(02-26-2016 04:20 PM)ripemupshocks Wrote:  

(02-26-2016 02:29 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  

(02-26-2016 02:14 PM)invisiblehand Wrote:  

(02-26-2016 01:10 PM)SubGod22 Wrote:  

(02-25-2016 09:53 AM)Native Georgian Wrote:  I would personally be pleased to see Wichita State join for non-football sports at the earliest opportunity.

And I'd be willing to hold a spot for them in football if/when they are ready to take that step. But there would need to be some clarity that "ready" is a judgment the current league-members would make, not Wichita State.

If this were an option I'm sure we'd take it. We may not exactly get a say in when we move up, but having a place ready for us would work. And I have no doubt that we'd do everything we could to be ready in relatively short order. And in the mean time, we'd have our other sports in a stronger conference with more like minded schools. I know I'd also be more tempted to travel to road games in Tulsa, Dallas, Houston and Memphis. All drivable and would make good weekend trips should that be when the games are played.

I'm down to see WSU in the AAC. Though I'm not sure what WSU will look like on the hardcourt next year since VV & Baker are moving on.

I'm not sure that matters because if WSU did jump to the AAC, they would instantly get a bigger and better recruiting profile that would help replace those players quickly. Right now they recruit more or less regionally, but with an AAC invite that would almost surely change to a national scope. Similar to our current recruiting right now.

WSU hasn't been a more or less regional recruiter since before they joined the MVC in 1945. This season, out of our eighteen player roster, we do have five kansans, which an anomaly, as we would normally have only a couple of Kansans, but two are walk-ons, and Frankamp transferred in from KU. It is also not unusual for WSU to have a few players from surrounding states. But for more years than I can remember, WSU has recruited and signed a lot players from the Northeastern US. Marshall recruits and signs a lot of players from the Southeast US, and WSU always seems to have two or three players from other countries.

Believe it or not, even though TU is in the AAC, WSU has a larger basketball budget, and a larger basketball recruiting budget than TU; and we always will. But I suspect none of that really matters.

Thanks. I was referring to the players I knew of like Baker, Wessel and Frankamp all from Kansas and Morris from Oklahoma. Regional to me is the state you're in or border, but of course Van Vleet is from Illinios I believe.

TU only cherry picks Oklahoma now (but are really after a couple of real future gems in the Tulsa area) and we have concentrated more on the larger states like Texas, but increased the recruiting umbrella to the southern states and even New England now.

If you ever join the league, I bet you'll recruit more nationally than you do now from a larger group of prospects. Right now the MVC is just a regional conference with multiple teams in Illinois and Indiana and to a lesser extent Iowa, so the league seems to be shifting away from you geographically. That doesn't seem to be to your advantage. A more national conference has to help you. iMO

Potential program revivals for WSU:

Quote:In 1992, a study was done on Cessna Stadium to comply with I-A football standards. It was shown that $24 million in improvements were needed.[13]

In 1997, the cost was cited at $11 million to restart the football program and three other women's sports.[14]

In 1998, an advisory committee at Wichita State recommended reinstating the football program at Wichita State after a 15-month study for $70,000.[15]

In 2006, Wichita Mayor Carlos Mayans proposed to use public funds to restart the football program at Wichita State. He would subsequently drop the plan weeks later.[16][17]

In 2012, an attempt was made to begin a club-level football team at Wichita State with hopes of eventually reviving the football program, though no official endorsement was given by the university.[18]

I'm not for adding non-football programs or start-ups. I'm not sure that we can even assume this is a start-up based on history.

However, I've had a place in my heart for years for WSU because of the plane crash that took the life of about half the team.

(02-25-2016 10:42 AM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  

(02-25-2016 02:04 AM)shocker3 Wrote:  

(02-13-2016 02:28 PM)rabidTU2 Wrote:  

(02-13-2016 01:32 PM)Stookey57 Wrote:  What's the capacity of the arena?

Slightly over 10,500 officially, but they will be undergoing an expansion that will soon add more capacity and several suites (of course funded mostly by the Koch Brothers). They have sold out the place for years and I believe they have the longest string of official sellouts in the nation right now.

Its good to see a nice crowd in Wichita compared to some of the half full capacity gyms in the AAC.

The Shockers have sold out basketball games for years. The only way for fans to get tickets is to buy on secondary markets like Stub Hub and the tickets aren't cheap. http://www.stubhub.com/wichita-state-bas...t/9402741/

The other way Shocker fans get to see their team play is to go to road games. Shocker fans travel very well. Visiting cities like Dallas, Houston, Memphis and Cincy would be a big improvement for Shocker fans over places like Terre Haute (I was there last weekend) Carbondale and Normal.

In my view, we have a slight attendance problem at the mid to lower levels of the AAC and that would be helped by a program with a long history of excellent attendance in a well regarded program that fits snugly into the gepgraphic and metro footprint of the conferences west side. There are actually only 5 teams in the west right now geographically and onlly 3 baseball schools, so imo this is a match made in heaven.

One of the problems (as well as advantages) with a metropolitan conference like ours is that we have to compete with so many other activities going on all the time - including pro sports teams, but that isn't the case with WSU which even though its a fairly large city, it isn't a pro sports hub. Programs like SMU, Tulane, Memphis and even Houston have the problem of competing with dozens of those events every year that cut into their attendance, but that shouldn't be a problem in Wichita with its properly placed geography and population size.

The other thing I like about WSU is that there is a huge demand for tickets from the general public, not just by the students who really don't provide a lot of revenue to the programs. But in Wichita, its the place to be.

I think if WSU would take FB off the table for the time being as an AAC sport, the AAC would love to sit and have a conversation about them joining us in the sports they compete in right now.

From a TU POV, I like the idea of getting WSU on the schedule twice each year (instead of just once) and i think Memphis, SMU, Tulane and Houston would as well. imo

Actually Tulsa does have an attendance problem right now. Tulsa's attendance should be about 5,600-6,500 or more with a decent product on the floor. Its not the coaches either. Their ticket pricing setup is part of the problem. Tulsa has always depended on decent walkups for selling tickets and those are virtually nil right now. If Tulsa's walkup was normal then 5600 minimum would be the norm for most games in the AAC

Enough with the regional recruiting.

It is odd that we have three from KS on scholarship. Actually only two this year since Frankamp is paying for this year. That'll be down to one after this year when Frankamp goes on 'ship.
We do have two from the KCMO area. One of those was a 4* recruit.
We have two from IL. (one is paying his own way this year)
One from VA.
One from GA.
One from NJ
One from OK.
One from TX.
One from OH
One from Estonia
One from Kenya

We do have two walk-ons from Wichita and one from OKC. But I'd guess most walk-ons are typically more local.

In the Marshall era we've had a number of kids from TX and GA. He recruits the Carolinas and VA pretty hard as well as FL. We have also been in on a number of recruits from NY/PA/OH and all over the southeast. I know recently we've popped up on lists for a guy from England and another from Spain. We've had a couple of Nigerians and a couple of Canadians. We'd be foolish to ignore talent nearby, but we hardly focus on the region. Of course we scout KC pretty hard and keep tabs on things in OK, MO and AR. Anybody that can recruit TX should and will.