eb59
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 152
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Post by eb59 on Nov 9, 2009 22:32:30 GMT -5
For years now, I have read and participated in the circular discussions regarding what it is going to take to make this program successful. In my personal opinion, they are:
1) Completion of the MSF (No Stadium, No Recruits – recruiting worked in the MAAC era b/c no competitors had real facilities. Everyone in the Patriot, Ivy’s and better conferences we now play have 10k + facilities)
1.1. Possibly more embarrassing than our record this season and this is a true story - While I was watching one of the home games on CCA TV, my wife stopped to ask in all honesty “if we were playing someone at a high school stadium”? The school cannot possibly be as poor as it seems, I constantly drive by other much smaller, less prominent and far less expensive D-IAA and D-II institutions that have 100x the facilities!!!
1.2. There will NEVER be large Student participation and support as long as we play in a facility that is cheaper and more temporary than most of the High School facilities that most of our student body watched games at during their 4 years in HS. A new stadium would most definitely increase if the student body thought that the program were a permanent fixture of the school. No Stadium = No Importance = No Respect
1.3. If you build it, they will come – regardless of wins and losses (although wins will help significantly)! There will not be tailgates and attendance and a “Game-Day Atmosphere” at Gtown until there is a respectable stadium to build all of these things around. Personally, I do not see an issue with having metal bleachers on some form of tier’ed concrete foundation – as long as it seats @ 10k people total and houses a respectable press box and some form of a modern day scoreboard in one of the end zones. I don’t think that we should waste the time or money building a stadium that seats 5k. Regardless of the nice expensive pillars that may surround it, the stadium will still feel like a HS field and will never support the respect that ANY college program deserves.
2. New Head Coach & Staff – Immediate Change Needed!!!
2.1. I think enough has been said on this topic recently and I agree with almost all that has been said!!!!
3. Bigger & More Strategic Recruits – Why are we always the smaller team???
3.1. Why recruit 7 or so QB’s when it was obvious that we were undersized in comparison to almost every other team in the conference? This issue is directly linked to the Coaching Staff and as important as their horrific play calling, but has not been called out as much lately so I thought that I would mention it!
4. Fundraising & Program Funding – This will not increase until the Alumni see some increased support and “skin in the game” from the University!
4.1. Many people jumped to contribute when the initial ask was made to help fund the “The New MSF”, but these people were burned and have never seen the fruits of their financial sacrifice. The school burned a number of bridges with some of the most generous donors from the Fball and Lax teams in what I consider to be a unintended “bait & switch” of a fundraising effort. They may not have had the outward intention of doing this, but that is exactly what has happened. They collected money and quite a good amount in the first year of the campaign to fund the promise of a beautiful stadium – this is never been delivered upon and the plans continue to dwindle in scope and size. I will not contribute a large amount in the future until I know and have some form of guarantee on how the money will be used!
This gets me back to the original point of this diatribe, which is that we can continue for another 10 years to have these circular and quite honestly meaningless discussions - but nothing will change until there is some form of a public vision, plan, roadmap and commitment from the school and athletic dept for how it plans to handle all of the above items and other topics such as conference, schedule, scholarships, etc.
I think that it should be the primary responsibility of the GridIron Club as the physical embodiment of the Parents, Alumni and Students that are interested in the future of the football program at Gtown to demand this from the university. Back to point #4, the GridIron Club will not be successful in fundraising until the roadmap is clear and the commitment from the school and AD have been made publicly.
The stagnancy of this program has never been acceptable, but things are clearly getting worse and I just don’t know how much more anyone can take!!! Honestly, Gtown is a great University and it needs to take some pride and responsibly in itself and either support / fund this program in the way that it deserves as a D-IAA football program or just cancel it completely! As much as it personally hurts me to say that, being the laughing stock of the 250 D-I programs in the country is ridiculous for the past, present and future players and more importantly the school itself.
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Post by hoyaparents on Nov 10, 2009 9:03:09 GMT -5
I received the following email communication from the Alumni Association of my alma mater this morning:
"....... great progress in our Proudly Cincinnati campaign, almost $ 530 million raised so far, the great visibility that come from a standout athletic program led currently by a surging football team, increasing integration between the university and its community, and a raising tide of Bearcat pride throughout the student and alumni family. It's a great time to be a Bearcat."
GU, make the commitment, it will pay itself back in spades.
