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It’s time to move up to the FBS the Mountain West preferably.

Son is mostly sucking wind. Surgery after surgery. Cane, walker, wheelchair. Initially, over 30 days in hospital and 12 days of ICU. Phoenix has good healthcare. They caught the guy. A car following the guy followed him to his house, after he drove off. He served time in jail. He had no money. A woman on the sidewalk ran to the street to block traffic. Then she turned to our son. He was motionless. She assumed he was dead. Then this motionless body started talking to her.
Asked her if he was paralyzed. She said in the police report that this scared her,
I.e. a dead body talking.
Holy crap! I’m so sorry to hear about your son. I pray everything goes well in his recovery.
 
Thx guys. He is a fairly tough kid and never complains. He’s had very good healthcare. He follows the Griz closely. With his recent shoulder surgery and the general difficulty of getting around, he wasn’t even interested in going to the Homecoming game when I asked a few days ago. 7 hours of shoulder surgery seems like a lot. He looks like a total cripple when he walks, but he has his technique and really can scoot. I suppose at 49 he may not be a kid anymore. He doesn’t drive. In Phoenix, he’s a total public transportation guy with some uber and catching rides to the public transportation. Having been a good athlete helps. He could dunk as a frosh in high school and maybe even 8th grade. He’s smart and knows a lot. Lots of reading. I still haven’t challenged him to a foot race. He seems to have the attitude that you just go with what you have. It’s been 3.5 years. He has more surgeries coming as things deteriorate. He gets wicked joint infections. He didn’t push to have the driver prosecuted, but he was. He said he didn’t want one mistake to ruin the kid’s life. My guess is that the kid has made many mistakes in his life and is probably bad news. But what to you do. Just keep getting up and trying to move forward.
 
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Thx guys. He is a fairly tough kid and never complains. He’s had very good healthcare. He follows the Griz closely. With his recent shoulder surgery and the general difficulty of getting around, he wasn’t even interested in going to the Homecoming game when I asked a few days ago. 7 hours of shoulder surgery seems like a lot. He looks like a total cripple when he walks, but he has his technique and really can scoot. I suppose at 49 he may not be a kid anymore. He doesn’t drive. In Phoenix, he’s a total public transportation guy with some uber and catching rides to the public transportation. Having been a good athlete helps. He could dunk as a frosh in high school and maybe even 8th grade. He’s smart and knows a lot. Lots of reading. I still haven’t challenged him to a foot race. He seems to have the attitude that you just go with what you have. It’s been 3.5 years. He has more surgeries coming as things deteriorate. He gets wicked joint infections. He didn’t push to have the driver prosecuted, but he was. He said he didn’t want one mistake to ruin the kid’s life. My guess is that the kid has made many mistakes in his life and is probably bad news. But what to you do. Just keep getting up and trying to move forward.
He sounds like a hell of a kid. I'm glad he can be with you while he recovers.
 

Pulled this from a Super West Sports article. The numbers are a little outdated. I know someone presented what UM's and MSU's income and expenditures a while back, but are we even in the same realm right now. I vaguely remember the revenue and expenses were in the $25mil area. So moving up to the Mtn. West would require doubling (at least) the income/expenses. But moving up also exposes the school to higher income streams in TV revenue, NCAA Tourney payouts, and TV revenue for other sports besides football. I'm very curious how much the revenue numbers below would change for future years from three specific sources. The first is the MW inked a reportedly $270 million television deal for football, signed in 2020 and running through 2026. Reporting indicates each school receives $4 million each year for that deal. Any new deal might not be as lucrative based on the uncertainty about who will still be a member after leaving for the Pac 2.

Which leads to the second funding significant funding source, the poaching fees the two conferences are fighting over for taking all the "State" schools. The total MW says it is owed is over $145 million. I'm guessing that number will be negotiated down by the parties. Or maybe not.

The third source of revenue not accounted for in the below chart would be the NCAA Basketball Tourney payouts. The amount of each unit is not known until the full payout is made over 6 years, but they had 8 units in 2023, 10 in 2024, and 6 units for 2025. Each unit is estimated to be around $2mil.

I also believe the total expenses will change due to the new NIL/profit sharing rules in place, that were not so in 2022/23. I would assume that with the new rules in place, instead spending money on admin., extra analysts, the facility wars, etc., that money will be spent on the student athletes. The money will still be spent, but just in a different way.

I would love it if UM moved up to the Mountain West. It seems the current FCS is very watered down and littered with a large number of teams that really do not care about winning. However, a move up would require a large influx of money to the athletic department, require UM to increase its profit sharing with athletes, perhaps add a sport or two. But some of the money would come directly from the conference itself based on the revenue stream discussed.

