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(12-14-2020 11:37 AM)Chillie Willie Wrote:  

(12-14-2020 10:09 AM)Monarchblue Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 11:56 PM)Chillie Willie Wrote:  

(12-13-2020 11:21 PM)Monarchblue Wrote:  Basketball should be the priority or, at the very least, equal. For a mid major, the ceiling is miles higher in basketball than it is in football.

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I can agree on equality. And I also believed that the ceiling was higher for basketball, but if you break it down it’s not much higher. Comparing levels of achievement that are relatively the same for both sports:

National Championship: about the same.
“Final Four”: basketball wins here.
Conference championship: you could argue basketball wins here but I say about the same.
Winning record: about the same.
Postseason: about the same.

The big difference is the basketball postseason consists of a huge tournament with the potential for moving up. Realistic football postseason is one bowl game but it is easier to get a bowl game than the big dance. And while getting to the Final Four may be slightly more realistic than making the football playoffs, both would require lightning to strike.

So yeah, somewhat higher ceiling, but c’mon, we have FOOTBALL!

Here is where I disagree a bit. Getting to the Sweet Sixteen is not nearly as difficult as getting to a New Year's Six Bowl, which I think is about equivalent in terms of exposure and prestige. It is not out of the realm of possibility that we could build a basketball program that could get to the Sweet Sixteen a couple times a decade in pretty short order, and their is the possibility that if you are able to build that, you keep building to the point that you are getting there even more regularly, which cements your program as a top tier basketball program that is on par with most power conference teams. You can build a brand that allows you to be mentioned along side the best in the sport. On the football side, that kind of dominance at the mid major level is pretty much unheard of, and even if you do get to NY6 bowls regularly, which I think is much more difficult with our money and facilities, you are still viewed as the little G5 school that keeps getting the charity bid, you never are really accepted into the world of bigtime college football.

It is also much cheaper to reach elite mid major status in basketball.

Sweet sixteen a couple of times a decade. Are you sure you didn’t mistype? I know you prefaced it with “not out of the realm of possibility”, which is technically true, but the rest of your post builds on the assumption that we achieve that level. I would challenge you to find a mid major that has achieved that level. The blue bloods and some high majors are at that level. I think one final four ever would be more likely. You’ve seen what that can do for a mid major.

You are right. That was a bit aggressive. The only mid major teams to do that in the last decade are Gonzaga, Butler, and Wichita State. I better measuring stick would be getting 2 tournament wins over 5 year stretch, but I think the point holds.