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Post by 98hoya on Nov 10, 2009 9:35:01 GMT -5
For years now, I have read and participated in the circular discussions regarding what it is going to take to make this program successful. In my personal opinion, they are: 1) Completion of the MSF (No Stadium, No Recruits – recruiting worked in the MAAC era b/c no competitors had real facilities. Everyone in the Patriot, Ivy’s and better conferences we now play have 10k + facilities) 1.1. Possibly more embarrassing than our record this season and this is a true story - While I was watching one of the home games on CCA TV, my wife stopped to ask in all honesty “if we were playing someone at a high school stadium”? The school cannot possibly be as poor as it seems, I constantly drive by other much smaller, less prominent and far less expensive D-IAA and D-II institutions that have 100x the facilities!!! 1.2. There will NEVER be large Student participation and support as long as we play in a facility that is cheaper and more temporary than most of the High School facilities that most of our student body watched games at during their 4 years in HS. A new stadium would most definitely increase if the student body thought that the program were a permanent fixture of the school. No Stadium = No Importance = No Respect 1.3. If you build it, they will come – regardless of wins and losses (although wins will help significantly)! There will not be tailgates and attendance and a “Game-Day Atmosphere” at Gtown until there is a respectable stadium to build all of these things around. Personally, I do not see an issue with having metal bleachers on some form of tier’ed concrete foundation – as long as it seats @ 10k people total and houses a respectable press box and some form of a modern day scoreboard in one of the end zones. I don’t think that we should waste the time or money building a stadium that seats 5k. Regardless of the nice expensive pillars that may surround it, the stadium will still feel like a HS field and will never support the respect that ANY college program deserves. 2. New Head Coach & Staff – Immediate Change Needed!!! 2.1. I think enough has been said on this topic recently and I agree with almost all that has been said!!!! 3. Bigger & More Strategic Recruits – Why are we always the smaller team??? 3.1. Why recruit 7 or so QB’s when it was obvious that we were undersized in comparison to almost every other team in the conference? This issue is directly linked to the Coaching Staff and as important as their horrific play calling, but has not been called out as much lately so I thought that I would mention it! 4. Fundraising & Program Funding – This will not increase until the Alumni see some increased support and “skin in the game” from the University! 4.1. Many people jumped to contribute when the initial ask was made to help fund the “The New MSF”, but these people were burned and have never seen the fruits of their financial sacrifice. The school burned a number of bridges with some of the most generous donors from the Fball and Lax teams in what I consider to be a unintended “bait & switch” of a fundraising effort. They may not have had the outward intention of doing this, but that is exactly what has happened. They collected money and quite a good amount in the first year of the campaign to fund the promise of a beautiful stadium – this is never been delivered upon and the plans continue to dwindle in scope and size. I will not contribute a large amount in the future until I know and have some form of guarantee on how the money will be used! This gets me back to the original point of this diatribe, which is that we can continue for another 10 years to have these circular and quite honestly meaningless discussions - but nothing will change until there is some form of a public vision, plan, roadmap and commitment from the school and athletic dept for how it plans to handle all of the above items and other topics such as conference, schedule, scholarships, etc. I think that it should be the primary responsibility of the GridIron Club as the physical embodiment of the Parents, Alumni and Students that are interested in the future of the football program at Gtown to demand this from the university. Back to point #4, the GridIron Club will not be successful in fundraising until the roadmap is clear and the commitment from the school and AD have been made publicly. The stagnancy of this program has never been acceptable, but things are clearly getting worse and I just don’t know how much more anyone can take!!! Honestly, Gtown is a great University and it needs to take some pride and responsibly in itself and either support / fund this program in the way that it deserves as a D-IAA football program or just cancel it completely! As much as it personally hurts me to say that, being the laughing stock of the 250 D-I programs in the country is ridiculous for the past, present and future players and more importantly the school itself. EB59, I agree with everything you said. I'm not optimistic though. As you (and plenty of other folks here) know, once a year or so for the past 5 years, someone has written an equally as compelling summary of our problems. Saying the Gridiron club should just "fix it" hasn't worked in the past and I don't think it will now. As for the Gridiron Club "making demands" on the university...come on, you think the powers that be care? I think the problems with the program are complex and big. Maybe the Gridiron club can help, but I don't think it's that easy. I'm not trying to be coy, or a smart@ss because I don't know the fix. I'm willing to try to help, as I know some others are, but I don't know of any concrete suggestions to do so. I think money is a good start, but I'm part of that group of suckers you mentioned who gave to the MSF and it went down a black hole, so I'm in no rush to donate more unless I get some sort of guarantee. Until that time, I'd rather donate the money to a cause that actually helps people, instead of to support frustrating and stupid dreams of building a modestly successful football program at GU.
