Boise St: big D1A at only 4.5x WT's current budget

[west-texan]

Boise is not a BCS school, but they are still making a nationwide name for themselves.

And Boise is doing D1A-FBS with only 4.5 times WT's current athletic budget.

Which means that D1AA-FCS should be within WT's reach with some extra effort.

And just talking about moving up should improve WT's fundraising over D2.

ope.ed.gov/athletics/

ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetails.aspx?756e697469643d31343231313526796561723d32303038267264743d342f362f3230313020343a35383a353120504d < Boise St.

Expenses: $20,492,818

Revenue: $20,583,008

ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetails.aspx?756e697469643d32323938313426796561723d32303038267264743d342f362f3230313020353a30303a303220504d < West Texas A&M

Expenses: $4,637,838

Revenue: $4,637,838

[west-texan]

ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetails.aspx?756e697469643d31343231313526796561723d32303038267264743d342f362f3230313020343a35383a353120504d

[west-texan]

ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetails.aspx?756e697469643d32323938313426796561723d32303038267264743d342f362f3230313020353a30303a303220504d

[Old Rip]

Boise State has to be one singular exception to the rule of the "small" colleges that moved up from the Division 1 FCS to the BCS. At the time Boise State and the University of Idaho moved up it was known as the NCAA division 1-AA. I know that history well because they were members of the conference that included my alma mater, The University of Montana, namely the Big Sky Conference. The two Idaho schools were joined by other Big Sky Conference members Nevada (Reno) and Cal State Northridge.

Boise State is situated in a fast growing metropolitan area of the country with a population of 1 million plus, and seems to have no problem raising the resources necessary to compete at a high level on the national stage. They are one of all of the schools that has avoided obscurity that is tyical of the small fish that migrate to the bigger pond.

The University of Idaho is the flip side of that success story, posting its first winning season out of the last 19, due to their ability to finally retain a coach for more than one season after a series of embarrassing gaffes, including a 6 month tenure by current Arizona State head coach Dennis Erickson. If there was one redeeming quality to Idaho's migration to the FBS, it was that they replaced Prairie View as the joke of the division.

The NCAAs moratorium on iter divisional movement comes to an end in 2011 and the University of Montana will likely be joining the WAC or a remote possibility of the Mountain West Conference. It is not a done deal. Right now there is fierce debate about staying a big fish in a small pond and playing in a system of playoffs for a national championship year in and year out, albeit hosting lop-sided games beating up on weaker opponents or going with the rest of the small fish in the big pond and hoping for a shot at an obscure bowl game.

That question may be decided for them as the entire FCS may disappear from the scene, it has lost money each and every year of its existence. Montana has a FBS stadium and fan base and one of the best game day atmospheres of all of college football, which I can attest to being in attendance at every home game before moving from Helena, MT to Amarillo.

When Ryan Leaf was still employed and for one brief moment in time was not making a fool of himself I considered writing the AD of WTAMU to consider scheduling Montana.

I wish the NCAA would find a better way to promote division 1 FCS. I am an advocate of promoting the national championship of the division as another corporate sponsored and named Christmas bowl season event to see if it can be carried by ESPN instead of ESPN2 and to a larger national audience.

The national championship game for the FCS has moved to Frisco, TX at the Pizza Hut Park, so here's hoping Montana will celebrate the inagural game there by taking home the hardware. Their record in the national championhip game rivals the Minnesota Vikings Super Bowl record, going 2-5 in that contest.

[west-texan]

I know it does provide a good experience for the WT athletes,

But most WT alumni and most of Amarillo really don't care about the D2 level.

So WT is currently languishing in obscurity.

.

When marketing is done...WT has no problem filling Kimbrough.

But outside the old boy network at the luncheons and KGNC radio...

There is no buzz in Amarillo about WT football and basketball.

And the pictures I posted of WT basketball seem to show that D2 appeals mostly to an older crowd.

You can blame ESPN, but D2 at WT has lost most alumni under the age of 60.

.

With the drop to D2, WT lost most support from people who graduated in the 80's and 90's so:

• In the future, what is WT going to do for fans?
  
  
• How is WT going to bring alumni who are now in their 30's and 40's back to support WT?
  
  
• Is WT going to magically get us interested in games with East Central Oklahoma State?
  
  
• Does success at D2 matter if most WT almuni and Amarillo people are not interested?

After 25 years... it seems that the D2 tail is now wagging the WT dog.

.

And about Idaho,

They did play in a bowl game after the 2009 season, so maybe things are looking up for them.

2 bad school administrations and alumni not complaining kept WT down for almost 20 years.