OT: Article on the sad decline of WVU Football

Arizona Knight

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It doesn't matter to the B1G if Penn State is good. Personally, they can't lose by enough to satisfy me.

I get that none of us like Penn State. No argument there. That said, youre wrong if you think the B1G doesn’t prefer a good PSU. They are one of the power brands of the conference. Of course the B1G (and our media partners) want PSU to be good.
 
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MADHAT1

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Apr 1, 2003
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Arizona Knight said:


We should be pulling for the Power 2. That means our blue bloods need to perform. I’ll be rooting for State Penn next week.
--------------------------------------------------
🤢🤮
 
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brgRC90

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I get that none of us like Penn State. No argument there. That said, youre wrong if you think the B1G doesn’t prefer a good PSU. They are one of the power brands of the conference. Of course the B1G (and our media partners) want PSU to be good.
One loss to WVU isn't going to make much difference in the perception of the program.
 

Arizona Knight

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Actually it's the same thing. Penn State losing is no big deal. Ohio State and Michigan fizzling in the playoff round for years is probably more damaging.

Just to (hopefully) close the loop here. You don’t think the B1G cares if PSU is good. I disagree. Unless there is more to this, we can tap out.
 

brgRC90

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Just to (hopefully) close the loop here. You don’t think the B1G cares if PSU is good. I disagree. Unless there is more to this, we can tap out.
When did I say the Big Ten doesn't care if Penn State is good? If you can't read exactly what I write without adding to it then don't comment on what I write.
 

Arizona Knight

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When did I say the Big Ten doesn't care if Penn State is good? If you can't read exactly what I write without adding to it then don't comment on what I write.

Yeah I confused the various bad takes in this thread. Your’s was saying LSU was struggling lately. My fault.
 
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xWVU2010x

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Our football woes are cyclical. We made a bad hire combined with a premature decision to extend following a “not terrible” 2nd season. Given the financial woes at the school we are stuck with him for possibly 2 more seasons.

The school, like basically every other flagship state school, has a large alumni network and is the biggest show in a state with 1.7m. That means there is some decent NIL opportunity at WVU, and prior to Huggins getting drunk and going off the deep end, we were set to bring in the top rated transfer hoops class on the back of those NIL opportunities.

As for academics, and what the appeal is to NJ students, when I went it billed itself as an affordable option with a mission to provide world class university access to the residents of WV, many of whom come from the nation’s worst public schools, hence the low admission standards. For out of staters, it was often on par with the in state tuition of other state’s. I wasn’t the best or brightest, but also nowhere close to the acceptance bubble of WVU, however I wanted the “full college experience” and didn’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life, so WVU made sense. With all of the new cuts, I have to imagine a good portion of would be students from NJ will reconsider, and it is also a huge blow to the WV students who now will lack access to a lot of important majors from their flagship school. It seems as if WVU is setting itself up to permanently be a 15k-20k student school with no ambitions to climb to the size of an Arizona State.
 
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Manayunkeer

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Our football woes are cyclical. We made a bad hire combined with a premature decision to extend following a “not terrible” 2nd season. Given the financial woes at the school we are stuck with him for possibly 2 more seasons.

The school, like basically every other flagship state school, has a large alumni network and is the biggest show in a state with 1.7m. That means there is some decent NIL opportunity at WVU, and prior to Huggins getting drunk and going off the deep end, we were set to bring in the top rated transfer hoops class on the back of those NIL opportunities.

As for academics, and what the appeal is to NJ students, when I went it billed itself as an affordable option with a mission to provide world class university access to the residents of WV, many of whom come from the nation’s worst public schools, hence the low admission standards. For out of staters, it was often on par with the in state tuition of other state’s. I wasn’t the best or brightest, but also anywhere close to the acceptance bubble of WVU, however I wanted the “full college experience” and didn’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life, so WVU made sense. With all of the new cuts, I have to imagine a good portion of would be students from NJ will reconsider, and it is also a huge blow to the WV students who now will lack access to a lot of important majors from their flagship school. It seems as if WVU is setting itself up to permanently be a 15k-20k student school with no ambitions to climb to the size of an Arizona State.
I’d like to fact-check some of his numbers. I find it very hard to believe that in 2021 WVU had the lowest football revenue of any of the 69 power conference programs (not counting media rights payouts).
 
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xWVU2010x

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I’d like to fact-check some of his numbers. I find it very hard to believe that in 2021 WVU had the lowest football revenue of any of the 69 power conference programs (not counting media rights payouts).
Yea that is highly unlikely.
 

brgRC90

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Our football woes are cyclical. We made a bad hire combined with a premature decision to extend following a “not terrible” 2nd season. Given the financial woes at the school we are stuck with him for possibly 2 more seasons.

