SIU athletics in a world of hurt
- Thread starter BBCHS77
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Basketball has been killing them in particular no question....and you'll never make money in FCS football unless you are NDSU. Also this is not the only in-state school piling up a big running tab for athletics I'l willing to bet they are all in debt to some level.
Biggest issue facing SIU is a free fall down in enrollment over the past 6-7 years. Get the enrollment back on track and that will help.
Biggest issue facing SIU is a free fall down in enrollment over the past 6-7 years. Get the enrollment back on track and that will help.
Saw a chart the other day, NDSU and ISU were the only public MVFC/MVC schools that made money in their athletic department..
Wisconsin is the exception, not Illinois
Illinois has 3 FBS programs, Michigan has 5? Indiana has maybe 4? Ohio has 8
I know Wisconsin is the exception. Seems to work very well and keep costs down for the state.
When was the last time one of Illinois' public school programs sold out a game? I would bet that some of the Div III programs in Wisconsin outdraw some of the Div I programs in Illinois.
Asinine to have that many Div I programs in Illinois.
Illinois St sells out a few games a year, but capacity is only something like 13K.. and not sure its asinine, most of the MVC schools certainly belong in D1 for basketball
It was thrown around a year or two ago at a few of the FCS level in state schools the "idea" of them dropping down to D2 in football in particular...
And the Wisconsin schools also are recovering from it's real first major budget cuts with more on the way...trust me unfortunately I know this first hand since my daughter was "forced" to transfer out since her Wisconsin public university dropped her major and also cut nearly half of another half from her attempted dual-major....and is at ISU now. She loved it up there and so did we very sad she also had to stop playing college softball because of the academic major cuts
Good question not sure to be honest but I know for sure the dropping to D2 talks indeed happened
On the question. I am not 100percent sure but I think the answer is no.
I heard one of the reasons the Pioneer Football league is in existence is due to this issue. They want to be D1 for their basketball teams and all their other sports (Butler Dayton, Drake etc) But They “had” to have their Football teams be in D1 (FCS) as well. All the schools agreed to no football scholarships and only do Acadenic Merit grant money only then formed the league within FCS.
Edgy touched on this but I will expand. SIU has student fees that go towards AD department. The decline in enrollment over the last 10 years combined with their flagship sport (men's bball) sputtering, along with state allocated funds being cut has created this mess. They also don't have many big donors for the athletic department to help.
You are correct. If you are D1 in one sport, you have to be D1 in all your sports.
University of Illinois sold out the UNC game last year.
In 2017, Wisconsin-Whitewater was the top drawing D3 school in Wisc. They averaged 4400 per home game. No other school in Wisconsin averaged more than 3000 fans
The only D1 school that UWW outdrew was Western Ill, which averaged 3450
The other D1 Illinois schools averaged:
U of I 39500
NIU 11291
EIU 4950
SIU 6762
ISU 11440
BBC,
To say that Illinois State has no reason it can't be propelled into the same status of Iowa State and Michigan State is just ignorant. Iowa State brought in more than $500MM in external research grants for university support and host The DOE's Ames research Lab to the tune of $76MM/year for a single building. Michigan State's external research grants for 2017 were in excess of $700MM. Illinois State's entire operating budget is ~$425MM and they are not on the same level in anyway of the two research universities you mention; to even begin to compare them they would need to achieve AAU membership which would take years or decades. Illinois State is a great school in its own right but to try to say they could easily be something their not is unfair to all parties involved.
To say that Illinois State has no reason it can't be propelled into the same status of Iowa State and Michigan State is just ignorant. Iowa State brought in more than $500MM in external research grants for university support and host The DOE's Ames research Lab to the tune of $76MM/year for a single building. Michigan State's external research grants for 2017 were in excess of $700MM. Illinois State's entire operating budget is ~$425MM and they are not on the same level in anyway of the two research universities you mention; to even begin to compare them they would need to achieve AAU membership which would take years or decades. Illinois State is a great school in its own right but to try to say they could easily be something their not is unfair to all parties involved.
Didn't mean they are comparable now or even short term, it would take decades to make it happen, but the steps to get it done have never been taken and they should have.
How many states don't have a second public university that is considered a major school/FBS?
There are some, but most do
Kansas St, Oklahoma St, Iowa St, Michigan St, Washington St, Utah St, Oregon St, Arizona St, Florida St, Louisville, Miss St, Clemson, Auburn etc....
Why doesn't Illinois?
With Illinois population it would seem like a no brainer especially with the amount of quality students that leave the state since they can’t get into U of I. Having secondary top notch public university is also an additional economic engine in the state that would be extremely benifecial to Central IL considering the proximity of the two schools.
According to this article Illinois sends the second largest number of kids out of state after California. In 2014 16,641 freshmen went to college out of state. CA sent 17,196. In 2014 CA had a population of 38,802,500, IL had 12,880,580.
While my son was going through the college search process he was told that over 40% of kids from IL who go college choose schools out of state. The most of any state.
