Start Football

[schuess56]

Why does everyone here think football is a money loser?   You see other programs moving up to D 1 A.   You don't have to be in the top 25 to get fan support.   That's the beauty of the bowl system that everyone rips.

Wisconsin should have more than one D 1 A program.   Why can't MU look into this?  It has the tradition.   Start pit D 3 football  and see where it takes you.  Yes, that means another women's sport to comply with federal law ... maybe make women's rugby a school sport rather than the very successful club sport that it now is.  But the easiest thing to do is stay negative.

And MU does not even have an AD.  So I guess, forget this.  Or anything else creative for awhile.

[TallTitan34]

Starting football will fix nothing.  Why would a conference want a crappy football program who takes a share of the money?

[MUBurrow]

I actually think suddenly tossing tons of panicked money into a bad football program is the antithesis of creativity in a situation like this one.

[tower912]

Good idea.   Here's my check for $150 million and we can use eminent domain to get the land near campus and start clearing it tomorrow to start building the stadium and practice facility.    Should we build it on the north, east, west, or south side of campus.    And when we do, who's palms must we grease to get the necessary street re-routing (N,W,E)?    Also, we need to boost our women's athletic programs to take care of all of the Title IX issues.    And since the only way this helps us now is if we can promise a competitive program within 3 years, we had better get moving.  

[LAZER]

I'm surprised how hard it is to start a football program.  If you look at all the DIII schools, you would think Marquette could at least get a DIII caliber program running.

[tower912]

I think, but I am not positive, that there is only allowed to be one classification difference between major sports at a school.    If we want to start football, it has to be at a minimum of 1-AA.

[bamamarquettefan]

Right now I am very grateful we have not started football.

I believe St. John's-Villanova-Georgetown and MU can still emerge from this as the basis for a conference that competes as potentially the best conference around - albeit we may not be able to match the new ACC.

If we were saddled with a I-A football program right now, I believe it would be much harder to land in the right place.  There is no way it could be considered an asset to a big conference.

I posted the link earlier, but I really wish everyone would read how the mere thought of Nova moving up to D1 football was so distasteful to Pitt and others that it may have been a key factor in this past week.  

http://ncaabbs.com/showthread.php?tid=515398

[TJ]

I'm surprised how hard it is to start a football program.  If you look at all the DIII schools, you would think Marquette could at least get a DIII caliber program running.

How does a DIII caliber program help MU at this point in time?  I can't think of any way the situation for MU would be improved by having a low level football team that none of the big schools would care about.  Can you think of any potential benefits given the current climate, or are you just interested in watching a football game with the MU logo on the helmet?

[LAZER]

How does a DIII caliber program help MU at this point in time?  I can't think of any way the situation for MU would be improved by having a low level football team that none of the big schools would care about.  Can you think of any potential benefits given the current climate, or are you just interested in watching a football game with the MU logo on the helmet?

When did I ever suggest that starting a low level football program would help MU at this time?  I'm just surprised at how hard(expensive) it is to start a FCS football team.  When you look at the private and Catholic schools that have them you would think Marquette would be in that group too.

[Big Papi]

Too late now to start a football program but not having one could in all likelihood cost us a lot more money than if we had started a football program.   The reason for the Big East demise was that it didn't have 12 football programs so it could have a championship.  If we go to a basketball only league, our revenues will decrease due to less TV money and that will make it all the more difficult to sustain a top level basketball program.  Not impossible but a lot more difficult.   

[Canned Goods n Ammo]

Wisconsin should have more than one D 1 A program.   

Why?

How many D1 players does WI produce each year?

A lot of people really, really liking football doesn't mean that there are a lot of good players in WI.

It means there are a lot of overweight middle aged guys who like to talk about when they played football. It doesn't mean anybody is any good.

[MUMac]

We need to think out of the box on this idea.  With the consolidations in the conferences, we need to look at that avenue.  I suggest we consolidate with UW Whitewater and upgrade their program to D1.  May be can call it UW Marquette.  Then we will have the basis for a program.

[TallTitan34]

We need to think out of the box on this idea.  With the consolidations in the conferences, we need to look at that avenue.  I suggest we consolidate with UW Whitewater and upgrade their program to D1.  May be can call it UW Marquette.  Then we will have the basis for a program.

Dislike

[Tommy Brice for Coach]

We need to think out of the box on this idea.  With the consolidations in the conferences, we need to look at that avenue.  I suggest we consolidate with UW Whitewater and upgrade their program to D1.  May be can call it UW Marquette.  Then we will have the basis for a program.

