EWU BOard to consider fate of EWU athletics

[El_Chapo]

wha wha waaaa. typical whine fest , nothing happens, feel sorry for me. all too commonplace in this world.
maybe they'll do a gofundme or post their $CashApp too!!

[WestDak]

Realistically, I think the only options are #1 and #4. I don't see EWU dropping football, and DII football is dead in the PNW.

The only D3 conference in the Northwest is a Private school only conference, so that was never, ever a realistic option either. The D2 GNAC board is filled with people questioning why that was even an option.

[marenlee]

Good listen this morning on The Insiders. They had the PxP voice of the Eagles as a guest. Called their O and D lines JV compared to the Bison. But they spoke heavily on the topic of EWU athletics reclassifying or going away. He basically said this is probably the death blow to the quality of their programs regardless of whether or not they stay. This will be used heavily against them in recruiting and staff hires.

[TAILG8R]

Good listen this morning on The Insiders. They had the PxP voice of the Eagles as a guest. Called their O and D lines JV compared to the Bison. But they spoke heavily on the topic of EWU athletics reclassifying or going away. He basically said this is probably the death blow to the quality of their programs regardless of whether or not they stay. This will be used heavily against them in recruiting and staff hires.

Yeah it's pretty hard to spin the fact your university is openly talking about dropping athletics because it doesn't have money into a positive recruiting pitch.

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[Hammersmith]

Yeah it's pretty hard to spin the fact your university is openly talking about dropping athletics because it doesn't have money into a positive recruiting pitch.

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Spinning the recruiting pitch is tough. But a university could use talk like this to boost athletic fundraising. The unstated message would be: "support it or it's gone". But I don't know if that will have an effect at EWU; it seems like their support* has historically been next to nothing.

*talking about anything more than mediocre ticket sales at face value with no extra donations



All that being said, the safe bet is still that they keep doing what they're doing, just with some additional belt tightening.

[HerdBot]

They only have a 25 million dollar endowment. Fundraising ain't an easy task like it is here. Cheyney is smaller than Jamestown

[Hammersmith]

They only have a 25 million dollar endowment. Fundraising ain't an easy task like it is here. Cheyney is smaller than Jamestown

Yeah, but they're only 10 miles outside of Spokane and part of the Spokane metropolitan area(575k) which is over twice the size of Fargo's(250k). Cheney is closer to Spokane than Casselton is to Fargo. Population isn't the issue. Football competition isn't really the issue either. The closest DI football program is Washington State down in Pullman, which is over 50 miles away(and not the most enjoyable drive).

Their problem is three-fold.
1. There is very little pride to being an EWU grad. The perception is that you only went there because you couldn't get into/couldn't afford to go to UW/WSU/Gonzaga/etc.
2. EWU penetration into the Spokane metro is nonexistent. Spokane residents are fans of Gonzaga, WSU(football), UW(western WA transplants). EWU isn't even a blip.
3. Gonzaga. There's only so much small-college bandwidth to be had, and the Zags eat all of it up.


I would argue that EWU's core problem isn't athletics, it's academic perception. They need to get really good at something and promote the shit out of it. They need to increase the prestige of the school enough that grads start to wear red & black instead of blue & white or crimson & gray. They need people to be able to say, "EWU has one of the best XXXX programs in the country, and their college of YYYY is really good." I don't think they have anything like that right now. The XXXX program doesn't have to be all that big(think polymers & coatings at NDSU), but the YYYY college should be something desirable; a set of fields that can get you a good paying job after graduation. If alumni are proud of their school, they will have investment. If they have investment, they will follow how the school does(including sports). If they continue to follow the school years down the road, they are more likely to donate when they have disposable income.

Maybe things would be different if not for Gonzaga, but the Zags aren't going away, so EWU is just going to have to deal with it.

[AKBison]

Yeah, but they're only 10 miles outside of Spokane and part of the Spokane metropolitan area(575k) which is over twice the size of Fargo's(250k). Cheney is closer to Spokane than Casselton is to Fargo. Population isn't the issue. Football competition isn't really the issue either. The closest DI football program is Washington State down in Pullman, which is over 50 miles away(and not the most enjoyable drive).

