(03-06-2017 08:25 AM)chargeradio Wrote: I've heard that it was the dying wish of Mayer Mitchell for South to start football. It was only a few months after his death when the program was announced.
While much of the info on the recent posts seems to be onpoint (regarding Whiddon and the impact of the allocation of unused public education land grant revenues to USA at inception on its endowment), I'm not sure the Mitchells are pushing football as much as you'd think. I doubt they're opposed to football, but I'd note that while that family's reported donations to USA is approaching 100 million dollars (I think the total was around 93 million and counting 4 years ago), that their support of big ticket items at USA have not been concentrated in football. I don't know them, but one would think that if they were really pushing football as much as some might think, one would think that you'd see more Mitchell paid for investments in football. Seems to me that the real push (with the tuition programs) is to get USA's enrollment to 20,000 while increasing the academic profile of the average student - in order to help with retention). Maybe y'all know more than I do about them.
But USA has been very fortunate to have the oil/gas revenue and the Mitchell family backing the institution.
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The reasons why USA has a FBS team appears to be the result of a confluence of events that might not be applicable to UWF.
1) USA was in a conference that allowed USA to move directly to a FBS conference from program inception. At USA, it wasn't invest and 'maybe'. It was invest and you WILL be in a FBS conference. It was an almost unique situation (UALR - which will probably never do it, and UTA - which might at some point - are the only two programs that are similar). If the real goal of UWF is to move to FBS, they'd have a lot more variability about how to get there. UWF isn't moving to be a FBS indy.
2) USA didn't have to build a stadium to go FBS. Sure Ladd is a dump, but it seats 40,000 and its basically free. We will start on the OCS sometime around 2020. So basically, 15 years rent free to build the program. And while the stadium looks empty with 20,000 fans, it holds enough people to allow for USA to host bigger named teams. UWF will have to build a stadium, without any indication that they'll be able to jump into a conference in FBS.
3) USA's market didn't have close FBS alternatives. USM is 90 miles away, but USM never bothered to make any real attempt to leverage their position. And USM wasn't in the projected conference with USA and therefore, wasn't in a position to block USA. UWF would have local competition, and that competition would be in a position to attempt to block UWF from at least one potential conference landing spot.
In short, for USA, the decision was a lot easier for them than for other schools. No one else in the market, free place to play, and a conference home. Plus a really healthy endowment and a growing student population. While no moveup is going FBS to make money, USA could and did do it for far less money than other startups. Basically, spend FCS money, but play in FBS. UWF has none of those advantages. UWF will have to spend a pantload to get to FCS, then spend a pantload again to get to FBS, and then find a place that will have them.