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Post by fc4life on Oct 18, 2016 9:53:15 GMT -5
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Post by Flying Phoenix on Oct 19, 2016 6:55:10 GMT -5
I can see where this is headed. Delawares history and Elons history are vastly different. I understand the older generation will disagree saying we have won championships in the past and were very successful but let's not kid ourselves. Winning NAIA titles is not the same as what we are dealing with today.
Delaware has been on top. They have been to a championship games in the last 10-15 years. Won a title. They have been ranked consistently. They also have one of the best fan bases in the country. Just so everyone knows we have made the playoffs one time since joining the FCS. Just one time. You can expect to be like delaware all you want but they have a history of success and demand it. Elon is not even in the same ball park in terms of history or expectations especially expectations from the Administration.
I think the Times would defiantly write that article. Though that article really had no real reason to be written outside of saying how much they spend on football and athletics.
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Post by fc4life on Oct 19, 2016 10:35:59 GMT -5
Your points are valid. They back up some of my feelings about our culture. We don't have one. Why:
* We have had five winning seasons since 2000.
* Our students could not care less about football. Our admin has put so many restrictions on them for tailgating, they don't want to come. They show up marginally for Parents Weekend and Homecoming each year.
* Financial commitment is not on par with peers. The move to the CAA was a huge jump that we were not ready for. The "pay off" of greater alumni involvement on the road was a myth. It was all part of the false narrative. If students don't care when they are in school, why would they care as alums? Attendance on the road the last three years had been poor.
Things like this have contributed to what we have. Leo once said that athletics can be a great front porch for Elon. Well, right now it has some junked up cars and some old couches in th lawn.
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Post by euphoenix99 on Oct 19, 2016 12:37:45 GMT -5
Your points are valid. They back up some of my feelings about our culture. We don't have one. Why: * We have had five winning seasons since 2000. * Our students could not care less about football. Our admin has put so many restrictions on them for tailgating, they don't want to come. They show up marginally for Parents Weekend and Homecoming each year. * Financial commitment is not on par with peers. The move to the CAA was a huge jump that we were not ready for. The "pay off" of greater alumni involvement on the road was a myth. It was all part of the false narrative. If students don't care when they are in school, why would they care as alums? Attendance on the road the last three years had been poor. Things like this have contributed to what we have. Leo once said that athletics can be a great front porch for Elon. Well, right now it has some junked up cars and some old couches in th lawn. Sounds like you are letting the state of football define your perception of the entire athletics program. I get that football tends to be the most high profile, but a lot of the other programs aren't any worse, and in a couple of cases better, than they were in the SoCon. I do agree with your points about football not having a winning culture and that drives a lot of the disinterest. Hard to blame people with so many other entertainment options. A successful program will take care of the rest. I've said before...football consumes too much money and resources to not be good for so long. Go Phoenix! |
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Post by FlyingPhoenix on Oct 21, 2016 7:08:55 GMT -5
I agree that some sports are much better off in the Caa or at least much worse. Issue is football, baseball and men's basketball haven't been great by any means.
The sports your talking about are track, maybe softball and tennis?
But he is true in terms of why we changed to the CAA. It was way more than a better conference it was always about the foot print of the student who we were bringing to campus which is the east coast. Especially the northeast.
Also lets put this in perspective. We are going to open a new gym for $25 million I believe. JMU is opening one for over $50 million. We opened Alumni Fieldhouse at the football stadium which is for a number of sports at $6 million. Villanova is opening a new football only building for $15 million. I just feel we are so behind on some facilities and needs and even when we do build something it's never a step up. It's just maybe catching up to what everyone already has.
But this comes back to how dedicated our administration is towards athletics. If we didn't need a gym for graduation I'm sure the administration wouldn't be looking to build another one. Not that fact that our teams are playing in one of the worse gyms in the conference.
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Post by euphoenix99 on Oct 21, 2016 9:48:44 GMT -5
Football, men's hoops and baseball haven't been great by any means since joining the CAA, but I don't think that really has anything to do with increased competition. These teams wouldn't have been winning conference titles in the SoCon either. They would have been middle of the pack at best. I know a lot of the programs doing well in the CAA aren't the centerpiece of the athletics program, but it does prove that teams can compete at this level. Men's soccer is excelling with good coaching and recruiting and making the program a place where top recruits want to play.
Football is a different beast. You just don't see many private schools with sustained success at the FCS level. Aside from Villanova and Richmond being propped up by big basketball money, I can't think of many other privates competing for titles. I know it's an excuse, but it's part of the reality as well. Furman is right where we are now and Wofford has fallen off a bit as well.
As far as the facilities, I think what the school is doing is fine. You build to your needs. We don't need a JMU size arena. They have 20K students. Villanova has Big East bball money that pays for that football team and fieldhouse, which quite honestly has less support than Elon football teams and they have won a title in the recent past. Also, regarding the arena costs I think Elon's is estimated between $40-$50 million and JMU is around $88.
I get wanting to win and compete, I'm right there with you guys. But having been through the DII days of Elon sports, I don't see how anyone couldn't be pleased with where we are now. Maybe not where we want to ultimately be, but it's night and day since the mid 90s.
Go Phoenix!
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Post by FlyingPhoenix on Oct 21, 2016 23:28:41 GMT -5
I agree with some of what your saying 99. But you could probably say a lot of school are night and day from the mid 90s. I think that's some of the problem though with schools like Elon. Obviously anything new is going to be better than what it was. It's an arms race in athletics and you either stay competing and spend money or you don't. And I just feel like we are playing catch up more than anything in terms of facilities. We should have built a new gym at least 10 years ago as we had the worst gym in the SOCON.
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