The Boise Model

[proasu89]

Finally got to put my 2 years of Latin to use!

[AppSt94]

There is a small percentage of fans saying they are pulling support.

There is a small percentage of fans saying that are satisfied with the results the last three years.

There is a growing faction sending messages privately to those that are in positions to make decisions.

The next weeks that group may become larger and more vocal.

Fans just don't understand and shouldn't have an opinion. They should send more money and be quiet.

Now you’re getting it.

[BallantyneApp]

Lol wow. I love the assumptions people make. We will never be Boise State. Yall can believe it until the world ends and it won't make it so. Let me know when yall find that extra 20mil+ a year we would need just to try to be where boise is right now. I'll wait..........

It really isn't a good comparison and never was.

Now as far as the comments about us "dominating fbs"....please. Dominating FBS is what Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and a few others did the last 15 to 20 years. We got some great wins and some nice seasons, but dominating? Cmon man, be reasonable.

Lol and the roach comment. Goos grief. All the things I've said on here over the years and you think I'm roach like. Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess. That dude has some serious real-estate in some minds on here.

Whatever, I'll leave this thread alone too so yall can wallow in it playing pretend.

If you're referring to me, I said dominating an FBS conference for half a decade, not FBS. If you don't think "lil' ole Appy State" dominated the SBC from 2015-2019, not sure what else we could have done.

As for the boise state comparison- our reported budget for 2023 was $46mm, Boise was $60MM. Delta of $14MM, not $20MM.

And boise grew from $48MM in 2018 to $60MM in 2023. We are in a very similar situation to Boise just 5 years ago. No one here is saying "we're boise levels now", all we're saying is that if we keep growing we can be at boise levels one day.

This is really not outrageous I'm not sure why chicken little syndrome is rampant here. Boise has a similar student body than us. The biggest difference between them and us is the conference payout. We need to get the SBC to be as close as possible to MWC/new PAC or join a conference with a higher payout.

[BallantyneApp]

There are schools who apparently withstand some average seasons and still have no trouble packing in students-most of which don’t take the whole thing as seriously as some do here. Those young folks will continue to tailgate, drink and scream wildly at games. These schools will still have alumni come with their tents and other tailgate stuff. At App and other schools it comes down to the check writers, many of which either have more money than sense, are excessively delusional or probably both. We all know that sports are are a results based proposition and I really doubt that the segment of fans not screaming for heads to roll is happy with results-isn’t it possible to be unhappy, want better results and also not necessarily wanting mass firings every single time we drop off some?

That “have fun” comment has been beaten to death but seriously isn’t that supposed to be what it’s all about? Can’t someone wish for people to enjoy themselves and have fun (still be disappointed at results), but keep things in perspective and not live and die by a football record? I think it’s very sad to read App alumni/“fans” say publicly that they won’t renew tickets if changes aren’t made. It’s absolutely a free country and people can do whatever they want with their money but a great majority of us have the innate ability to move on from a game each week.

if Clark made what the median employee at App State made I'd be on board with this. But hes the highest paid person in the university, including his boss and their boss.

Hes paid the highest amount to deliver wins which increases the exposure the university receives. If we just wanted to have fun and not care about exposure or wins we could have stayed FCS and paid our coach 200k and that would be fine.

But if we're going to pay our coach the highest in the university and probably pay most/all of the assistant coaches more than the average professor makes- what should we grade them on?

[appst89]

There is a small percentage of fans saying they are pulling support.

There is a small percentage of fans saying that are satisfied with the results the last three years.

There is a growing faction sending messages privately to those that are in positions to make decisions.

The next weeks that group may become larger and more vocal.

Fans just don't understand and shouldn't have an opinion. They should send more money and be quiet.

Now you’re getting it.

Unfortunately, I think a lot of people in the athletic office and their athletic supporters feel the same. Probably accounts for a lot of the disconnect with fans.

[BambooRdApp]

The payouts difference per conference appears to be approximately $4 million.

I understand the population difference between states... however, NC has ECU, NC State, UNC, Dook, WF, UNC-C and App competing for grads and dollars. What does Boise St. have for competition...Idaho Vandals..
Inherently, there is a difference in my opinion.

With that said, football should always be the primary focus due to revenue. If that means, cutting other sports, we should cut them

We need Alumni to give more if we want Boise levels. It is what it is.

However, I think we can compete as history has demonstrated we can. It may be more difficult to do so consistently. We got a home town discount with Satt as he was transitioning to FBS, alumni...and building a name for himself. He had personal reasons to remain at App.
Not sure we will see that in future unless we pay more for HC and top two assistants. Boise coach at roughly $1.1 million and Clark a little over $925....not sure how other incentives play into it.

