(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

CSU is in a rare class of g5 schools that has tremendous state support to raise the current status of the schools academics and huge amounts of support from the schools administration to raise the status of their football program.

CSU had one of the highest jumps in us news of any FBS school and are working on a $246 mill stadium project.

but please do tell how none of that matters and we should continue to judge them based on benchmarks from when they were an a&m school that couldn't get any legitimate support from the state.

(05-11-2014 05:14 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 05:07 PM)buffdog Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 10:16 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  

(05-09-2014 09:58 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  I'll definitely throw ECU in the ring.

I think top 8 are:

ECU
BYU
UConn
Cincy
UCF
Boise
USF
SMU

Agree

Completely left off Fresno State:
Football Stadium 41,000
Basketball Arena 15,500
Baseball Stadium 5,700
Softball Stadium 3,300

Are they good, though? And, what about practice facilities, weight rooms, coach's offices, academic support buildings, training/medical rooms, etc. etc.?

EDIT: I'm not trying to argue. These are honest questions. I have no idea what your facilities look like.

Yes they are. The arena was completed in 2003 also has 40 luxury suites. What I did not add in were the new athletic medical center completed in the last year or so or the new aquatics center. We have very good facilities and located in the geographic center of California and millions of TV sets. We have access to that market. All the other proposed programs above don't. The P5 has at least 2 of their conferences in Texas and Florida but California only has the P12. The B12 could have a nice new fertile market by taking in Fresno State. And with all due respect to CSU as posted above, even if they complete their proposed new stadium (which isn't a slam dunk, they are struggling getting the money) when completed it will still be about 5,000 less capacity of Fresno State's Bulldog Stadium and our arena is nearly double the size of their arena.

And by the way, BYU has their issues which has stopped them from going to P5 conference already. Athletically they do have the facilities and should have already been in a P5 conference, but their mission is all about getting "the word" out and so far indy lets them do that.

(05-12-2014 12:29 AM)buffdog Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 05:14 PM)nzmorange Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 05:07 PM)buffdog Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 10:16 AM)Wilkie01 Wrote:  

(05-09-2014 09:58 PM)NBPirate Wrote:  I'll definitely throw ECU in the ring.

I think top 8 are:

ECU
BYU
UConn
Cincy
UCF
Boise
USF
SMU

Agree

Completely left off Fresno State:
Football Stadium 41,000
Basketball Arena 15,500
Baseball Stadium 5,700
Softball Stadium 3,300

Are they good, though? And, what about practice facilities, weight rooms, coach's offices, academic support buildings, training/medical rooms, etc. etc.?

EDIT: I'm not trying to argue. These are honest questions. I have no idea what your facilities look like.

Yes they are. The arena was completed in 2003 also has 40 luxury suites. What I did not add in were the new athletic medical center completed in the last year or so or the new aquatics center. We have very good facilities and located in the geographic center of California and millions of TV sets. We have access to that market. All the other proposed programs above don't. The P5 has at least 2 of their conferences in Texas and Florida but California only has the P12. The B12 could have a nice new fertile market by taking in Fresno State. And with all due respect to CSU as posted above, even if they complete their proposed new stadium (which isn't a slam dunk, they are struggling getting the money) when completed it will still be about 5,000 less capacity of Fresno State's Bulldog Stadium and our arena is nearly double the size of their arena.

And by the way, BYU has their issues which has stopped them from going to P5 conference already. Athletically they do have the facilities and should have already been in a P5 conference, but their mission is all about getting "the word" out and so far indy lets them do that.

I wouldn't use capacity as a measure of quality. CSU's stadium is probably going to be 40 years newer than your field by the time it's done. I'm sure your stadium's been renovated several times, but an expensive new stadium is hard to beat.

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

Any objective observer would note some significant differences in CSU's favor compared to those last three.

(05-12-2014 12:46 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

Any objective observer would note some significant differences in CSU's favor compared to those last three.

if you have to use such a big stretch to make a point, obviously your point wasn't that good to start out with.

The Sun Bowl (52k seats) and the Don Haskins Center (12k seats) to the north:


view of the Sun Bowl:



The Larry K Durham Center is on the 2nd floor. It has a gym, coaches offices and a conference center.



