Fac & Students Call for Eastern Michigan to drop Div I Football

[Greenrex]

A report issued by Eastern Michigan’s faculty and students has called for the Eagles to leave the Mid-American Conference to join the Horizon League in non-football sports while moving to Division II or Division III in football.

“Culturally and geographically, EMU football will simply never succeed from an attendance and financial standpoint,” faculty member Howard Bunsis argued to EMU’s Board of Regents on Friday, according to the Detroit Free Press. “It is a losing proposition – always has been, and always will be. We hardly raise any money for football, and our attendance is the lowest in the country. Some of you believe that we are close to succeeding, if we just throw more money at the situation. This proposition is insane.

http://footballscoop.com/news/faculty-and-students-are-calling-for-eastern-michigan-to-drop-division-i-football/

[UNT90]

...

[UNTLifer]

And this has something to do with UNT Football how?

[Greenrex]

25 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

And this has something to do with UNT Football how?

Please accept my sincerest apologies and know that you are welcome to move it to the appropriate category, Sir. Snickers have been ordered.

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

53 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

And this has something to do with UNT Football how?

Both school's colors are green; and, both claim Eagles as their mascots.

Edited April 25, 2016 by MeanGreenMailbox

[Mike Jackson]

Both floundering programs in G5 conference with horrible attendance figures.  Is that enough for you?

[North Texas Shep]

Let's move to the MAC. They have a great history and for the most part have a great deal of pride in what they have to offer. Plus, they will need a new green eagle team.

[UNT90]

13 hours ago, Greenrex said:

Please accept my sincerest apologies and know that you are welcome to move it to the appropriate category, Sir. Snickers have been ordered.

Thankfully, he isn't a mod. 

This is very relevant to UNT. With the culture that exists inside the AD and the culture of the faculty and students, continued failure in athletics could bring about this very thing in Denton, and pretty quickly.

 

[Greendylan]

I wish this were irrelevant to North Texas football, but . . . 

Sadly, Eastern Michigan has always been one of the few buffer zones between our football program and Division I FBS oblivion.  If they drop down, then we become about a half step (if even that) from being THE example of major football futility and financial waste.  I tend to believe we're still several years out from facing the conversation that EMU is currently having, but if we don't get the ship pointed in the right direction (and yes, leadership is paramount in this) quickly, the challenges to our program's very existence will be here sooner than some may realize.

[UNTFan23]

2 minutes ago, Greendylan said:

I wish this were irrelevant to North Texas football, but . . . 

Sadly, Eastern Michigan has always been one of the few buffer zones between our football program and Division I FBS oblivion.  If they drop down, then we become about a half step (if even that) from being THE example of major football futility and financial waste.  I tend to believe we're still several years out from facing the conversation that EMU is currently having, but if we don't get the ship pointed in the right direction (and yes, leadership is paramount in this) quickly, the challenges to our program's very existence will be here sooner than some may realize.

I suspect dropping down to FCS would put a major dent in the academic plans for the university as well. There are few schools with "minor" sports programs that are elite academic programs. We're nowhere near an elite academic school and so dropping the football program to a lower level will hurt the school's overall image and reputation.

[akriesman]

We have a stadium and facilities that have been invested in heavily.    I think we already have too much invested to drop down  any time in the near future.     Thank God that we already have the stadium.

[UNT90]

2 minutes ago, akriesman said:

We have a stadium and facilities that have been invested in heavily.    I think we already have too much invested to drop down  any time in the near future.     Thank God that we already have the stadium.

Don't you mean thank UNTFlyer? Sadly, he doesn't post much anymore.

[oldguystudent]

Hey, at least they're doing something to which we aspire.

Quote

In 2014, the amount of subsidy to the athletic program was over $1,076 per student after accounting for direct and indirect athletic expenses and increased to $1,227 for 2015 (see Table 5). If we break down the cost per student into what students paid out of pocket, through tuition and fees, and state of Michigan support, we find each student paid $917 out of pocket to support athletics at EMU.

 

[UNT90]

22 minutes ago, oldguystudent said:

Hey, at least they're doing something to which we aspire.

 

But RV is a great AD with "vision."

Maybe if UNT cared about athletics and didn't use the student fee to simply pay the bills, some of which is paying off terrible hires by a terrible AD and letting that terrible AD keep on hiring people and keep on stealing $375k a year from the university, this fee would be justifiable. 

But since UNT simply doesn't care, and will never care, about giving students something for their money, I don't think any raise in the student fee is warranted now, or ever. At least until this culture changes. And this culture has shown it will NEVER change. 

At this point, I wouldn't even be opposed to doing away with the student fee. They are paying UNT for a product that UNT stubbornly refuses to provide. If I were a prospective student, I would simply attend another university. Any university that is wiling to take money from students under a false pretense isn't a university I would reccomend to anyone.

