Now that Idaho has finally tasted success on the football field...

[BamaDude]

is there any chance the Vandals reverse their decision to go FCS & join the Big Sky Conference in 2018?

 

[ericd7633]

cc @Cave_Johnson

 

[Olyduck]

no a 9-4 season in the sun belt is solid for them but they are being kicked out no matter what. they would then have to come up with an independent schedule where they would likely face tougher competition. there are limited teams on the west coast they could be competitive with.
1 FCS team, a couple MWC teams BYU, New Mexico State each year. they would likely pick up a few Pac schools. Maybe teams like UTEP, Tulsa, SUM, UTSA that are "only" half way across the country.
I think in the future if an opportunity presents itself for a better fit of a conference and they have sustained FCS success they may try to move back up but for right now I think they still go FCS and it is the right move.

 

[BamaDude]

I knew they would not get a reprieve from the SBC. Just wondered if the admin might want to try to stick it out a couple more years.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

Short answer: No. But the short answer isn't all that interesting.

I'll type up something explaining specifically why it's not going to happen and why Idaho is in this situation right now to begin with. Will post later.

 

[Olyduck]

Also 1 good season doesn't mean success. they need to sustain it

 

[AlaskaGuy]

Short answer: No. But the short answer isn't all that interesting.

I'll type up something explaining specifically why it's not going to happen and why Idaho is in this situation right now to begin with. Will post later.

Location screwed Idaho imo. Going to be some solid competition though with the likes of Montana, Eastern Washington and Portland St. There's nothing soft about that conference.

 

[wazzu31]

Location screwed Idaho imo. Going to be some solid competition though with the likes of Montana, Eastern Washington and Portland St. There's nothing soft about that conference.

Moscow Idaho is a better place to go watch football than Berkeley, Palto Alto. The Palouse is the definition of college towns, you learn how to be a man in college towns instead of city schools where you go and still have mommy wash your underwear.

 

[AlaskaGuy]

Moscow Idaho is a better place to go watch football than Berkeley, Palto Alto. The Palouse is the definition of college towns, you learn how to be a man in college towns instead of city schools where you go and still have mommy wash your underwear.

You might be right but it's tough to fill a football stadium when you're located in an isolated place such as Moscow.

 

[wazzu31]

You might be right but it's tough to fill a football stadium when you're located in an isolated place such as Moscow.

Hence why our stadiums are so small. I don't know any of the reasons but there has to be some political reason Idaho went into the dumps while the state allowed a community college to become the flag ship school.

 

[theboardref]

Location screwed Idaho imo. Going to be some solid competition though with the likes of Montana, Eastern Washington and Portland St. There's nothing soft about that conference.

Not familiar with Portland State, but the other two schools are pretty much on par with the Sun Belt. A few of the mid-major conferences have become glorified FCS conferences as it is.

 

[Wamu]

Also 1 good season doesn't mean success. they need to sustain it

You talkin' about Idaho, Oregon or both? Well gotta get goin'...

 

[Olyduck]

You talkin' about Idaho, Oregon or both? Well gotta get goin'...

Well considering Oregon has had more than 1 good season

 

[Wamu]

Well considering Oregon has had more than 1 good season

It was a joke, lighten up.

 

[BamaDude]

I know part of Idaho's problem was the same as many of the many California schools from the Big West that dropped football several years ago - they wanted to be an FBS school without committing to properly growing the program - that's why a former juco like Boise St. was able to leave them in the dust. They were an FBS school with an FCS mindset.

 

[nddulac]

I have one word for you: Kibbie Dome.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

Alright, long version time. Buckle up ya fucks, this is going to be kind of long. In fact, it needs to be two parts.

Part I: Idaho’s History and How They ‘Dun Goofed

I’ll start by addressing the thread title. For one, Idaho has had success at the FBS level in the past, albeit short-lived. They were actually pretty competitive for their first four years in FBS (1996-1999) under Chris Tormey going 26-18 with a Big West conference championship and a bowl win in the 1998 Humanitarian Bowl (they were 16 point dogs to Southern Miss in that one) and a 7-4 season in 1999 (no bowl that year due to not winning the conference). Not too shabby.

After 1999 is the point where things appear to go south, however it’s my opinion that a lot of Idaho’s issues started well before the departure of Chris Tormey. For one, I don’t believe the University was fully prepared to move up. I think they wanted to move up at some point, but were pretty much forced to take the only opportunity they thought they’d have when BSU moved up in 1995. Idaho conducted a comprehensive study showing that D1-A was more lucrative than D1-AA, but they failed to realize what changes would have to be made in order to maintain a successful D1-A program. Honestly, they’ve never really had it figured out at any point in the school’s history.

Going back to the Pacific Coast Conference days Idaho, like Montana, was traditionally a pushover. Surprisingly the Vandals did manage two basketball titles and technically shared one football title during their 36 years in that conference. After the PCC folded in 1959 Idaho didn’t have enough support from other schools in the conference or from their own state to get grandfathered into the Pac-8. Instead they were forced to go independent for a few years and eventually became a founding member of the D2 Big Sky in 1965. However they continued to compete at the D1 level in football until DI-AA was formed in 1978. They were actually invited to join the D1 PCAA in 1973 but the State Board of Education ordered that Idaho not accept the invite. A lot of political bullshit fucked U of I pretty bad right there and I imagine things wouldn’t be so shitty right now if they weren’t forced to not accept an invite to a much better conference.

