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Post by aggiejazz on Apr 3, 2009 9:32:58 GMT -5
In reality there are 3 Division I levels:
- major (Michigan, Ohio State, Texa, etc)
-mid-major (Siena, VCU, Richmond, Delaware, etc)
-small minor(which includes all D-I HBCUs along with other small colleges whose athletic budgets are the same as the HBCUs, a lot of southeast region colleges are in this catagory)
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holdum
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Post by holdum on Apr 3, 2009 9:37:55 GMT -5
Point well taken, you're right it is a pride thing and we need to look past that. I hadden thought bout the empty corporate signs in aggie stadium and corbett. But any move down would have to include the whole conference don't you think?
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 3, 2009 9:46:10 GMT -5
Dude, I purchased the direct tv march madness package and left it on the main screen so I could watch all the games as they were being played. I watched the entire last round of the Bayhill tournament, by the way did anyone have any doubt that Tiger wasn't going to make that putt, I watched the McDonald's all american game the other night and the high school dunk contest before hand, hell I even watched the WBC whole final game between Japan and S. Korea so let's not get into a pissing contest over who is a sports fan and who isn't. I agree with you that we need to stay at this level and going DII would be like moving backwards and me as an aggie would feel insulted. But you are really kidding yourself if you think others outside the aggie nation/MEAC really pay attention to our scores on the ticker once the top 25 scores roll by. Yes it rolls 24/7 and if I'm watching a football game on Sat night or ESPN news Sunday morning our score will eventually roll by and I'll see it but those outside the HBCU circle aren't looking, seriously, they are not looking. You are right that exes might see it and if they want to give more money becuase of that then huge plus for aggie athletics, but there is no way to measure that unless we go survey all those who gave money to the T. I agree with you that there is a certain amount of pride that comes from seeing NCAT roll across, but national exposure to A&T......., we will have to agree to disagree on that one. National exposure will come from us making it into more national tournaments and getting pup time on pregame/postgame shows, like the WBB team got before/halftime/after the FSU game. Aside from beat down, we need to get more of our teams to that level. can't disagree with most of your comment, but in no way am i engaging in a pissing contest. by the way, i have directv's premium sports package as well and i watched everything you listed except the wbc (i'm not a big baseball fan). i especially enjoyed the mcdonald's game though, because it gives you an opportunity to see tomorrow's stars and next year's recruits. tarheel fans are gonna love the henson kid next year! that dude has got madd skills!! anyway, back to the subject. i wasn't suggesting that the ticker should be our only means of national exposure. but its free and its very effective, so its a huge benefit. the previous example that i posted is what i'm talking about. i have absolutely "zero interest" in schools like monmouth and hostra. yet, those kind of schools are not strangers to me because i can't avoid seeing their names on the ticker, whether i care about them or not. their name rolls just like all the others. so i'm familiar with a lot schools that i otherwise wouldn't be because of the ticker and a&t benefits the same way in terms of folks outside of hbcu. most folks outside of hbcu don't even know what hbcu's are, much less who they are. but it doesn't matter, as long as they recognize our name its still a big benefit. its not about whether they know we're an hbcu. its about name recognition and the ticker does that for us on a national level. if we're recruiting students, professors, sponsorships, seeking d1 opponents to schedule, or whatever, it helps if they've heard of a&t before as oppose to a totally unheard of institution. i think you're very mistaken to trivialize the value of the ticker. again, i'm not suggesting that the ticker is all we need for national exposure. i'm just saying in terms of value (its free), its very beneficial...
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 3, 2009 10:09:01 GMT -5
The best thing about A&T being in Div I, came about in the 1980's when A&T had a dominate basketball program and Coach Corbett's team visits to the NCAA Tournament pulled A&T's godforsaken athletic department out of debt because its alumni were only giving pennies to the University. A&T's dumb leadership never thought about pouring money into the men's BB program to ensure that the golden goose will keep laying golden eggs as the cost of doing business rose. Coach Corbett's budget never changed and the world of college basketball passed A&T, never to be seen again. A&T later caught hot in two straight tournaments but A&T lost a very good coach in Capel due to low salary and zero support -I may add and due to some stupid old Aggies who were mad over a damn Duke cap-wearing gesture that any loving father would have done in support of their son. Div I is strictly a personal pride for some Aggies and only some as you can tell by the amount of donation the athletic department receives. As far as business support, I guess some of y'all couldn't see the scoreboard blank placards the last 4 years or walked into Corbett's Gym saw the few corporate signs. Corporate support has been minimum and will be worse this year. Put A&T in Div II come fall of this year and wait three years. I guarantee, you will not be able to tell the difference in support, in fan attendance and financial giving, between 2009 and 3 years later in 2012. jazz, you can't blame the blank placards and lack of corporate signs on us being d1. you should blame that on a football team that has won a grand total of 3 games out of its last 36 games which resulted in significantly declining attendance. that's what you blame it on, not us being d1. and you're right, not enough of us donate, even though i think we do quite well compared to most hbcu's. but not enough of us donate because when we transitioned from d2 to d1, we continued to operate as if we're d2. we didn't lay out a "long term strategy" to increase alumni donations. i can think of "numerous" ways our admins could do creative things to increase donations and fundraisers. there's been numerous ideas posted on this web site. but our admins are not aggressive when it comes to raising funds. i blame our leadership more than i blame the alumni. alumni aren't just gonna donate funds because they woke up one morning and decided to do so. they need motivation and incentives. they need to be reached out to. we have a huge alumni base and one of the largest fan followings in all of hbcu. but we don't take advantage of that. we send out a few letters here and there, but that's about it. all our admins do to raise funds is increase ticket prices and student fees. how 'bout getting serious about fundraising and stop operating like a d2 school. to me, the idea of moving down to d2 is a cop out. basically it says we're too lazy to raise the kinds of funds we need to be successful at the d1 level. yeah, let's go back to having a dirt track and using memorial stadium for our football games...
