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Western Oregon @ Portland State Thread

For what it's worth, I actually like this game against Western. We play a division 1a school (Wash. St.) this season, so why not a division 2 school to even things out. Also, we (the Viks) want to play UO and OSU on regular basis using the angle if you're going to play a 1-aa school, why not us. I think the same logic goes with WOU, if we're going to play division 2, why not an in-state school first. Now saying that, the Viks better beat the Wolves easily or I'll be rather upset. Go Viks!
 
forestgreen said:
For what it's worth, I actually like this game against Western. We play a division 1a school (Wash. St.) this season, so why not a division 2 school to even things out. Also, we (the Viks) want to play UO and OSU on regular basis using the angle if you're going to play a 1-aa school, why not us. I think the same logic goes with WOU, if we're going to play division 2, why not an in-state school first. Now saying that, the Viks better beat the Wolves easily or I'll be rather upset. Go Viks!
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Exactly, no over confidence for this game, or we will end up like UC-Davis when they lost to Western Washington. We have to play tough.

I look forward to the WSU game, talk around town is that they might change their helmets to the old cougar lettering helmet..... /users/31/07/37/smiles/734511.gif
 
This is a great game for WOU's program. We'll probably get smacked around pretty good, though we led Cal Poly in the third quarter last year on the road. But PSU is probably better than Cal Poly.

It allows us to have alumni functions in the Portland area, get some media coverage in Portland (hopefully), and bring recruits to the game. We've played EWU in the past as well as I-AA's Southern Utah and as noted Cal Poly. I'd rather play PSU because of the local flavor of the game.

We recruited Drew Hubel hard, great player for you guys. Should be a fun game, win or lose I'll be there and having fun.

* We have some good tight ends, none look as good as Boss right now -- Kevin was a once-in-a-lifetime player at WOU.
 
WOUalum said:
This is a great game for WOU's program. We'll probably get smacked around pretty good, though we led Cal Poly in the third quarter last year on the road. But PSU is probably better than Cal Poly.

It allows us to have alumni functions in the Portland area, get some media coverage in Portland (hopefully), and bring recruits to the game. We've played EWU in the past as well as I-AA's Southern Utah and as noted Cal Poly. I'd rather play PSU because of the local flavor of the game.

We recruited Drew Hubel hard, great player for you guys. Should be a fun game, win or lose I'll be there and having fun.

* We have some good tight ends, none look as good as Boss right now -- Kevin was a once-in-a-lifetime player at WOU.
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How many WOU folks would you expect will make it to the game?
 
I'd expect about 2,000 or more WOU fans at the game. If WOU promotes it and ties functions around it, maybe 3,000. We max out our tiny football stadium in Monmouth to about 2,500-3K a game, but got around 4,500 for Linfield last year thanks to Wildcat fans.

I would be disappointed if 2,000 WOU fans didn't show up.
 
WOUalum said:
I'd expect about 2,000 or more WOU fans at the game. If WOU promotes it and ties functions around it, maybe 3,000. We max out our tiny football stadium in Monmouth to about 2,500-3K a game, but got around 4,500 for Linfield last year thanks to Wildcat fans.

I would be disappointed if 2,000 WOU fans didn't show up.
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Wow, that's more fans than I would've thought - good for you guys. How long have you been in D-II?
 
We've been D2 I think since 1999, but I'll have to check that. We stumbled with the move up from NAIA for quite some time as the administration bickered amongst themselves on who should do the scholarship fund raising. A new president (who was the dean and provost) is on board and supportive of our move to D2 and we've greatly increased our scholarship amounts, especially in football.

They're doing some good things, on Saturday they had Kevin Boss night at the basketball game. Kevin spoke and more than 1,300 fans showed up. Men's hoop is having a winning year (and beat UP this year!), the women's program was 0-25 last year and a new coach has them on the right track. (Former PSU coach, BTW)

Like I said, I'd be disappointed if 2,000 didn't show up for the PSU game. Lots of our players are from the Portland area as well as many of our alums. The key is tying some WOU functions to the game. I expect PSU to be too much on the field, but it still should be fun for WOU fans. I live out of state, but I'm hoping to go to the game.
 
