(08-05-2019 09:42 PM)DavidSt Wrote: There are other D2 move ups that have done well like Boise State, Jacksonville State, Troy, North Dakota State, UNLV, UNR, South Dakota State, Northern Kentucky, Belmont, Delaware, Youngstown State, Eastern Washington, UCA, UC-Davis and so forth. Wayne State do have the money to recruit better than Eastern Michigan. There is like a very few like Omaha not doing well. UNC did made it to the FCS playoffs and the 68 team field for men's basketball.
When was Northern Colorado ever in the FCS playoffs?
They've had 2 winning seasons in the last 15 years. Those seasons topping out at 6-5!
A number of the schools you listed HAVE done well. They also operate in different structural environments than Wayne State:
(1) Boise, NDSU, SDSU, Nevada, UNLV: smaller DMAs with no direct professional sports nor NCAA competition. These schools are simply THE biggest game in town. (not entirely sure UNLV belongs here given they went D-1 in the mid-70s, but if they're on your list I'll group them here)
(2) JSU, Troy, EWU, UCA: smaller DMAs with no direct professional sports competition but higher-tier NCAA schools to deal with. But there's still enough oxygen that they can find a niche.
(3) Belmont, NKU: successful at D-1 for sure, and in markets with professional and collegiate competition. But they are also highly unlike Wayne in one very big way. They're able to pour ALL their resources into basketball. Wayne does/will not have that luxury.
(4) Delaware: Surrounded by lots of professional teams and high-tier NCAA schools, but also has something VERY unique about them. They're the only team that represents the state of Delaware in any way! They will garner fairly significant organic support simply because of that.
(5) UC-Davis: They're also unique - in very good ways. Always desirable AAU-level academics. 20th biggest DMA in the country, but only the Sacramento Kings and Sacramento State as direct competition. Honestly, if the institutional desire was there, these guys could probably succeed at the FBS level (MWC as their possible conference). They need a significantly better football stadium first but their situation isn't entirely unlike 1990s era UCF either.
(6) Youngstown State: Also unique and in a way that provides structural advantages (although these structural advantages are fading). Right by the border of what was, for the longest time, 2 of the 3 biggest states in terms of High School football (OH, PA). Youngstown is a separate DMA from Cleveland and Pittsburgh (and Canton-Akron for that matter too) and the residents had inherent pride in being different from those 2. Given Youngstown had nothing else sports-wise, that pride naturally manifested in high support for YSU football. For all this, note that YSU has never been any good at anything outside of football.
I've typed a whole ton there. But notice this: neither Wayne State nor NoCo fits into ANY of those 6 categories. You simply can't compare their situation to all those school you listed. They operate in different environments.