It sure seems

[ragtimejoe1]

Excellent bball is a more attainable goal at WYO than excellent football.

Throw the bank at Linder and the AA.

[LawPoke]

This. 100% this.

[OrediggerPoke]

Excellent bball is a more attainable goal at WYO than excellent football.

Throw the bank at Linder and the AA.

Yep! We went from an awful team that was 2-16 in the conference 2 years ago to a team that is 20-3 with an RPI of 10 and a NET of 28. This is mind boggling!!

I would have never believed that a single coaching hire could turn around any sports team so quickly but I was proven wrong. Whatever money we have, let's put into the basketball program.

Just the atmosphere in the AA the past few games is incredible and that is only half full. I imagine that ticket revenues, concessions and donor dollars associated with the team this year have blasted through projections. With a couple Saturday games coming up and a possibility of a top 25 ranking, the Dome of Doom could be down right scary and deafening.

[OrediggerPoke]

Excellent bball is a more attainable goal at WYO than excellent football.

Throw the bank at Linder and the AA.

Also - it should be much easier to find NIL money for a team of 12 players versus a team of 80 players.

[McPeachy]

Tom Burman's wet dream is to dump everything into basketball, and let football flatline. Always has been. Fans don't agree (obviously - football pays the bills).

[ragtimejoe1]

Tom Burman's wet dream is to dump everything into basketball, and let football flatline. Always has been. Fans don't agree (obviously - football pays the bills).

It'd be interesting to reevaluate that in the new mwc. Definitely still could be true but if not counting state funding and student fees, does football still turn big profits? I honestly don't know.

[Wyokie]

Tom Burman's wet dream is to dump everything into basketball, and let football flatline. Always has been. Fans don't agree (obviously - football pays the bills).

Football also drives conference realignment.

If I was the AD at UW, I'd put most of the money into football....and literally burn the home-&-home game contract with BYU!!!!!

[seattlecowboy]

Money should have been put into basketball a long time ago and just let football be as mediocre as possible. Football already hasn’t been good with putting too much into it.

Football will never compete again to win anything of significance. Who cares if you win the MWC these days and go play in a crappy bowl no one wants to see.

At least in basketball you can compete with the best, like many other smaller schools than Wyoming have and you get a chance to play for it all at the end of the year.-

[Cornpoke]

Watch the post game presser with Linder. I am not even a basketball but I love this program now because of Linder and what he has built. Someone give this man an extension and raise right now. I'd like to see him succeed here for many years to come.

[laxwyo]

Money should have been put into basketball a long time ago and just let football be as mediocre as possible. Football already hasn’t been good with putting too much into it.

Football will never compete again to win anything of significance. Who cares if you win the MWC these days and go play in a crappy bowl no one wants to see.

At least in basketball you can compete with the best, like many other smaller schools than Wyoming have and you get a chance to play for it all at the end of the year.-

This is a great argument. There’s a much better chance at doing something on a national scale playing hoops than football. Like you said, even if we win football conference championship, what does that get us? At best an ny6 game? What would we rather have versus what is attainable? Sweet 16s are probably more attainable than a ny6 game. Even though I like football more, I still talk about sweet 16, McClain’s team win over Gonzaga and shyatts tournament appearance more than anything that happened in football besides the 96’ team that flamed out.

If I’m being honest with myself, a crappy bowl win might be equal to winning a game in the conference tournament. Winning a single game in the ncaa tournament might be more exciting than anything the football team could do outside of beating a top 10 team or something

[307bball]

Money should have been put into basketball a long time ago and just let football be as mediocre as possible. Football already hasn’t been good with putting too much into it.

Football will never compete again to win anything of significance. Who cares if you win the MWC these days and go play in a crappy bowl no one wants to see.

At least in basketball you can compete with the best, like many other smaller schools than Wyoming have and you get a chance to play for it all at the end of the year.-

This is a great argument. There’s a much better chance at doing something on a national scale playing hoops than football. Like you said, even if we win football conference championship, what does that get us? At best an ny6 game? What would we rather have versus what is attainable? Sweet 16s are probably more attainable than a ny6 game. Even though I like football more, I still talk about sweet 16, McClain’s team win over Gonzaga and shyatts tournament appearance more than anything that happened in football besides the 96’ team that flamed out.

If I’m being honest with myself, a crappy bowl win might be equal to winning a game in the conference tournament. Winning a single game in the ncaa tournament might be more exciting than anything the football team could do outside of beating a top 10 team or something

Man...for the first time I'm seeing the rationale of this argument. I have long been unconvinced that Wyoming football will ever be relevant....(and gotten a raft of s$#t from this board for that).You really can't say that about basketball. I have seen this floated a few times but the more I think about it...the more it aligns with what I believe to be happening in college athletics. There is no path, right now, to be a "good" football program outside of heavily supported big time schools. There is no access to the upper echelon of competitiveness. That is not true in basketball. In basketball, you can get the right coach and recruits anywhere! Now we just have to pony up.