Their problem is three-fold.
1. There is very little pride to being an EWU grad. The perception is that you only went there because you couldn't get into/couldn't afford to go to UW/WSU/Gonzaga/etc.
2. EWU penetration into the Spokane metro is nonexistent. Spokane residents are fans of Gonzaga, WSU(football), UW(western WA transplants). EWU isn't even a blip.
3. Gonzaga. There's only so much small-college bandwidth to be had, and the Zags eat all of it up.


I would argue that EWU's core problem isn't athletics, it's academic perception. They need to get really good at something and promote the shit out of it. They need to increase the prestige of the school enough that grads start to wear red & black instead of blue & white or crimson & gray. They need people to be able to say, "EWU has one of the best XXXX programs in the country, and their college of YYYY is really good." I don't think they have anything like that right now. The XXXX program doesn't have to be all that big(think polymers & coatings at NDSU), but the YYYY college should be something desirable; a set of fields that can get you a good paying job after graduation. If alumni are proud of their school, they will have investment. If they have investment, they will follow how the school does(including sports). If they continue to follow the school years down the road, they are more likely to donate when they have disposable income.

Maybe things would be different if not for Gonzaga, but the Zags aren't going away, so EWU is just going to have to deal with it.

Flutie effect. It would make the academic types vomit but a 50 million dollar stadium upgrade and new state of the art student union would do wonders for their perception to potential students. Most of the kids going there probably attend EWU because they couldn't get into or afford WSU/UW/Gonzaga. That's not a bad thing per say as that's basically the average high school graduate. Eastern has their niche as the smaller more affordable Football party school and they should double down on it.

[oldmantutters]

Flutie effect. It would make the academic types vomit but a 50 million dollar stadium upgrade and new state of the art student union would do wonders for their perception to potential students. Most of the kids going there probably attend EWU because they couldn't get into or afford WSU/UW/Gonzaga. That's not a bad thing per say as that's basically the average high school graduate. Eastern has their niche as the smaller more affordable Football party school and they should double down on it.

Sounds like it is similar to St Cloud State

[nodak651]

Yeah, but they're only 10 miles outside of Spokane and part of the Spokane metropolitan area(575k) which is over twice the size of Fargo's(250k). Cheney is closer to Spokane than Casselton is to Fargo. Population isn't the issue. Football competition isn't really the issue either. The closest DI football program is Washington State down in Pullman, which is over 50 miles away(and not the most enjoyable drive).

Their problem is three-fold.
1. There is very little pride to being an EWU grad. The perception is that you only went there because you couldn't get into/couldn't afford to go to UW/WSU/Gonzaga/etc.
2. EWU penetration into the Spokane metro is nonexistent. Spokane residents are fans of Gonzaga, WSU(football), UW(western WA transplants). EWU isn't even a blip.
3. Gonzaga. There's only so much small-college bandwidth to be had, and the Zags eat all of it up.


I would argue that EWU's core problem isn't athletics, it's academic perception. They need to get really good at something and promote the shit out of it. They need to increase the prestige of the school enough that grads start to wear red & black instead of blue & white or crimson & gray. They need people to be able to say, "EWU has one of the best XXXX programs in the country, and their college of YYYY is really good." I don't think they have anything like that right now. The XXXX program doesn't have to be all that big(think polymers & coatings at NDSU), but the YYYY college should be something desirable; a set of fields that can get you a good paying job after graduation. If alumni are proud of their school, they will have investment. If they have investment, they will follow how the school does(including sports). If they continue to follow the school years down the road, they are more likely to donate when they have disposable income.

Maybe things would be different if not for Gonzaga, but the Zags aren't going away, so EWU is just going to have to deal with it.

In regard to EWU penetrating the Spokane market, have you guys seen anything about EWU exploring the potential of playing at a new downtown Spokane stadium? This would be huge to help create a presence down there and it would improve game day festivities by like 10X. This could save the athletic department millions of dollars as well. https://www.kxly.com/ewu-athletic-di...ntown-stadium/

I like the EWU/SCSU comparison... makes sense.