
  
  Revenue: $46.6 million
  Expenses: $42.3 million
  
  WT can do it a level lower at D1AA for much less.
  
  ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetails.aspx?756e697469643d32323931313526796561723d32303038267264743d332f32362f3230313020343a30313a343620504d
  
  ope.ed.gov/athletics/ Get budget info for any college.
  
  
• I wonder if WT has approached national or regional corporations outside Amarillo?
  
  Why?
  
  Because you don't lose anything by asking a corporation for a sponsorship.
  
  And for some odd reason WT dropped Dr Pepper as a Lady Buff's basketball sponsor.
  
  Why?
  
  
• WT needs to hire a sports marketing company.
  
  Why?
  
  Because Texas Tech expects to make $20 million over 7 years from the deal with Learfield.
  
  www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/article/127617
  
  www.lubbockonline.com/stories/020709/loc_385568446.shtml
  
  Making only part of that money would do WT a lot of good.
  
  And we have no trouble filling the stadium when WT makes a marketing effort.
  
  But WT marketing has always been very inconsistent.
  
  And you really have to wonder why they quit selling football tickets at Toot-N-Totum.
  
  
• My main concerns with the Buffalo Club come from the WT website.
  
  Where it appears the Buffalo Club may be the only source of WT athletic funding.
  
  www.gobuffsgo.com/buffclub/wtam-buffclub.html
  
  "The Buffalo Club is the sole athletic fundraising organization of West Texas A&M University"
  
  Does WT approach the corporations or does the Buffalo Club?

[willard]

A big chunk of the $50MM is needed just to upgrade facilities..... i. e., Kimbrough being updated (according to the engineering study) or a new stadium.....new fieldhouse/indoor workout facility/weight room. Don't compare updates to Kimbrough to Dick Bivins.....that's apples vs oranges.....A new stadium is for discussion purposes only....not advocating it.....

Then comes the operating budget....probably double what is now.....more coaches, higher salaries, more travel, more scholarships.....Plus doesn't NCAA have a $1MM application fee just to apply to move up?....

Potential sponsors locally and outside Amarillo have been approached....but the economy has made those dollars tight....O'Brien & McBroom work on that constantly.....

The Buffalo Club is the "sole athletic fundraising organization" for a reason: the administration does not want several different organizations hitting up the same people....thus fundraising is channeled through one organization--the Buffalo Club.....which, btw, raises more money than any similar group in the LSC....Hope you're a member....great organization supporting the Buff student-athletes....

Tell me what "older guys" on the BC board want to stay at D-II.....I know most of them and have never heard a non-progressive word like that......They are all focused on making WT athletics even better than it already is....

Sounds like you have some good ideas....Suggestion for you: contact O'Brien or McBroom with them....They will listen....Doubt they read this forum......

[west-texan]

About facilities:

1. I don't think we have any basketball facility needs at the moment.

2. Fieldhouse and practice field needs are being taken care of with the student fee.

3. Non-football and non-basketball facility upgrades are being taken care of with the fee.

That leaves Kimbrough renovations and upgrades as money that WT does not have right now.

Which means that:

1. We need to start talking about and planning a move to D1AA right now.

2. We need to start a public drive for Kimbrough renovation money right now.

A public plan to move to D1AA should generate more giving from alumni and the Amarillo public.

Public talk about moving up from D2 should generate a lot of positive interest.

[willard]

Practice fields, yes.....But no new fieldhouse with the student fee.....only locker rooms under the track stadium bleachers. Still an improvement over the old fieldhouse.....A new fieldhouse with indoor practice is a necessity but huge funds must be raised.....

Kimbrough renovations will be very costly......

[west-texan]

That illustrates a BIG problem that we have with the WT athletic dept.

And that is lack of information on the website that other schools have on their websites.

When someone says new locker rooms...most assume WT is building a new fieldhouse.

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This could be fixed by putting the athletic facilities plan on the website.

At a minimum there should be the artist pictures with an explanation.

That information is always available on the website for other universities.

But why not WT?

McBroom needs to take care of getting this info out there.

Why?

Because you greatly increase public interest and increase the possibility of getting donations.

The more information you provide and the more money you will receive.

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Indoor practice building would be expensive.

But about a new locker-room fieldhouse:

There are several companies selling very large metal buildings around Amarillo.

One of those companies might be willing to provide a big discount.

In return for putting their name on the building and/or free advertising for a while.