The school, like basically every other flagship state school, has a large alumni network and is the biggest show in a state with 1.7m. That means there is some decent NIL opportunity at WVU, and prior to Huggins getting drunk and going off the deep end, we were set to bring in the top rated transfer hoops class on the back of those NIL opportunities.

As for academics, and what the appeal is to NJ students, when I went it billed itself as an affordable option with a mission to provide world class university access to the residents of WV, many of whom come from the nation’s worst public schools, hence the low admission standards. For out of staters, it was often on par with the in state tuition of other state’s. I wasn’t the best or brightest, but also nowhere close to the acceptance bubble of WVU, however I wanted the “full college experience” and didn’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life, so WVU made sense. With all of the new cuts, I have to imagine a good portion of would be students from NJ will reconsider, and it is also a huge blow to the WV students who now will lack access to a lot of important majors from their flagship school. It seems as if WVU is setting itself up to permanently be a 15k-20k student school with no ambitions to climb to the size of an Arizona State.
Given how important universities are today to economic growth, it's a disaster for West Virginia to cut back on their most important university.
 

motorb54

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I never understood why so many kids from NJ went to West Virginia. With a wide selection of excellent colleges and leading academic research universities in the northeast, including Rutgers, I never understood the appeal.
I know a few New Jersey kids who went to West Virginia.
They could not get into Rutgers.
 

dconifer0

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I know a few New Jersey kids who went to West Virginia.
They could not get into Rutgers.
West Virginia proudly admits a lot of kids. They do it by design. But it's just as hard to stay in once admitted as it is at most public universities. It's a double-whammy (high acceptance rate, high flunk-out rate) in the academic rankings that they knowingly accept.

Maybe my comment is not up-to-date, but that's how it was not so long ago, if nothing else...
 
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xWVU2010x

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West Virginia proudly admits a lot of kids. They do it by design. But it's just as hard to stay in once admitted as it is at most public universities. It's a double-whammy (high acceptance rate, high flunk-out rate) in the academic rankings that they knowingly accept.

Maybe my comment is not up-to-date, but that's how it was not so long ago, if nothing else...
I’d say this is accurate.
 
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xWVU2010x

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Given how important universities are today to economic growth, it's a disaster for West Virginia to cut back on their most important university.
I’d say a lot has to do with the college market becoming diluted with online options, as well as traditional schools endlessly growing through either on campus or online students, the endless rising costs turning people off, and rising wages for blue collar and non skilled labor.

Basically there are now too many schools and the price is causing kids to question if it’s worth it.
 

dconifer0

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I’d say this is accurate.
A lot of people seem to think that WVU is a bunch of barns with barefoot students writing on pieces of slate. But it looks like most state universities; it's just very forgiving when it comes to admissions. After admission, it's rather typical.

And it has Personal Rapid Transit!

 
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WVU is in a rough spot. Read that they projected an increase of 6,000 students over a decade or something but they actually lost students. They built and built like all schools and now are in a bad situation. A whole dorm is vacant. Most aren’t at capacity. And sometime else mentioned they are slashing academic programs to save money.
 
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dconifer0

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As for academics, and what the appeal is to NJ students, when I went it billed itself as an affordable option with a mission to provide world class university access to the residents of WV, many of whom come from the nation’s worst public schools, hence the low admission standards. For out of staters, it was often on par with the in state tuition of other state’s. I wasn’t the best or brightest, but also nowhere close to the acceptance bubble of WVU, however I wanted the “full college experience” and didn’t want to be in debt for the rest of my life, so WVU made sense. With all of the new cuts, I have to imagine a good portion of would be students from NJ will reconsider, and it is also a huge blow to the WV students who now will lack access to a lot of important majors from their flagship school. It seems as if WVU is setting itself up to permanently be a 15k-20k student school with no ambitions to climb to the size of an Arizona State.

This is my understanding as well. Although I am out of date, I have some connection to WVU. It's not an accident; academic ranking is willingly sacrificed in order to serve in-state kids by admitting them to the flagship campus (rather than shunting them off to less-notable state schools based on qualifications, as is done in many states), and they don't want to have different standards for out-of-state kids. I find it commendable...
 
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I’d say a lot has to do with the college market becoming diluted with online options, as well as traditional schools endlessly growing through either on campus or online students, the endless rising costs turning people off, and rising wages for blue collar and non skilled labor.

Basically there are now too many schools and the price is causing kids to question if it’s worth it.

The experience of going to a big state school and rubbing elbows with people from all over the world is invaluable. That is doubly true in WV which by many if not most measures is the poorest state in the union. It's also the rare state losing population, despite being one of the cheapest in a climate where more people work remotely.

