What WVU needs is a passage into the ACC or SEC

[JohnnyDrama388]

I am very very appreciative of the Big 12 but I think everyone knows they would be better off with Houston, BYU, Memphis and we will be better off playing regional schools. It is a great cultural fit, but obviously not geographical.



The way to ensure entry is a state of the art privately funded stadium built into the Hills. We need to show forward thinking as a community and stop settling.

 

[WVUALLEN]

Going to SEC will not change the fact WVU will be like an Arkansas type team and never make the playoffs.

 

[bobhertzel'ssweatpants]

I am very very appreciative of the Big 12 but I think everyone knows they would be better off with Houston, BYU, Memphis and we will be better off playing regional schools. It is a great cultural fit, but obviously not geographical.



The way to ensure entry is a state of the art privately funded stadium built into the Hills. We need to show forward thinking as a community and stop settling.

The ACC wouldn't care about a new stadium. They want us to improve our academic reputation, which is virtually impossible the way things are currently set up in the academic rankings. Same for the SEC in terms of building a new stadium. That would have very little impact on an invite. We would need to improve our TV market, which is also impossible because we only have 1.8 million people in the entire state & the population continues to decline.

Personally I love the Big 12 and wish that it would survive long term. We have no control over such matters though.

 

[HurdyGurdyEer]

Privately funded?

Forget about whether or not such a stadium would be the ticket into the SEC or ACC ( I think not). I want to hear the story about how such a venture would be "privately" funded in West Virginia.

And ... If the people of West Virginia suddenly (miraculously) became a forward thinking bunch I think a state of the art football stadium would be near the bottom of the list of priorities.

Football as a priority is a sign of backward thinking. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[bobhertzel'ssweatpants]

Privately funded?

Forget about whether or not such a stadium would be the ticket into the SEC or ACC ( I think not). I want to hear the story about how such a venture would be "privately" funded in West Virginia.

And ... If the people of West Virginia suddenly (miraculously) became a forward thinking bunch I think a state of the art football stadium would be near the bottom of the list of priorities.

Football as a priority is a sign of backward thinking. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

lol - Yeah what billionaire from WV (there are only 2 I believe - Jim Justice who graduated from Marshall & Chris Cline who also went to MU but donates to both schools) is going to pay $350-$500 million for a new stadium?

 

[Mtneer001]

the state of nebraska has a similar size population. however, they have a way better economy.

the school itself is/was an AAU member.

WVU can fix the academic side of the problem. President Gee is addressing those issues with the establishment of WVU Beckley.
1.The state of West Virginia needs to better utilize the satellites campuses of WVU (Parkersburg, Beckley, Potomac State) and start using these for less-academically inclined students. this will allow academic rankings to improve for the morgantown campus much like NC does for its satellite campuses for UNC (asheville, greensboro, wilmington, pembroke)

2. WVU needs to get a lot more research dollars. What most fail to realize is that AAU membership is primarily the result of graduate research. WVU undergrad programs are fine, but are lacking in graduate research. President Gee is also addressing this. But there is only a finite amt of research money available.

3. WVU already has a strong fan base, much like Nebraska, so we are good there. Financial support of the athletic department is pretty good, relatively speaking.

4. There are only so many Power schools available whenever the next wave of conference realigment hits. I think the next wave will be even bigger than the one we saw 5 years ago. As long as WVU continues to maintain a strong presence in athletics and continue to bolster its academic reputation, I think wvu will remain in a Power conference.

5. Politics and money will play an important part in the new round of conference realignment. Our leaders know the importance of wvu to the state.

 

[Cuyahoga Falls Eers]

Geez, do some people need to be beat over the head, shoved off the cliff and run over by a steamroller because they realize they're not wanted by the SEC, the ACC or the Big 10?
Thank God that Oliver Luck got WVU into the Big 12 and jacked up the payday pot from $9.9 million in the Big East (at the most) to $38 million in the Big 12 (conference check and 3rd tier rights)! Otherwise, we'd be in the same stew as UConn and Cincy. And that isn't good.


