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J-Rod wrote:CSU could barely get 23K to show up in the best season they'll ever have. That stadium might not happen to begin with, and the Big XII is a pipe dream for anyone west of Texas.

And with this kind of attitude, we are where we are at. People like you are content, don't expect change, and accept our below mediocre status. Things will change, the next round of realignment is probably not too far off. We sit idly by and sooner or later we will be facing the Big Sky.

McPeachy wrote:Good post - I think you are spot on. And I have always felt the same way. Essentially UW has no vision, and poor leadership - paired with fan apathy and low expectations. That is a recipe for death.

CSewe hedged everything on athletics being the front porch of their poop assed university...and it worked and is working. Meanwhile, we have a cool gateway center, across the street from a f-word Arby's and a dilapidated < 1/4 block of run down gas-station poop eyesore (that by the way is for sale for $2,000,000).

Hmm, who (or whose family) owns that?

The upshot of what you said, along with a lot that comes up in other posts, is that Laramie needs a bit of a makeover and some upgrades to make it a more attractive place to live for education professionals, prospective students and student-athletes, and the "creative class" that is catalytic to job creation and economic stimuli.

Wyolie Coyote wrote:

J-Rod wrote:CSU could barely get 23K to show up in the best season they'll ever have. That stadium might not happen to begin with, and the Big XII is a pipe dream for anyone west of Texas.

And with this kind of attitude, we are where we are at. People like you are content, don't expect change, and accept our below mediocre status. Things will change, the next round of realignment is probably not too far off. We sit idly by and sooner or later we will be facing the Big Sky.

Not sure how you can draw the conclusion that J-Rod is content. He is just pointing out that CSU is not a shoe-in to be invited to the Big12 because they are talking about building a stadium. My guess is, if you are on this board, you care.

My intel is that the President is going to recommend the construction of an on-campus stadium to the Board of Regents. They are finalizing the financing package this week and early next for the announcement the first week in December.

I was a skeptic as to whether they could get it done for a very long time. It appears that my skepticism is being met with real action by CSU. No more watercolors - but concrete and steel.

Such action will likely lead McElwain to stick around to continue to build the Sheep.

Ultimately, I guess I am just sick of hoping for failure on the part of others to keep us in the mix of a mid-to-lower tier university with mid-to-low finishes in a middle tier athletic conference. Seems like the definition of fighting to be and stay mediocre.

This said, I do see some signs of hope - AA, Bohl, Shy, Legerski, wrestling, Callahan - even soccer. I hope we can double down and hit big...at the right time...and we just might. But, at least in my view, it will take the 7 things, at least, that I listed in my initial post to get there. Again, this is less about CSU and more about what we are going to do to not only keep pace, but step on their neck to climb higher than them. Believe me, I hate that CSU is even close to a standard that we wouldn't immediately be able to exceed.

Wyovanian wrote:

McPeachy wrote:Good post - I think you are spot on. And I have always felt the same way. Essentially UW has no vision, and poor leadership - paired with fan apathy and low expectations. That is a recipe for death.

CSewe hedged everything on athletics being the front porch of their poop assed university...and it worked and is working. Meanwhile, we have a cool gateway center, across the street from a f-word Arby's and a dilapidated < 1/4 block of run down gas-station poop eyesore (that by the way is for sale for $2,000,000).

Hmm, who (or whose family) owns that?

The upshot of what you said, along with a lot that comes up in other posts, is that Laramie needs a bit of a makeover and some upgrades to make it a more attractive place to live for education professionals, prospective students and student-athletes, and the "creative class" that is catalytic to job creation and economic stimuli.

Laramie is at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to local and county $$. The largest employer by far pays no taxes and there is really not much economically going on in the county, no minerals, oil, no nothing. It is hard for Laramie as a community to do much municipal improvement with its budget being stretched so thin. Third street is a train wreck, looks like complete crap and needs to be redone, but it will never happen with Laramie's broke budget. Laramie is a great place to live and work, but if you drove through town by way of 3rd you wouldn't know it. The state needs to pump money into a Laramie beautification project.

Lawpoke - your #4, expound on it, please.

LanderPoke wrote:Lawpoke - your #4, expound on it, please.

I had heard chatter that there may be some issues with funding to complete the renovation as it had been envisioned. I don't have anything concrete, but wanted to put my marker down to say that we need to finish it off right - as this will be our only chance to do so. Taking short cuts to save a buck today will haunt us down the road...

I think things are on track, but want to make sure that we don't substitute any "bailin' twine and chewing gum" into the final phase of the deal...to do so would be akin to putting a clown nose on the Mona Lisa...which I wouldn't put past some in Laramie.

Let's wait and see what this stadium of theirs turns out to be before we wet down our legs. They tried for a top-notch venue and fired the guy who couldn't get it done. If they end up with a 30k capacity, on-campus stadium, they will have what we have had for 40 years.

We do need to finish our stadium renovations and upgrades. But if CSU goes to the Big XII, it will be because they represent a better TV market much more than whether they got a new stadium. And they have replace their basketball arena, too.

So true. CSU is about to build the new stadium and it does look like the Big 12 is knocking. UW is falling behind fast. The good news is I think the Cowboys could contend in the Big Sky.

LawPoke wrote:We need a President that is strong and has a vision and is LASER focused (to steal a Bohlism) on achieving the vision. We need to have an institution that exudes a sense that we are the place to be - not just that we have some great buildings to go to class in.

LawPoke wrote: We need a ludicrous but incrementally achievable goal to motivate us or else we will just become another beige university that blends in with the rest...or, at worst, is the crown jewel of the community college system.

On these things we definitely agree. The next president better be a home run hitter, and we better get them in the next couple of years.

