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YSU Penguin Athletics => YSU Penguin Athletics => Topic started by: YSUGO on March 19, 2023, 09:25:16 AM

Title: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 19, 2023, 09:25:16 AM
After watching some of March Madness and how our team brought out the crowds and sparked interest.  I feel the university will get more bang for the buck by investing into Basketball
1. First of all we are in a conference with some natural rivals
Cleveland St and Wright.
2.  If we can get to the dance.
We are on every bracket and on a national Stage
 The economics of it make sense.  Our level of football nobody gives a crap.  Plus we are in a conference that we have no reason to be in other than the same BS it’s the SEC of football.
Ask Furman, ask Fairleigh Dickerson Chicago St and past schools like Butler if a conference mattered etc.

You get way more media and exposure than an FCS championship.  I asked people down here Do you know who won’t be FCS football championship this year?  They went what’s that?

I love our football but I don’t see us being a consistent winner or a major player in our conference we will always be just one of the other Schools plus the Dakotas.  Look at the SEC it’s Bama, Georgia, and sometimes LSU.

Again I would probably change my mind if we went to another conference or moved up.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 19, 2023, 01:04:26 PM
Where do you live?   
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 19, 2023, 01:29:29 PM
I live below Gainesville, Fl.  Ocala is the city. 
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: guinpen on March 19, 2023, 01:48:12 PM
Play another money football game each year and do both.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 19, 2023, 01:54:14 PM
Good point about playing another money game.  Right now I’m giving Phillips time to rebuild but will that translate into enough wins to generate interest with the fans. 
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: Wick250 on March 19, 2023, 02:07:55 PM
It should never be football versus basketball. The goal should be success in both so that fans are happy and coming to the campus often between September and March.

That said, stressing basketball is a dubious proposition in the Mahoning Valley. This area has long been recognized as a football-baseball region. About a month ago there was a survey circulating on the internet that listed Youngstown as producing the third most pro athletes all time on a per capita basis. I suspect that the methodology here was flawed but the data did tend to support the reputation of the region.  It suggested that Youngstown had turned out 72 pro football players, 32 major league baseball players, and just one NBA player.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: ytownchief22 on March 19, 2023, 02:23:30 PM
Much, much easier to have success in Basketball than Football. YSU football program is dying and there is little interest so let's ride the success and excitement that Calhoun and staff have brought this year.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: Double ET on March 19, 2023, 02:52:52 PM
I am into both YSU football and basketball. I am more a football fan than basketball fan.
Having said that, there is no denying that, this year, we almost took down 2 power 5 basketball teams ( Norte Dame and Oklahoma State).
I don’t think we have any chance for doing that in football.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 19, 2023, 08:09:14 PM
I have always said the way FCS is set up it’s not an equal playing field you have non scholly conferences partial scholly conferences and the big boys like Dakota and Montana and Delaware.  Their FB budget is what 2 or 3 times than a school in the Patriot conference or the NEC.  We are beating our heads into the wall trying to compete in the MVFC and our budget my guess is bottom half.  Why not go to a lower tier conference and be the big fish make the playoffs people will especially in Youngstown come out for a winner and then invest some more bucks in Basketball.  Just saying
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: ytownchief22 on March 19, 2023, 09:20:17 PM
Akron and Kent have been to the NCAA tournament multiple years. There is zero reason that YSU can't do the same. Time to finally invest some money into the program!!
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 19, 2023, 09:42:21 PM
Watching FDU and Florida Atlantic playing for a bid to. The Sweet Sixteen and listening to the fans in the Ohio St arena  makes me feel even more adamant that we need to invest more into Basketball.  Calhoun said college basketball has changed and we needed to improve facilities and NIL.  With the portal being as it is YSU can be the next FDU.  We cannot miss a chance to get to the next level.  We need to use our success in both basketball ball programs to get what we need.  Let’s not miss out like we did in football. 
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 19, 2023, 09:56:29 PM
Much easier to turn around basketball at YSU than football.   Just need like 3 or 4 good players in Basketball and need at least 30 in football.  Ain't going to happen in football.  I go to both football and basketball games and by far the basketball games this year were way better than the atmosphere for football.   This used to be a football area but now it's not as prevalent and rest of the sports are catching up.   Plus our population in the area is declining since the 1970's and 80's to where it is today.   So basketball is the way to go now.  It will strengthen football with a successful men's and women's basketball team year in and year out.   Need to raise money for a overhaul of Beeghly center now
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUinBoston on March 20, 2023, 09:08:03 AM
Obviously, this is a bit of a false choice and biased after a fun basketball season. That said----I agree that the conference is certainly more fun with natural rivals. I feel also like it is easier to envision what success looks like in basketball here and how to get to that point. With FCS football, and college football in general, I feel like there is another shoe that is due to drop. Competitively, the sport is structured really weird. I just don't see how/why MAC programs are considered the same level as SEC, for example. I am hopefully there is a real overhaul to the system and at some point YSU is able to compete in a more regionally relevant conference in football. Jumping to BCS football seems dumb right now to me as the "who care?" is basically the same for FCS football and whatever crappy bowl game the MAC champ plays in. But, if there was a mid-division division I, then I think that is something to aspire to that includes your MAC school, etc. Let the semi-professional college teams have their own division. 
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 20, 2023, 09:22:20 AM
Who could name a bowl that the Mac schools are a part of?   i don't think 99% of the fan base can.  I don't even know.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 20, 2023, 09:23:08 AM
Bowl game in Detroit is all that I can think of
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: guinpen on March 20, 2023, 09:56:14 AM
Boston, been thinking the same for years now, for a while I thought that the min attendance rule would force a change but they either changed the rule or just ignore it.

