Aloha means goodbye?

[TimmyDUBs]

On the one hand: Earn $25k-$40k per year. Pray you make the NFL, because otherwise you're a guy with a high school diploma and nothing worthwhile on your resume that will ever lead to a job making more than $25-$40k per year the rest of your life.

On the other hand, earn:

1. $1k per month as a cost-of-living stipend while getting your meals and housing paid for
2. Get a free college degree (maybe even a free graduate degree)
3. Get access to the highest sub-NFL level coaching, competition and training
4. Get media exposure that's somewhere between MLB and NHL players

Semi-pro ain't gonna happen. In fact, I think it's going the other way. MLB would rather have its players developed in college and have fewer levels of minor league baseball. Why do they need more than a team each for AAA and AA with deals to supply players to Latin America for Winter League?

I don't think it would be the "smart" choice for kids, but it might be a viable choice for kids who simply can't or don't want to do well academically or are talented but squeezed out of the limited space system and still think they can mature into NFL players. There would be anough of those types of kids with a handfull of 5 or 4 star talent to entertain a league of 20-30, especially if some players continue on longer than just a few years. (I am taking a strong devil's advocate approach to this, BTW)

The thing is, Hawaii could actually make a ton of money by hosting neutral site games and then cash in with 2 or more bowl games.

They might even be able to get a neutral site game every week of the season. I would bet that the Pac-12 would do a neutral there every single week.

I know I'd vote "yes" on a setup that gave the Buffs 4 home games / 4 road games / 1 neutral site game in Hawaii every single season for our Pac-12 schedule.

That's how the Pac-12 should cash in on that market and expand its brand West into the Pacific Islands and Asia. Not by adding the University of Hawaii.

This sounds kind of interesting. It would be fun for all the Pac 12 fan bases to plan a trip to Hawaii every couple years. The money wouldn't go anywhere near University of Hawaii, since it would be at Aloha Stadium. It would definitely keep Hawaii kids in the Pac 12 too.

Who's going to pay that kid?

if teams were able to have a coup of some 5- 4- and even 3-star players they'd pay them.

 

[sackman]

For those of you who have ties to the islands.

Could Hawaii make a go of FCS level football. You reduce the number of scholarships, you cut the cost of coaches, you travel much smaller teams and the expectations in terms of level of service go down. Would they be able to draw enough fans considering the lack of pro sports competition to make it worth bringing teams over.

I could see them schedule road trips to include 2 or even 3 games on a single trip (they have already done this at the FBS level.)

It would be a shame for college football to disappear from Hawaii but at this point the cost of maintaining a FBS program isn't justified by the financial support they manage to generate.

They're in a real pickle. I don't think FCS would work for them. Most FCS teams don't have the budgets to travel to the islands. I don't know how really small schools like Chaminade make it. Chaminade doesn't have a football program. The only sport they have that makes any money is football, and with the realignment, that just got killed. Their volleyball program is elite, but the rest of their athletics are pure garbage. They don't have the resources to improve those programs now, and they probably never will have them. I'm not aware of any uber rich sugar daddy types with connections to UH, either. Their football fans are passionate, and show up in decent numbers for games. The 2011 tailgate was a blast. Their stadium probably holds around 65K, and they probably put around 45K in there on a somewhat regular basis. 45K isn't bad for most schools, FBS, FCS, whatever.

I honestly don't know what they're going to do. They've been on a long, downward spiral for the last 10-15 years. June Jones notwithstanding, they've really struggled.

 

[sackman]

The thing is, Hawaii could actually make a ton of money by hosting neutral site games and then cash in with 2 or more bowl games.

They might even be able to get a neutral site game every week of the season. I would bet that the Pac-12 would do a neutral there every single week.

I know I'd vote "yes" on a setup that gave the Buffs 4 home games / 4 road games / 1 neutral site game in Hawaii every single season for our Pac-12 schedule.

That's how the Pac-12 should cash in on that market and expand its brand West into the Pacific Islands and Asia. Not by adding the University of Hawaii.

Could the Pac 12 do both? I'm wondering if, for instance, CU could play Oregon State in Honolulu one week, and follow up with a game against UH the following week. So the weeks where UH is on the road, the Pac 12 is playing a home game in Aloha Stadium. For the home games, they're playing a team that was just there the week before and stayed the week to cut down on travel costs.

Maybe? Hell, I don't know. I do think it would be unfortunate to lose UH's football program.

 

[MtnBuff]

They're in a real pickle. I don't think FCS would work for them. Most FCS teams don't have the budgets to travel to the islands. I don't know how really small schools like Chaminade make it. Chaminade doesn't have a football program. The only sport they have that makes any money is football, and with the realignment, that just got killed. Their volleyball program is elite, but the rest of their athletics are pure garbage. They don't have the resources to improve those programs now, and they probably never will have them. I'm not aware of any uber rich sugar daddy types with connections to UH, either. Their football fans are passionate, and show up in decent numbers for games. The 2011 tailgate was a blast. Their stadium probably holds around 65K, and they probably put around 45K in there on a somewhat regular basis. 45K isn't bad for most schools, FBS, FCS, whatever.

