FCS Conference Shuffling

If you want to talk about Monmouth University Football, Quincy University Basketball, Notre Dame Men's Soccer, or whatever, this is the place.
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sealhall74
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ST_Lawson wrote: Wed Apr 06, 2022 11:09 pm
meganeck wrote: Wed Apr 06, 2022 10:41 am I saw on Twitter there was someone lobbying for WIU and YSU to be kicked out of MVFC. Said they were the 2 oddballs location wise.




 
I saw those posts as well. Really, it doesn't matter much what a few people on twitter think. Conference membership is ultimately up to the conference presidents, probably with a lot of input from the AD's.
It's possible the 4 Dakota schools might choose to vote us out, but I highly doubt the rest of the conference would. We have too much history with them.

Also, in terms of location "oddballs", I don't see how we're anywhere close to that. YSU...sure. The North Dakota schools...yup. Us...not even close.
Image

The geographic midpoint of the MVFC with Murray State is right around the border between Wisconsin and Illinois, just north of Rockford. That means that the schools closest to the geographic midpoint of the conference are...UNI, ILSU, and WIU.



 
if you consider travel time from hotel to playing field, we are certainly at the extreme end, around 1.5+ hours or so.  Getting to Vermillion or Brookings from Sioux City or Sioux Falls, respectively, is 45 minutes to an hour.  I think we have stayed in Indianapolis lately for our ISUb games, that trip is about 1.25 hours. Not sure about the hotel situation in Murray, KY.  Nashville is a couple hours away.
 
 
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A year after leaving the Southland for the WAC, Lamar has announced that they're headed back to the Southland: https://www.americanpress.com/2022/04/0 ... southland/

Also, rumors of:
SEMO and TN State going to the Southland from the OVC
SFA possibly considering going back to the Southland after moving to the WAC (like Lamar). Some of that might have been because they originally thought they'd be in the WAC with nearby rival Sam Houston State, but now that SHSU is going to the FBS CUSA, SFA probably wants to be back with some closer teams. Nacogdoches is in far eastern Texas, as is Beaumont (where Lamar is), and much of the remaining Southland is in Louisiana.
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Howard University is about ready to jump to the CAA, which could signal the end of the MEAC. They would be down to 5 football-playing members at that point.

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Not FCS, since they don't have football, but we could call it "FCS-adjacent".

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Tere North
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sealhall74 wrote: Tue Sep 28, 2021 10:36 am The $64K question is can we compete in the Summit/MVFC?  Yes, I know we can show up, sometimes pretty good, but can we compete, year in, year out, for conference championships in all sports? I dont see it happening given our current recruiting efforts which are impacted in a big way by the facilities we have.  If the administration is just happy to show up, so be it.  Most fans like me dont look at it quite that way, however.  Consistent losing drives them away.  Move to the OVC, you improve your championship chances in a huge way in all sports.  You also restore an instate rivalry in hoops.  I remember those days when 7K fans, mostly students, showed up in Western Hall for the annual WIU/EIU matchup because I was there, face painted and all, front row seat under the east bucket.  There was something on the line, as in a conference championship.

 
I do not believe we can any longer compete in the Summit/MVFC, but I do not believe facilities are to blame. We had a huge donation creating the baseball facility, wins did not increase. We have NFL caliber football practice fields having been the training camp home of the Rams for a few years.  All this hype about build it and they will come is nonsense. Get in a division and league where you can be competitive and you'll be much more likely to get fans. A guarantee, no. There are too many other things for people to do. But, having a winning team is exciting.

Also, we need more PR, and not just from Athletics, but from Western as a whole.  Our daily news brief and activities calendar is a joke. Yesterday as a Law Enforcement recruiting fair bringing in organizations from as far away as Kansas and even the Secret Service. This is the biggest major on campus, be virtually no one other than the employers were there. Not a single message about in from Western. Not listed on the activities. Here in lies Western's problem. Nothing to promote and when there is, no promotion.
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Tere wrote:Thu Jan 01, 1970 4:12 amI do not believe we can any longer compete in the Summit/MVFC, but I do not believe facilities are to blame. We had a huge donation creating the baseball facility, wins did not increase. We have NFL caliber football practice fields having been the training camp home of the Rams for a few years.  All this hype about build it and they will come is nonsense. Get in a division and league where you can be competitive and you'll be much more likely to get fans. A guarantee, no. There are too many other things for people to do. But, having a winning team is exciting.

Also, we need more PR, and not just from Athletics, but from Western as a whole.  Our daily news brief and activities calendar is a joke. Yesterday as a Law Enforcement recruiting fair bringing in organizations from as far away as Kansas and even the Secret Service. This is the biggest major on campus, be virtually no one other than the employers were there. Not a single message about in from Western. Not listed on the activities. Here in lies Western's problem. Nothing to promote and when there is, no promotion.

 
Two unrelated things:

1. In response to the NFL caliber football practice fields...I think we did have those (past tense). To be competitive with many of the teams just at our conference's level, you need to have an indoor practice facility now. A few halfway-decent grass practice fields just isn't going to cut it anymore. Although I do agree that facilities is not the prime reason for our lack of success. It is a part of it, but it's likely not the top one.