2022-23 Revenue, Expenses, and Profit/Loss by MWC School



(Edit: Sorry the Formatting is all discombobulated. I'll try and fix later.)
 
Attendance won’t be going up when the Griz are scheduled for a Friday, Thursday or the ever popular Wednesday night game.
None of the Mountain West games are on any day other than Saturday though (save the two Thursday and Friday games on week 1 for San Diego State and San Jose State)... and Friday attendance wouldn't be much of a drastic drop for the one-off...

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It’s hard to say what exactly what happen if the Griz had moved up. 2012 was not an ideal era for the program.
 
None of the Mountain West games are on any day other than Saturday though (save the two Thursday and Friday games on week 1 for San Diego State and San Jose State)... and Friday attendance wouldn't be much of a drastic drop for the one-off...

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The WAC as the place where the majority of these teams came from and the Mountain West have never taken an FCS program straight into their fold. I believe that is why they don't want Sac State football. I don't see Montana sliding in there because of the pending defection to the PAC.
Also, do we really want to be in a conference with Hawaii? That's not an easy trip and it's expensive.
As for weeknight football, I don't think there is any guarantee with their TV deal with CBSSN that they wouldn't start that.
Sam Houston State is getting killed by these weeknight games, they just drew 5,400 on Thursday night. They are playing in Houston this year because of their stadium press box construction so no students, but there are a lot of Sam Houston alums in Houston. Being 0-6 doesn't help, but it's the combination of all of it that is proving hurtful.
I just don't see the MW making some new move and allowing Montana to be the first FCS team jumping right in there because they still feel that they are that next one under P4 or even an equal to them and the more probable addition would seem to be New Mexico State and UTEP.
 
We should hold out for the SEC or NFL. Don't sell ourselves short.
Lmao even tho im not a Montana fan up right. Im an Ole Miss rebels fan. The SEC is ready for yall if yall hate bama. Montana is probably my 2nd favorite FCS school (northern Colorado is my 1st being i was gonna go there) but the grizzlies arent a bad team at all sure but in all seriousness they probably would fit a conference like the mountain west or going to the pac 2 or big 10 tbh i think yall could rival schools like northwestern and rutgers fairly well.
 
Lmao even tho im not a Montana fan up right. Im an Ole Miss rebels fan. The SEC is ready for yall if yall hate bama. Montana is probably my 2nd favorite FCS school (northern Colorado is my 1st being i was gonna go there) but the grizzlies arent a bad team at all sure but in all seriousness they probably would fit a conference like the mountain west or going to the pac 2 or big 10 tbh i think yall could rival schools like northwestern and rutgers fairly well.
What does Ole Miss pay its running backs?
 
What does moving "up" do for our program?
Give us the possibility of playing in some worthless shambles of a bowl game and take away the excitement of playoff football in WAGriz?
Ensure that we will never play for another national championship?
Drive up ticket prices farther?

What exactly does Montana football have to gain by this?


27K in the stadium last Saturday, you'll have 2700 if this team is playing in a dud ass conference and losing.


We have seen Idaho fail and come back with their tail tucked between their legs. They are better in football now, but I don't think their basketball program will ever be what it was in the 70s and 80s.

I am seeing it fail with Sam Houston State and I don't believe Kennesaw State is exactly healthy right now.

Dream of moving up, but be careful what you wish for.
This is the correct and intelligent take on that idea.
 
Son is mostly sucking wind. Surgery after surgery. Cane, walker, wheelchair. Initially, over 30 days in hospital and 12 days of ICU. Phoenix has good healthcare. They caught the guy. A car following the guy followed him to his house, after he drove off. He served time in jail. He had no money. A woman on the sidewalk ran to the street to block traffic. Then she turned to our son. He was motionless. She assumed he was dead. Then this motionless body started talking to her.
Asked her if he was paralyzed. She said in the police report that this scared her,
I.e. a dead body talking.
this sounds familiar. back in the 90's i was in miami beach, walking on the sidewalk with my now ex, and some guy who was wasted apparently jumped the curb and hit me, tossing me several feet, i'm told. i don't remember any of it, though, just waking up in the hospital in screaming pain. the doctor hovering over me asked what the date was, and i looked down and saw i was wearing shorts, so i answered it was in the summer. it was in december. spent a week or so in intensive care, and a few weeks in the hospital with a broken neck, along with a bunch of other bones. spent a couple months in a halo, etc... the guy who hit me had a long record of being a cocaine dealer and a pimp. didn't have insurance. the cops let him go and then said they couldn't find him after that, but i don't know how hard they looked. it took a long time to heal from that one, but in the end, the only really obvious problem that remained is a shoulder that pops out of joint from time to time. i guess you could say i was 'lucky'. hope your son is, as well.
 
