Can Tulsa ever be successful (more wins than losses) in D1?
- Thread starter Tulsa76
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Dumb. Please go away. My God I just can’t with people like this on the board.
I agree that dropping down to fcs is stupid but pretending and doing the bare minimum is insane
Tulsa has competed at the highest level of collegiate athletics possible for many many years. Just because we’ve hit a rough patch doesn’t mean we should throw in the towel. We’ve seen how a coach can take a struggling program and turn it around first hand.
I get all the frustration right now, but dropping to D2/D3 isn’t the answer.
I get all the frustration right now, but dropping to D2/D3 isn’t the answer.
You do realize that dropping football down a level would require us to find a new conference for all sports, with the most likely destination being the Summit Conference.
Do you really want to be in a league with ORU?
No kidding. I’ve missed 2 home games in the last 48 years, but even I would stop going if that ever happened.
I’d rather TU drop football than drop down to a lower division.
Its a rough patch. Sports is cyclical. It sucks but we just need to power through this season, get a new coach, and move forward.
Hate to break it to you but based on TU’s location, facilities, and academic standards, we’d be competitive for two years and then be in the same position we are in now due to recruiting: getting our butt killed to pay the bills at OU and then hoping for .500 in conference. But without $6 million a year.
Drop down to Division 3 and you are going to lose scholarships and turn all those poor basic upper middle class white girls on the soccer and rowing teams on to the street. The social justice warriors on campus would roast you for that. And all you’d do is make football irrelevant.
I get that you want the frustration of losing to stop, but don’t jump off a cliff.
We either invest wisely the new conference money in improving what we have, without building bricks and mortar, or we shutter the whole thing, sell the bricks and seatbacks as momentos, and turn the stadium into a touchy feely student retention center.
They are overdue to release an athletics strategy. I’m curious to see its contents.
Drop down to Division 3 and you are going to lose scholarships and turn all those poor basic upper middle class white girls on the soccer and rowing teams on to the street. The social justice warriors on campus would roast you for that. And all you’d do is make football irrelevant.
I get that you want the frustration of losing to stop, but don’t jump off a cliff.
We either invest wisely the new conference money in improving what we have, without building bricks and mortar, or we shutter the whole thing, sell the bricks and seatbacks as momentos, and turn the stadium into a touchy feely student retention center.
They are overdue to release an athletics strategy. I’m curious to see its contents.
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Just a few years ago we laughed at Tulane for sucking every year, now they’re kickin ass and we suck. 2016 we won 10 games and in a few years we’ll do it again. 120 years of football history and if we ever played a single down of fcs football I’d find a new team to invest my money in.
100%. I would be ashamed and wouldn’t step foot at any FCS level game. Whoever began this thread should be banned AND ashamed.
Dropping down is not an option.
Commitment to the program isn’t an option either.
It’s a requirement.
Commitment to the program isn’t an option either.
It’s a requirement.
We have proven in every sport that we are capable of competing at a national level. If we aren’t doing so, it means we have the wrong people running things.
This is a year when both Southern Methodist and Appalachian State are nationally ranked. That should be us! We as a program are capable but can’t get it together
Not just a long time, we are completing our 124th year at the highest level.
Three years ago we had a ten win season. We have had four ten win seasons in the last decade.
We have a good man, who is a bad coach. That makes moving on from him difficult. Needs to be done though. One winning season and two bowls does not cut it.
it hasn’t started yet, but the nearly $7mil per year should definitely help. It’s nearly $5mil more than we’re getting now.
I'm really afraid that extra 5 mil is just going to be balanced out by less subsidies. Which leaves us virtually in the same spot.
If we do that we deserve to be booted from the conference. Then they'll be in the hole and they'll be getting basically nothing.
Goodness...what a tough initial thread. I hope it gets blocked or ignored.
It’s not even worth discussing. There’s literally no viable path related to this option.
It’s not even worth discussing. There’s literally no viable path related to this option.
Seriously, we won 10 games 3 years ago, and 4 years before that.
We need a new coach, new AD, and a renewed sense of commitment from the university to the athletic dept. in general though. The whole "let's not commit any NCAA violations" guard role of the current AD can be over now.
I'll reiterate we also have a terrible AD. The role of the modern day AD is to market and sell the program to new donors, advertisers, and fans. The current AD has done absolutely none of that. Sure, we've stayed out of NCAA compliance hell but he has not met any single one of the other objectives listed under the AD job description. NOT ONE
His recent improvements on scheduling have caused me to add more patience with him, but yes I would say your criticism of his current PR/selling of the program is more than warranted and definitely a strong arguement against him.
I honestly think any AD here could have gotten either of those deals done. It was just time for them to happen to be honest. The OSU series probably had more local drive to it. The Arkansas deal probably had a few coaches just noting how Tulsa HS football has a lot of really good players that they could easily compete for makes it easier to be seen up close.
