2021 Rice Owls Football Schedule

Times will be announced later.

September 4 @Arkansas (1 pm, SEC Network)
September 11 Houston (5:30 pm, CBS Sports Network)
September 18 @Texas (7 pm, Longhorn Network)
September 25 Texas Southern (5:30 pm)
October 2 Southern Miss (5:30 pm)
October 16 @UTSA (5 pm)
October 23 @UAB (TBA)
October 30 North Texas (1 pm)
November 6 @Charlotte (2:30 pm)
November 13 WKU (1 pm)
November 20 @UTEP (3 pm)
November 27 LA Tech (12 noon)

Our crossover games are Charlotte and WKU.

My 2020 rankings in brackets.

September 4 @Arkansas [71]
September 11 Houston [84]
September 18 @Texas [14]
September 25 Texas Southern [n/a]
October 2 Southern Miss [121]
October 16 @UTSA [86]
October 23 @UAB [57]
October 30 North Texas [118]
November 6 @Charlotte [113]
November 13 WKU [107]
November 20 @UTEP [120]
November 27 LA Tech [101]

Note: Rice finished at #108

We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I like every non-conference game. It's perfect. Three SWC rivals and TSU. I like our team so much that I predict we'll win one of the first three. I honestly believe we can beat any one of those first three schools on a good night.

In conference play, there are good odds against USM, UTSA, North Texas, WKU, and UTEP. That would put us at 7-5 and into a bowl game.

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I still think CUSA and Sunbelt should realign with one getting basically the western schools from both, and the other getting the eastern schools from both. Need to play a few games with who goes where to preserve things like NCAA tournament slots, but it can be done.

(01-27-2021 10:12 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I still think CUSA and Sunbelt should realign with one getting basically the western schools from both, and the other getting the eastern schools from both. Need to play a few games with who goes where to preserve things like NCAA tournament slots, but it can be done.

I would like to set our sights higher than this. Shortly after David Leebron took charge, Rice was moving up on the athletics food chain and joining a conference that included peers Tulane, SMU, and Houston. Texas State, UTSA, and ULM were competing in the FCS Southland Conference. We should continue to push Leebron, Karlgaard, and the BOT for a better outcome for Rice than this continued fall in conference neighborhoods.

The 2021 football schedule gives Rice the opportunity to prove on the field that we can compete with the best of the G5.

(01-28-2021 08:09 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:12 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I still think CUSA and Sunbelt should realign with one getting basically the western schools from both, and the other getting the eastern schools from both. Need to play a few games with who goes where to preserve things like NCAA tournament slots, but it can be done.

I would like to set our sights higher than this. Shortly after David Leebron took charge, Rice was moving up on the athletics food chain and joining a conference that included peers Tulane, SMU, and Houston. Texas State, UTSA, and ULM were competing in the FCS Southland Conference. We should continue to push Leebron, Karlgaard, and the BOT for a better outcome for Rice than this continued fall in conference neighborhoods.
The 2021 football schedule gives Rice the opportunity to prove on the field that we can compete with the best of the G5.

The one constant in intercollegiate athletics in the last half century has been movement. Lots of people moving up. Very few moving down. We are one of the few of the few who have chosen voluntarily to move down.

The move from SWC to WAC was driven by our failure to make the effort to keep up with the SWC. The diminishment of the WAC was because the Denver Airport gang wanted more and we were unwilling to make the effort to keep up with them. The lateral move from WAC to CUSA was probably our only option at that point. Then CUSA was degraded by the departures to AAC, and our failure to be invited to join the departures was because we simply weren't making the effort to be competitive in any major sport in CUSA. We can blame anybody we want, and blaming others seems to be popular in some quarters here, but if we want to see whom to blame, use a mirror.

(01-28-2021 08:54 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 08:09 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:12 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I still think CUSA and Sunbelt should realign with one getting basically the western schools from both, and the other getting the eastern schools from both. Need to play a few games with who goes where to preserve things like NCAA tournament slots, but it can be done.

I would like to set our sights higher than this. Shortly after David Leebron took charge, Rice was moving up on the athletics food chain and joining a conference that included peers Tulane, SMU, and Houston. Texas State, UTSA, and ULM were competing in the FCS Southland Conference. We should continue to push Leebron, Karlgaard, and the BOT for a better outcome for Rice than this continued fall in conference neighborhoods.
The 2021 football schedule gives Rice the opportunity to prove on the field that we can compete with the best of the G5.