Does not reflect well on IL. My son goes to school outside of Illinois as do my two nephews who are Illinois residents. Ny niece who is senior in high school has so far been accepted to 6 schools, all out of state. She is waiting to hear from a couple of Ivy League schools and UVA. Applied to 9 colleges total - none in Illinois. She would have no problem getting into U of I, U of C or NU.
Look at this list from St. Ignatius - Looking a BIG 10 state schools 43 went to U of I and 41 went to the other 12 BIG 10 State schools. Only about 20% of the grads stayed in state. I know Ignatius is not a typical school but these are the kids U of I should not let get away!
While my son was going through the college search process he was told that over 40% of kids from IL who go college choose schools out of state. The most of any state.
Does not reflect well on IL. My son goes to school outside of Illinois as do my two nephews who are Illinois residents. Ny niece who is senior in high school has so far been accepted to 6 schools, all out of state. She is waiting to hear from a couple of Ivy League schools and UVA. Applied to 9 colleges total - none in Illinois. She would have no problem getting into U of I, U of C or NU.
Look at this list from St. Ignatius - Looking a BIG 10 state schools 43 went to U of I and 41 went to the other 12 BIG 10 State schools. Only about 20% of the grads stayed in state. I know Ignatius is not a typical school but these are the kids U of I should not let get away!
NIU beat them to the punch and filled that void as the 2nd public FBS and 3rd overall with northwestern.
If only SIU was in the path of totality of a solar eclipse multiple times a year.
In Carbondale, 15,000-seat stadium sold out for eclipse viewing
In Carbondale, 15,000-seat stadium sold out for eclipse viewing
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They may be FBS in football, but thats the only box they can check.. their other sports are awful, fan support is brutal, academics are poor and enrollment has declined like 33%.. if the state was going to build up a school to the level of other states #2, ISU is the direction they would want to take,
I wasn't touting the school just pointing out that they already have the 2nd spot... Illinois state would have to put sooo much into making that jump I don't see them making that move. The most practical of issues and costly is that the stadium isn't big enough and current location isn't wide open like NIU, it's land locked in an in-town area so they couldn't just expand it. They would have to build brand new on edge of city somewhere.
Minnesota has just 1, everything else is D2 or lower.... Nebraska has just 1, everything else D2 or below.... Missouri has the one FCS program but only 1 FBS... I could go on...so not that much of an exception in Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania, which is a closer population and settlement pattern parallel, has 3 FBS, and a wholly Penn State-branch conference at DII. The 3 FBS, PSU, Pitt and Temple are by legislation historically far less supported by state tax dollars than most B10 and the state-owned PSUs like East Stroudsburg, Kutztown etc
Ulb,
The PSAC schools like east Stroudsburg, kutztown, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, etc are not part of the PSU satalite system, but they are certainly D2. There are also several FCS schools in the state such as Villanova, Dusquene, Robert Morris, etc from the NEC and CAA conferences. Hope this clarifies PA vs IL, we are also not bankrupt. Furthermore Penn State is a Public Land Grant University not a State school.
The PSAC schools like east Stroudsburg, kutztown, Bloomsburg, Lock Haven, etc are not part of the PSU satalite system, but they are certainly D2. There are also several FCS schools in the state such as Villanova, Dusquene, Robert Morris, etc from the NEC and CAA conferences. Hope this clarifies PA vs IL, we are also not bankrupt. Furthermore Penn State is a Public Land Grant University not a State school.
Is Illinois more like Nebraska and Minnesota? Or Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana?
Illinois has one major city.... and it's so different from rest of state it's almost it's own entity. Pennsylvania has 2 very large cities bookending the state in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Ohio has Cincinnati and Cleveland on opposite ends of the state. While Indiana has Indy and Georgia has Atlanta both more of a Illinois type set up, they both have 3 (UGA/GA Tech/ ga state and Indiana and Purdue and ND plus lower level football) Illinois is similar to them... 2 public D1 one private D1 (UI/NIU/NW) and several 1AA (FCS).... so I would say Illinois does have what Indiana and Georgia have more or less.
No, Illinois does not have a Georgia and Indiana set up...
Indiana has Indiana and Purdue
Georgia has Georgia and Georgia Tech
Illinois has Illinois
Thanks for proving my point
Just boggles my mind that someone would argue we don't need a second school of that caliber
NIU IS its 2nd program... is it a power 5, no.... but guess what, if Illinois state became a FBS school they would also NOT be power 5!
Besides Illinois wouldn't be able to support an additional FBS program.... Illinois attendance has been averaging around 45,000... Iowa have been 65-70,000 and that's with Iowa state averaging 58,000!
Please please please......STOP talking about Illinois State as an FBS school....they've been floating that one down in the Normal area for decades now...they simply do not have the overall support for all programs to go the major D1 level.
Be happy with being a mid major in Hoops...and having a successful football program in a very good FCS conference...and the rest of the sports are competitive as well.
End of story.
Be happy with being a mid major in Hoops...and having a successful football program in a very good FCS conference...and the rest of the sports are competitive as well.
End of story.
