They can now farm games out to other D1 programs in the region (Nebraska, Creighton, Iowa State, Iowa, Kansas, Kansas State) and make a few bucks out of it. I think people are knocking this too much. What are they supposed to do losing money when they get an offer to go D1? They needed to make cuts, and going D1 gave Trev a reason to make those cuts.
It cost so much more to run and have D-1 programs. The money that will be spent in recruting and traveling to away games in conference will negate much of that money that is brought in. And even if it is enough to pay the bills for MBB. Now you have to support every other mens and womens sport and their travel as well. The avg distance to the MIAA schools was 238 miles (3.5 hour bus ride). The Summit teams avg a distance of 543 miles and would be traveled by air. Last time I checked airplanes tickets/charters are more expensive than gas and maintenance on university vehicles. This move will cost millions.
Oral Roberts, Oakland and IUPUI have all participated in the NCAA tourney in the last decade. I'd think that playing these teams yearly, along with the possibility of even entering the Big Dance will likely draw more than 500 attendees per game. These new D1 programs might not be instant "money makers," but have they ever been while under D-II? This move at least gives programs like basketball and baseball a chance to generate some major interest. The truth is that even with a very successful season in the FCS, most people would still care less about UNO football (except if/when they played Nebraska of course). As for wrestling, the interest is just not there (and likely wouldn't ever be there)- the program is at its pinnacle, and the vast majority of people probably didn't even know/care that they were even competing for a national title. ...That was obviously before that the OWH article came out. Now people are acting as if UNO wrestling is their favoritest thing in the whole wide world and that they've been super duper fans of it for years and years and years!
To touch on a point you made " Now people are acting as if UNO wrestling is their favoritest thing in the whole wide world and that they've been super duper fans of it for years and years and years!"
How does this look " Now people are acting as if UNO wrestling basketball is their favoritest thing in the whole wide world and that they've been super duper fans of it for years and years and years!"
There have not been fans, the fan support will not really increase by much. How many people in omaha really care about IUPUI? Hell how many people even know what it stands for? Will UNO draw more than 500...probably. Will the 1000 people that do come be enough to cover the lease costs for the arena? And how many people will come to watch that were not already there? And as for the 'Big dance', there is a national 64 team tourney in D-2 also. With Elite 8's and Final 4's. And UNO could never sniff that. So now they are jumping up a division to chase a dream on getting in the D-1 big dance. Maybe if, and that is a big if, they could put together a good run, have a talented team that upsets a big 6 conference team during the regular season and can get people excited. Maybe they get upto 4000 a game. that is just for 1 year. What about the other years? Point is attendance is a huge guess. My guess is it will be roughly the same as it is now. maybe a couple hundred more.
Fun stat of the day, lets look at average attendence from last year in college basketball per conference.
AVG for SUMMIT - 2151 fans per game
AVG for MIAA (D2)- 1691 fans per game
Big time difference for some big time basketball.....
As I said before, I could care less about UNO and its teams. I just think the "reasons" for the move are faulty and short sighted at best. It seems choices are being made in the best interest of a few and ignoring the whole.