These mid level schools are happy to pretend and recruits love to tell their friends that they are going "big-time".

Not confident that things will ever change.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 20, 2023, 10:32:10 AM
Motor City Classic
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 20, 2023, 01:30:07 PM
What teams even played in the Motor City Classic?
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: 33Y0 on March 20, 2023, 01:53:48 PM
Here were all the MAC bowl games last season:

UAB vs. Miami (OH)
Eastern Michigan vs. San Jose State
Toledo vs. Liberty
New Mexico State vs. Bowling Green
Buffalo vs. Georgia Southern
Ohio U vs. Wyoming

Yawn, yawn, yawn....
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 20, 2023, 02:19:15 PM
That's 6 teams and i'm sure some of them were .500 at best and some with winning records.   Oh well we still need to seek FBS affiliation none the less .   But maybe not the MAC.  Maybe some other conference will emerge out of the landscape in a few years
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: IAA Fan on March 21, 2023, 12:05:28 PM
Much, much easier to have success in Basketball than Football. YSU football program is dying and there is little interest so let's ride the success and excitement that Calhoun and staff have brought this year.

Not so. We ere into it, then we left early and interest tumbled back down. Don't blame fans for the teams performance. That will always be the case. FYI, this is a football town ... always will be. As I have stated before, I will  drop MBB in a second if it means a better FB program. WBB is where we need to focus.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 21, 2023, 12:17:25 PM
IAA-Fan what are you crazy? Support WBB more than MBB.  Simply NUTS.  I support any team at YSU and possibly you should too.  We can do both Basketball and Football success.  It can be done.  It's not a choice.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: IAA Fan on March 21, 2023, 12:27:54 PM
IAA-Fan what are you crazy? Support WBB more than MBB.  Simply NUTS.  I support any team at YSU and possibly you should too.  We can do both Basketball and Football success.  It can be done.  It's not a choice.


I too support all YSU sports. However, if we had good WBB team, our MBB can feed off it. Look at Uconn, or closer to home .. MO State or UWGB. This pattern is what we should have been following since the days of DiGregorio. We would have more consistency
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUinBoston on March 21, 2023, 01:43:28 PM
I think Jim Calhoun would challenge where UConn's basketball prowess originated from.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: ytownchief22 on March 21, 2023, 07:42:29 PM
Much, much easier to have success in Basketball than Football. YSU football program is dying and there is little interest so let's ride the success and excitement that Calhoun and staff have brought this year.

Not so. We ere into it, then we left early and interest tumbled back down. Don't blame fans for the teams performance. That will always be the case. FYI, this is a football town ... always will be. As I have stated before, I will  drop MBB in a second if it means a better FB program. WBB is where we need to focus.


Such a ridiculous statement. There is so, so much more excitement for basketball right now than football. Nobody wants to sit with 5k other fans in a freezing cold stadium to watch a weenie principal head coach lose games. Even when the team was good and went on that run to the championship with Bo, the stands weren't even filled. Nobody cares about a dying program.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 21, 2023, 08:42:40 PM
Football will be mediocre for years to come.  Basketball has Momentum now.  For those that think this is a football town it really isn't anymore.  Basketball is growing and i seen many High School games this past year and they were packed.   
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: PENS16 on March 24, 2023, 01:48:47 PM
The FCS championship drew an audience of 1.07 million-opposite NFL playoffs. That was a little less than the average. When Sam Houston played in finals almost 3 million watched because of Houston market. The lower bowls averaged between 1-2 million this past bowl season. There is very little interest nationally for football under the Power 5 Conferences. I agree that the move up is probably not worth the amount of money it take to be even mildly competitive. Eventually I hope the MAC realizes the futility of trying to be relevant at that level and joins the FCS.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 24, 2023, 03:22:19 PM
MAC will never take a step back to FCS.  Too much money to lose.  They would lose all of the bowl money of the 6 irrelevant bowls that they go to each year.  NCAA will have to restructure the system a little differently for that to happen.  It's unfortunately about the $$$$.  Sucks for us and the MAC
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUGO on March 24, 2023, 04:23:04 PM
Last time I checked schools are if they can going to to FBS not running to go down to FCS.  The only way I see that happening is the economy tanks and forces a few schools to drop.  I feel with all that money in FBS nothing is going to change.  Yes the MAC had a contract for week nites but it’s ESPN prime time and it’s a professionally done production.  Not with students  etc as I’ve seen with most of the MVFC.  It’s some bad TV.  Heck, even the FCS championship game is played in a soccer stadium what a joke.  Maybe the ncaa should play The FCS, D2 and D3 games in Canton after they are done with the renovation at the HOF.  I know there’s cold weather but they doesn’t stop football fans never stopped me.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YSUinBoston on March 25, 2023, 12:50:25 PM
I am sure the MAC wouldn't willingly go down to FCS. My vision is a new structure to college football. I doubt Charlie Baker has the imagination for something radical though. Anyway----there is a level of college football that is really semi-pro football. The interest level and attendance is similar to the NFL. A good number of the student athletes are not serious students. There are currently ~130 FBS programs and ~125 FCS programs. I would suggest a three division format instead.

