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sealhall74 wrote:
Little chance that there will be any excitement facing current teams in the Summit League. I see a lot more potential excitement surrounding a "336 Showdown" with the Hawks.
Again, this is all selfishly but I don’t even know who the Hawks are. Locally, it will help out but you’ll also have alumni not too thrilled to fly back to Illinois to watch D2 football. I’d rather be in the best conference in FCS, trying to build a program to be even more competitive than the NDSU of D2. But, do we really think with our facilities we’d get high caliber player to play in Macomb in D2 football? I think our facilities are only okay because we play competing FCS football. We get talented players in Macomb because of the conference we play in. If we went to the Ohio Valley or another FCS conference wed lose our great recruits. Honestly, I’m trying to catch up on our other sports so my opinions are all based in football.
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I agree with you on football. IMO, it is the only sport where we have a chance to be competitive in year in and year out. By competitive, I mean fiish top 3 or 4 in conference.
Yep! If the state ever gets their crap together we may actually get some funding. But, it’s Illinois ha.
How many GLVC schools are State Schools how many years would it take for WIU to qualify for post season tournaments at the D2 level Do we even know that the GLVC would want us.
huskie wrote: ↑Tue May 22, 2018 7:43 am
I wouldn't attend games anymore.
I get that, but the problem is not enough "yous" attend NOW. Even when teams are good here, attendance is at best mediocre, and most of the time it's just flat out abysmal. We hear often from those in the athletics department about "Leatherneck Strong", "Tradition of Tough", and all the other buzz words that point to the grit and resourcefulness of WIU athletics - and I agree with all of it - WIU athletics does a ton with very little. The thing that will make the difference between D1 and D2 though is butts in seats and $$ in athletic coffers. Don't blame the State - the State shouldn't owe athletics a dime. I get it matters to a point (enrollment, student attendance) but the bottom line is there isn't enough $$ generated from attendees and donors.
I'd like the Trustees or the Athletic Department to lay out some #s for us. What revenue figures do we have to hit over the next 3-5 years to make us a viable and sustainable D1 program? Put it out for the fanbase and alumni to decide. Either we hit those #s (gameday revenue, LNC membership, etc) or we don't and I absolutely think they should put an "or else" out there with it. "Or else WIU athletics will be transitioning to D2 athletics."
The absolute most shocking thing I have witnessed on campus during the last decade was seeing WIU and EIU go at in hoops in a totally freaking dead Western Hall with a few hundred fans sitting on their hands for the entire game. Yes, it was in December and maybe during dead week but that game would draw 6-7K when I was student and WIU and EIU were both D2 and in the same conference. Students would be standing in line before the game so they could get a good seat. My attendance and online viewership would not change if we were at the D2 level. I would still show up for those big important games and watch most of the others on the net.
For sports like swimming , track and field, tennis, and maybe even soccer as we seem to have fallen a bit there, we can't even compete at the team level in this conference. Sure, you might have a good athlete or two every now and then who gets some attention but that and a buck will get you a Big Gulp at 7-11.
At the top of desire list for me is simply having all of our athletes feel like they can compete for conference and national championships each and every year.
sealhall74 wrote: ↑Tue May 22, 2018 9:13 amThe absolute most shocking thing I have witnessed on campus during the last decade was seeing WIU and EIU go at in hoops in a totally freaking dead Western Hall with a few hundred fans sitting on their hands for the entire game.
Last season's game with EIU was on November 15. The crowd was 645 at Western Hall.
I can remember people being lined-up down University Drive waiting to get into Western Hall for a game with Eastern.
Our football attendance was not very good in 2017. The attendance for the 4 home games was 5,631 (Homecoming), 3,217 (Family Weekend), 2,247, and 2,812.
The projected freshman enrollment for the fall is 815. It was 1,206 last year.
Last edited by wiu712 on Tue May 22, 2018 11:21 am, edited 1 time in total.