Ourland
Heisman
Posts: 6,608
Joined: Apr 2017
Reputation: 307
I Root For: The Rice Owls
Location: Galveston |
RE: If I were AD, my goal would be to get into the AAC
(05-11-2017 01:27 PM)illiniowl Wrote: (05-11-2017 10:41 AM)Rice81 Wrote: (05-05-2017 04:07 PM)illiniowl Wrote: 2. Drop football and emulate the University of Denver approach: pour resources into competing for national championships in all the non-football sports (including adding sports like soccer, lacrosse, hockey).
But in true Rice fashion we are currently employing only the "suck it up and live with it" part.
I just did a quick look at Men's Hockey, Lacross and Soccer. I used the latest(last) rankings that I could find. These are a sample of the schools that play the sports:
Hockey:
Ariz State (Independent)
Airforce ranked 12
Cornell ranked 13
Harvard ranked 3
Yale
Notre Dame
Dartmouth
and others
Men's Soccer:
Clemson ranked 1
Stanford Ranked 2
Denver ranked 6
Notre Dame ranked 13
Harvard ranked 22
Dartmouth Ranked 25
Lacross:
Maryland ranked 1
Denver ranked 5
Duke ranked 6
Notre Dame ranked 7
John Hopkins ranked 11
Army ranked 13
Yale ranked 14
Air orce ranked 17
These seem to be sports where Rice would be competing with academic peers who don't seem to have a problem fitting in. It is also interesting that Denver appears twice as a powerhouse in two of the sports.
This is just food for thought.
LOL, you missed the biggest one . . . Denver won the national championship in hockey just a couple weeks ago. I think they're either 1st or 2nd all time in hockey national titles.
(05-11-2017 10:50 AM)cr11owl Wrote: Why do you think "resources" would stay flat if we dropped football? We're in Texas not Colorado or the northeast. A University without D1 football is an afterthought and I'm sure our board would take the opportunity to drop athletics funding by 10+ million/year.
Well, first of all, I would be against the board dropping football if they were just going to pocket the savings. If they were ever to take the drastic step of dropping football, I would hope they would only do so after fully studying and buying into the concept of fielding a comprehensively excellent athletic program that is worthy of one of the country's great universities. Dropping football and trying to make up for that loss of conventional visibility by becoming a powerhouse in a number of less conventionally visible sports would be a huge strategic shift for Rice and I wouldn't think we'd undertake it without full awareness of the resources that would be necessary to achieve that goal.
As far as Rice becoming an afterthought without D1 football, we need to wake up and realize we don't have D1 football anymore anyway and haven't had it for years. CUSA football is the equivalent of the MAC and Sun Belt. It is D1 in name only. An undefeated record in any of these conferences will not get you in the playoff, ever, period. We are in a ghettoized division that does nothing for us publicity or reputation-wise . . . except maybe negatively, seeing as how 75+% of the time we get our name in the sports section during football season it's for playing obscure open-admission schools. Now I would love to see us go the other direction and put forth the herculean effort required to get back to P5 status, but if we're not going to do that, then I fail to see what precious marketing asset we would be giving up by dropping CUSA football - and then on top of that replacing it with top-level competition against mainly peer schools in less conventional but emerging spectator sports.
(05-06-2017 01:37 AM)Ourland Wrote: We'd like to play better opponents within our region, but they don't want to play us, at least not regularly, and not in Rice Stadium. No P5 conference will touch us, nor will the AAC. My suggestion about forming a new regional conference was made on that premise. You work with what you have, and that's all that Rice has right now. The options aren't great. I can only speak for myself, but I'd gladly trade four direction universities on the east coast for four that are in my backyard. Rice has always relied heavily on the opponent's fans to boost it's attendance. That's the way it's always been since pro football came to Houston and UH started it's program. Like you said, Rice's alums are spread out all over the nation and world. Very few live in Houston, and even fewer care about athletics. There are two or three Sun Belt schools that would travel well to Houston for football, basketball, and baseball. Couple that with no more travel outside of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi , and you have a much healthier financial situation than you do right now, at the very least. It wouldn't make Rice rich or vault it into a power conference, but it's something that would make things better. It's the only realistic option I can think of right now that could actually be implemented.
The point of Rice Athletics is not - or at any rate, shouldn't be - to sell as many tickets as possible to visiting fans. The point of Rice Athletics is to serve the interests of Rice University by building a sense of community and pride in Rice. Then and only then can it be a positive marketing vehicle for Rice. Currently we stage 4 home football games a year that Rice people by and large don't give a flip about. The answer to that is not to stage 4 home football games a year that Rice people still don't give a flip about but draw a few more fans from the other team. That is functionally no different than just renting out the stadium for HS football games or concerts. The first-priority customers for Rice Athletics should be Rice people. Give those people something they're interested in, first and foremost. Then outside interest will naturally follow.
Rice needs to play as many schools as possible within the Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana region. Those are the schools fans here are familiar with and those are the schools with whom meaningful rivalries can be developed. If Texas Tech, TCU, Texas, and A$M won't play Rice regularly, then move on to the folks who will. That's what gets people excited, playing meaningful games against rivals in your backyard. Having a great program that wins those games more often than not is a key ingredient. Rice isn't nearly competitive enough on a consistent basis in football. It must do better. Obviously, no one enjoys watching a perennial loser. We have a tough schedule, but if these coaches can't get us to a bowl game this season, they must be let go. We lose too often and it breeds apathy among an already beleaguered fan base. Win, and do it against as many schools as possible who are within 500 miles of Houston.
|
|
/
If I were AD, my goal would be to get into the AAC