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Post by 98hoya on Nov 10, 2009 9:46:39 GMT -5
I received the following email communication from the Alumni Association of my alma mater this morning: "....... great progress in our Proudly Cincinnati campaign, almost $ 530 million raised so far, the great visibility that come from a standout athletic program led currently by a surging football team, increasing integration between the university and its community, and a raising tide of Bearcat pride throughout the student and alumni family. It's a great time to be a Bearcat." GU, make the commitment, it will pay itself back in spades. Hoyaparents, I don't think we have trouble raising money, we just have trouble raising money for FOOTBALL. We're plenty committed as an institution to raising money for other things. Last year, GU got something like $150m in pledged donations during the worst economic year in decades. It's just that the only money that came in for football was from, well, Hoya (football) parents. DFW has written about creating a football culture, and my best guess is that getting non-GU football players and their families excited about the program by improving football gameday experience is a pre-requisite to successful fundraising from folks beyond football alums and their parents. I think EB touched on that concept in his posting too about the need for a real stadium. Maybe it's a chicken and egg thing, but without a stadium, no football culture/donations; without football culture/donations, no stadium.
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BigMike
Bulldog (over 250 posts)
Posts: 253
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Post by BigMike on Nov 10, 2009 10:18:35 GMT -5
Does anyone know what the current goal for the stadium is? How much would it cost to reach that goal?
I remember awhile back there was a certain amount of money that needed to be raised and we never got there. Does anyone know if we are still basically waiting for the money to be raised or has the idea of completing the stadium been scraped?
Has the Gridiron club sat down with the interim AD to talk about this stuff?
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theexorcist
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,506
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Post by theexorcist on Nov 10, 2009 10:21:14 GMT -5
I received the following email communication from the Alumni Association of my alma mater this morning: "....... great progress in our Proudly Cincinnati campaign, almost $ 530 million raised so far, the great visibility that come from a standout athletic program led currently by a surging football team, increasing integration between the university and its community, and a raising tide of Bearcat pride throughout the student and alumni family. It's a great time to be a Bearcat." GU, make the commitment, it will pay itself back in spades. I apologize, but I have to destroy this. Even when they were competitive and occasionally won their conference in the late 90s, Georgetown never built up a football culture, and numerous people on campus didn't think that the Hoyas had a football team. Making the argument that Georgetown spend money for a stadium on the premise that everyone will feel glad to be a Hoya and pay the money back is a canard. To say that Georgetown - a school currently in debt, whose offense is awful, whose team is on track for its first winless season in school history, whose coach is despised by almost all students, alumni, and followers of the program, and whose record in the Patriot League is abysmal ... to say that that school should take its suggestions from Cincinnati, who is currently ranked 5th in the entire country, is delusional. There are arguments that Georgetown should spend more money on football that have their place. But don't try to say that, with a better sports facility, Georgetown is going to be playing Texas in the Fiesta Bowl in ten years.
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Post by hoyaparents on Nov 10, 2009 10:39:43 GMT -5
98 hoya, could not disagree with you more. GU is one of the top 25 universities in the country, its track record in raising funds and overall endowment as compared to its peer institutions has been dismal.
GU has to make a commitment to athletics to stimulate the fund raising. It would be interesting to look at the numbers for admission applications, and overall fundraising numbers after the final four run several years ago.
I would bet that the numbers went through the roof.
The burdon for raising the funds for football must be shouldered by the football alumni and friends of the program. However, we have been burned once, it will not happen again. GU administration has to make a commitment.
And lastly, with respect to the Gridiron Club. this is a dysfunctional organization. It lacks leadership and direction, and has had no plan to build a football culture or raise meaningful funds. Don't count on the Gridiron Club to take the lead.
A number of alumni, parents and friends have been discussing forming a new organization, separate and apart from university, Hoyas Unlimited and the Gridiron Club, to take the lead in reconnecting with the 1,200 football alumni, and building a "football culture" at Georgetown.
Will keep you posted.
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Post by hoyaparents on Nov 10, 2009 10:45:42 GMT -5
bigmike, development office is still looking for a lead gift, my understanding is the revised plan is in the $ 16 to $ 18 million range.
exorcist, I am not saying we will be Cincinnati or Texas, we are Georgetown. But doing nothing is unacceptable.