Put yourself in UW Whitewater's shoes. Why would they have any motivation to do this - combine with a school with 0 football resources that is an hour away with no shared identity between the fanbases?

[MUMac]

Dislike

Did I actually need to teal that post?  I guess since two people thought I was genuine ... sorry folks.  I thought the obvious impossible consolidation with a public university (especailly in Wisconsin) would have given it away on it's own.

[TallTitan34]

Sorry Mac.  I've seen some crazy ideas so I thought it was just another.

[T-Bone]

Not necessarily too late to start a FB team.  Beyond the immediate, it's something that needs to be considered.  If we go to or remain in a "BCS" conference, I think it will be something that will be demanded of Marquette as well as the other basketball schools. 

Sure, if we started ten years ago we might be in a different position, but back then we couldn't know the landscape would change this drastically.  Sure the writing may have been on the wall - in looking at the overall broadcasting rights value trends - but realistically it was not necessary at the time.   The trend is washing over us right now, we either build a boat or drown. 

I'm not sure that it will have too much of an effect on recruiting.  Nationally televised games, sweet uniforms, administrative commitment, and winning traditions are a larger part of the recruiting process to a basketball player than having a football program.  I do concede that having a football program may be what generates the nationally televised games in the future.

[lab_warrior]

Start football?

Hmmm.

To quote the great philosopher Ron Burgundy, "Why don't you sit this next one out, stop talking for a while."

This is a horrible idea that will change nothing.

[schuess56]

You guys are all brilliant.  Catholic hoops conference ... woo hoo, awesome. Can't wait.

[MUMac]

Sorry Mac.  I've seen some crazy ideas so I thought it was just another.

With all that has gone on in the past 24 hours, I feel punch drunk.  With the comment in this thread to start a D3 program, ... well, I couldn't resist - go after the best D3 program out there!   

[TJ]

You guys are all brilliant.  Catholic hoops conference ... woo hoo, awesome. Can't wait.

I agree that a potential non-football hoops conference would be a disappointment.

But starting a football program today changes nothing.  Look at Villanova.  They dropped football for just 4 years.  They've been playing for 26 years at their current level and have been generally successful.  Let's see how much that helps them when this all shakes out.

If they are saved by their football program, then by all means start football today and if it's successful then in a quarter of a century maybe we'll be saved too.

[dgies9156]

Good idea.   Here's my check for $150 million and we can use eminent domain to get the land near campus and start clearing it tomorrow to start building the stadium and practice facility.    Should we build it on the north, east, west, or south side of campus.    And when we do, who's palms must we grease to get the necessary street re-routing (N,W,E)?    Also, we need to boost our women's athletic programs to take care of all of the Title IX issues.    And since the only way this helps us now is if we can promise a competitive program within 3 years, we had better get moving.  

Any of you all ever heard of Vanderbilt University? They have a football program... of sorts. They're in the SEC for basketball and competitive, as we know from last year. Vandy no more belongs competing with SEC football programs than Marquette High does. They're perennially about 3-8 to 5-6, every now and then being good enough to make the Koehler Plumbing Bowl in Sheboygan.

Marquette dumped football in 1960 for the same reason we don't have football today. The costs of a football program are astronomical relative to the benefits a small school like Marquette would get from it. Unless you want to be a Vanderbilt and never win and never show progress, football aint in the cards. I'd rather have us become a better university than I would be a mediocre football team.

[tower912]

We agree.  Didn't realize a statement that absurd needed teal.

[reinko]

Any of you all ever heard of Vanderbilt University? They have a football program... of sorts. They're in the SEC for basketball and competitive, as we know from last year. Vandy no more belongs competing with SEC football programs than Marquette High does. They're perennially about 3-8 to 5-6, every now and then being good enough to make the Koehler Plumbing Bowl in Sheboygan.

Marquette dumped football in 1960 for the same reason we don't have football today. The costs of a football program are astronomical relative to the benefits a small school like Marquette would get from it. Unless you want to be a Vanderbilt and never win and never show progress, football aint in the cards. I'd rather have us become a better university than I would be a mediocre football team.

They also have a $3 billion endowment.  DERP!

[GGGG]

You guys are all brilliant.  Catholic hoops conference ... woo hoo, awesome. Can't wait.

And you're so brilliant that you don't realize that D1 schools can't have D3 football programs any longer.