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oleschoolaggie
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2009 Poster of the Year, 2009 Most Knowledgeable Poster
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 3, 2009 10:09:50 GMT -5
In reality there are 3 Division I levels: - major (Michigan, Ohio State, Texa, etc) -mid-major (Siena, VCU, Richmond, Delaware, etc) -small (which includes all D-I HBCUs along with other small colleges whose athletic budgets are the same as the HBCUs, a lot of southeast region colleges are in this catagory) that's very true...
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Post by Bornthrilla on Apr 3, 2009 10:13:55 GMT -5
Like my moms says: Tell the truth, shame the devil ...
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 3, 2009 15:22:34 GMT -5
In reality there are 3 Division I levels: - major (Michigan, Ohio State, Texa, etc) -mid-major (Siena, VCU, Richmond, Delaware, etc) -small (which includes all D-I HBCUs along with other small colleges whose athletic budgets are the same as the HBCUs, a lot of southeast region colleges are in this catagory) that's very true... but let's change small major to "minor" major. and personally, i don't think that's such a bad thing. the only championship that i think is impossible for us to win is a d1 basketball championship. but everything else is in play for us. fortunately, they subdivided football and created the fcs level. its not impossible for us to win a national championship in football. and when you think about it, the mass majority of d1 schools don't participate in post season play in basketball. to me, a national championship in basketball for an hbcu is a 1st round win. personally, i'm okay with that even though i'm sure we can do better. but we've been victorious in other sports against major d1's, especially baseball and softball. so i don't think we're just a token d1 program. as long as there's a d1 meac, or some other hbcu d1 conference to play in, i feel we belong at the d1 level. i just wish we would operate that way...
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 3, 2009 18:20:37 GMT -5
To me the bottom line is in d-1 we are sorry as hell. We have always been and will get worse as the economy tanks and we have revolving doors at the University for key personnel.
If you ain't heard of A&T and you see a score scroll across the screen (usually with us on the losing side) you say "I ain't know AT&T had a school."
The numbers are stacked against us yet we continue to spit into the wind. I said it before and I'll say it again, if we moved to d-2 half the MEAC would come a day later. All the ciaa schools would line up to see us play. We'd probably drastically increase ticket sales for that reason, albeit it may or may not be our own supporters.
We are surrounded by d-1 schools in a state full of them. When you are in that sort of situation you have to do something better than the competition, i.e. outspend the comp. We clearly aren't doing that. That's why we haven't seen sustained success since Corbett.
Who has the overall worst losing record in the men's ncaa touney? That was a trivia question I saw on ESPN during March Madness the last time we went. Although there are a number of teams that never won a game, only one had been around ten times and hadn't made a dent. Aggie Pride?
Pride goeth before the fall.
I'm not inviting arguments because I heard all the mess people who think we should be in d-1 have to say. Their arguments are NEVER based in logic and are ALWAYS emotional. A few years ago I asked for just one logical statement that showed a benefit of us being in d-1 and the response was that we were included on some college football game on x-box.
Sad.
I drove past Finley stadium earlier today. It was beautiful. I didn't even wonder if we could get there. If you have to ask the significance of Finley stadium then we might as well be worried about playing in Braly Stadium.
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Post by numberonebrave on Apr 3, 2009 20:46:45 GMT -5
(the blank placards and lack of corporate signs on us being d1. you should blame that on a football team that has won a grand total of 3 games out of its last 36 games which resulted in...) were the placard full when you were winning?
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Post by Bornthrilla on Apr 4, 2009 8:50:17 GMT -5
The scoreboard panels weren't even there when we were winning. I believe the scoreboard when up right before the 2005 season.
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Post by morrisonmafia73 on Apr 7, 2009 16:55:31 GMT -5
Can someone refresh my memory as to why we did leave the CIAA? One of the problems I see with the change was that we needed a person(s) at the helm that has or had a vision. "Without a vision, the people perish". What have we accomplised(owning property,Investments) in the 40 plus years that we (MEAC) have been in existence? I think of all the money we spent going to NC State to rent their stadium for the game with NCCU. In 40 years we should have had enough sponsorship to build a stadium somewhere , maybe in South Carolina where we could have played our classics, made up some classics and rented it to others who may have wanted to do so. Where was the vision!!!!
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Post by Bornthrilla on Apr 7, 2009 17:20:36 GMT -5
Dooms would tell you that vision is overrated.
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Post by morrisonmafia73 on Apr 7, 2009 20:38:12 GMT -5
I think that scripture stands for itself but, OK, was there a plan for the future of the MEAC?Maybe a 5 or 10 year plan?
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Post by Bornthrilla on Apr 7, 2009 20:47:13 GMT -5
If there was a plan they definitely didn't/haven't publicized it.
The same with the A&T athletic department. What is our overall plan? I still would love to see a strategic plan of some sort on paper. Hell, I would settle for a fundraising plan. A marketing plan. Something.
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 8, 2009 6:59:54 GMT -5
The vision was there, but vision don't spend.
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