St. Cloud State Considering Dropping Football

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A lot of their other sports are in trouble, too. Jeez, this school literally has one thing going for it, partying. Quite the embarrassment for Minnesota's second largest state school.
 



NateDawgUM said:
I've always felt that the plethora of Division II schools in Minnesota has possibly hindered our walk-on program.

They have scholarships available, while Division III doesn't.

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I've never looked at it from that perspective. Playing college ball at a D-III school in Wisky, I always looked at it the other way, where having numerous D-III's in Wisky meant that they got a lot of D-II caliber players in D-III programs (there is a reason the WIAC is one of the strongest D-III conferences in the nation). :) Back to the Gophers, I think your point is probably pretty spot on.
 


It seems like a very shortsighted move with long term negative ramifications.
 

I understand that SCSU if very top heavy in the AD office, they have a lot of assistant athletic directors. This sounds like an AD office that doesn't want to cut itself. My understanding is that football is in the red, but not by all that much - a booster could be found to make up football's shortcoming. If the boosters are motivated, they can go over the heads of the AD office, and force some better changes.
 

True RR, it's a lot easier to rehire and train staff than it is to restart an athletic program. Much better to run light in the AD's office than to cut programs because of a one or two year recession related shortfall
 

I played D-II in Minnesota.

I don't think a lot of talent that makes up the D-II squads is much of a threat to the walk on program at the "U". I played with two guys who eventually played in the NFL. The guys had both been on D-I programs. One left the "U" when Gutey took over for Holtz, he had hoped that Lou wanted him to follow, but he didn't. The other left wisconsin after arguing with Morten. Our All-American RB was considered too short to play in the Big Ten. The All-American DB was missed, because who recruits Greenway H.S. for football players? He played basketball instead of Hockey, so he was doublely cursed. The vast majority of the rest was made up of players from Northern Minnesota, Northern wisconsin, The 'burbs, and a few from father afield like Bozeman, Montana.
It ended up being a excellent team, who was passed over for Post Season Play because at the time we played in the old Northern Intercollegiate Conference. The D-I teams found the best players, mostly, and with the one exception did not miss out on good walk on candidates. The real losers in this would be a I-AA teams, that at the time, did not exist in this area. UNI was the only one of note, and neither transfer even considered going there. The was one other problem at the time, when Lou showed up, he sent walk-on letters to every High School Senior in Minnesota. It was impossible to tell who he really wanted, and who he was just being polite to. I got one from Gutey, but I was too slow to even think off walking on at the "U" since I barely played at UMD.
 



If the state's D-II programs weren't here, I don't think it would significantly impact our walk-ons. They would simply go farther to play football. Wisconsin is unusual in that it has large D-III schools that really should be in D-II, if not in D-I. But the lack of D-II schools in Wisconsin doesn't mean that they just walk on with Wisconsin, they can just cross the border to play for Minnesota's D-II schools. Bemidji State has 12 Wisconsin players on the roster.

It would have been cool to have gotten a walk-on offer letter from the U, even if it would have only meant to have been allowed a try out and been cut the same day. I could at least frame it and put it on my wall. I mostly played on the kickoff team on a 9-man school, but insane recklessness only caries you so far.
 



I wish I would have kept that letter

I was a kid, I put all the letters from the different schools in a manila folder, and that was lost a long time ago. oh well.
 



We get walk ons who have talent and the desire to play football in a top conference. With or without the local I-AA schools, this doesn't change. Those who choose a scholarship offer over a walk on - a reasonable decision, college isn't cheap - would simply go to a I-AA school somewhere else other than this area if there were not I-A schools in the area. It's those with the ambition for more that will walk on to a BCS school.
 



Wow... their new stadium is nice but for DII it is pretty small. Gustavus has a new stadium that has just as many bells and whistles, plus seats MORE. That isn't to mention St. Johns which usually leads DIII in attendance.

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My guess is this announcement is some sort of cry for help and in the end they'll find a way to keep the football program going.
 

I think so too...

When I heard it on the radio today, first thing out of the person's mouth was sounds like somebody will have to step up to save it, or organize a public fundraiser.
 

Fire the assistant athletic directors and you've covered most of the shortfall right there. The problem is a bloated athletic department. Obviously, the athletic department has a vested interest in not firing front office employees. This ought to go over their heads to the President and regents. I don't have anything personally invested in this, if I go see a D-II game it's Bemidji State. The other NSIC schools don't seem to have a problem with the budget, even schools like Mankato and Bemidji which also have hockey.
 

Status quo in college athletics is not sustainable. And no one wants to say it out loud.
 

RodentRampage said:
Fire the assistant athletic directors and you've covered most of the shortfall right there. The problem is a bloated athletic department. Obviously, the athletic department has a vested interest in not firing front office employees. This ought to go over their heads to the President and regents. I don't have anything personally invested in this, if I go see a D-II game it's Bemidji State. The other NSIC schools don't seem to have a problem with the budget, even schools like Mankato and Bemidji which also have hockey.
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winner winner ....chicken dinner.
 

Goldmember said:
Status quo in college athletics is not sustainable. And no one wants to say it out loud.
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Perhaps, but we're talking about D-II, which is generally quite sustainable. The other D-II schools seem to be able to keep their athletic budgets in the black. The problem is a bloated administration. 5 assistant athletic directors might be excessive if SCSU moved to D-I. It's ridiculous for a D-II team.
 

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