M anhandled Missouri, 26-11

O rdinary against Youngstown, 38-21

U nnerving miracle goalline tip/interception escapes BYU, 35-32

N euter Kansas State

T rample Texas Tech

A nnihilate TCU

I mpale Oklahoma State

N ail Kansas

E radicate Texas

E rectile dysfunction Oklahoma

R oll over Iowa State

S uffocate Baylor

 

[old buzzard]

Geez, do some people need to be beat over the head, shoved off the cliff and run over by a steamroller because they realize they're not wanted by the SEC, the ACC or the Big 10?
Thank God that Oliver Luck got WVU into the Big 12 and jacked up the payday pot from $9.9 million in the Big East (at the most) to $38 million in the Big 12 (conference check and 3rd tier rights)! Otherwise, we'd be in the same stew as UConn and Cincy. And that isn't good.

I agree with what you're saying..........but do us all a favor and turn off that red text. It's annoying and causes a lot of people to skip over your comments.

 

[Woody in Helvetia]

.

The way to ensure entry is a state of the art privately funded stadium built into the Hills. We need to show forward thinking as a community and stop settling.

There is ZERO reason to build a new stadium. Oklahoma, TExas, Ohio STate, Notre Dame, Michigan, LSU, Georgia, Nebraska all have stadiums built in the 1924 - most of them are around 90 years old and still serving their schools quite well.

 

[old buzzard]

There is ZERO reason to build a new stadium.

Our stadium is fine and when the upgrades are finished next year it will be even better. However, it would be nice to see something done to make getting into and away from there a little less of a nightmare.

 

[EER X]

Our stadium is fine and when the upgrades are finished next year it will be even better. However, it would be nice to see something done to make getting into and away from there a little less of a nightmare.

Completely agree, until we sell out our stadium most of the time, we don't need anything bigger.

Parking and traffic on the other hand...

 

[Cuyahoga Falls Eers]

Completely agree, until we sell out our stadium most of the time, we don't need anything bigger.

Parking and traffic on the other hand...

For comparison: At Virginia Tech, there's one way out, compared to several ways out for WVU fans (to I-84, U.S. 19, I-79, etc.). Blacksburg is far worse mess than Morgantown. Not that I want to be like Blacksburg or VT. Just saying, it could be worse.

And the East side improvements are a major help. Once the West side gets the same treatment, we'll all feel better. Restroom and vendors situation has improved. Not perfect for 60K+ for Oklahoma, but we only get that once a year, or longer.


M anhandled Missouri, 26-11

O rdinary against Youngstown, 38-21

U nnerving miracle goalline tip/interception escapes BYU, 35-32

N euter Kansas State

T rample Texas Tech

A nnihilate TCU

I mpale Oklahoma State

N ail Kansas

E radicate Texas

E rectile dysfunction Oklahoma

R oll over Iowa State

S uffocate Baylor

 

[MikeRafone]

Bungee jumping off the back side of the press box to raise funds for a new stadium is about as realistic as WVU suddenly being invited to the ACC. Neither are going to happen, but the first would be fun to watch.

 

[atlanta_eer]

1.The state of West Virginia needs to better utilize the satellites campuses of WVU (Parkersburg, Beckley, Potomac State) and start using these for less-academically inclined students. this will allow academic rankings to improve for the morgantown campus much like NC does for its satellite campuses for UNC (asheville, greensboro, wilmington, pembroke)
.

That one is the key. Nothing else we can do will have nearly as much of an immediate impact on our academic standing. Allowing marginal students into WVU and then flushing them out hurts us both on the selectivity measure, and also on the dropout rate. Much better to start off questionable students at a feeder campus, and if they can handle the academics they move to Morgantown and graduate. If they wash out, they wash out from the feeder campus and not Morgantown. As you point out, that is exactly how UNC and other states do it. Very hard to get into Chapel Hill undergrad unless you've got good academics. Easier to transfer in from one of the other campuses after a year if you do well....I went to UNC Chapel Hill for law school and met a number of students who did that

 

[Buckaineer]

Its imperative for WVU to remain a major sports school that the leaders improve the ratings WVUs academics receive.

That and fielding extremely competitive teams is the only way forward.

Losing major status is going to hurt the school itself tremendously and that's what the powers that be seemed to be determined to accomplish.

They probably wanted that the last go around, but Luck was on WVUs side literally and helped save the BIG 12 and save WVUs power conference status.

The media is hellbent on destroying the BIG 12 and the message boards are filled with people upsetting the fanbases of places like OU--telling them every minute that all of their problems are due to ISU, KSU, KU, WVU, TCU, OSU, Baylor and Texas Tech and that they'd be better off propping up Purdue, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Rutgers, Maryland, Wazzou, Oregon State, Wake, SU, Pitt, BC, UVa, NC State, UNC, Dook, etc.