What the admin has done there, slashing major programs like foreign languages and math, is a tragedy and a blot on higher education. I really hope no other big state U follows suit.

We are blessed at RU- the B1G saved us athletically, we have for the first time in my lifetime a political situation where supporting the school is demanded, and the academic position of the school keeps rising- we're tied with UMD for #1 public school in the Northeast. As much as the 06 game still gives me nightmares I'm also haunted by the poor kid that grows up in WV that will have his or her dreams dashed by these cuts.
 

brgRC90

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A lot of people seem to think that WVU is a bunch of barns with barefoot students writing on pieces of slate. But it looks like most state universities; it's just very forgiving when it comes to admissions. After admission, it's rather typical.

And it has Personal Rapid Transit!

Which sort of hints at mismanagement. Busses would be a lot cheaper.
 

xWVU2010x

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The experience of going to a big state school and rubbing elbows with people from all over the world is invaluable. That is doubly true in WV which by many if not most measures is the poorest state in the union. It's also the rare state losing population, despite being one of the cheapest in a climate where more people work remotely.

What the admin has done there, slashing major programs like foreign languages and math, is a tragedy and a blot on higher education. I really hope no other big state U follows suit.

We are blessed at RU- the B1G saved us athletically, we have for the first time in my lifetime a political situation where supporting the school is demanded, and the academic position of the school keeps rising- we're tied with UMD for #1 public school in the Northeast. As much as the 06 game still gives me nightmares I'm also haunted by the poor kid that grows up in WV that will have his or her dreams dashed by these cuts.

It is definitely unfortunate and I’d rather they pull budget out of athletics than force the University to stop offering key programs that every other major state university offers, as at the end of the day most of us who went there would rather the academic reputation not be further diminished than see a few extra football wins, especially when a few wins means 7-5 rather than 5-7. It sounds like Gordon Gee is on borrowed time and hopefully they can oust him and undo some of the damage.
 
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xWVU2010x

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Which sort of hints at mismanagement. Busses would be a lot cheaper.

There is also a bus system, I actually took the bus more often than the PRT. Morgantown is extremely populated for the space it occupies and traffic is a huge problem, with 2 campuses that are separated by a 15 minute car ride with students often bouncing back and forth atleast once per day. The PRT is the least of the University and the town’s worries.
 
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GoodOl'Rutgers

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Sep 11, 2006
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Yet to see a single academic position that was not overpaid
Did not read the story but on the surface.. PhD in Math being cut? just.. wow. I suppose if they "did the math" and there just aren't enough Phd candidates to warrant employing the people and resources needed to offer that degree...
 

brgRC90

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It's a federally-funded program.

ETA: just Googled, I don't think it is 100% federally funded anymore...
Even then it was probably never entirely federally funded. But it just seems like a bad idea to me, overly expensive for a problem solved more cheaply in another way. It suggests leadership making bad decisions.
 

Scarlet83

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The irony is the providence mob wouldn’t relinquish any power to football.
The football schools could have had a very good conference if they just stuck together.
Today the Big East is doing just fine as a basketball conference!
Why couldn’t Providence mob let it go?
We would of had the Big East basketball conference and the northeast football/all sports conference.
Everybody would have made out pretty good.
The Providence mob couldn’t let it go, because small minded people with the tiniest amount of power hold onto it, instead of embracing change and growing their power by risking their biscuit.
 
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Scarlet83

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I never understood why so many kids from NJ went to West Virginia. With a wide selection of excellent colleges and leading academic research universities in the northeast, including Rutgers, I never understood the appeal.
It’s an easy and relatively inexpensive school to get into.
 

brgRC90

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The Providence mob couldn’t let it go, because small minded people with the tiniest amount of power hold onto it, instead of embracing change and growing their power by risking their biscuit.
Leaders who have the cojones to prepare for a different future are rare. I clearly remember reading an article in the WSJ in the 90s about luxury cars and how US automakers like Cadillac and Lincoln still dominated with boxy cars but they were losing ground to the sport sedans of BMW, Mercedes et al. Their customer base was already quite old, around 70--changing to a sportier look risked losing them but for long term survival the US companies needed to appeal to younger buyers. The choice was obvious but the US companies chose the safe route, kept making boxy cars and fell off the map. They've never recovered.
 
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dconifer0

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Even then it was probably never entirely federally funded. But it just seems like a bad idea to me, overly expensive for a problem solved more cheaply in another way. It suggests leadership making bad decisions.
I'm surprised at your reaction, because you are usually analytical about things. But I don't know much about it either, and in no position to debate it; I don't know if it's the best solution or not.

Like WVU2010, said, it's the least of their worries out there...