(04-11-2017 02:33 PM)loki_the_bubba Wrote: Off the top of my head
Texas
aTm
TexasTech
Baylor
TCU
Houston
SMU
Rice
North Texas
UTEP
UTSA
TexasState
Sam Houston
Stephen F Austin
UT Arlington
UT Pan Am
aTm Corpus Christi
Lamar
Houston Baptist
Dallas Baptist
Prairie View
Texas Southern
That looks like a very good start. I admit I am a little biased, but I think Lamar and possibly TAMU-CC could be moved up in the SFA/Sam Houston group.. Looking at the program I am familiar with, here are some numbers.
Athletic Expenses (per the most recent OPE Equity in Athletics report)
Lamar $18,052,995
Sam Houston $16,024,424
SFA $15,528,490
TAMU-CC $10,313,499 (no football)
HBU $15,314,235
https://ope.ed.gov/athletics/#/
Facilities capacity
Lamar has the largest capacity of the group in:
Football - 16,000 - Complete renovation in 2009 (SFA is 14,575. SHSU is 12,593)
Basketball - 10,080 - renovations in 2005 and 2007 (SFA is 7,203. SHSU is 6,110)
Baseball - 3,500 - a $5,000,000 renovation is in the budget (SFA is 1,000. SHSU is 1,163)
Attendance (a representation of fan support)
Lamar is #2 in football attendance from the 2013-2017* seasons
Lamar is #2 in men's basketball attendance during the same period
Lamar falls down to #3 in women's basketball attendance
Lamar is #2 in baseball attendance
*Concentrated on these seasons because current NCAA database has football attendance records from this period forward. (Lamar's attendance would look better in football if I went back to the program's restart.)
http://stats.ncaa.org/rankings?sport_cod...ivision=11
NCAA tournament appearances ( a representation of athletic history)
MBB - Lamar is #1 with 6 D1 tournament appearances and #1 with a 5-6 record once in the tournament (made it to Sweet 16) Lamar had an 80 game home court winning streak, currently the 7th longest in NCAA D1.
WBB - SFA is in the lead with 18 D1 tournament appearances. Lamar is #2 with 2 NCAA tournament appearances making it to the Elite 8 in one of those appearances. The other listed Texas programs have not made it to the D1 NCAA tournament yet.
Baseball - Lamar is #1 with 13 D1 tournament appearances. Lamar's overall tournament record is 13-26 compared with Sam Houston State's 10 D1 appearances and 11-20 overall tournament record. As far as I can tell SFA and TAMU-CC have yet to make the tournament. Neither have made the tournament as a Southland Conference representative. HBU made the tournament once as a Trans-America Conference representative.
SFA and Sam Houston State have the overall edge on football post season play. Lamar brought that program back in 2010 after a 20 year absence. Sam Houston State has had a lot of success in recent years. Since Lamar's program restart here's how Lamar compares with SFA.
2011 Lamar 4-7 SFA 6-5
2012 Lamar 4-8 SFA 5-6
2013 Lamar 5-7 SFA 3-9
2014 Lamar 8-4 SFA 8-5 (includes playoff loss)
2015 Lamar 5-6 SFA 4-7
2016 Lamar 3-8 SFA 5-6
Media Exposure - I think Sam Houston State and Stephen F. Austin have the edge in this category. The annual Battle of the Piney Woods is growing in popularity and receives good press in the Houston area. Stephen F. Austin's basketball success under Brad Underwood helped them. Sam Houston State's deep DI FCS football playoff runs the past several years have helped the Bearkats. Lamar received some exposure with its hiring of Pat Knight, former Texas Tech head coach and Bobby Knight's son. That exposure was good initially with Knight taking the Cardinals to a 23-12 record and the NCAA D1 tournament for its sixth appearance. The following two years were bad, with the Cardinals winning only 6 more games during Knight's remaining tenure - cut short by his mid-season firing.
Location - In the location category, I think both Sam Houston State and Lamar have an advantage over Stephen F. Austin.
- Sam Houston State is located outside of the Houston-The Woodland-Sugar Land MSA, but is on the northern edge of the Combined Statistical Area.
- Lamar, just 10-15 miles farther from downtown Houston than Sam Houston State, is located in the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA (est 409,968). The western portion of that MSA shares a border with the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land MSA (6,772,470). The eastern portion of the Beaumont-Port Arthur MSA shares a border with the Lake Charles MSA (207,483).
University size - Sam Houston State is #1 in this category with a fall 2016 enrollment of 20,181. Lamar is #2 with 15,022 enrolled. Stephen F. Austin had 12,606 in enrollment. One advantage Lamar has over the others is that the Lamar Institute of Technology (formerly part of Lamar University) is across the street from the University. LIT has around 3,700 students. Those students share in the athletic fees with Lamar University students. They also share in benefits associated with the fees. For athletic fees, that gives Lamar an effective enrollment of around 19,000 students.