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Post by 98hoya on Nov 10, 2009 10:46:25 GMT -5
A number of alumni, parents and friends have been discussing forming a new organization, separate and apart from university, Hoyas Unlimited and the Gridiron Club, to take the lead in reconnecting with the 1,200 football alumni, and building a "football culture" at Georgetown. Will keep you posted. I look forward to this new organization. This is the first I've heard of it, but please let us know when you get it off the ground. In the past, plenty of people have talked big and done nothing except vent, so it'll be great to have you take the bull by the horns.
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Post by 98hoya on Nov 10, 2009 10:48:49 GMT -5
bigmike, development office is still looking for a lead gift, my understanding is the revised plan is in the $ 16 to $ 18 million range. exorcist, I am not saying we will be Cincinnati or Texas, we are Georgetown. But doing nothing is unacceptable. The problem is not spotting that something is broken, it's how to fix it. If you've got the inclination and cash to make a change, I'm in full support. I also look forward to hearing concrete, tangible suggestions on how others can help. Historically the "we MUST make a change" rants have died on the vine because no one knows what changes will actually make a difference (and/or isn't willing to shell out their own cash to do it). In any event, I'm glad you are and look forward to helping.
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theexorcist
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,506
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Post by theexorcist on Nov 10, 2009 10:49:17 GMT -5
98 hoya, could not disagree with you more. GU is one of the top 25 universities in the country, its track record in raising funds and overall endowment as compared to its peer institutions has been dismal. GU has to make a commitment to athletics to stimulate the fund raising. It would be interesting to look at the numbers for admission applications, and overall fundraising numbers after the final four run several years ago. I would bet that the numbers went through the roof. The burdon for raising the funds for football must be shouldered by the football alumni and friends of the program. However, we have been burned once, it will not happen again. GU administration has to make a commitment. And lastly, with respect to the Gridiron Club. this is a dysfunctional organization. It lacks leadership and direction, and has had no plan to build a football culture or raise meaningful funds. Don't count on the Gridiron Club to take the lead. A number of alumni, parents and friends have been discussing forming a new organization, separate and apart from university, Hoyas Unlimited and the Gridiron Club, to take the lead in reconnecting with the 1,200 football alumni, and building a "football culture" at Georgetown. Will keep you posted. By the way, forming a booster club separate from the university is illegal according to NCAA rules (as some people learned when they tried to do the same for basketball a few years ago).
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Post by 98hoya on Nov 10, 2009 11:00:04 GMT -5
98 hoya, could not disagree with you more. GU is one of the top 25 universities in the country, its track record in raising funds and overall endowment as compared to its peer institutions has been dismal. GU has to make a commitment to athletics to stimulate the fund raising. It would be interesting to look at the numbers for admission applications, and overall fundraising numbers after the final four run several years ago. I would bet that the numbers went through the roof. The burdon for raising the funds for football must be shouldered by the football alumni and friends of the program. However, we have been burned once, it will not happen again. GU administration has to make a commitment. And lastly, with respect to the Gridiron Club. this is a dysfunctional organization. It lacks leadership and direction, and has had no plan to build a football culture or raise meaningful funds. Don't count on the Gridiron Club to take the lead. A number of alumni, parents and friends have been discussing forming a new organization, separate and apart from university, Hoyas Unlimited and the Gridiron Club, to take the lead in reconnecting with the 1,200 football alumni, and building a "football culture" at Georgetown. Will keep you posted. By the way, forming a booster club separate from the university is illegal according to NCAA rules (as some people learned when they tried to do the same for basketball a few years ago). Huh, really? Never knew of that rule, but I'm quite sure you just blew up HoyaParent's morning.
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Post by hoyaparents on Nov 10, 2009 11:14:52 GMT -5
exorcist, you should change your screen name to the "undertaker."
We do not intend to violate any rules, and certainly would only move forward with the consent, knowledge, and approval of the university.
Alway being contentious and negative resolves nothing. How about a positive thought for once.
Nothing ever get accomplished if you start with the premise that it will never happen.