this sounds familiar. back in the 90's i was in miami beach, walking on the sidewalk with my now ex, and some guy who was wasted apparently jumped the curb and hit me, tossing me several feet, i'm told. i don't remember any of it, though, just waking up in the hospital in screaming pain. the doctor hovering over me asked what the date was, and i looked down and saw i was wearing shorts, so i answered it was in the summer. it was in december. spent a week or so in intensive care, and a few weeks in the hospital with a broken neck, along with a bunch of other bones. spent a couple months in a halo, etc... the guy who hit me had a long record of being a cocaine dealer and a pimp. didn't have insurance. the cops let him go and then said they couldn't find him after that, but i don't know how hard they looked. it took a long time to heal from that one, but in the end, the only really obvious problem that remained is a shoulder that pops out of joint from time to time. i guess you could say i was 'lucky'. hope your son is, as well.
Thanks. Too bad for you. You seem good now. Our guy is much worse. His shoes were found 20 and 30 feet away. They were tied. Apparently in hard hits like this, shoes often fly off, I have come to learn. And I think I said above, that when the driver drove off, he ran over our son’s back shoulder and upper of arm, crushing the joint and leaving a tire tread mark on the back of our son’s shirt. The latest surgery is a follow up on the shoulder. Next up, another hip joint surgery, from 2 crushed hip joints. With having to use a cane or walker, and not being able to move one arm at all, he can’t take care of himself. Still good on the clicker, though. He needs to quit listening to Fox News.
 
I heard the MW was ready to invite UM, MSU, NDSU, and MsDUI but UNLV and Air Force basically blocked it with their demand for additional payouts that would have gone to these schools to cover move up fees and adding additional sports.
I highly doubt this. Doesn’t make sense that this would be true.
 
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Lets check in with Sam Houston and see how things are going.
Things are not going well. The grass isnt always greener on the other side.

0 - 7
671 home attendance last game. Thats not a typo.
Program is dying
Money is running out
 
Lets check in with Sam Houston and see how things are going.
Things are not going well. The grass isnt always greener on the other side.

0 - 7
671 home attendance last game. Thats not a typo.
Program is dying
Money is running out
Using Sam Houston as a case study for why not to move up is like using Idaho. Both schools were incredibly not prepared for a move up. And their low attendance has more to do with Sam Houston's Bowers Stadium going under renovation in 2025 and the team playing an hour south in Houston Proper. Call it the "Portland State effect".

Montana is much more in line with ability to move up with the likes of App State, JMU, Coastal Carolina than Idaho or Sam Houston ever were.
 
Lets check in with Sam Houston and see how things are going.
Things are not going well. The grass isnt always greener on the other side.

0 - 7
671 home attendance last game. Thats not a typo.
Program is dying
Money is running out
That must be a typo, or you're looking in the wrong place for the attendance. It shows 4,657 for last night's game against UTEP.

I don't disagree though, my wife is an alum of SHSU. Playing at Bowers Stadium would not change the 0-7 record and if this game was in Huntsville, the attendance would not be that much higher. There are a lot of Sam Houston grads in Houston, (it's not like they are playing in a suburb to us the term "proper").

As I have said before, this team is surrounded by talent in TX and close enough to Big Twelve and SEC teams to get in transfers. They are not at all like Idaho, the enrollment is over 20K, located right next door to the death chamber.

It is very accurate that they weren't ready to move up, but I think you can say the same for a lot of the recent schools to do so. There are many of them hiding in the same places that boost their records feeding off of one another.

Point to me the successes that have been achieved by Coastal Carolina, Appalachian State, Marshall and Troy. I leave off James Madison, Jacksonville State and Kennesaw State since they just made the jump but they haven't done much better.
 
Thanks. Too bad for you. You seem good now. Our guy is much worse. His shoes were found 20 and 30 feet away. They were tied. Apparently in hard hits like this, shoes often fly off, I have come to learn. And I think I said above, that when the driver drove off, he ran over our son’s back shoulder and upper of arm, crushing the joint and leaving a tire tread mark on the back of our son’s shirt. The latest surgery is a follow up on the shoulder. Next up, another hip joint surgery, from 2 crushed hip joints. With having to use a cane or walker, and not being able to move one arm at all, he can’t take care of himself. Still good on the clicker, though. He needs to quit listening to Fox News.
i wish your son the best - ha, my shoes got tossed, too. they only found one.

oh, and i was long ago an advocate for moving up, but after the loss of so many students, caused by lousy upper administration and other factors, i changed my mind.
 
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