State of Louisiana stops UNO from dropping to D2?

[west-texan]

The Louisiana legislature knows that Division 1 is better for a university than Division 2.

They say Division I outranks Division II and will attract and retain better students.

And that is right.

They say Division I is better for school and community spirit than Division II.

And that is right.

The state of Texas should have done this over 25 years ago to stop WT from dropping from D1 to D2.

That stunted growth at WTAMU in so many ways.

And WT as a university has still not fully recovered from dropping down to D2.

West Texas State University was a Division I university from 1910 to 1985.

www.legis.state.la.us/billdata/streamdocument.asp?did=753117

[west-texan]

[buffalorunning]

I agree with what you say maybe not the way you say it.

As I mentioned before I was at a Buffalo Club tailgating event and I asked a WT coach (not Football) if he thought WT would get an invite to replace TSU or UTSA in the Southland he replied "I hope not." He actually seemed mad that I brought it up. I was wondering why someone who was a head coach of a college team hoped that the University never moved up to higher competition.

Anyway in the 80's with Title IX and rising athletic costs several schools were faced with tough decisions. Several schools dropped football to stay D1 in other sports (i.e. UTA, Lamar, Wichita State....) But WT did not want to cut football so they went to D2. It would have been better to have dropped football and stayed D1 and work on re-starting football as Lamar has done. The application to move up from D2 to D1 is over $1 million. WT can't even afford the application fee costs at this point.

IF WT continues to grow and have success as D2, someday is the enrollment reaches 12,000 then WT should consider the move up. I wish WT was still D1 but with enrollment at 8,000 that can not support D1 Budgets.

[west-texan]

WT is not growing with D2.

WT grew by less than 1 percent last year.

WT grew by less than 100 students last year.

D2 has turned WT into a bad joke around Amarillo.

Probably more high school seniors from Amarillo choose Texas Tech than choose WT.

D2 is hurting WT in a big bad way.

People see the thousands of empty seats at WT football games and laugh at WT.

Read the comments on articles about WT on the Globe New website.

And you will see that people don't have a good opinion of WT in Amarillo.

Why?

Because of D2.

WT is going to have get rid of D2 before WT will grow.

................WT will grow at D1.

But WT will not grow with D2.

With good and smart fund-raising...WT can more than support D1-AA FCS.

WT will have to get rid of the old losers on the Buffalo Club board of directors. ;D

They are the road-block people who are stopping WT from raising more money.

[west-texan]