Football vs Basketball Thread

[PSUVikings2]

Someone mentioned something in another thread the other day that triggered a question I want answered by Viking fans, with the way the PSU football program has gone this season, along with the recent success in basketball, do you think PSU has become a basketball school now?

In your opinion, vote for qhich one you feel is "the" sport at PSU.

 

[PSUVikings2]

Basketball has a slim edge thus far.....interesting.

 

[ManOfVision]

For me, this is pretty simple. PSU is at the highest level of college basketball and PSU is at the second highest level of college football. Going to the NCAA tournament and getting smoked by Kansas in men's basketball provides an amazing amount of publicity and excitment compared to making the football playoffs. If you don't buy this - ask yourself if Montana would rather win the NCAA tourny in men's basketball or win the FCS playoffs. I bet they'd rather win cut down the nets at the final four, because even a best case scenario in FCS doesn't outweigh the publicity of a George Mason style basketball run.

Add to this the fact that Portland high schools produce much better basketball players than football players, and the fact that it takes fewer players to fill a basketball roster, and you have much more potential for success in basketball than you do in football.

On top of all that, just think of it in terms of in-state rivalries and status. PSU can and does beat UO and OSU in basketball (when OSU isn't scared to play us), but competing with those schools in football is a real longshot. If you are going to be a (fill in the sport) school, don't you think you should be able to beat your rivals at that sport?

 

[VikingGreen]

ManOfVision's statement is true, we stand more to gain in basketball than in football. Winning the FCS means something in school pride, but going to the NCAA tourny or even winning it, means more. Just look at the current letter of intent signers, would we have gotten them a couple years ago, my belief is no. And in regards to OU or OSU playing us, they gain nothing by scheduling us in football, it doesn't help them in the BCS standings, what did Texas Tech gain by playing EWU, and face it we presently have no chance of beating them. But in basketball, if the growth we are seeing and the wins keep coming, we could become the dominant collage program in the state.

 

[pdxfan]

The cost of a football program is huge. But football fans aren't turned easily into basketball aficianados. And face it, there are a lot more football fans. I don't know how many donate money for scholarships, but it must be relatively large. PSU is trying to do everything, as usual, working to get up to, say, San Diego State or Fresno or Boise State in research and teaching and everything else in the public mind. We're already up there in research and teaching. Rightly or wrongly (wrongly, in my opinion) football is one of the public measures. We simply can't drop football in favor of basketball. It would put us into a very different category of university.