The one constant in intercollegiate athletics in the last half century has been movement. Lots of people moving up. Very few moving down. We are one of the few of the few who have chosen voluntarily to move down.

The move from SWC to WAC was driven by our failure to make the effort to keep up with the SWC. The diminishment of the WAC was because the Denver Airport gang wanted more and we were unwilling to make the effort to keep up with them. The lateral move from WAC to CUSA was probably our only option at that point. Then CUSA was degraded by the departures to AAC, and our failure to be invited to join the departures was because we simply weren't making the effort to be competitive in any major sport in CUSA. We can blame anybody we want, and blaming others seems to be popular in some quarters here, but if we want to see whom to blame, use a mirror.

I think this is way too simplistic a view. Granted we could do a lot more, but in every one of those conferences we were the red-headed stepchild.

Who needs a conference opponent who:

Doesn't bring many TV sets to the broadcast schedule negotiations,
Doesn't bring many fans to away games,
Yet can beat you and mess up your year (ask Marshall about that one).

Having Rice in one's conference is like having a expensive but bad tempered pet that can bite you at any moment. No wonder we don't get invited to leave when people abandon the ship.

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I like every non-conference game. It's perfect. Three SWC rivals and TSU. I like our team so much that I predict we'll win one of the first three. I honestly believe we can beat any one of those first three schools on a good night.

In conference play, there are good odds against USM, UTSA, North Texas, WKU, and UTEP. That would put us at 7-5 and into a bowl game.

I disagree with the bolded part. WKU is one of the better programs in the East. When we last played them, Rice was manhandled 49-10 and 46-14. I was in Rice stadium for that 2015 game, and it was the day I joined the “anyone but Bailiff” crowd. WKU might also show up at Rice Stadium with a win over one of their Big Ten non-conference opponents and this game could be our 2020 Marshall game for 2021. I really want to see Bloom avenge those scores from 2015 and 2016.

My personal thought is that Louisiana Lafayette is the most interesting of the Sunbelt West. And we have them on the upcoming schedules out of conference.

I agree with the rest. This is a compelling schedule and I will buy season tickets as long as the Bayou Bucket game stays on campus. 7-5 overall will be acceptable, but I hope to watch November home games that determine if Rice wins the West.

(01-28-2021 10:51 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I think this is way too simplistic a view. Granted we could do a lot more, but in every one of those conferences we were the red-headed stepchild.
Who needs a conference opponent who:
Doesn't bring many TV sets to the broadcast schedule negotiations,
Doesn't bring many fans to away games,
Yet can beat you and mess up your year (ask Marshall about that one).
Having Rice in one's conference is like having a expensive but bad tempered pet that can bite you at any moment. No wonder we don't get invited to leave when people abandon the ship.

We were the red-headed stepchild because we didn't make the effort to compete, and therefore didn't bring value. Yeah, we had the occasional upset, which some seem to want to consider "signature" wins. We beat then #2 Texas in Austin in 1965, but that win didn't mean much because we went 2-8 for the season, but if you go 11-1 or 12-0, or even 13-0 and #13 is in the Rose Bowl (like TCU) then it becomes a "signature" win.

Our all-too-infrequent wins probably didn't help our chances because we were consistently so bad that those games were huge black marks on the reputations of the coaches on the other side of the field. But Baylor beat a lot of good teams and it didn't hurt their chances because they became perceived as a quality opponent who put butts in the seats.

Right now, we need to find ways to dominate CUSA in football, basketball, baseball, and women's sports. We probably aren't that far away for the latter, but we are totally out of the picture for the first three. The group of however many football alumni that were accused of trying to retain David Bailiff several years ago were actually pushing the idea that we needed to spend about $1 million one-time and another $1 million annually to make football competitive. There is only one place to get that money--moneybag games with the TexasU's, LSU's, and aTm's of the world.So yes we whore ourselves out for a while to get the resources we need to compete. At the same time, build UH into a cross-town rivalry game as we have never done. Then we move up until we dominate CUSA, compete at least evenly with UH, and find ways to make those moneybag games at least somewhat competitive. At that point we also have some sorts of relationships with some of the big boys, which we can leverage to try to improve our lot. I like this year's schedule because it moves us in that direction--2 moneybag games, UH, and a local FCS school. If we get $2 million in moneybag money, I say $1 million goes to football and the other $1 million goes to basketball and baseball until they are where they need to be. My ears are open to other ways to do it, but I don't see any.