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eb59
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 152
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Post by eb59 on Nov 10, 2009 11:18:31 GMT -5
Ok, so maybe we need to start being more involved and making actual demands of the GridIron Club as members. I can honestly say that I have not done anything with regard to them other than receiving the occasional email update or donation request. Can the active members of this chat board and parents take the bull by the horns and start demanding regular meetings with the GridIron Club leadership to develop a plan and approach to extracting the needed commitments from the university? I for one would absolutely commit to making a trip up to DC on say a quarterly basis to sit down with GridIron Club leadership and hold their feet to the finre in terms of the progress that they are able to make with the AD and University. If I began seeing progress, they might start seeing money from me - kinda a pay for performance plan which also alows me to have more of a direct voice into the direciton of the program.
Thoughts?
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Post by 98hoya on Nov 10, 2009 11:19:44 GMT -5
exorcist, you should change your screen name to the "undertaker." We do not intend to violate any rules, and certainly would only move forward with the consent, knowledge, and approval of the university. Alway being contentious and negative resolves nothing. How about a positive thought for once. Nothing ever get accomplished if you start with the premise that it will never happen. HoyaParents, I personally support what you're doing (as long as it doesn't violate NCAA or university rules), but I think I know where exorcist is coming from. I'm sure you realize this, but you're not the first guy - by any stretch - who has talked about big plans to change everything around. To date, not a single one has followed through, so exorcist's cynicism, I suspect, comes from that. No doubt, if you can pull this off, even the skeptics here will support it. Until the time you get the wheels in motion though, I think you should expect to only be taken quasi-seriously by most folks here.
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Post by hoyawatcher on Nov 10, 2009 11:24:33 GMT -5
A little context for the fundraising discussion. While some have said GU has little trouble raising money, I would point out that the FB program is not the only sports program at GU which is underfunded. This includes the flagship BB program which does not have endowed scholarships as many of its peers do and does not have a practice facility as many of its peers do. Also, several other programs VB, etc. are not fully funded in scholarships and compete at disadvantages in the BE. My point being that while FB is certainly an issue, it is not the only issue the new AD will have to deal with. And another reason why IMHO any resolution will wait until the new AD and administration agree on what takes priority in the AA. Not necessarily linear but a manageable strategic process/fundraising/etc.
Couple of other comments
While I understand the Pioneer league isn't optimal for a lot of reasons, one peer institution that wasn't talked about is Davidson which competes in that league without athletic scholarships. And their admissions process for athletes is from my experience harder than GU's. Not that Davidson is a threat to win a BCS bowl anytime soon but they are respectable on a similar basis to GU.
And while we are certainly not number 5 in the football polls, the Cincinnati example is instructive of the old adage that "athletics are the front porch to the university" - many donations both athletic and academic come through these links.
I will use Davidson as an example again - when they had their Curry led run through the NCAAs, they had a flood of new applications to the University and an in interest by the alumns. Their admission standards which were high already went through the roof. The corolary though is that either FB or BB can be the lead dog for the front porch analogy. So saying a great non-BCS FB program will drive a lot of activity may be flawed - I don't know.
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RBHoya
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 4,123
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Post by RBHoya on Nov 10, 2009 11:38:59 GMT -5
Seems to me that college sports fans always want it to go:
New Stadium/Better Facilities--->Better recruits--->More wins-->More fans/money (and then repeat)
But in truth, I feel like it's more likely to go:
Better recruits-->More wins-->More fans/money-->Better stadium/facilities (repeat)
Plus it'd be a lot more reasonable to expect the administration to cough up the $400-$500K or so per year that it'd cost to bring in a legitimate I-AA head coach than it is to expect them to cough up tens of millions of dollars for a stadium that may still have a losing program and may give next to no return on investment.
Since we were talking about Cincy in this thread, they are a pretty good example. They were nobodies in the college football world for a while, stuck in the shadow of OSU, languishing in C-USA, and they had (and still have) crappy facilities. They've got one of the smallest stadiums of any BCS Conference Schools, and they have NO practice facility, still having practices on their game field. But, they found Brian Kelly (no relation to our Coach Kelly, I'm guessing, based on on-field performance) who has brought life to their program. He has found some quality recruits who have slipped through the cracks of the Big 10 schools and he coaches them up. The last couple years Cincy has looked like a powerhouse of a program and Kelly has looked like a genius. And guess what, next year they are getting a new practice facility and I'll bet the stadium renovations won't be far behind.
IMO we basically need a I-AA Brian Kelly. The facilities disadvantage is obvious, but it's something that I still think can be overcome by a strong coach that is a capable recruiter. Setting aside more money for aid in order to give a new coach a chance to bring in the right players is very important too.