2. Regarding my earlier post about Queens University of Charlotte possibly moving to DI, they have officially accepted an invite to the ASUN: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sport ... 81172.html
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ST_Lawson wrote:
Tere wrote:Thu Jan 01, 1970 4:12 amI do not believe we can any longer compete in the Summit/MVFC, but I do not believe facilities are to blame. We had a huge donation creating the baseball facility, wins did not increase. We have NFL caliber football practice fields having been the training camp home of the Rams for a few years.  All this hype about build it and they will come is nonsense. Get in a division and league where you can be competitive and you'll be much more likely to get fans. A guarantee, no. There are too many other things for people to do. But, having a winning team is exciting.

Also, we need more PR, and not just from Athletics, but from Western as a whole.  Our daily news brief and activities calendar is a joke. Yesterday as a Law Enforcement recruiting fair bringing in organizations from as far away as Kansas and even the Secret Service. This is the biggest major on campus, be virtually no one other than the employers were there. Not a single message about in from Western. Not listed on the activities. Here in lies Western's problem. Nothing to promote and when there is, no promotion.

 
Two unrelated things:

1. In response to the NFL caliber football practice fields...I think we did have those (past tense). To be competitive with many of the teams just at our conference's level, you need to have an indoor practice facility now. A few halfway-decent grass practice fields just isn't going to cut it anymore. Although I do agree that facilities is not the prime reason for our lack of success. It is a part of it, but it's likely not the top one.

2. Regarding my earlier post about Queens University of Charlotte possibly moving to DI, they have officially accepted an invite to the ASUN: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sport ... 81172.html
For what it’s worth, I agree that an indoor practice facility is a critical need. My son has told me that not having an indoor practice option limits the team in what they can accomplish due to weather issues. Other schools who can practice in all weather conditions clearly have an advantage over us. My hope is that the new AD and Coach Hendrickson will push for such a facility to be built quickly as this is actually an easy way to make our team more competitive.


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meganeck
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Mheller wrote: Sat May 07, 2022 1:48 pm
ST_Lawson wrote:
Tere wrote:Thu Jan 01, 1970 4:12 amI do not believe we can any longer compete in the Summit/MVFC, but I do not believe facilities are to blame. We had a huge donation creating the baseball facility, wins did not increase. We have NFL caliber football practice fields having been the training camp home of the Rams for a few years.  All this hype about build it and they will come is nonsense. Get in a division and league where you can be competitive and you'll be much more likely to get fans. A guarantee, no. There are too many other things for people to do. But, having a winning team is exciting.

Also, we need more PR, and not just from Athletics, but from Western as a whole.  Our daily news brief and activities calendar is a joke. Yesterday as a Law Enforcement recruiting fair bringing in organizations from as far away as Kansas and even the Secret Service. This is the biggest major on campus, be virtually no one other than the employers were there. Not a single message about in from Western. Not listed on the activities. Here in lies Western's problem. Nothing to promote and when there is, no promotion.


 
Two unrelated things:

1. In response to the NFL caliber football practice fields...I think we did have those (past tense). To be competitive with many of the teams just at our conference's level, you need to have an indoor practice facility now. A few halfway-decent grass practice fields just isn't going to cut it anymore. Although I do agree that facilities is not the prime reason for our lack of success. It is a part of it, but it's likely not the top one.

2. Regarding my earlier post about Queens University of Charlotte possibly moving to DI, they have officially accepted an invite to the ASUN: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sport ... 81172.html
For what it’s worth, I agree that an indoor practice facility is a critical need. My son has told me that not having an indoor practice option limits the team in what they can accomplish due to weather issues. Other schools who can practice in all weather conditions clearly have an advantage over us. My hope is that the new AD and Coach Hendrickson will push for such a facility to be built quickly as this is actually an easy way to make our team more competitive.


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I know this the wrong area for this but my 2 cents, I hope the AD and Coach Hendrickson meet with boosters, along with University administration, also to push for this.
 
letsgonecks
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Getting off topic with the indoor facility talk, but very unlikely.  ISU is doing a 11.5/12mil facility and they were needing to raise 8 million.  They had 1 family donate 3 mil, so unless we find 1 or 2 like that, we're not getting one.  Coastal Carolina moved forward on theirs last year at 15mil, so probably the 2 least expensive options out there.

Yeah, we could probably bare minimum one for under 10, but that would still be a stretch.

In regards to us changing conferences or moving down, that might work in theory or could just turn us into a below average Ohio Valley or D2 team.  We need money and moving conferences or down might save on some travel or scholarship spend, but doesn't change the fact that WIU has been struggling financially for many many years.  Having money could improve university facilities, more aggressive marketing, keep employees and draw a better pool of candidates.  These things could improve enrollment which generates more dollars and potential future donors to spend on sports, which could then enhance the optics of WIU and bring in a more consistent talent for sports.

Teams can win without tons of money and not ruling that out for us next year, but for consistency, it takes money.  That consistency will keep the talent coming.  There was a time WIU and especially YSU were places kids wanted to play, but the obvious lack of money has hindered that.  I don't know the solution, just know the problem.......
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