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Move Up or Down In Divisions

N

nwhoops44

Active member
Time to get the thinking caps on.

In my opinion it might be the right time, in this offseason for both basketball and football to be thinking about the Vikings either moving up to another total D-1. league or move down in to D-2.

It seems obvious to myself the Big Sky is not the answer. So a move up to play D-1 in both football and basketball, rather than just one should be explored. It would mean more exposure, in my opinion it would increase attendance and bring more money into athletics, which is sorely needed.

The alternative would be to go down to D-2 and join the GNAC, which is actually a pretty darn good league, especially in basketball. It would save a lot of money, it still would create excitement and the VIKS would dominate. Plus the facilities fit more with D-2.

This is only food for thought and to get people thinking. Right now in my opinion things need to change in the "money" sports, with attendance lagging and obviously no marketing budget.
 
Di-A (FBS) would be excellent. D-II is not an option.

PSU's identity does not fit well with the traditional big sky---the university needs to be with universities similar to itself. The good thing is, two more universities similar to itself are moving into the big sky to play football next year.

PSU meshes well with the likes of Cal Poly, UC-Davis and Sac State (even NAU).

I think PSU would be best off joining the Big West for Volleyball, Golf, Basketball, etc. and playing in the MWC or as an Independent for football. This is essentially what Hawaii is going to do.
 
Great job Broadway.

Insightful and great comments.

I will add on I see no creative thinking out the Big Sky and their website backs up my comments, can anyone say BORING.

Keep up the good comments.
 
Those were pretty awesome crowds during the Pokey Allan days.

As a matter of the fact the Viks were the toast of the town in football.
 
It wasn't just that the Viks were doing well in D-II under Pokey: Oregon and Oregon State were NOT doing well and so many fled from their typical loyalties to witness at least some kind of winner, even that at the D-II level.

It was the combination of factors that led to high attendance. If Oregon and/or Oregon State had been doing well, I think the stadium attendance would have been down about half.

D-II affiliation for a university of 30,000 in a major U.S. city would be utterly and contemptibly ridiculous.
 
Moving down is definitely not an option. We are too big of a school to constitute being D-II. Changing conferences in D-I I could see occuring if there is an opportunity to do so. Joining the MWC in football would be great, because we would have some decent teams (i.e. Boise State/BYU, etc.) coming to town every other year. They would draw pretty large crowds. The only thing I'm worried about that is plausibility; how likely would we split our athletics among multiple conferences, or switching conferences at all? The Big Sky seems like the best fit right now.
 
Even if the crowds of the Pokey era were half the size of what they were, they would still double the attendance of today in football.

And for basketball, heck the Women's Big Sky tournament did not even sell out.

When you have an arena that seats 1,500 people at best, if you can't fill it each and every night, for both men and women, then it needs a hard evaluation. I have stressed before and for all Viking athletics, a new marketing plan needs to come forward and if it is money, then maybe some new training of the staff, which I am convinced are all good and hard working people, but need a little more thinking outside of the box.

If you look at University of Portland, they put so much more into their marketing efforts this past three years in basketball and it has paid dividends and more than paid for itself.

Winning helps, but not to get 1,500 people a night for a great brand of basketball, well it is --------------------.
 
Big sky teams are no-name teams. Even though three of the teams are NW teams, too few from around here seem to really care if you're playing them. Portlanders are discriminating shoppers. Even though the big sky teams provide good competition, no one nonetheless cares about playing them. If it's boring to the national and local media, its boring to the regional imagination and, thus, not worth the trip out to go see the game in person. Montana attendance is relatively high only because they are supported well in attendance by their fans. There seems to be no dramatic rise in attendance among PSU fans when playing Montana. If it's a big sky game, it doesn't seem to matter.

Attendance will grow naturally given (first) a winning team, and (second) name competition or competition with whom we readily identify. When we play Boise State, for example, Portland State comes alive. We're similar, we're similarly-named. It's like we're fighting for something meaningful then. It brings out the best in our players and coaches. It marshals our efforts and galvanizes us as a team.

We would find such kind of meaning in the Big West Conference, I believe. It would be meaningful, for example, to regularly play UC-Santa Barbara and Hawaii in Volleyball, UC-Davis and Cal Poly in Football, CS-Long Beach and CS-Fullerton in Baseball, and CS-Northridge and Pacific in Basketball. CS-Bakersfield in Wrestling. Imagine also Golf and Swimming/Diving competition. Tennis. Within this conference PSU will have found a true coastal and emotional-home.

Hawai'i - CS-Northridge
UC- Riverside - CS-Long Beach
UC- Irvine - CS-Fullerton

Pacific - Portland State
UC- Davis - CS-Sacramento
UC- Santa Barbara - Cal Poly SLO

Good weather, nice airports, good social, all coastal (or Hawai'ian). It works sustainably well for Portland State. A beautiful fit hopefully for the remainder of time. Being the ones from "way up north," the name Vikings carries a clear relational meaning for us within the context of the conference. We also continue to play a lot of NW teams.

Perhaps this is Torre's mission to realize, his masterpiece, his coup-d'etat.
 
My feelings on the matter are this....

Should Portland State decide to make the move to the FBS and join a conference like the WAC, granted we would be locked into what possibly would become a ho-hum conference schedule, the out of conference schedule has the possibility of making up for it.

How? Because we would be an FBS team, we would not be required to always have to travel to other schools to play them, we could play them here. One thing I noticed when I lived in Oregon is that a lot of people (myself included) came from somewhere else or attended a school out of state. I would imagine if there was a possibility that their Alma-Mata were to come to Portland to play PSU they would be estatic. Also Portland's tourist and retail industry would get a major shot in the arm because it usually is more than just teams that travel, but out if state alums, family, boosters and fans follow the team and they all need to stay, eat and shop somewhere while they stay. Portland and Oregon in general could really play up the no sales tax, especially to teams back east as a desiriable destination.

But most of all, there are certain teams that people just want to see. Teams with storied football history that draw in even the casual fan. I'm, talking about schools like Notre Dame, Texas, Alabama, Air Force, West Point, Navy and a whole list of others which playing could increase our exposure, not to mention the definate possibility of a piece of big network television money for that one game.

Is there a possibility that PSU could have their collective A$$ES handed to them, probably, but then we are now when we play these schools, but a team gets better when faced with good competition and if we play at a higher level long enough we will get better. Remember, at one time Oregon and Oregon State were the perrienial LAUGHINGSTOCK/DOORMATS of the PAC-10, but they improved to where now they can be considered contenders.

The possibility is there if we are brave enough to take the step.
 
If we joined the MWC, Air Force comes with the conference package deal. :D

Joining the MWC would definitely up our exposure, because of the larger-name teams residing there now/in a season or two. The WAC would be a jump up for now, but it's currently imploding, so we might as well stay in the Big Sky until that situation settles itself out and go from there.
 
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