(01-28-2021 11:41 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I disagree with the bolded part. WKU is one of the better programs in the East. When we last played them, Rice was manhandled 49-10 and 46-14. I was in Rice stadium for that 2015 game, and it was the day I joined the “anyone but Bailiff” crowd. WKU might also show up at Rice Stadium with a win over one of their Big Ten non-conference opponents and this game could be our 2020 Marshall game for 2021. I really want to see Bloom avenge those scores from 2015 and 2016.

Western Kentucky fell off last season, from #56 to #107 in my ratings. It will be interesting to see if they bounce back in 2021.

Their head coach is WKU alumnus Tyson Helton, brother of USC head coach Clay Helton, and son of former UH head coach Kim Helton.

(01-28-2021 11:41 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  “anyone but Bailiff” crowd.

Glad to see somebody else remembers this.

I think we are nearing having an "anybody but Bloomgren" crowd...but not there yet.

(01-28-2021 11:42 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 10:51 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I think this is way too simplistic a view. Granted we could do a lot more, but in every one of those conferences we were the red-headed stepchild.
Who needs a conference opponent who:
Doesn't bring many TV sets to the broadcast schedule negotiations,
Doesn't bring many fans to away games,
Yet can beat you and mess up your year (ask Marshall about that one).
Having Rice in one's conference is like having a expensive but bad tempered pet that can bite you at any moment. No wonder we don't get invited to leave when people abandon the ship.

We were the red-headed stepchild because we didn't make the effort to compete, and therefore didn't bring value. Yeah, we had the occasional upset, which some seem to want to consider "signature" wins. We beat then #2 Texas in Austin in 1965, but that win didn't mean much because we went 2-8 for the season, but if you go 11-1 or 12-0, or even 13-0 and #13 is in the Rose Bowl (like TCU) then it becomes a "signature" win.

Our all-too-infrequent wins probably didn't help our chances because we were consistently so bad that those games were huge black marks on the reputations of the coaches on the other side of the field. But Baylor beat a lot of good teams and it didn't hurt their chances because they became perceived as a quality opponent who put butts in the seats.

Right now, we need to find ways to dominate CUSA in football, basketball, baseball, and women's sports. We probably aren't that far away for the latter, but we are totally out of the picture for the first three. The group of however many football alumni that were accused of trying to retain David Bailiff several years ago were actually pushing the idea that we needed to spend about $1 million one-time and another $1 million annually to make football competitive. There is only one place to get that money--moneybag games with the TexasU's, LSU's, and aTm's of the world.So yes we whore ourselves out for a while to get the resources we need to compete. At the same time, build UH into a cross-town rivalry game as we have never done. Then we move up until we dominate CUSA, compete at least evenly with UH, and find ways to make those moneybag games at least somewhat competitive. At that point we also have some sorts of relationships with some of the big boys, which we can leverage to try to improve our lot. I like this year's schedule because it moves us in that direction--2 moneybag games, UH, and a local FCS school. If we get $2 million in moneybag money, I say $1 million goes to football and the other $1 million goes to basketball and baseball until they are where they need to be. My ears are open to other ways to do it, but I don't see any.

I think being a tiny academic institution with a tiny alumni base hurts us, and of course the way out of that is to build up a large non-alumni fan base through winning. Just spending money doesn't do it - winning big, winning often, and beating the big boys does. Haven't done that since 1960.

So just win, baby.

(01-28-2021 10:51 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 08:54 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 08:09 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:12 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 09:56 PM)Ourland Wrote:  We'll have a good team next year. It's a good schedule, but I'd trade WKU and Charlotte for any two Sunbelt West opponents. That how much I hate our Eastern counterparts.

I still think CUSA and Sunbelt should realign with one getting basically the western schools from both, and the other getting the eastern schools from both. Need to play a few games with who goes where to preserve things like NCAA tournament slots, but it can be done.

I would like to set our sights higher than this. Shortly after David Leebron took charge, Rice was moving up on the athletics food chain and joining a conference that included peers Tulane, SMU, and Houston. Texas State, UTSA, and ULM were competing in the FCS Southland Conference. We should continue to push Leebron, Karlgaard, and the BOT for a better outcome for Rice than this continued fall in conference neighborhoods.
The 2021 football schedule gives Rice the opportunity to prove on the field that we can compete with the best of the G5.

The one constant in intercollegiate athletics in the last half century has been movement. Lots of people moving up. Very few moving down. We are one of the few of the few who have chosen voluntarily to move down.