Division A-----This would be the top 64 programs in college football that are playing in your tradition Power 5 level of football. Split the league into 8 regions with 8 teams per region or something to that effect.

Division B----This would be the next 100 or so programs. This would include your traditional crappy lower level FBS teams (e.g. the MAC) and your upper-to-middle tier FCS teams.

Division C----This would be all the rest. Your low level FCS team and your non-scholly programs.

There would be a playoff at each level for the champion. You could have a relegation/move up system for programs that regularly excel or stink at each level.

In some ways, this system already exists. the top-top version of college football is what really captures the national attention....so let's call it what it is. By having regional conferences at the top level, this can limit this silly conference hoping that happens. The TV money for this top tier should be nuts. This would do away with this silliness of barely noticeable football programs jumping to FBS to be non-competitive or play in a bowl game no one cares about. I also think this allows for better competition by placing the sacrificial lambs together at different levels.

I suspect Charlie Baker will continue on with this amateurism farce though with big time college sports. I would just appreciate a return to some regional rivalries and some acknowledgement that there is a huge gap between the top of FBS football and the middle, let alone the bottom. Let's reduce some of the incentives for schools to throw good money after bad pretending they can compete in something they have no business competing in.   
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: YsuPride on March 25, 2023, 01:31:39 PM
YSUinBoston you hit the nail on the head. 
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: Wick250 on March 25, 2023, 01:51:05 PM
Boston,

You should run the NCAA and impose this excellent system on the membership.  Every single school in America would benefit from your proposal. The days of FBS pretenders squandering millions in student fees in a forlorn attempt to be considered the equal of OSU, Alabama, or Notre Dame would mercifully come to an end.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: peteonastick on March 25, 2023, 04:03:28 PM
No reason you can’t do both with the portal.

Go Guins!
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: IAA Fan on March 26, 2023, 11:42:41 AM
I think Jim Calhoun would challenge where UConn's basketball prowess originated from.

let him. Then you can see 13 NCAA WBB trophies. no one else is even close. Especially when you consider how much shorter the women have played , Look at OSU. Football school, incredible WBB program and an adequate MBB program. Women outsell the men many times in a given season. Yes I do understand that it is easier to do that when you hail from a conference that is going to go 6-9 deep. It makes no sense to complicate matters because a kid thinks he screwed up and wants a "redo". It should be illegal to talk with any player once they have committed. Now if a player wants to play a year without a scholarship. Then we can talk. That will never happen.
Title: Re: March Madness should be our focus not football.
Post by: IAA Fan on March 26, 2023, 12:06:30 PM
I am sure the MAC wouldn't willingly go down to FCS. My vision is a new structure to college football. I doubt Charlie Baker has the imagination for something radical though. Anyway----there is a level of college football that is really semi-pro football. The interest level and attendance is similar to the NFL. A good number of the student athletes are not serious students. There are currently ~130 FBS programs and ~125 FCS programs. I would suggest a three division format instead.

Division A-----This would be the top 64 programs in college football that are playing in your tradition Power 5 level of football. Split the league into 8 regions with 8 teams per region or something to that effect.

Division B----This would be the next 100 or so programs. This would include your traditional crappy lower level FBS teams (e.g. the MAC) and your upper-to-middle tier FCS teams.

Division C----This would be all the rest. Your low level FCS team and your non-scholly programs.

There would be a playoff at each level for the champion. You could have a relegation/move up system for programs that regularly excel or stink at each level.

In some ways, this system already exists. the top-top version of college football is what really captures the national attention....so let's call it what it is. By having regional conferences at the top level, this can limit this silly conference hoping that happens. The TV money for this top tier should be nuts. This would do away with this silliness of barely noticeable football programs jumping to FBS to be non-competitive or play in a bowl game no one cares about. I also think this allows for better competition by placing the sacrificial lambs together at different levels.

I suspect Charlie Baker will continue on with this amateurism farce though with big time college sports. I would just appreciate a return to some regional rivalries and some acknowledgement that there is a huge gap between the top of FBS football and the middle, let alone the bottom. Let's reduce some of the incentives for schools to throw good money after bad pretending they can compete in something they have no business competing in.   

Sorry, but you have to use the term "Division I" IN THE NAME. Heck they never should have allowed the change from 'I-AA'. Do you ever hear any announcer using the phrase "Division I FCS"? NOPE!