I honestly don't know what they're going to do. They've been on a long, downward spiral for the last 10-15 years. June Jones notwithstanding, they've really struggled.

They are stuck because of travel cost.

Thinking though that they are still the only game in town. If they could consistently draw 25-30k at home bringing in FCS teams would be way cheaper than BCS teams. You are talking about a travel party of 70-75 instead of 120-140. Get an airline to cut them a deal for sponsorship and put them on regularly scheduled flights instead of charters.

Payouts to visiting teams in FCS are much much lower so the overall cost of staging a game goes way down. It also may be attractive to some FCS programs to take a little bit of a financial hit to play on the islands if it isn't a high frequency deal. As I said on the back end schedule road games to combine some trips and cut travel costs as well.

In the end I don't know if they can make it make sense no matter what they do but it would be a shame if they lose it.

 

[DiggerBuffs]

I think there are two good options for saving Hawaii. They go independent and teams pay them to go there and get paid to travel.

They join the Pac 12 and join Boise State, BYU and CSU. This is based off CSU getting a new stadium. SDSU or another team as well that brings others would be good. The first 16 team power conference would be good and save some teams that should be part of the powers. Some Power 5 teams are in power conference teams why not some other guys?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[SuperiorBuff]

I think there are two good options for saving Hawaii. They go independent and teams pay them to go there and get paid to travel.

They join the Pac 12 and join Boise State, BYU and CSU. This is based off CSU getting a new stadium. SDSU or another team as well that brings others would be good. The first 16 team power conference would be good and save some teams that should be part of the powers. Some Power 5 teams are in power conference teams why not some other guys?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

:rofl:

 

[GoonieBuff]

:rofl:

Double that: :rofl::rofl:

 

[Buffnik]

I think there are two good options for saving Hawaii. They go independent and teams pay them to go there and get paid to travel.

They join the Pac 12 and join Boise State, BYU and CSU. This is based off CSU getting a new stadium. SDSU or another team as well that brings others would be good. The first 16 team power conference would be good and save some teams that should be part of the powers. Some Power 5 teams are in power conference teams why not some other guys?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You do realize that traveling to play at Hawaii was so undesirable to other colleges that the NCAA had to institute a rule that if you did it you could add an extra game to your schedule in order to make up for the lost money?

No one is going to pay Hawaii for the privilege of playing in their stadium.

Also, adding Hawaii doesn't make economic sense for Pac-12 expansion. Costs for all sports travel go up too much and UH isn't enough of a local media market or national draw to make up for that.

That football program's going to fold.

And I do believe there is a great reaction to that if the Pac-12 is smart.

- Hawaiians love football
- Pac-12 recruits Hawaii hard and signs a lot of Poly mainlanders on top of that
- Pac-12 has an unbalanced conference schedule by playing 9 games a year
- Pac-12 wants the Pacific media market

So... each Pac-12 team could play 1 neutral site game in Honolulu as part of conference play each year. Those teams could have their Bye week scheduled the following week to account for the travel. Also, if there isn't the UH auto-bid to the Hawaii Bowl, switch that up and make it a Pac-12 team (Hawaii's conference) as a fixed participant. Profit.

P.S. A trip to Hawaii every year would be a HUGE recruiting tool for the Pac-12.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

Could somebody send niks' posts to Larry Scott please?

 

[DiggerBuffs]

You do realize that traveling to play at Hawaii was so undesirable to other colleges that the NCAA had to institute a rule that if you did it you could add an extra game to your schedule in order to make up for the lost money?

No one is going to pay Hawaii for the privilege of playing in their stadium.

Also, adding Hawaii doesn't make economic sense for Pac-12 expansion. Costs for all sports travel go up too much and UH isn't enough of a local media market or national draw to make up for that.

That football program's going to fold.

And I do believe there is a great reaction to that if the Pac-12 is smart.

- Hawaiians love football
- Pac-12 recruits Hawaii hard and signs a lot of Poly mainlanders on top of that
- Pac-12 has an unbalanced conference schedule by playing 9 games a year
- Pac-12 wants the Pacific media market

So... each Pac-12 team could play 1 neutral site game in Honolulu as part of conference play each year. Those teams could have their Bye week scheduled the following week to account for the travel. Also, if there isn't the UH auto-bid to the Hawaii Bowl, switch that up and make it a Pac-12 team (Hawaii's conference) as a fixed participant. Profit.

P.S. A trip to Hawaii every year would be a HUGE recruiting tool for the Pac-12.