A great pic from the airr:


UTEP has no IPF and really with the nice weather year round why does it needs one? I can understand in cold climates or where it's very humid but El Paso's heat is dry and in the fall, the temps are usually in the 70's. Summer camp used to be in Socorro, New Mexico and since last year it's been in Alpine, TX. Both Socorro and Alpine are in high elevation areas where it's up to 20 degrees cooler than El Paso. There's schools that don't need an IPF. UTEP is one of them. If I'm not mistaken UCLA and USC don't have IPFs (I know UCLA doesn't) and why do they need one when L.A.'s weather is perfect to play football outside.

This is The Don Haskins Center









Foster-Stevens Basketball Facility, next to the Don





And an aeriel view of the UTEP campus and some of its athletic facilities. Some others (like the softball, soccer and swimming) can't be seen because they're behind the hill (where the M is)

UNLV will jump to the top if the proposed dome is built.
Between that and their already nice arena and growing city they have a lot of potential.

Academics really only seem to matter to P5 FBS conferences .
I know some FCS conference's are rated higher than the G5 conferences. I have no idea what UNLV is rated academically .
They have Big 12 or if AAC went national potential for sure.
The PAC places a greater importance on academics like the B1G or ACC. Facilities wise that 500 million dollar dome probably moves them to the top.

I would think Marshall's facilities are close to the top in G5. The new IPF and student-athlete academic center should help MU in the rankings.

The Sun Bowl is a very nice setting. And it's large. But it's old school. Nobody builds stadiums like that anymore, and for good reason. The best "older" G5 football stadium may be Rice Stadium, which hosted a Super Bowl.

Among all the new G5 stadiums built since 1994, adjusted for 2014 dollars, Houston has the most expensive new stadium at $120M. UConn isn't far behind in terms of cost, but that stadium is 20 miles off campus. The next most expensive new stadium is North Texas which is way behind at $81M in 2014 dollars.

Capacity wise Memphis is at the top or near it.
FedEx forum is nice Liberty bowl looks pretty good.
Combined eighty thousand seats not sure of the rest.

http://www.wkusports.com/ot/virtual-tours.html

Quality over quantity (from a max capacity standpoint). If the football program progresses then the new side was built to be able to handle more seats, but that is a few years out in a best case scenario.

There is a practice field in between the football stadium and baseball facilities. I think there are long term plans for an IPF there. All facilities are on campus.

(05-12-2014 09:28 AM)CougarRed Wrote:  The Sun Bowl is a very nice setting. And it's large. But it's old school. Nobody builds stadiums like that anymore, and for good reason. The best "older" G5 football stadium may be Rice Stadium, which hosted a Super Bowl.

Among all the new G5 stadiums built since 1994, adjusted for 2014 dollars, Houston has the most expensive new stadium at $120M. UConn isn't far behind in terms of cost, but that stadium is 20 miles off campus. The next most expensive new stadium is North Texas which is way behind at $81M in 2014 dollars.

but if unlv or csu get their way they would blow those figures out of the water.

(05-12-2014 12:11 AM)john01992 Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

CSU is in a rare class of g5 schools that has tremendous state support to raise the current status of the schools academics and huge amounts of support from the schools administration to raise the status of their football program.

CSU had one of the highest jumps in us news of any FBS school and are working on a $246 mill stadium project.

but please do tell how none of that matters and we should continue to judge them based on benchmarks from when they were an a&m school that couldn't get any legitimate support from the state.

And that's fantastic news, I'm happy for them. But once again "they are" and "working" are not signs that indicate something they have right now. The title is "Which G5 school HAS THE BEST".

I'm not picking on you or CSU btw see where I called out UNT also. And again good for CSU but they are not the only G5 school that's improving itself.

(05-10-2014 10:03 AM)CougarRed Wrote:  I'm sure MAC schools have some nice digs. I wouldn't know.

In terms of facilities worthy enough to move up to P5, Utah, Louisville, Rutgers and TCU had one thing in common: stadiums that held 40K+ with attendance at 35K+

The rest is fairly insignificant.