Yes, Tulsa football can be good. I don't think we will consistently be a top 25 program. But there is no reason we can't at least be SMU, Tulane, Navy, or Memphis good. Make no doubt, Tulsa football will probably be a wild ride. But that's okay.
But fine, lets look at it. To even consider it one must see some advantage. But what?
It would probably not help us be competitive in football. In short order our prowess and any advantage we had from formerly being in FBS would dissolve. Recruiting head to head with ND State, Villanova, Furman, Northern Iowa, or even Central Arkansas while in the same sub division would not be easier than our current task. What would we be selling, we used to be a big deal? We'd face the same problems we do now but at a lower level.
It probably would not help us financially. Yes, we'd save money. But we'd be bringing in less money from the conference revenue, gate, as well as donors and sponsors falling off. We'd also have ~20 scholarships a year and a ton of exposure/advertising that athletics was no longer paying for. Do we need to buy our way out of our current conference and into another? It's hard to see a net financial gain.
It would be devastating to other sports, notably men's basketball. There are a few FCS teams with basketball prowess, but we'd be essentially starting over and in the same boat as football. What are we selling? Come to Tulsa, win the league, and get a 16 seed? That has to be harder recruiting than it is now. And you think Tulsa v. the Bearcats on a cold weekday evening in January is a tough draw, try Tulsa v. the Leathernecks (Western Illinois).
Hell, I like FCS football, I'm not knocking it. But I don't see how dropping down a subdivision would be helpful. There's a reason why programs strive to go up, not down. There's a reason the only FBS program to drop football in the last couple of decades came back. It isn't just hubris.
But fine, lets look at it. To even consider it one must see some advantage. But what?
It would probably not help us be competitive in football. In short order our prowess and any advantage we had from formerly being in FBS would dissolve. Recruiting head to head with ND State, Villanova, Furman, Northern Iowa, or even Central Arkansas while in the same sub division would not be easier than our current task. What would we be selling, we used to be a big deal? We'd face the same problems we do now but at a lower level.
It probably would not help us financially. Yes, we'd save money. But we'd be bringing in less money from the conference revenue, gate, as well as donors and sponsors falling off. We'd also have ~20 scholarships a year and a ton of exposure/advertising that athletics was no longer paying for. Do we need to buy our way out of our current conference and into another? It's hard to see a net financial gain.
It would be devastating to other sports, notably men's basketball. There are a few FCS teams with basketball prowess, but we'd be essentially starting over and in the same boat as football. What are we selling? Come to Tulsa, win the league, and get a 16 seed? That has to be harder recruiting than it is now. And you think Tulsa v. the Bearcats on a cold weekday evening in January is a tough draw, try Tulsa v. the Leathernecks (Western Illinois).
Hell, I like FCS football, I'm not knocking it. But I don't see how dropping down a subdivision would be helpful. There's a reason why programs strive to go up, not down. There's a reason the only FBS program to drop football in the last couple of decades came back. It isn't just hubris.
That wasn't an economic or ability to compete decision either. That was pure vanity by Bear Bryant's son who felt giving money to UAB for football took away resources from Bama. Bryant is/was the Chairman of the Board for the UA system. That decision was nefarious and self-serving at best. It was revived because local Birmingham businesses, boosters, and former UAB players raised the capital to bring it back as well as some rumblings of people within the board putting together enough votes to get rid of Bryant (which would have been weird since I believe roles like that for public institutions are appointed by the governor). UAB is still playing in an old, near empty stadium each week but they are winning fairly consistently.
Yes, Tulsa football could be successful. It has been and it can be again. I would actually say that we have been a relatively successful from 2003 until the last couple of years. We have had more winning years than losing years. Our decline has not been in not winning games but in not doing what we need to do to keep winning games. Hiring Monty was not the move of a terrible program, keeping Monty has been. Until Monty we had had had 8 out of 12 winning seasons since 2003. Since Monty only one winning season. Not getting rid of him is the problem.
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In every aspect but enrollment and spending on supplemental facilities, we meet or exceed the performance over the last 15 years of the schools and their fans that intimate we don’t belong in the conference, on and off the field.
Thanks for a great response instead of the insults! I started this thread to get some serious thoughts on the TU situation. TU and many D1 universities are in the same situation! A way to generate more equality between the haves and have nots needs to be found.
Football has always been a hit or miss proposition at Tulsa, which more misses than hits. I don't think the kids have quit, I see them playing hard in every game this year.
Our University Administration is the problem. Fix the top and everything else will work out...
Our University Administration is the problem. Fix the top and everything else will work out...
With the refs help, but yeah that is what happened. We had seven freaking false starts, seven.
How would we know unless we replace him? We've had coaches in the past that turned the program around and in short order. Fresh blood is needed at the coaching ranks. Badly! And you really don't wanna see Tulsa demoted out of FBS football. This is a team that used to win games and upset top 25 teams. It was glorious. My best memories as a kid was Tulsa beating Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, Oklahoma etc. That's worth holding on to.
I agree! If we can find a Matt Rhule like Temple and Baylor did, but the odds are against us.