[ragtimejoe1]

The other consideration I have is that most evaluations of football spending/revenue is in a vacuum relative to just football. In other words, life with and without football. I think the overall football budget is somewhere around 12 million which is about 1.5-2 million/win/year. We spend a lot to have an average to above average team and compare that to life without football at all. I'm not sure that is the best comparison.

The big thing is if money is shuffled away from football, what would life look like with an average or below average football team AND an above average to exceptional basketball team?

The above points about being nationally relevant in basketball vs. football success are great points.

I like football better, but I'm sure starting to think fielding a football team and heavily investing in bball is the way to go.

[laxwyo]

The big thing is if money is shuffled away from football, what would life look like with an average or below average football team AND an above average to exceptional basketball team?

I think we already know what life with an average to below average football team looks like

[Cowduck]

Seems relevant to this discussion and I haven’t seen it posted here:

https://gazette.com/sports/paul-klee-ri ... 4e055.html

It’s possible Linder really values the quality of life in Laramie and that he would be happy staying long term. Not a lot of jobs would offer easy access to fishing the North Platte. We shouldn’t assume that we can lowball him just because Wyoming suits his lifestyle goals, but we also shouldn’t assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll bounce to some mid-level P5 job the first chance he gets.

[seattlecowboy]

Seems relevant to this discussion and I haven’t seen it posted here:

https://gazette.com/sports/paul-klee-ri ... 4e055.html

It’s possible Linder really values the quality of life in Laramie and that he would be happy staying long term. Not a lot of jobs would offer easy access to fishing the North Platte. We shouldn’t assume that we can lowball him just because Wyoming suits his lifestyle goals, but we also shouldn’t assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll bounce to some mid-level P5 job the first chance he gets.

Great article! Thanks for posting it.

Well if he likes to fish that much, especially fly fish…. Then if we can at least pay him top of the MWC pay he may stay with us.

The more success we have will allow us to pay him even more also.

I imagine that is how schools like Gonzaga started being able to pay Mark Few more money and they don’t have a football team.

Iona doesn’t have a football team and they are paying Pitino a decent amount. There are plenty of other schools that don’t have football teams or play FCS football and they are better at basketball and pay their coaches a couple million or more.

So if they can do it, Wyoming for sure can do it. They just need to quit making excuses and get it done.

[BackHarlowRoad]

Seems relevant to this discussion and I haven’t seen it posted here:

https://gazette.com/sports/paul-klee-ri ... 4e055.html

It’s possible Linder really values the quality of life in Laramie and that he would be happy staying long term. Not a lot of jobs would offer easy access to fishing the North Platte. We shouldn’t assume that we can lowball him just because Wyoming suits his lifestyle goals, but we also shouldn’t assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll bounce to some mid-level P5 job the first chance he gets.

I admire your optimism, buuuuuuuut it is indeed a foregone conclusion.

He's not staying long.

I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts, no doubt.

[Cowduck]

I admire your optimism, buuuuuuuut it is indeed a foregone conclusion.

He's not staying long.

I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts, no doubt.

I admire your clairvoyance, but I’m not gonna write off the possibility he stays for a while on the currently available evidence. I’m also not gonna be surprised if he bolts, but good coaches have stayed a while in worse jobs than Wyoming and made them into something.

[stymeman]

Excellent bball is a more attainable goal at WYO than excellent football.

Throw the bank at Linder and the AA.

Wyoming should have always been known more as a basketball school. Brandenburg coulda built a Gonzagalike program at UW...but it sometimes pretends to be something it'll never be. Yes football is fun too but I'd rather support Top 25 basketball teams year in and year out than crappy bowl games awarded for 6-6 seasons. NIT and NCAA runs are way more fun imho...

[LanderPoke]

Seems relevant to this discussion and I haven’t seen it posted here:

https://gazette.com/sports/paul-klee-ri ... 4e055.html

It’s possible Linder really values the quality of life in Laramie and that he would be happy staying long term. Not a lot of jobs would offer easy access to fishing the North Platte. We shouldn’t assume that we can lowball him just because Wyoming suits his lifestyle goals, but we also shouldn’t assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll bounce to some mid-level P5 job the first chance he gets.

Hell, if Linder likes to fish that much I can take him to some places that’ll blow his mind. Linder! Seriously. Look me up!

[OrediggerPoke]

Seems relevant to this discussion and I haven’t seen it posted here:

https://gazette.com/sports/paul-klee-ri ... 4e055.html

It’s possible Linder really values the quality of life in Laramie and that he would be happy staying long term. Not a lot of jobs would offer easy access to fishing the North Platte. We shouldn’t assume that we can lowball him just because Wyoming suits his lifestyle goals, but we also shouldn’t assume it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll bounce to some mid-level P5 job the first chance he gets.

Hell, if Linder likes to fish that much I can take him to some places that’ll blow his mind. Linder! Seriously. Look me up!

I agree.

It sounds like we should arrange for Linder and family to get a guided trip into the Winds.