Report: Wichita State has contacted Mountain West

[MVCfans]

Not what Elgin and the MVC wanted to hear.

Individuals representing Wichita State’s athletic interests have approached the Mountain West Conference about membership, multiple sources told CBS Sports.

Led by president John Bardo, Wichita State has been exploring its conference options in both basketball and football. Last year, Bardo commissioned an ongoing feasibility study to bring football back to the athletic program. The school dropped the sport in 1986.


The 12-member Mountain West only has 11 basketball-playing members as Hawaii plays basketball in the Big West. Wichita State may value its basketball on a larger stage with momentum created by highly successful coach Gregg Marshall.
Through a spokesman, Bardo declined comment.

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootbal ... k-football

[unipanther99]

Key quote:

Mountain West commissioner Craig Thompson said he did not have direct contact with Bardo or Wichita State officials. He added that if Wichita State plans to park its basketball program in a new conference, “It ain’t going to be us.”

[GrandpaBear]

But the quoted line is specific to just parking basketball. Sounds like WSU wants to add football so that's a different variable.

[squirrel]

This is kind of like asking a Victoria's Secret model out on a date.

[uniftw]

I know WSU has money, but do they really have the money needed to start a football program and play at the MWC level of funding?

I know they have a stadium already there, but I can't imagine it's actually football ready. It's likely going to take tens of millions of dollars to rehab that place. It would be one of the smaller MWC venues. The way WSU's ego seems to work across athletic department showing of status I'd be a 40-50K seat stadium would be built. That's a minimum of 350 million - UNLV is looking at stadiums and their 50,000 outdoor venue was quoted at 490 million. Plus the cost of starting a program, plus the cost of maintaining a program.

MWC football HC salaries average about 750,000. Add in assistant pay and you're looking at 10 coaches that average about 300K each. You're looking at 4M a year in football salaries - to be middle of the road in the MWC.

It's a big task for existing and established programs to step that kind of money up. To start from absolute scratch and go straight there is, well, hopefully the Koch brothers like football and don't mind shelling out what they do for basketball and then an extra 8 figures a year to run the football program.

[bigdawg]

Don't forget the cost of adding multiple women's scholarship sports to offset 85+ men's football scholarships. Unless the Kochs are opening up the pocketbook big time, this is hard to imagine.

[tribecalledquest]

This isn't going to happen.

[SubGod22]

Cessna Stadium would need a little work, but would be serviceable in the short-term until a new stadium could be financed and built on the old golf course. The Koch's aren't the only multi millionaires with pockets favorable to Wichita, they're just the most public.

Yes, women's sports would need to be added, but there are already facilities which would accommodate most of the sports that would probably be added. Scholarship costs would go up though.

I believe The Bardo has already stated that our athletic budget would increase to around 35-40M early on. Where that stands with the MWC I don't know. But it's a place to start and to build from there as needed. He's not a dumb man and if we proceed he'll do it right.

But you also have to add in the money gained from increased enrollment (which is likely), advertising and licensing as well as ticket sales and increased donations. Donations are the big part especially up front. Then if we were to get into the MWC we would end up with some extra income through media deals and simply an increase in exposure which goes a long way.

I'm not saying it does or doesn't happen, but I hope football returns. We should know, or have a really good idea in a couple of weeks.

[Wufan]

I know WSU has money, but do they really have the money needed to start a football program and play at the MWC level of funding?

I know they have a stadium already there, but I can't imagine it's actually football ready. It's likely going to take tens of millions of dollars to rehab that place. It would be one of the smaller MWC venues. The way WSU's ego seems to work across athletic department showing of status I'd be a 40-50K seat stadium would be built. That's a minimum of 350 million - UNLV is looking at stadiums and their 50,000 outdoor venue was quoted at 490 million. Plus the cost of starting a program, plus the cost of maintaining a program.

MWC football HC salaries average about 750,000. Add in assistant pay and you're looking at 10 coaches that average about 300K each. You're looking at 4M a year in football salaries - to be middle of the road in the MWC.

It's a big task for existing and established programs to step that kind of money up. To start from absolute scratch and go straight there is, well, hopefully the Koch brothers like football and don't mind shelling out what they do for basketball and then an extra 8 figures a year to run the football program.

[shockalot]

IMHO bringing football back to WSU would be a disaster, and would undercut the basketball program's success. If WSU has any chance of going to another higher profile conference, it would have to do it as a basketball only option, again IMHO. And the only possible option for that to happens seems to be the AAC, or nada at this point in time.