You could advertise the company on WT radio broadcasts and in game programs.

Tax deductible sponsorship/donation in return for advertising.

The old WT fieldhouse was a big metal building.

And I'm sure they have been greatly improved since.



www.amarillo.com

[willard]

Information about the new sports complex NOT having a fieldhouse has been on the website, in the AGN and Canyon News along with architects conceptions on several occasions.....It was never proposed as being a part of the original student fee increase because it would be too expensive.....It was, and still is, to be funded from outside sources.....Just like Kimbrough or a new stadium.....Scaled down concepts like you describe are being considered.....But still take a lot of money.....They already do corporate sponsorships in exchange for advertising.....but no one has been willing to do an exchange of that magnitude YET......Still being worked on...

[west-texan]

Going public and saying that WT is exploring a move back to D1 would generate a lot of interest.

That should get a lot more action going as far as people wanting to get involved.

WT talking about D1 would be very positive around Amarillo.

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And about the website:

It's still an information problem.

Why?

Because you can click on Facilities and not see a word about the new sports complex.

www.gobuffsgo.com/facilities/wtam-facilities.html

But I was able to do a search to find a press release from way back on 11-20-08.

www.gobuffsgo.com/genrel/112008aaa.html

My point is that you should not have to search for information about big things.

And the artist concept pictures they have are so small you can't tell much about it.

The sports complex needs to be right out there front and center on the facilities page.

>>>>> This is an easy sports information problem that could be fixed in minutes.

They need to copy that press release from 2008 over to the facilities page.

And then put links to large pictures where people can read the writing.

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And back to an indoor practice facility:

I need to dig out my old WT school catalog from the mid 80's.

It said the big back room in the AC was the size of a football field.

And they called that WT's indoor practice facility.

But that has now been taken up with a running track and other things.

People from the 70's and early 80's at WT...remember that as where they held class registration. ;D

In the same time period...Tech held their registration in the old coliseum in Lubbock.

[willard]

W-T, you might be interested in this.....You can approve or disapprove, agree or disagree.....It's the plan.....and O'Brien is really pushing for it to happen.....Also look at www.wtamu.edu for more details on sports complex and other improvements......

www.canyonnews.com/

[west-texan]

I've been aware of this since I saw the segment on the 10pm news Tuesday night.

But I hadn't gotten to around to posting about it yet.

It's about time since I spent the entire Russell Long time preaching need for growth at WT people.

I had to do a search on the WT website to find the information that night.

And I agree with 99.5 of the plan.

I lived in Jones 2 yrs...but I would still like to see the Guenther Hall and Stafford Hall dorms stay.

And I would add 2 big items to the plan:

• Become UWT - University of West Texas for the reasons in this topic.
  
  amarillotalk.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=wtgeneral&action=display&thread=3437&page=1
  
  
• Start a plan to take WT athletics to the D1AA-FCS level within 3 to 5 years.
  
  And have plans to return back to D1A-FBS level within 8 to 10 years.

The news publicity from those 2 changes should bring an instant boost in public interest for WT.

And that in turn should increase donations and sponsorship opportunities.

Asking large corporations for money will become easier with the University of West Texas name.

And meeting the number of students goal will become easier by eventually going back to D1A.

• This plan is the best news to come out of WT in the last 40 years.

www.wtamu.edu/about/town-hall-meetings-campus-master-plan.aspx

www.wtamu.edu/webres/File/About/town%20hall/WTAMU_REVISION_20100215_FINAL.pdf

wtamu.edu/masterplan/wt_master_plan.html - Flash video presentation.

[Old Rip]

In the case of the U of Montana, that "goose" was one Dennis Washington, a lavish supporter of the University who spearheaded the effort to upgrade their stadium with a $1 million contribution, hence the somewhat puzzling name of "Washington-Grizzly Stadium" at the University of Montana. Mr. Washington has managed to stay on the Forbes list of American billionaires for the past few years and ranks in the same neighborhood in that publication as T. Boone Pickens.

The University of Montana will be moving up in the face of controversial debate over playing in a system of playoffs and regularly beating up on lesser quality opponents, or jumping into obscurity in the FBS of division 1. The debate rages over the school's experience will be more like that of Boise State or Idaho; the truth probably being somewhere in between.

UM would compete favorably in the top half of the WAC, likely ranking 3-4 after a period of adjustment. I know texas State at San Marcos and some other FCS schools in Texas are looking to move up. Possibly Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin have been mentioned.