Tough times moving from D2 to D1

[Laker]

Article talking about Nebraska-Omaha's problems moving to D1.

When you drop football and the national champion wrestling squad, it is no surprise when you lose support from some areas.

http://www.omaha.com/news/education/uno-looks-at-cuts-fee-increases-wage-freezes-to-balance/article_13e7f7a4-196c-5d28-abd3-9e958b2b7d02.html

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

Clenz did a whole write up on Omaha's issues! The school should be so much more than it is but the narrow minded fools in Lincoln don't get it. The city of Omaha is great!

[dgtw]

Not a good sign when you have to change your coffee to save money.

[GodHelpTheBears]

Not a good sign when you have to change your coffee to save money.

To what, actual dirt? Maybe it's just Ozarks employers but the provided coffee I've had at my jobs is awful as hell. We pass a collection plate for a big can o' Folgers where I work now.

[cx500d]

I buy the coffee for my office...Used to get Folger's, people whined, so I switched to Dunkin Donuts, people whined, so now I am buying Community Coffee which people seem to like.

But seriously??K-cups? thats like throwing money down the drain....And country club memberships????seriously?


To what, actual dirt? Maybe it's just Ozarks employers but the provided coffee I've had at my jobs is awful as hell. We pass a collection plate for a big can o' Folgers where I work now.

[bonarae]

^ Those are luxuries that they can and must live without... xrulesx

[clenz]

I can't speak to the coffee but I'm pretty sure every coach, AD administrator, at UNI gets a membership to the best local country club/course.

I'm not sure if they are comped or paid by UNI but that's common practice here.

[BisonTru]

I can't speak to the coffee but I'm pretty sure every coach, AD administrator, at UNI gets a membership to the best local country club/course.

I'm not sure if they are comped or paid by UNI but that's common practice here.

Usually they are comped by the country club/course. I know here Fargo CC, Moorhead CC, and iirc Oxbow CC all give NDSU some honorary memberships.

[Go Lehigh TU Owl]

I can't speak to the coffee but I'm pretty sure every coach, AD administrator, at UNI gets a membership to the best local country club/course.

I'm not sure if they are comped or paid by UNI but that's common practice here.

Country Club memberships seem common practice. Former Montana State's coach Rob Ash (and family) had a membership at the club I worked at in Bozeman. He also got a free decked out Chevy 1500 truck from the local dealership.

I'm pretty sure Lehigh's Andy Coen gets a membership at Saucon Valley (world class country club).

[clenz]

Country Club memberships seem common practice. Former Montana State's coach Rob Ash (and family) had a membership at the club I worked at in Bozeman. He also got a free decked out Chevy 1500 truck from the local dealership.

I'm pretty sure Lehigh's Andy Coen gets a membership at Saucon Valley (world class country club).
I know many/most/maybe all UNI coaches and AD members get cars as well - or at least very special lease pricing from a local dealership which happens to be one of the biggest UNI donors/boosters around.

The fact UNO had none of this figure out shows just how poor the decision to move was. It shows how forced it was. It shows, to those who have followed the situation, just how badly UN-L wants to kill everything UN-O related without just flat out going "end sports".

I've talked about the UN-O situation many times on here. It's a discussion I hate/love having.

For those outside of the midwest region I want to give you some perspective for how hard it would be, in a perfect world, for UNO to truly succeed at the D1 level even if properly taken care of by the UN-BOR.

Schools that have larger fan bases/UNO has to fight with for fans that are established D1 universities across the entire athletic department

Creighton - less than 10 minutes from the UNO campus. Has 15K season ticket holders for MBB
UN-L - UN-L runs the state of Nebraska and SW Iowa
Iowa State
Iowa
Kansas
Kansas State
UNI
Drake
Mizzou
SLU
Missouri State
Minnesota



All of those schools are within 4 hours of UNO. I guess Missouri State and Minnesota are technically just a touch over 5 but still close enough to be relevant when it comes to saturated fan base areas and schools to fight with recruits over.

Oh, then there are the old D2 rivals that have moved up well before they did that established themselves as the "next teir" D1 programs in the area like
USD
SDSU
NDSU
UND.

Those are all within 5-6 hours.

Then there is all the D2 and NAIA schools that UNO used to be affiliated with that are in the area that are really damn good

NW Missouri State
Pittsburgh State
Wayne State
Augustana
Sioux Falls
UN-Kearney
Missouri Western
William Jewell
Central Missouir
Lincoln
SW Baptis
Emporia St
SW Minnesota State
MSU-Manktao
Northwestern College
Dordt
Briar Cliff
Grand View
Dozens of NAIAs in the NW Missouri area

Oh, then the regional massive P5/"P6" schools that just have fan bases everywhere
Oklahoma
Oklahoma State
Notre Dame
Wichita State


Plus all the JUCOs


Oh, then the fact that Omaha has a rabid baseball town with a AAA affiliate of the Royals. UNO falls behind the Cubs, Royals and Cardinals for fans in the area


Are starting to see a picture of how, even in a perfect world, their move was misguided? No, UNO is fighting all of those schools for athletic recruits. However, all of those schools really start to dilute the recruits you can go after at UNO's level.

They will never have the fan support for ticket sales to make up any significant portion of an athletic budget. The donor base will never be there. The donor base they may have had that would have been willing to give to fund the move was given the middle finger by the school to make the move - football and wrestling.

Everything about UNO is a disaster right now.

[Evolution Prime]

UNO should have been happy with their D1 Hockey and D2 everything else. Even at D2, they had minimal support even with good football and basketball. I went an SDSU - UNO men's basketball a couple of years ago when they were playing in Ralston Arena, before the Baxter Arena was built. I bet half the fans there were Jackrabbit fans. I thought it was pretty sad for an Saturday afternoon game for men's basketball with one of the conference's top teams coming to town.