So does UCF, so where's our P-5 conference invite? Just kidding I'm proud to have my school in this conference.

(05-12-2014 12:04 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 12:11 AM)john01992 Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

CSU is in a rare class of g5 schools that has tremendous state support to raise the current status of the schools academics and huge amounts of support from the schools administration to raise the status of their football program.

CSU had one of the highest jumps in us news of any FBS school and are working on a $246 mill stadium project.

but please do tell how none of that matters and we should continue to judge them based on benchmarks from when they were an a&m school that couldn't get any legitimate support from the state.

And that's fantastic news, I'm happy for them. But once again "they are" and "working" are not signs that indicate something they have right now. The title is "Which G5 school HAS THE BEST".

I'm not picking on you or CSU btw see where I called out UNT also. And again good for CSU but they are not the only G5 school that's improving itself.

hey you called me out on "future growth potential" not current facilities.

so don't try to save face on something when you can't. had you said "well their current stadium is all that matters" you would have some room to talk. but instead you went down a different route of attacking me & csu.

(05-12-2014 12:07 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 12:04 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 12:11 AM)john01992 Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 08:44 PM)john01992 Wrote:  IMO the 3 schools with the best combination of academics, fanbase, athletics, facilities, support, and future growth potential are BYU, UCF, & colorado state.

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

CSU is in a rare class of g5 schools that has tremendous state support to raise the current status of the schools academics and huge amounts of support from the schools administration to raise the status of their football program.

CSU had one of the highest jumps in us news of any FBS school and are working on a $246 mill stadium project.

but please do tell how none of that matters and we should continue to judge them based on benchmarks from when they were an a&m school that couldn't get any legitimate support from the state.

And that's fantastic news, I'm happy for them. But once again "they are" and "working" are not signs that indicate something they have right now. The title is "Which G5 school HAS THE BEST".

I'm not picking on you or CSU btw see where I called out UNT also. And again good for CSU but they are not the only G5 school that's improving itself.

hey you called me out on "future growth potential" not current facilities.

so don't try to save face on something when you can't. had you said "well their current stadium is all that matters" you would have some room to talk. but instead you went down a different route of attacking me & csu.

Well disclaimer I'm flipping nuts right now. I have been taking final exams and I have not slept more than 4 hours since last Wednesday lol.

(05-12-2014 12:12 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 12:07 PM)john01992 Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 12:04 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

(05-12-2014 12:11 AM)john01992 Wrote:  

(05-11-2014 11:52 PM)TrojanCampaign Wrote:  

You must be putting potential on a very high pedestal. But potential means nothing until it actual happens. Not really sure how you even can dream to put Colorado State above Cincy, Uconn, USF, Houston, ULL(God help us).

But when a program has been playing football since 1893 which is over 120 years. And they have a history of being terrible you can throw potential out the window. Colorado State belongs in the company of Georgia State, UAB, Temple, etc.

CSU is in a rare class of g5 schools that has tremendous state support to raise the current status of the schools academics and huge amounts of support from the schools administration to raise the status of their football program.

CSU had one of the highest jumps in us news of any FBS school and are working on a $246 mill stadium project.

but please do tell how none of that matters and we should continue to judge them based on benchmarks from when they were an a&m school that couldn't get any legitimate support from the state.

And that's fantastic news, I'm happy for them. But once again "they are" and "working" are not signs that indicate something they have right now. The title is "Which G5 school HAS THE BEST".

I'm not picking on you or CSU btw see where I called out UNT also. And again good for CSU but they are not the only G5 school that's improving itself.

hey you called me out on "future growth potential" not current facilities.

so don't try to save face on something when you can't. had you said "well their current stadium is all that matters" you would have some room to talk. but instead you went down a different route of attacking me & csu.

Well disclaimer I'm flipping nuts right now. I have been taking final exams and I have not slept more than 4 hours since last Wednesday lol.

it's just a message forum bro

Size should matter in this discussion. A 45,000 game at ECU would cause for a better game day experience than a stadium that has more aesthetics.

I say these should be the categories to measure this

Size
Attendance
Technology
Design

And not promoting your own school