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eb59
Century (over 100 posts)
Posts: 152
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Post by eb59 on Nov 10, 2009 11:49:25 GMT -5
The stadium can be used for much more than just football and lax games, with its very central location on campus it should be the focal point for a lot of student oriented activities (Concerts, Intramural Sports, Maybe even graduation; although, I think it would be tough to justify moving this off Healy Lawn, etc).
Beyond this, it is currently a very prominant eye sore in the middle of campus that makes the school look cheap - a small stadium (10k seating) permant structure it would be in my personal opinion be a huge upgrade to the beautification of the campus and can be used for so much more than just gamedays!
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theexorcist
Diamond Hoya (over 2500 posts)
Posts: 3,506
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Post by theexorcist on Nov 10, 2009 12:04:44 GMT -5
exorcist, you should change your screen name to the "undertaker." We do not intend to violate any rules, and certainly would only move forward with the consent, knowledge, and approval of the university. Alway being contentious and negative resolves nothing. How about a positive thought for once. Nothing ever get accomplished if you start with the premise that it will never happen. Bear in mind that you won't receive approval from the university unless the NCAA changes its rules. Call it lack of positive thought, but there are some things bureacracy won't let you do. I've consistently stated my desire for Georgetown to compete in the Patriot League. As others have pointed out, the previous GU coach didn't plumb the abyss, so I believe that at least part of the problem is coaching-related. I'd like to fix the coaching problem, and consider it more important than facilities for establishing some degree of stability. I think that mediocrity is possible, and will provide enough good feeling (especially with the MSF centrally-located) to eliminate calls to abolish the program and allow GU to debate how to improve the program even further. You blast me for my continuing pessimism. I continue to be frustrated by those who post here who want to join the Big East, and by those like yourself who claim that Georgetown is a few years away from Cincinnati, while the Hoyas, in consecutive weeks, can't beat a new program and Marist. I may not be looking up to see the sky, but there are too many here who aren't even looking for the next handheld up. And people have to give the idea of football bringing the university together. Georgetown is a basketball school, and lacrosse, soccer, and track, while successful in their own right, have never brought the university together and increased applications like basketball has and continues to do. It's like Hopkins supporters arguing that, if they only improve the football team, people will come flocking to their school. Saying that Georgetown should spend its very limited dollars to improve football facilities to improve its name recognition on the I-AA level when the Hoyas are already nationally-known thanks to the basketball team doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I spent two years of study (one undergrad, one grad) at Delaware, whose stadium regularly drew sellout crowds and whose football success continues to be a point of pride among the UD community. But Georgetown has basketball, which has organically organized game watches, and whose fans usually pack an arena bigger than the football team's. Football has its own role within a university, and Georgetown's success will probably make the university a happier place and forment some more student spirit. But let's not kid ourselves that it's a moral imperative that the team improve.
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Post by hoyaparents on Nov 10, 2009 12:47:01 GMT -5
exorcist, I never said Georgetown should or would be Cincy in football. I just stated as an example as to how success on the gridiron has equated to success in the bank account and in community and alumni involvement.
Per a previous post, the same success was realized at Davidson.
Two years ago we started the Georgetown Football Parents Association, and have raised tens of thousands of dollars from Hoyas football parents in support of the football program. Yes, these are the same folks that are also shelling out big bucks to pay tuition and other costs.
This was done outside Gridiron Club and the university. Why, because we knew from the get go that they did not have the ability to implement the plan. There were no complaints from the university or the NCAA, the Gridiron Club was delighted to accept the funds raised, $ 60,000. in the first year.
The Georgetown Football Parents Association is now the model for other parent sport groups at GU.
The Georgetown Football Alumni Association, (tentitive name) will seek to accomplish to same goals, create unity in the alumni community, seek financial support for the program, and help to create a "football culture" at GU.
Obviously, the "football culture" at GU will not resemble Texas, Tennessee or USC, it will be GU's football culture, a group of football alumni and friends of the program who understand why we play this game, why we compete.
The lessons learned on the gridiron, how to win, how to lose, (we're good at that), how to compete, teamwork, sacrifice and commitment, are life lessons.
One last point, the football field and related improvements must be completed before new practice, training and locker room facilities for basketball team and other GU sports.
If the basketball program doesn't upgrade its facilities to be competitive with other Big East programs, we will also end up with a basketball problem. Go back and reread JT's comments at the basketball dinner several years ago.
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