I like your reasoning and thoughts. I just hate to see a program that puts many islanders into a good education go away. Many Hawaiians love football and some great talent goes there. Maybe to gain a recruiting edge is to promise Hawaii a trip every other year. I would go to Hawaii every two years to watch the Buffs. Maybe make a non-conference slate against the Pac 12 bottom dwellers and then be an independent that gets beat up by top end teams. SEC has plenty of money and a vacation to a real beach would do those southerners some good. Save the Rainbow!!!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sackman]

I think there are two good options for saving Hawaii. They go independent and teams pay them to go there and get paid to travel.

They join the Pac 12 and join Boise State, BYU and CSU. This is based off CSU getting a new stadium. SDSU or another team as well that brings others would be good. The first 16 team power conference would be good and save some teams that should be part of the powers. Some Power 5 teams are in power conference teams why not some other guys?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You lost all credibility when you lumped UH in with Boise, BYU, and CSU. I could almost see the justification for including UH. The others? Never gonna happen.

 

[sackman]

There are just under a million people who live on Oahu. That's about 75% of the population of the whole state.

If adding UH would move the dial enough to get the P12 net on DirecTV, I wonder... I know DTV is pretty popular over there.

 

[Liver]

I think I have issues. I'd be sadder about Hawaii dropping football than the goat ****ers up in fort flatlands.

 

[sackman]

I think I have issues. I'd be sadder about Hawaii dropping football than the goat ****ers up in fort flatlands.

Yeah, me too. It's really only a matter of time before they both drop football, IMO.

 

[MtnBuff]

I think I have issues. I'd be sadder about Hawaii dropping football than the goat ****ers up in fort flatlands.

The only bad thing I can associate with Hawaii football is the game 4 seasons ago when they absolutely destroyed us in the opener running the QB.

We should have know right at that point that Embree and staff didn't have it, they made no adjustment what-so-ever as losing ugly turned into the norm.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

I love all the love for Hawaii football. It is a true shame and the first example of how the realignment is going to **** up college football as we know it.

 

[Buffnik]

The only bad thing I can associate with Hawaii football is the game 4 seasons ago when they absolutely destroyed us in the opener running the QB.

We should have know right at that point that Embree and staff didn't have it, they made no adjustment what-so-ever as losing ugly turned into the norm.

Yeah. Worst part was that he wasn't even a running quarterback. I think he had half his season's rushing yards in that game.

 

[Darth Snow]

sad me. UH football is what got me started on college football.

 

[josef]

I think there are two good options for saving Hawaii. They go independent and teams pay them to go there and get paid to travel.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

UH used to be independent back in the day. They would get a bunch of players that were kicked off of other teams and wanted to transfer without sitting out a year. They used to play everyone from u of o, to longbeach poly, to the Nubs. My old man talks about playing Nebraska and walking out to a sea of Red. Not sure exactly what has changed as far as travel cost but it doesnt seem to be as attractive for fans to travel to Hawaii for games anymore.

If I had to wager a guess it would be that title 9 killed their program. I will ask my old man but I doubt they had as many teams back there that they had to travel. Being forced to spend all of that money for travel of non-revenue earning sports probably is the death blow.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

UH used to be independent back in the day. They would get a bunch of players that were kicked off of other teams and wanted to transfer without sitting out a year. They used to play everyone from u of o, to longbeach poly, to the Nubs. My old man talks about playing Nebraska and walking out to a sea of Red. Not sure exactly what has changed as far as travel cost but it doesnt seem to be as attractive for fans to travel to Hawaii for games anymore.

If I had to wager a guess it would be that title 9 killed their program. I will ask my old man but I doubt they had as many teams back there that they had to travel. Being forced to spend all of that money for travel of non-revenue earning sports probably is the death blow.

If the sole reason is title IX then it sure was a slow 42 year death.

Honestly, if the higher ups at UH would have tried more then not at all to keep their program, facilities, marketing, etc up within the islands then they could keep the football program. It has to be hard, but they could have set themselves up for some kind of a spot in the new landscape, whether with a big 5 league, independent or some other creative approach.

It seems like everyone in the country has a small place in their hearts for Hawaii football. just look at the posts in this thread. Even on the East Coast I know people love being out super late and still being able to have live football from Hawaii on tv.

 

[sackman]

I really don't know how UH will be able to survive. I've been trying to come up with something ever since I saw the article. This is very unfortunate. It may be necessary, but of all the teams I wouldn't mind seeing fold, UH isn't on the list.

 

[sackman]

Title IX certainly didn't help, and probably was a contributing factor in the grand scheme of things.

I have a buddy who is a season ticket holder at UH. He says this same subject comes up all the time, and that they always find the money to keep it going. I wonder, though, if this isn't the final nail in their coffin.

Going to a game at Aloha Stadium is a pretty cool experience. I'm assuming they won't kill the program in the next year. I would highly recommend people go to the game next year. It will probably be your last opportunity.

 

[TimmyDUBs]

There are also a lot of very wealthy people here, though most probably don't give a rip about sports.
Maybe the eBay founder would want to leave a certain legacy...or a Chinese investor would want to make UH China's team! One can dream

 

[Denver_sc]

I saw nobody posted this; here's a solution:

Link