The move from SWC to WAC was driven by our failure to make the effort to keep up with the SWC. The diminishment of the WAC was because the Denver Airport gang wanted more and we were unwilling to make the effort to keep up with them. The lateral move from WAC to CUSA was probably our only option at that point. Then CUSA was degraded by the departures to AAC, and our failure to be invited to join the departures was because we simply weren't making the effort to be competitive in any major sport in CUSA. We can blame anybody we want, and blaming others seems to be popular in some quarters here, but if we want to see whom to blame, use a mirror.

I think this is way too simplistic a view. Granted we could do a lot more, but in every one of those conferences we were the red-headed stepchild.

Who needs a conference opponent who:

Doesn't bring many TV sets to the broadcast schedule negotiations,
Doesn't bring many fans to away games,
Yet can beat you and mess up your year (ask Marshall about that one).

Having Rice in one's conference is like having a expensive but bad tempered pet that can bite you at any moment. No wonder we don't get invited to leave when people abandon the ship.

Naaah, we’re cool... our *talons* are worse than our *bite*

(01-28-2021 05:41 PM)owl at the moon Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 10:51 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 08:54 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 08:09 AM)ESE84 Wrote:  

(01-27-2021 10:12 PM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  I still think CUSA and Sunbelt should realign with one getting basically the western schools from both, and the other getting the eastern schools from both. Need to play a few games with who goes where to preserve things like NCAA tournament slots, but it can be done.

I would like to set our sights higher than this. Shortly after David Leebron took charge, Rice was moving up on the athletics food chain and joining a conference that included peers Tulane, SMU, and Houston. Texas State, UTSA, and ULM were competing in the FCS Southland Conference. We should continue to push Leebron, Karlgaard, and the BOT for a better outcome for Rice than this continued fall in conference neighborhoods.
The 2021 football schedule gives Rice the opportunity to prove on the field that we can compete with the best of the G5.

The one constant in intercollegiate athletics in the last half century has been movement. Lots of people moving up. Very few moving down. We are one of the few of the few who have chosen voluntarily to move down.

The move from SWC to WAC was driven by our failure to make the effort to keep up with the SWC. The diminishment of the WAC was because the Denver Airport gang wanted more and we were unwilling to make the effort to keep up with them. The lateral move from WAC to CUSA was probably our only option at that point. Then CUSA was degraded by the departures to AAC, and our failure to be invited to join the departures was because we simply weren't making the effort to be competitive in any major sport in CUSA. We can blame anybody we want, and blaming others seems to be popular in some quarters here, but if we want to see whom to blame, use a mirror.

I think this is way too simplistic a view. Granted we could do a lot more, but in every one of those conferences we were the red-headed stepchild.

Who needs a conference opponent who:

Doesn't bring many TV sets to the broadcast schedule negotiations,
Doesn't bring many fans to away games,
Yet can beat you and mess up your year (ask Marshall about that one).

Having Rice in one's conference is like having a expensive but bad tempered pet that can bite you at any moment. No wonder we don't get invited to leave when people abandon the ship.

Naaah, we’re cool... our *talons* are worse than our *bite*

Tell it to Marshall.

(01-28-2021 01:06 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 11:42 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  

(01-28-2021 10:51 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  I think this is way too simplistic a view. Granted we could do a lot more, but in every one of those conferences we were the red-headed stepchild.
Who needs a conference opponent who:
Doesn't bring many TV sets to the broadcast schedule negotiations,
Doesn't bring many fans to away games,
Yet can beat you and mess up your year (ask Marshall about that one).
Having Rice in one's conference is like having a expensive but bad tempered pet that can bite you at any moment. No wonder we don't get invited to leave when people abandon the ship.

We were the red-headed stepchild because we didn't make the effort to compete, and therefore didn't bring value. Yeah, we had the occasional upset, which some seem to want to consider "signature" wins. We beat then #2 Texas in Austin in 1965, but that win didn't mean much because we went 2-8 for the season, but if you go 11-1 or 12-0, or even 13-0 and #13 is in the Rose Bowl (like TCU) then it becomes a "signature" win.
Our all-too-infrequent wins probably didn't help our chances because we were consistently so bad that those games were huge black marks on the reputations of the coaches on the other side of the field. But Baylor beat a lot of good teams and it didn't hurt their chances because they became perceived as a quality opponent who put butts in the seats.
Right now, we need to find ways to dominate CUSA in football, basketball, baseball, and women's sports. We probably aren't that far away for the latter, but we are totally out of the picture for the first three. The group of however many football alumni that were accused of trying to retain David Bailiff several years ago were actually pushing the idea that we needed to spend about $1 million one-time and another $1 million annually to make football competitive. There is only one place to get that money--moneybag games with the TexasU's, LSU's, and aTm's of the world.So yes we whore ourselves out for a while to get the resources we need to compete. At the same time, build UH into a cross-town rivalry game as we have never done. Then we move up until we dominate CUSA, compete at least evenly with UH, and find ways to make those moneybag games at least somewhat competitive. At that point we also have some sorts of relationships with some of the big boys, which we can leverage to try to improve our lot. I like this year's schedule because it moves us in that direction--2 moneybag games, UH, and a local FCS school. If we get $2 million in moneybag money, I say $1 million goes to football and the other $1 million goes to basketball and baseball until they are where they need to be. My ears are open to other ways to do it, but I don't see any.