WOUalum said:
We've been D2 I think since 1999, but I'll have to check that. We stumbled with the move up from NAIA for quite some time as the administration bickered amongst themselves on who should do the scholarship fund raising. A new president (who was the dean and provost) is on board and supportive of our move to D2 and we've greatly increased our scholarship amounts, especially in football.

They're doing some good things, on Saturday they had Kevin Boss night at the basketball game. Kevin spoke and more than 1,300 fans showed up. Men's hoop is having a winning year (and beat UP this year!), the women's program was 0-25 last year and a new coach has them on the right track. (Former PSU coach, BTW)

Like I said, I'd be disappointed if 2,000 didn't show up for the PSU game. Lots of our players are from the Portland area as well as many of our alums. The key is tying some WOU functions to the game. I expect PSU to be too much on the field, but it still should be fun for WOU fans. I live out of state, but I'm hoping to go to the game.
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So you went from NAIA straight to D-II?
 
Yes, most NAIA programs skip D3 because D3 is a different model. Most NAIA schools had or have scholarships. D3 does not have scholarships. Very few NAIA schools jump to D3. Also, D3 is more of a private college based division, while many NAIA and D2 schools are regional state schools.

Outside of Linfield, I'm not really wowed by D3. It even seems like a step back from NAIA to me because of no scholarships. Linfield is the exception, not the rule. Lewis & Clark has gone down significantly in athletics since going D3, their football program barely hanging on. They used to be a solid NAIA football program. But D3 does serve a purpose. Linfield would do quite well in D2, but the believe D3 is a better fit for them, and they might be right. But overall, the Northwest Conference isn't that strong and there is a huge leap to the GNAC in football. Central Washington and Western Washington, for example, would destroy most NWC teams. Linfield would hang ... again, Linfield is the exception, not the rule.

WOU's initial problems in D2 came from a lax administration that didn't fund raise scholarships. When you're lining up with 3 or so scholarships and your foe has 20-30, you're in trouble. We're much higher than 3 now, I've heard closer to 20.

We went 9-2 last year and won a small bowl game, it was a nice season.
 
Thanks for explaining that. I guess I knew D-III lacked scholarships, but I never put two and two together to think about what that would mean for an NAIA school that wanted to move up.
 
One note about D-III and other non-scholarship divisions. While they don't technically offer athletic scholarships, the athletes are usually offered some form of "academic" scholarship. Sometimes this is more liberating since there are no limits on academic scholarships and no-one can limit how many academic scholarships are given out.
 
Correct, D3 athletes can be given grants-in-aid, loans, and everything else that is available to the average student. Sometimes it's a lot, sometimes it doesn't make much of a dent in the expensive private tuition.

Also, 20 scholarships at the D2 level means about 60 or so athletes are getting 1/3 scholarships. They split them up. The jump from D3 to D2 is significant in talent level, and the jump from D2 to I-AA is another enormous leap. WOU has defeated I-AA Southern Utah (I don't think they have many scholarships), San Diego (I think they're I-AA non-scholarship), and hung with Cal Poly (no idea their scholarship structure).

Fully committed I-AA programs like those in the Big Sky? Defeating them would be tough for WOU. EWU handled WOU pretty well a few years ago when the Wolves were at a very, very low scholarship amount.
 
I'm pretty sure Cal Poly is at or near the maximum for FCS scholarships. They've been a pretty solid FCS school the last few years, and would probably be even more highly thought of if they were in a different conference.
 
WOUalum said:
Fully committed I-AA programs like those in the Big Sky? Defeating them would be tough for WOU.
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Oh, we will absolutely destroy you guys, no mistake.
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But that's not important. What's important is that it will be gameday, and a beautiful late summer day in Portland with lots of nice people coming together drinking beer and eating hot dogs. And after the game, WOU fans will tell PSU fans that "One day....just you wait..." And the PSU fans will know because that's exactly what we always tell the division 1-A schools after they hammer us to pieces.
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Actually, I'm not one of those "wait till next year" guys and think WOU has found its niche as a solid D2 school. It's a nice small college option for students as iit was for me. I hope it stays small and personable and realizes D2 is where it belongs. I have no aspirations about beating I-AA teams, my goal is for the team to make the Division II national playoffs, like CWU has done twice in the last four years.

But I will enjoy the game at cool PGE Park, the brew and the hot dogs and I hope I meet some of you PSU fans, too.
 
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