Leatherneck Nation

Mizzou Rah wrote:Fairly simple answer to why North Dakota schools are superior in athletics. College athletics are all North Dakota has. There are many D1 schools in Illinois and even more D1AA schools. We have professional sports teams in every direction in every sport. North Dakota has none of that. They hang their hat on one program and one program alone. I grew up near Nebraska and saw the same thing. Nebraska football is and was king and always will be. Same with NDSU and their sports programs. In addition, North Dakota is in a much better financial setting than Illinois in every way. North Dakota's economy is far superior to Illinois' and the $$ rolls in. Hardly the case with this corrupt state and we have many more schools to support to boot.

Very true. They also know with the limited DI programs in the state, it makes no sense to tread on each others turf or ice (UND) as the case may be.

Seal, it sure would be great to count your membership as part of the "drive" to 800. I have been busy making phone calls to past members to remind them to "stand up and be counted!" jc

I get ya takin care of first thing tomorrow, NFS. Probably take that long to thaw out down here in Birmingham. Definitely underdressed for this trip.

Don't they count them based on each donation that comes in?

Well, looks like WIU will be at the bottom again in this, as both the soccer programs are bad, volleyball is still terrible - won't mention the tennis or swimming programs and not expecting much from the basketball teams this year. At least maybe the football team will make the playoffs.

I have expressed concern for a number of years about WESTERN'S bottom or near bottom continual ranking. I know some don't like to have it pointed out. However, let me explain where I come from in analyzing rankings. I was in sales and marketing for 25 years for one of the largest health care companies in the world. We were always ranked by territory, district, regionally and nationally regarding sales success. Everything revolved about your ranking- bonus, job security, type of company car etc.

My training indicates continual low ranking among peers, indicates " not meeting expectations", and would require counseling up to being let go.

The continual low rank among " peers" in the conference can be the result of many factors. However, as we were told, others seem to do well, why can't you? I don't know why WESTERN can't do better- except for a break out in a sport once in awhile. The fact is, WESTERN has trouble competing in the conference- as the rankings indicate- for the past several years.

Maybe drop enough sports which still allow conference membership, and really pour resources into these. Lower football to Pioneer level, and pour more into men's and women's BB? ( Don't get me wrong, I love football)

leatherface wrote:I have expressed concern for a number of years about WESTERN'S bottom or near bottom continual ranking. I know some don't like to have it pointed out. However, let me explain where I come from in analyzing rankings. I was in sales and marketing for 25 years for one of the largest health care companies in the world. We were always ranked by territory, district, regionally and nationally regarding sales success. Everything revolved about your ranking- bonus, job security, type of company car etc.

My training indicates continual low ranking among peers, indicates " not meeting expectations", and would require counseling up to being let go.

The continual low rank among " peers" in the conference can be the result of many factors. However, as we were told, others seem to do well, why can't you? I don't know why WESTERN can't do better- except for a break out in a sport once in awhile. The fact is, WESTERN has trouble competing in the conference- as the rankings indicate- for the past several years.

Maybe drop enough sports which still allow conference membership, and really pour resources into these. Lower football to Pioneer level, and pour more into men's and women's BB? ( Don't get me wrong, I love football)

Leather, what if your sales force was half as big as that for another region? IMO, that seems to be our problem, especially with the lower revenue sports like cross country, tennis, swimming, etc. We just don't have as many coaches in place as other schools. Case in point: IUPUI men captured Summit League Cross Country title today. They have a HC and 4 assistants to handle over 20 athletes. We have one HC and a grad assistant for about 10.

According to WIUM-FM, Western is looking at cost-cutting measures which would include salary reductions and/or layoffs of university employees.

We should expect that Athletics costs are being examined as well.

Perhaps staying in Division 1 will require more resources than we have.

A Western football player who graduated in the spring told me Western Athletics has been looking at Division 2 as an option.

Sounds like a couple of things they're giving serious looks to is graduated pay decreases and furlough days based on pay. The higher your pay, the more your cut is. Next would be "restructuring" programs...maybe cutting some programs that have very few students in them.

They're going to try to get by without cutting too many jobs.

I would imagine they are also looking at athletics, but I haven't heard what options are being heavily discussed.

One issue with dropping to the pioneer league is that travel costs would jump a bit. In-conference games in San Diego and Florida among other places.

ST_Lawson wrote:One issue with dropping to the Pioneer League is that travel costs would jump a bit. In-conference games in San Diego and Florida among other places.

There are 11 teams in the Pioneer League:
Dayton
San Diego
Morehead State
Jacksonville
Marist
Campbell
Drake
Butler
Valparaiso
Stetson
Davidson

Unlike most other FCS conferences, the Pioneer League does not have athletic scholarships.

Morehead State is the only public school in the conference.