I think being a tiny academic institution with a tiny alumni base hurts us, and of course the way out of that is to build up a large non-alumni fan base through winning. Just spending money doesn't do it - winning big, winning often, and beating the big boys does. Haven't done that since 1960.
So just win, baby.

Right now we are (seriously) pretty badly resource-constrained compared to what we need in order to "just win, baby." Football got a bump up in resources with Bloomgren, but we still don't have the kinds of resources we need to dominate. Nor are we likely to get them.

"This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper." --T S Eliot

Quote:Right now we are (seriously) pretty badly resource-constrained compared to what we need in order to "just win, baby." Football got a bump up in resources with Bloomgren, but we still don't have the kinds of resources we need to dominate. Nor are we likely to get them.

so kind of like the situation we had when we hired Wayne Graham?

Building facilities has not pulled us out. We have, IIRC, one of the top budgets in CUSA.

Somehow, we have to find a way to win, instead of sitting around crying "poor me". By win, I don't mean 7-5 and the Tomato Bowl. I mean 10-11+, consistently, and including some big names as victims. Get Houston interested in us again. I'm tired of hearing "if only we spent more money".



we have to win. The other stuff follows winning.

(01-28-2021 11:28 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  

Quote:Right now we are (seriously) pretty badly resource-constrained compared to what we need in order to "just win, baby." Football got a bump up in resources with Bloomgren, but we still don't have the kinds of resources we need to dominate. Nor are we likely to get them.

so kind of like the situation we had when we hired Wayne Graham?

Building facilities has not pulled us out. We have, IIRC, one of the top budgets in CUSA.

Somehow, we have to find a way to win, instead of sitting around crying "poor me". By win, I don't mean 7-5 and the Tomato Bowl. I mean 10-11+, consistently, and including some big names as victims. Get Houston interested in us again. I'm tired of hearing "if only we spent more money".



we have to win. The other stuff follows winning.

In order to win in basketball and football, you must have the athletes. There are a finite number of good athletes who are academically qualified AND who are willing to play in front of tiny crowds against no-name opponents.

With baseball drawing on a different demographic, and with so much good Texas high school baseball, Rice can be competitive nationally.

I see a very low ceiling with football, and, because of the horrific transfer portal, an even lower ceiling for men's basketball.

(01-28-2021 11:28 PM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  so kind of like the situation we had when we hired Wayne Graham?
Building facilities has not pulled us out. We have, IIRC, one of the top budgets in CUSA.
Somehow, we have to find a way to win, instead of sitting around crying "poor me". By win, I don't mean 7-5 and the Tomato Bowl. I mean 10-11+, consistently, and including some big names as victims. Get Houston interested in us again. I'm tired of hearing "if only we spent more money".
we have to win. The other stuff follows winning.

One of the first things Graham did was to develop his own supporting revenue streams. And the Reckling upgrade so that we could host regionals and supers was a key step on the way to getting to Omaha as many times as we did. Graham has said that we don't win the national championship without Reckling.

The reason that we have one of the top athletic budgets in CUSA is because our scholarships cost more--a lot more. We are not outspending people, although my understanding is that we have upgraded football spending somewhat under Bloomgren. We are obviously doing more national recruiting, for example, and that costs bucks.

The problem is that we totally neglected the revenue side for almost 50 years. We never really looked at revenue enhancement or new revenue streams, so income has basically dried up. Winning is clearly one way to address that, and without winning consistently there are no long term solutions. But we need some seed money from somewhere to jump start the process. The BOT is not going to write blank checks, and we have beat on the same loyal but small group of alumni donors about as hard as we can. Chris understood this better than any other AD we have had, but Chris was more a bricks-and-mortar guy than a butts-in-seats guy. And facilities alone won't do it. Look at the trajectory of football since we built Patterson. The only options that I see in the short run are
1) Play moneybag football games with the likes of aTm, TexasU, and LSU. Those are the only three opponents from the "SWC days" that ever actually drew crowds, and one of them wasn't actually SWC.
2) Play UH every year in every sport and turn that into a significant cross-town rivalry. We have always acted like we were too good for them, but now we need them more than they need us, and we have to get a lot better before we can even make it competitive.