THey've gotten to the leadership at UT and OU and trouble lies ahead.

Academic reputation is the first separator--its critical for WVUs future. Virtually every other state uses branch campuses to weed out academic problems and WVU must begin doing this as well.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

There is ZERO reason to build a new stadium. Oklahoma, TExas, Ohio STate, Notre Dame, Michigan, LSU, Georgia, Nebraska all have stadiums built in the 1924 - most of them are around 90 years old and still serving their schools quite well.

First, you've made this point before and it's a very selective sample. It's not proof of anything and I know you're smart enough to know that. If not, I assume you were also against our current stadium's construction, right?

Second, imo, there is reason to build new within the next decade. WVU-H needs the land.

 

[Darth_VadEER]

That one is the key. Nothing else we can do will have nearly as much of an immediate impact on our academic standing. Allowing marginal students into WVU and then flushing them out hurts us both on the selectivity measure, and also on the dropout rate. Much better to start off questionable students at a feeder campus, and if they can handle the academics they move to Morgantown and graduate. If they wash out, they wash out from the feeder campus and not Morgantown. As you point out, that is exactly how UNC and other states do it. Very hard to get into Chapel Hill undergrad unless you've got good academics. Easier to transfer in from one of the other campuses after a year if you do well....I went to UNC Chapel Hill for law school and met a number of students who did that

Gee tried to address this issue his first go-around at WVU. Didn't work...not his fault.

 

[Op2]

I went to WVU back in the 80s and I got back now and then since then but not for awhile. The town I moved to is a bit Nazi-esque with regards to rules about who can build what where but OTOH there are some positive outcomes as a result of that, namely things look nice and there is some organization and traffic isn't totally insane.

On my periodic visits back to Motown I'm amazed at what a clusterf*** that entire area around the stadium and hospital and Chestnut Ridge Rd is. There is a giant gas station (Sheetz maybe) about a quarter mile from the stadium and hospital. Dumb!

Suppose you're on DN Drive and the stadium is on your left and you go down to the light where it meets CR Road and you make a right up the hill going towards the Mileground.
When I was in Motown, going up that hill on the right was just land. Well the last time I was there it's not just land, rather it's a giant strip mall! A half mile from the WVU medical complex and football stadium! WTF!!!

Even if you go left at that light towards Mylan you have a bunch of restaurants with big parking lots on the right. It's all built like it's the suburbs of a city. The only problem is, it's IN TOWN! I know that's not downtown Motown but Motown is big enough that that is in town.

Part of the time I was there I lived on the Mylan side of CR Road. When I wanted to go to the PRT or the football stadium or the hospital I'd just cross CR Road on foot, taking my life in my hands in the process. I didn't know any better. I thought that was normal. Looking back it's just crazy. And decades later the traffic is probably way worse.

You should let people live close to where they work and go to school and make it possible for them to walk or bike or take a bus. Put the development with the big parking lots farther out. Closer in, have streets, not five lane roads. You can still have restaurants or businesses but just don't have them right on the main road with giant parking lots.

I haven't been to Motown at all for maybe 10 years now. Maybe things have changed since I was last there. I hope so.

 

[Woody in Helvetia]

First, you've made this point before and it's a very selective sample. It's not proof of anything and I know you're smart enough to know that. If not, I assume you were also against our current stadium's construction, right?

Second, imo, there is reason to build new within the next decade. WVU-H needs the land.

I am quite in favor of the work going on right now. And there is only one place for a college stadium - and that is on the campus of that college. I am totally against locating a stadium off the campus.

 

[VaultHunter]

The only way WVU ends up in either the SEC or ACC is if the Big12 collapsed and even then there is certainly no guarantee.

The best thing for WVU is for Houston and Cincinnati to join, the conference grow and WVU won't be so isolated.

THE SEC AND ACC DIDN'T WANT WVU.

 

[HurdyGurdyEer]

Wait a minute! After thinking about it I now understand Johnny D's original point.

A new state of the art stadium would be, in Johnny's words, a "passage" into the ACC or the SEC. I get it now. It would be something like a Star Gate. Build the new stadium, with private funds of course, and the team and the fans could walk into one end of the stadium and walk out the other .... and because of state of the art technology .... we would transported through a cosmic college football time/space warp wormhole thingy and on the other side we would find ourselves in the ACC or the SEC.

It's so clear to me now that I've thought about it. It's time to hit warp speed and get this thing done!