[canes_mj]

The expression "be Boise" is weird...but I completely disagree with the idea App cannot achieve Boise level success. We can and should be competing for the G5 playoff bid most years; and it can be sustained. We're one of the few G5 programs that have a somewhat national brand/profile; people recognize the App name; they remember Michigan. We have facilities and fan support and football culture and history that's well beyond most other G5 schools. We have cool uniforms; a true college town that's enjoyable to live in for students/players. Yes we're in a state with ACC schools, none of whom are football schools....the only 2 football centric schools in this state are App and ECU. Drink's year we were 1 or 2 plays in some weird weather vs GaSo from undefeated and a NY6 bowl....no reason to think we can't get back to that. I know the portal and NIL are going to come up....every single G5 school is dealing with those same issues...use them right and they're a major advantage to us vs our peers; we're not bidding vs Alabama or Georgia; but if the choice is Georgia STATE or SOUTH Alabama, we should have a clear advantage there. If you were a player, would you rather play at UL-Monroe, or App? I'd encourage everyone if possible to go to some road games; G5 road games, not just the P4 money game....look and compare everything about the university and the atmosphere and the gameday...just compare everything. Not many peer G5 schools and programs that have it better than us. Negative and self limiting thinking to rationalize losing does us no good.

[canes_mj]

As long as we have fun 4-7 is a fine season.

That's our record? I was too busy singing the national anthem and sliding down the hill. Didn't even notice.

[Mjohn1988]

As long as we have fun 4-7 is a fine season.

That's our record? I was too busy singing the national anthem and sliding down the hill. Didn't even notice.

Being realistic there really are a bunch of people who came to the games and have no idea what our record is. They really did just come for the party.

[ASUFan4863]

I appreciate the OP for sharing this article. It was very insightful and a great read.

PSA - if you have an IPhone, you click the “aA” button on your Safari browser where you type in websites and click “show reader”. This will show articles behind a paywall for free. Not sure how it works but it has always worked for me.

There are a lot of similarities between App and Boise. Their AD saw what was happening with the program and made a change before it got too far off the tracks. However, they have an AD who is very strong financially. My two main questions are:
1. Is our train off the tracks or just struggling to move?
2. Do we have the correct AD for the new age of college football?

I don’t believe Clark is the right guy anymore, but I will say this until the cows come home - there are many reasons why I'm worried our issues are far greater than the coach.

[WASU 93]

Lol wow. I love the assumptions people make. We will never be Boise State. Yall can believe it until the world ends and it won't make it so. Let me know when yall find that extra 20mil+ a year we would need just to try to be where boise is right now. I'll wait..........

It really isn't a good comparison and never was.

Now as far as the comments about us "dominating fbs"....please. Dominating FBS is what Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, and a few others did the last 15 to 20 years. We got some great wins and some nice seasons, but dominating? Cmon man, be reasonable.

Lol and the roach comment. Goos grief. All the things I've said on here over the years and you think I'm roach like. Whatever helps you sleep at night I guess. That dude has some serious real-estate in some minds on here.

Whatever, I'll leave this thread alone too so yall can wallow in it playing pretend.

If you're referring to me, I said dominating an FBS conference for half a decade, not FBS. If you don't think "lil' ole Appy State" dominated the SBC from 2015-2019, not sure what else we could have done.

As for the boise state comparison- our reported budget for 2023 was $46mm, Boise was $60MM. Delta of $14MM, not $20MM.

And boise grew from $48MM in 2018 to $60MM in 2023. We are in a very similar situation to Boise just 5 years ago. No one here is saying "we're boise levels now", all we're saying is that if we keep growing we can be at boise levels one day.

This is really not outrageous I'm not sure why chicken little syndrome is rampant here. Boise has a similar student body than us. The biggest difference between them and us is the conference payout. We need to get the SBC to be as close as possible to MWC/new PAC or join a conference with a higher payout.

https://knightnewhousedata.org/reports/bcf34c77


The Revenue Comparisons

They also beat us on Donor Contributions, Corporate Sponsorships and Other Revenue.

I still think the potential idea is to hire a Pro Sports marketing firm/expert to go after Corporate Sponsorships. With our active fanbase, game environment and optics, our brand could be a home run for Sponsorships. Take the 90's NASCAR model. NASCAR fans supported the brands that sponsored the sport, which is why Corporate America used to want to be a part of the excitement.

[AppWyo]

One thing one must remember is that Boise State does not have to play in the Sun Belt East.

If Boise State had to play in the Sun Belt East, I doubt they would have the wins that they have had.

It was not until Troy got out of the Sun Belt East the previous two season that allowed them to have the success they have enjoyed.

[BeauFoster]

I’d also guess that Boise State has higher travel costs for its sports (not just football) than we do, simply because of our conference setup. We’re very fortunate to be so close to our conference rivals. I’d wager our farthest division opponent is closer than Boise’s closest (or nearly so)