Future of YSU sports

[Double ET]

From today’s Vindy/Tribune:

https://www.tribtoday.com/sports/local-sports/2020/05/ysu-has-no-plans-to-eliminate-sports/

[guinpen]

Noteworthy that 15 folks are making over $65,000! That is a lot of money. I know that other schools pay more, I know that you get what you pay for. But that is still a lot of money.

[go guins]

Noteworthy that 15 folks are making over $65,000! That is a lot of money. I know that other schools pay more, I know that you get what you pay for. But that is still a lot of money.

I don't agree about it being a lot of money IF you do something to earn it!

[goodnews]

Its called ROI and there is very little coming out of the bottom floor of Stambaugh. 

[go guins]

Its called ROI and there is very little coming out of the bottom floor of Stambaugh.

No, actually it's called "football" and there isn't much of THAT on the floor of Stambaugh. 
It's been a LONG time since we had a good coach that cared and contributed to good public relations.  Let's hope DP is that guy again!

[Double ET]

This is coming out of Akron.


https://www.beaconjournal.com/news/20200520/university-of-akron-invoking-contract-clause-to-allow-for-ldquoimmediaterdquo-layoffs-faculty-union-says?fbclid=IwAR3962lwLVX7yBcOPE5trmbNmyIqImr8Dg7zvsbBXhOhpg_avBdzXHuE3B0

With all these cuts to the academic division, how could UA justify spending all the $$ to stay in 1-A?

[Wick250]

If newspaper accounts are accurate, Akron had about 30k students in 2010.  This past year that figure dropped to about 19k.  During that same span, YSU probably dropped from about 13.5k to about 12k.  Yet Akron continued to spend like the proverbial drunken sailor on both academic programs and athletics.  They must now confront financial reality.  They are getting exactly what they deserve.

Nobody knows what the long term ramifications of this pandemic will be for YSU or any American university. We will suffer but we are much better positioned than quite a few of our rivals in Ohio and the Midwest.

[YSUGO]

Who cares what Akron does? For the last 10 years or more some are hoping to see there demise.  I over that stuff about being in the MAC or hoping our neighbors fail to the west of us.  We blew our chances years ago and maybe it’s a blessing we never moved up.  I wonder what would have happened if Mickey Monus’s paper empire would have lasted longer if he could have got us their with his $$$.   Heck we could to D2. Who knows!

[go guins]

Who cares what Akron does? For the last 10 years or more some are hoping to see there demise.  I over that stuff about being in the MAC or hoping our neighbors fail to the west of us.  We blew our chances years ago and maybe it’s a blessing we never moved up.  I wonder what would have happened if Mickey Monus’s paper empire would have lasted longer if he could have got us their with his $$$.   Heck we could to D2. Who knows!

Monus was never going to be the salvation, that's for sure.  D2 isn't either.  My vote is OVC, less travel, more rivalries, and all sports under one umbrella which also aids rivalries and attendance.

[YSUGO]

I would take the OVC in a heartbeat!

[ytownchief22]

YSU is not going to the OVC. Fans may not like it but administration and AD's love being in the MVFC for football, being it's the toughest in FCS and the horizon in basketball and the rest.

[Wick250]

I am confused by this fascination with the OVC.  It makes no sense whatsoever, even ignoring the fact that those schools "invited" us to leave their conference by the late 1980s.

When we were members of that league, Eastern Kentucky was a national IAA football power.  Today, OVC football is weak, closer to the NEC than the MVFC.

When our basketball team competed in the OVC during the 1980s, the conference was one of the top mid-majors.  Today, basketball is also weak, near the bottom according to both Sagarin and Massey.

Our football team would have to fly to games in Tennessee and southern Missouri, just as we do now in the MVFC.  Travel costs would be enormous for all of our other sports, compared to the friendly geography of the Horizon League.

The Horizon League is perfect for us at the present time.  You have just seen how we can be competitive in basketball with a real head coach.  Barnes has proven his ability when the roster is not annihilated with injury. This can only change if the new financial reality provoked by the virus forces the Ohio MAC schools to abandon their delusions.

[go guins]

I am confused by this fascination with the OVC.  It makes no sense whatsoever, even ignoring the fact that those schools "invited" us to leave their conference by the late 1980s.

When we were members of that league, Eastern Kentucky was a national IAA football power.  Today, OVC football is weak, closer to the NEC than the MVFC.

When our basketball team competed in the OVC during the 1980s, the conference was one of the top mid-majors.  Today, basketball is also weak, near the bottom according to both Sagarin and Massey.

Our football team would have to fly to games in Tennessee and southern Missouri, just as we do now in the MVFC.  Travel costs would be enormous for all of our other sports, compared to the friendly geography of the Horizon League.

The Horizon League is perfect for us at the present time.  You have just seen how we can be competitive in basketball with a real head coach.  Barnes has proven his ability when the roster is not annihilated with injury. This can only change if the new financial reality provoked by the virus forces the Ohio MAC schools to abandon their delusions.

I agree with your Horizon League comments, but it all turns to crap when you board a plane for Fargo ND which you have no basketball or any other sport, or regional contact.  The issue is football in #1 and the Horizon league doesn't have any.  Closest competitive "all sport" league is OVC. 

[IAA Fan]

Let's put a few things into perspective.

1. YSU and the OVC is going back too far now. Just too many years to talk real rivals. Our bigger concern is to embed rivalry thinking into our incoming classes. When I took my daughter on her first tour of OSU. In one day, my daughter was responding "..IO" to every "OH..." she heard. It starts right from the very beginning and we need to do the same.
2. Tressel moved us out of the OVC for very specific reasons.
- The NCAA allowed independents to participate in the play-off and GA Southern did well as an independent and were offered admission to the SoCon. That sets the stage to put YSU in the play-off every year that we can manage 7-wins with schedules that are much easier than the OVC. 
- 7 wins was NEVER going to win the OVC. We were seldom, if ever, going to win the OVC and it was a 1-deep conference for the play-off.

Taking these two things into account, why not go independent? Honestly, even if we won the OVC, I doubt we could have advanced and won a title. It was a good move to go independent.

The MVFC and NDSU. NDSU is only going to be beaten regularly when other MVFC teams play the same style of ball and/or make a conscience effort to focus on them. Now when a team is in a conference that goes 3-4 deep in the post-season, why would you bother with any kind of focus on NDSU? You may beat NDSU, even on a regular basis, but you will probably lose to other teams that have offensive speed and a mobile QB. So what good is defeating NDSU and not making the play-off, or losing in the early rounds? Besides if NDSU goes to the post-season, the MVFC still puts another 2-3 teams in the post season. That is more than the OVC.

[Double ET]

From YSU internal communications on budget cuts posted this morning... This paragraph highlighted the budget  cuts in athletics:

YSU announces budget reductions

Youngstown State University announced today that there will be significant operational budget cuts and the elimination of 22 coaching and administrative positions in Intercollegiate Athletics, resulting in an overall expense reduction of nearly $2 million.