Anyway, up until 1978 Idaho had had 4 winning football seasons in 40 years. That’s shitty. They even were pretty mediocre in the Big Sky until 1982 when they were lucky enough to hire Dennis Erickson. He turned things around and Idaho pretty much picked his coaching tree dry until they made the mistake of hiring Tom Cable (who played under Erickson) as the head coach in 1999 after Tormey made what at the time was essentially a lateral move to Nevada. I’ve heard Tormey’s departure had a lot to do with disagreements between himself and the AD in terms of scheduling, but don’t quote me on that.

The point is Idaho road a string of great coaching hires for years and pretty much ignored everything else that was necessary to grow an FBS program. When they won the H-Bowl in 1998 they should have started working on facility expansion and promoting the U of I brand. They didn’t. They assumed going to Erickson’s tree over and over again would work. Problem is, if you keep picking the same tree over and over again you’re eventually going to get a bad apple. And damn if they didn’t get a rotten one in Tom Cable.

Aside from just being a dickhead human being Cable was a poor recruiter, was disliked by many players, and ran one of the most bland, predictable college offenses I’ve ever seen. Cable was fired a few years too late in 2003. During this time Idaho had moved from the Big West to the Sun Belt and hired a glorified accountant from the college of agriculture as athletic director.

Enter AD Rob Spear a.k.a. Teflon Rob. This guy is a prime example of someone who has good intentions, but just doesn’t know what the fuck he’s doing. At all. He realized something needed to be done to the Kibbie Dome at some point to make it a legit FBS venue. His solution: Add a luxury box that actually decreases the total capacity and then stick some shiny windows on the ends of the dome. This was useless.

After Cable was canned, Nick Holt came in and recruited some real good talent before bolting after two bad years to become DC at USC. It was during Holt’s regime that Idaho left the Sun Belt for the WAC. Dennis Erickson came back as HC the next year and IMO overachieved going 4-8 before leaving for ASU. It’s worth noting that Erickson claimed Idaho would be his last HC stop.

Robb Akey came in the next year and was pretty miserable for a few years until all the talent recruited by Holt came through. Idaho managed another H-Bowl win in 2009 and again did nothing to help keep the momentum going. No facilities plan, no marketing plan. No. Just sit back and hope it all goes well.

Akey ended up being too lax of a coach. The team had zero discipline and after Holt’s guys graduated the program fell apart again. The WAC dissolved and Idaho ended up being forced to go independent for one year before the Sun Belt added them for a second time.

That first year of independence in 2013 was Paul Petrino’s first year as HC. Idaho won 1 game that year and I’m still not sure how that even happened. That team was god fucking awful. Petrino inherited an absolute dumpster fire. Yet somehow he has been able to turn things around. Idaho has improved every year he’s been the coach. That absolute ass raping of Colorado State on national TV in route to the first bowl victory in a while gave me the boner of the century. As of now it looks like the UI administration may have gotten lucky with another hire.

Unfortunately, no matter what happens next year it’s all for naught. Too little too late. Years of poor leadership and decisions put Idaho in this shit situation. Even so they might still be in a position to keep their FBS ship afloat if not for “Dumb Fuck” Chuck Staben, the current president. Past leadership chopped down the wood and cut it into the proper pieces. But Chuckles was the guy who put those pieces together and drove the nails into the coffin.

Stay tuned for Part II: Getting Chucked in the Ass

 

[Cave_Johnson]

Location screwed Idaho imo. Going to be some solid competition though with the likes of Montana, Eastern Washington and Portland St. There's nothing soft about that conference.

Location, facilities, bad leadership, I could go on. There's no one correct answer.

You know I actually was pretty sure Idaho would drop down and just suck given the strength of the Big Sky conference at the time. This was more than a year ago though. I do think with Paul Petrino as head coach they will always be competitive. Problem is his aspirations are higher than being an FCS coach. His son is on the team so that's keeping him here for now but I think he'll take off as soon as his kid graduates. And I don't blame him.

As far as the competition in that league.... I don't know. Portland State had a couple upsets but hasn't been that great recently.

EWU just lost their Top 5 FCS coach to a P5 coordinator position. We'll have to see how that goes.

UND is leaving the conference after being one of the best teams the last few years.

And Montana? Well they talk a lot of shit but they finished 8th in the league last year and lost to 10th place Montana State in their final game.

Seems to me the league is trending downward. Going to be pretty sad if Idaho can't compete.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

Moscow Idaho is a better place to go watch football than Berkeley, Palto Alto. The Palouse is the definition of college towns, you learn how to be a man in college towns instead of city schools where you go and still have mommy wash your underwear.

The Palouse: Where we get drunk and jump off frat house roofs just to show how tough we are.

 

[Cave_Johnson]

Hence why our stadiums are so small. I don't know any of the reasons but there has to be some political reason Idaho went into the dumps while the state allowed a community college to become the flag ship school.

Politics plays apart of it too. Like I said, no one correct answer. The state of Idaho certainly doesn't value education and the system in place actually has its four public colleges along with the K-12 system competing against each other for resources. It's pretty much retarded.

And regardless of the whining from a certain group within the state that forced the SBOE to remove the flagship title from U of I, Idaho is still the flagship school in everything but name. All it takes is the exposure that comes with a good football team to change the perception though. Football ultimately rules all. Another reason this move is foolish.