What would really help would be if we somehow got basketball going. Right now it is a deep hole into which we pour a huge bunch of money, and that does not work. We need to get good enough in basketball to attract some moneybag basketball games. Gonzaga was willing to play games at midnight to get on ESPN, and look where that got them. We can't even get our fans to drive to Reliant for a football game without complaining to high heaven. It's two different mindsets.

What we need is a complete paradigm shift in athletics. We need to get totally away from, "losing is okay if you have a good enough excuse," and, "if you don't know where you are going, the path of least resistance will get you there." We need to know where we are going--winning until we are dominating--and we need to know that the path of least resistance is not the way to get there. All the rest is details. We can't get there with the current low ceiling in football and lower ceiling in basketball that WRC correctly describes. We have to fight through those things, and that is not a path of least resistance.

Wayne Graham had a vision and was a strong enough leader to take us down the path of great resistance to get there in baseball. Can Joe do it? At this point I don't think so.

(01-29-2021 06:36 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  One of the first things Graham did was to develop his own supporting revenue streams. And the Reckling upgrade so that we could host regionals and supers was a key step on the way to getting to Omaha as many times as we did. Graham has said that we don't win the national championship without Reckling.

But the reason we were able to get Reckling and a lot of season ticket holders was the history of winning - not the promise. al we get from football is promises.

Quote:The problem is that we totally neglected the revenue side for almost 50 years. We never really looked at revenue enhancement or new revenue streams, so income has basically dried up. Winning is clearly one way to address that, and without winning consistently there are no long term solutions. But we need some seed money from somewhere to jump start the process.

Certainly revenue and winning are a spiral, with each begetting the other. But we have tried decades of trying to break the spiral with money. How's that working for us? If we start winning, then the BOT's purse strings will loosen, TV money will start to appear, the live gate will go up, and we can get sponsors.

Quote:
1) Play moneybag football games with the likes of aTm, TexasU, and LSU. Those are the only three opponents from the "SWC days" that ever actually drew crowds, and one of them wasn't actually SWC.

You say "Play". I say play and win. But the coveted and desired step up in conference won't happen until we are consistent winners.

Quote:2) Play UH every year in every sport and turn that into a significant cross-town rivalry. We have always acted like we were too good for them, but now we need them more than they need us, and we have to get a lot better before we can even make it competitive.

I agree to play UH every year in everything - and win until they beg us to drop them. We need to become THE college team in Houston again - not the other one.

Quote:What would really help would be if we somehow got basketball going.

Agree...and the way to do that is winning.

Quote:What we need is a complete paradigm shift in athletics. We need to get totally away from, "losing is okay if you have a good enough excuse,"

Yes, that is why I advocate winning.


Now, the hard part - How? I don't have that answer. We have spent 50 years looking for the miracle coach. maybe there is one out there like we found in baseball. But we need to start the upward spiral now, and the simplest way is winning. We could have started with a win over UAB, and/or a win in the Quadruple doink game. I am not saying we can go undefeated just because that's what we need. But we have been close many times since we hired Goldsmith, but just cannot get over the hump or stay over the hump. But I have more confidence now that winning is best the way out and up more so than spending, after watching the EZF and other facilities being built to no avail, so let's figure out a way to do that.

JMHO. I certainly can see yours and Walt's positions. Tired of waiting on more money to turn the tide.

(01-29-2021 08:17 AM)OptimisticOwl Wrote:  Yes, that is why I advocate winning.
Now, the hard part - How?

I'll tell you how. You get rid of, "losing is okay as long as you have a good enough excuse," and, "if you don't know where you are going, the path of least resistance will get you there."

Several of us have mentioned Wayne Graham. How many times have you ever heard him say anything that sounded like either one of those? My over and under number is zero. Wayne had a vision and he implemented it. Quite frankly, Wayne was my choice for AD when Chris left, and if not then certainly when Ranger Rick left.

What we need is not a miracle coach or an EZF. We need a paradigm shift. And one of the things that needs to be part of that paradigm shift is an emphasis on revenues--and that's butts-in-seats revenues, not just donation revenues. And we need to jump start the process somewhere.