Mr.Large wrote:So true. CSU is about to build the new stadium

MIGHT, MIGHT be ready to begin the process of building a stadium...

it does look like the Big 12 is knocking

Big 12 is knocking??? If by knocking you mean, considering any team within 750 miles of another Big 12 school, then ok sure.

UW is falling behind fast.

Falling behind?? We are ahead in every category facility wise. Better current stadium, better IPF, easily better basketball arena. Only one of those is even rumored to be changing, you say fall behind, I say csu is starting to MAYBE catch up.

The good news is I think the Cowboys could contend in the Big Sky.

Probably could, but I'd rather cut football than drop to FCS.

Feeding the troll...

Mr.Large wrote:So true. CSU is about to build the new stadium and it does look like the Big 12 is knocking. UW is falling behind fast. The good news is I think the Cowboys could contend in the Big Sky.

Hey Fort Fun, Swoll Cracker, Jalapeno, State, whatever you call yourself these days...I was wondering when you were going to chime in on the CSewe thread!

Big 12 my ass - hahahahhahhahah!

it does look like the Big 12 is knocking

Big 12 is knocking??? If by knocking you mean, considering any team within 750 miles of another Big 12 school, then ok sure.

And West Virginia is right down the road from a Big 12 school......

Who cares about our indoor practice facility? They are in the f-word Top 25! Jesus it amazes the chatter on here sometimes!

"CSU is just now starting to catch up"...REALLY?
They have been in the Big Dance recently, and are about to notch an 11 to 13 win season in football finishing in the Top 25.
Oh but we have a big IPF! SWEET!

Wyolie Coyote wrote:

it does look like the Big 12 is knocking

Big 12 is knocking??? If by knocking you mean, considering any team within 750 miles of another Big 12 school, then ok sure.

And West Virginia is right down the road from a Big 12 school......

My point was, that IF the Big 12 is looking at expanding, they are looking all over, not JUST at csu. Some people are making it out to be a forgone conclusion. Hell, I could see Air Force getting an invite before csu.

BeaverPoke wrote:Who cares about our indoor practice facility? They are in the f-word Top 25! Jesus it amazes the chatter on here sometimes!

"CSU is just now starting to catch up"...REALLY?
They have been in the Big Dance recently, and are about to notch an 11 to 13 win season in football finishing in the Top 25.
Oh but we have a big IPF! SWEET!

Which Beav, is why I prefaced that statement by saying "facility wise". I am well aware that our on-field performance is lacking, but some here are making it sound like our facilities are a poop box, when in fact they are much better than csu's. I get it, you are talking about wins and losses, but for the sake of my last post, I am not.

WestWYOPoke wrote:

BeaverPoke wrote:Who cares about our indoor practice facility? They are in the f-word Top 25! Jesus it amazes the chatter on here sometimes!

"CSU is just now starting to catch up"...REALLY?
They have been in the Big Dance recently, and are about to notch an 11 to 13 win season in football finishing in the Top 25.
Oh but we have a big IPF! SWEET!

Which Beav, is why I prefaced that statement by saying "facility wise". I am well aware that our on-field performance is lacking, but some here are making it sound like our facilities are a poop box, when in fact they are much better than csu's. I get it, you are talking about wins and losses, but for the sake of my last post, I am not.

Gotcha. I was just kind of skimming over posts, and saw that and temporarily flipped poop.
But I do agree our facilities are quite nice.

War Memorial isn't great but after being at stadiums like at Utah, Utah State, Boise State, Oregon, and Oregon State, I can say it's not bad by any means. Just kind of your run-of-the-mill D1 college football stadium.

Once we have the need to make it bigger we can discuss that, but I don't see that happening anytime soon.
The Arena Auditorium looks like it is going to be in a league of its own and is certainly nicer than Oregon States and Colorado States.

The practice facilities are nice at Wyo, and they should never be used as an excuse as to why we aren't succeeding in any sport.

Wyovanian wrote:

McPeachy wrote:Good post - I think you are spot on. And I have always felt the same way. Essentially UW has no vision, and poor leadership - paired with fan apathy and low expectations. That is a recipe for death.

CSewe hedged everything on athletics being the front porch of their poop assed university...and it worked and is working. Meanwhile, we have a cool gateway center, across the street from a f-word Arby's and a dilapidated < 1/4 block of run down gas-station poop eyesore (that by the way is for sale for $2,000,000).

Hmm, who (or whose family) owns that?

The upshot of what you said, along with a lot that comes up in other posts, is that Laramie needs a bit of a makeover and some upgrades to make it a more attractive place to live for education professionals, prospective students and student-athletes, and the "creative class" that is catalytic to job creation and economic stimuli.

Surely you remember the whole $52,000 "supply" debacle of 2004?

WestWYOPoke wrote:

The good news is I think the Cowboys could contend in the Big Sky.

Probably could, but I'd rather cut football than drop to FCS.

Feeding the troll...

I have a hard time seeing us move down to the Big Sky.

How many schools have moved down in all of this realignment nonsense the past few years? None? That's what I thought.

As much as people might not want to hear it, right now Wyoming is a basketball school. And the Mountain West is a top 5 basketball conference, while the Big Sky is one of the worst. So why would we leave again?

joshvanklomp wrote:

WestWYOPoke wrote:

The good news is I think the Cowboys could contend in the Big Sky.

Probably could, but I'd rather cut football than drop to FCS.

Feeding the troll...

I have a hard time seeing us move down to the Big Sky.

How many schools have moved down in all of this realignment nonsense the past few years? None? That's what I thought.

As much as people might not want to hear it, right now Wyoming is a basketball school. And the Mountain West is a top 5 basketball conference, while the Big Sky is one of the worst. So why would we leave again?

Don't take Mr.Large's comments too seriously. Quite sure he/she is a fan of another school and it doesn't take a genius to figure out which one.