My niece graduates from UNT next month. She hasn't come to one football game and thinks UNT athletics are a joke. Once she gets that piece of paper, she is gone forever. Too bad the university didn't do one thing in her time at UNT to prove her wrong.

Edited April 26, 2016 by UNT90

[Travis]

I fear this will be us before too long.

[Cr1028]

15 minutes ago, UNT90 said:

At this point, I wouldn't even be opposed to doing away with the student fee. They are paying UNT for a product that UNT stubbornly refuses to provide. If I were a prospective student, I would simply attend another university. 

Edited April 26, 2016 by Cr1028

[untjim1995]

This is where things are headed here. Its just a matter of when. It might not be for another 5-10 years, but its gonna happen here because of that fee being on the back of the students.

We barely kept the football program alive in the early 70s, with a student body vote that barely passed--and at a time when the students didn't have to pay much in athletics fees compared to today. We were gonna drop the football program in the early 80s, but the I-aa safety net kept the powers at be content with allowing us to play there for 12 freaking years. Only when it became clear that you could make more money for the program by whoring yourself out as a low-level I-A program did we figure out a way to get the program up to the level we are today. And we only have that brand new stadium because of the fee that stealthily got passed onto students who are now in school. That fee has a small shelf life, IMO.

We don't like athletics here, as an institution. Never have, never will. It costs too much and it gives away too much power to hundreds or thousands of donors who usually have higher expectations based on accomplishment. Not here, though. We like music, arts, education, and large enrollments. We would die, as an institutional, based on the majority of our leaders, faculty, and students, to be considered in the same academic profile as UT-D.

It is what it is. And its why less than 2% of the UNT Family gives one rip about our teams. Institutionally, for decades, we have just made it uncool to be a diehard UNT fan. That's why home games on Texas/OU weekend cause so much trouble here or other major sports going on around here during football season. We have about 5000 that are diehard fans, which is awesome when you compare it to the 1000 we had about 20 years ago, but its very telling when the university has moved up to D-1 21 years ago and seen enrollment jump up from around 27k to 36k, as well as the local population jump up by tens of thousands in Denton alone. The old line that you can't beat City Hall could easily by replaced here with the fact that you can't be the UNT Administrative Building as UNT sports fans.

[VideoEagle]

30 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Well said. 

[Army of Dad]

41 minutes ago, Cr1028 said:

Think you for the well thought out, reasoned, and eloquent response. You've really raised the level of discourse on the board.

[UNTLifer]

1 hour ago, UNT90 said:

But RV is a great AD with "vision."

Maybe if UNT cared about athletics and didn't use the student fee to simply pay the bills, some of which is paying off terrible hires by a terrible AD and letting that terrible AD keep on hiring people and keep on stealing $375k a year from the university, this fee would be justifiable. 

But since UNT simply doesn't care, and will never care, about giving students something for their money, I don't think any raise in the student fee is warranted now, or ever. At least until this culture changes. And this culture has shown it will NEVER change. 

At this point, I wouldn't even be opposed to doing away with the student fee. They are paying UNT for a product that UNT stubbornly refuses to provide. If I were a prospective student, I would simply attend another university. Any university that is wiling to take money from students under a false pretense isn't a university I would reccomend to anyone.

My niece graduates from UNT next month. She hasn't come to one football game and thinks UNT athletics are a joke. Once she gets that piece of paper, she is gone forever. Too bad the university didn't do one thing in her time at UNT to prove her wrong.

Ever thought of supporting another university at this point and time?

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

Is it too late to get a home-and-home with Eastern Michigan?

[Army of Dad]

6 minutes ago, MeanGreenMailbox said:

Is it too late to get a home-and-home with Eastern Michigan?

Have you no idea how bad they will mess up our schedule?

As if Tulsa and Northern Arizona weren't bad enough!

[MeanGreenMailbox aka TFLF]

5 minutes ago, Army of Dad said:

Have you no idea how bad they will mess up our schedule?

As if Tulsa and Northern Arizona weren't bad enough!

We schedule FCS schools anyway, right?  This would put us ahead of schedule, so to speak.

[UNT90]

41 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

Ever thought of supporting another university at this point and time?

Yes, I have. I'm sure you would love that. It seems to be the UNT mantra is "Embrace the suck or GTFO," by both long time fans and the administration.

oh, and quite obviously, the big money donors who care more about a man than they do winning.

 

Edited April 26, 2016 by UNT90

[Cr1028]

3 hours ago, Army of Dad said:

Think you for the well thought out, reasoned, and eloquent response. You've really raised the level of discourse on the board.

You should think @UNT90 for being the University's Eeyore.

 

Cue the sunshine pumper gif.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Cr1028