Post by acuwildcat86 on Feb 6, 2014 13:57:40 GMT -6
Here's one very obvious reason why we are no longer D2. Go take a look at WT's recruiting class of 54 signees! No joke, they got NLI from 54 kids. Several of them won't even be there for freshmen orientation. Most of them won't be there this time next year. But some will. I didn't really look at many of them, except a few of the bigger DL and LBs to compare to ours. (Side note: want to have fun? Pull up the Hudl video of Dylan Douglass. His teammate, OLB #56, is a WT commit. You will clearly see the difference in a D1 athlete and a D2 athlete. Different league completely) This post isn't to compare the classes, it's apples to oranges. The point is, WT can give 54 kids partial scholarships. And by partial, I mean a few hundred dollars. Of those 54 kids, 10 or so may be there the full 5 years, and that would be a great class for them. But those ten kids will stay because even though they may have a 1/4 scholarship or less, they only accumulate $3,000-$4,000 debt after one year, and $15,000 total if they never receive more than 1/4 or 1/2 scholarship by the time they leave. They'll pay that off in two or three years. They don't really have any strong incentive to leave WT or the football team.
The same scenario at ACU and a kid would walk away with $15,000-$20,000 PER YEAR in debt. No kid in their right mind would do that, if football was their only reason for being here. They would simply transfer to WT/Angelo/Tarleton/etc. ACU had no choice but to give more money to fewer athletes than their former LSC peers. Since it's mostly a numbers game, this equates to much lower odds of succeeding. It also means that ACU had less depth than their counterparts. Since this is a money-only argument, I'll leave out the academic issues, which only exacerbates the problem.
Moving to D1 means that EVERY opponent can only have, at most, 30 NLIs every year and only 85 total kids on scholarship. (They also have a higher min. Academic standard=to ACU's, but I digress). The scholarship rules mean that every school we now face, has the same limits we do. Every school spreads more money to fewer athletes. This is an arena in which we can compete. WT is simply signing tons of kids, knowing most of them won't make it. They're throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks.
The same scenario at ACU and a kid would walk away with $15,000-$20,000 PER YEAR in debt. No kid in their right mind would do that, if football was their only reason for being here. They would simply transfer to WT/Angelo/Tarleton/etc. ACU had no choice but to give more money to fewer athletes than their former LSC peers. Since it's mostly a numbers game, this equates to much lower odds of succeeding. It also means that ACU had less depth than their counterparts. Since this is a money-only argument, I'll leave out the academic issues, which only exacerbates the problem.
Moving to D1 means that EVERY opponent can only have, at most, 30 NLIs every year and only 85 total kids on scholarship. (They also have a higher min. Academic standard=to ACU's, but I digress). The scholarship rules mean that every school we now face, has the same limits we do. Every school spreads more money to fewer athletes. This is an arena in which we can compete. WT is simply signing tons of kids, knowing most of them won't make it. They're throwing crap at the wall and seeing what sticks.
? I never knew one could throw out that many schollies in d2. 