Winning is good; losing is bad. Calhoun won many games so that is good. But we need some perspective here. The Horizon League, led by Butler, used to be the elite Mid-Major conference, often finishing ranked between 10 and 12 in power ratings. Those times are long over. According to Massey, the Horizon League is now ranked 26, near the bottom of DI conferences. Not only did Calhoun fail to win the conference tournament, he only got to the conference final four once.
Phillips must navigate in the MVFC, the unquestioned elite group in FCS. The MVFC is often ranked ahead of several FBS conferences in the power ratings, and the best teams (namely SDSU and NDSU) would not only beat but dismantle champions in lesser FBS leagues. Surviving that league schedule and making the national playoffs was a better accomplishment than anything the basketball team did. And football was eliminated on the road by Villanova, the second best team in the playoffs (they proved that by their performance in Brookings.) Calhoun's team got unceremoniously bounced at home to a pedestrian CSU unit.
As far as basketball now being the top sport at YSU, revisit that thought next February as we are completing a 25 loss season. Because unless Faulkner can duplicate what Calhoun did the past two years in the portal, 25 losses is exactly where we are heading with this roster as presently constituted.
