(04-17-2020 09:51 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(04-17-2020 05:24 PM)LatahCounty Wrote:  For what it's worth, the move to FCS has been an unmitigated disaster for Idaho. Ticket and contribution revenue declined by 50% the year after the move, and the athletic department now faces a $1.5 million annual deficit that's only going to get worse -- we're still getting FBS money for a couple more of our bodybag games, which will go away soon. This past football season was the worst-attended at least since the 70's and probably even further back than that. All interest in Idaho athletics has been comprehensively stamped out. Nobody but nobody cares anymore.

Idaho's FBS problems were already well-documented but Idaho in FCS is dead as dead can be.

You were dead in FBS. Honestly Idaho has to stop paying FBS salaries for it's football staff and get it's expenses in line with the lower level. You still carry FBS overhead in the athletic department. Probably 10 employees need to be let go to get the budget under control.

Don't think you could have gotten home and home series with anyone. I know SJSU was happy not to play you. You were expensive to travel too, brought zero fans, and did nothing for recruiting. Idaho is in the middle of nowhere and should play schools in the middle of nowhere.

BTW, looking at the figures on USAToday, you donations took a big hit the year you announced, after a surge the year before to try and stay FBS, but have been flat at $2.3m and $3.3m per year. A little higher than the FBS days. The ticket sales, if you exclude that great year of 2011, are actually higher than the last five years of FBS. So I think there is some cherry picking stats by the "we wish we were still in FBS" crowd going on.

Going back to FBS would require about a >60% increase in athletic budget or $15m per year, just to be the very lowest budget in the MWC. The data suggests FBS would only bring in $500K more revenue from tickets and donations, maybe $3m more in distributions. Certainly not enough to offset the huge budget increase. More than that, you'll have to raise another $40m to invest in facilities to be FBS level again. Where is that money supposed to come from for a school with declining enrollment in the middle of nowhere?

On revenue -- you're a year behind. Combined FY 19 ticket and donation revenue is $700K lower than FY 18, which was already $900K lower than the year before the dropdown was announced.

(04-17-2020 09:51 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  

(04-17-2020 05:24 PM)LatahCounty Wrote:  For what it's worth, the move to FCS has been an unmitigated disaster for Idaho. Ticket and contribution revenue declined by 50% the year after the move, and the athletic department now faces a $1.5 million annual deficit that's only going to get worse -- we're still getting FBS money for a couple more of our bodybag games, which will go away soon. This past football season was the worst-attended at least since the 70's and probably even further back than that. All interest in Idaho athletics has been comprehensively stamped out. Nobody but nobody cares anymore.

Idaho's FBS problems were already well-documented but Idaho in FCS is dead as dead can be.

You were dead in FBS. Honestly Idaho has to stop paying FBS salaries for it's football staff and get it's expenses in line with the lower level. You still carry FBS overhead in the athletic department. Probably 10 employees need to be let go to get the budget under control.

Don't think you could have gotten home and home series with anyone. I know SJSU was happy not to play you. You were expensive to travel too, brought zero fans, and did nothing for recruiting. Idaho is in the middle of nowhere and should play schools in the middle of nowhere.

Idaho was fine in FBS. They were getting H&H’s with NIU, WMU, etc.

The 2016 team went 9-4 and those 4 losses came to 4 teams who went a combined 28-6 in their leagues and won 40 games collectively (UW, Wazzu, Troy, App St). Heck, they led an >.500 MWC team by 34 with 9 minutes left in their bowl game.

They’re just a cyclical program. Remember, they took down Mike Price Wazzu teams back-to-back in 99/00. The Vandals took 15 of 17 from Boise in ‘82-‘98.

Idaho just needed a competent administration. Chuck Staben destroyed that fan base, as the devastating 50% haircut to ticket/donation revenue one year after dropping down demonstrates.

The CFB would likely double for G5's if the Idaho went FBS again. That would mean the Idaho FBS was almost revenue neutral. In comparison, FCS would see to be dropped. Idaho is in a battle academically with Boise St and losing due to long term trends. If it can.regain FBS, it can restore some luster and stop the bleeding. Boise St will not schedule Idaho, something. NMSU never had to endure from UNM or UTEP.

(04-17-2020 09:51 PM)Stugray2 Wrote:  You were dead in FBS. Honestly Idaho has to stop paying FBS salaries for it's football staff and get it's expenses in line with the lower level. You still carry FBS overhead in the athletic department. Probably 10 employees need to be let go to get the budget under control.

Don't think you could have gotten home and home series with anyone. I know SJSU was happy not to play you. You were expensive to travel too, brought zero fans, and did nothing for recruiting. Idaho is in the middle of nowhere and should play schools in the middle of nowhere.

BTW, looking at the figures on USAToday, you donations took a big hit the year you announced, after a surge the year before to try and stay FBS, but have been flat at $2.3m and $3.3m per year. A little higher than the FBS days. The ticket sales, if you exclude that great year of 2011, are actually higher than the last five years of FBS. So I think there is some cherry picking stats by the "we wish we were still in FBS" crowd going on.

Going back to FBS would require about a >60% increase in athletic budget or $15m per year, just to be the very lowest budget in the MWC. The data suggests FBS would only bring in $500K more revenue from tickets and donations, maybe $3m more in distributions. Certainly not enough to offset the huge budget increase. More than that, you'll have to raise another $40m to invest in facilities to be FBS level again. Where is that money supposed to come from for a school with declining enrollment in the middle of nowhere?

I was busy drinking last night and didn't want to go into depth, but there's a lot to pick apart here:

Revenue -- nothing in USA Today shows Idaho's revenue as an FCS school. It's current through FY 18, which for Idaho ended June 30, 2018, before we'd played a down of FCS football. FY 19, which covered our first Big Sky season, is a 50% dip, and FY 20 will very likely be even worse since attendance truly fell off the table last season -- we averaged 6,800 fans last year, which was far and away the worst attendance we've ever had. Attendance wasn't good in FBS, but we at least averaged 11-15K every year. Again, fan interest is dead, dead, dead.

Needed Budget Increase -- Why? If we hadn't dropped down in the first place, why did we need to spend $40 million more? We balanced the buget as an FBS school. We don't as an FCS school. As an aside, we're upgrading facilities anyway -- we're spending $50 million on a new basketball arena under construction right now.

Home and Homes -- maybe, maybe not. We had H&Hs scheduled with Wyoming, Nevada and SJSU before the announcement. People here have also claimed every other independent school wouldn't be able to complete a schedule, and they've all figured it out. We did it in 2013 on a lot less notice than we would have if we'd planned to stay FBS in 2016.

Coaching salaries -- It's a head coach with a contract we can't buy out. When he's gone, we can hire another one for $200K less per year. Great. Now where do we get the other $2 million?

I get that people on this board have their own pet theories about who belongs in FBS and who doesn't. In the real world, at Idaho, every possible aspect of this dropdown has been a catastrophe.