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First the good news, the hockey team didnt get swept this weekend

After watching last nites meltdown at the Doyt and witnessing the hockey program fall into the depths of college hockey I was wondering what exactly is going on with this sports program. From the outside it looks like Christopher is trying to be proactive but is it going to change this culture of losing that has been established over the last few years at BG?

With facilities falling below rival schools, and bandwagon attendance, it suddenly hit me that we might be looking back at this decade as the end of BG sports as we know it.

Ive noticed that over the last 10 years many hockey fans are no longer frustrated after losses to inferior opponents. Only a short time ago these losses would actually effect us up until Wed. of the work week, but year after year of losing no longer really seems to bother us. We now come on here and say we have a young team, or the offense will come around etc.

I think the football program might be reaching this tranquilizing effect as we speak. We are not suprised anymore with lackluster performances, its almost accepted that we can lose a home football game to anyone in the MAC now. WTF Gameday was here 4 yrs ago.

The mens sports program is crucial to the moral and identity of an institution, Any thoughts from my fellow Falcon fans?

Agreed, Mens basketball has been at rock bottom the last couple of years also. Hopefully Orr can change that. But looking at the immediate future if no coaching changes are made I can't see Hockey or Football turning a corner anytime soon.

dannyk wrote:
With facilities falling below rival schools, and bandwagon attendance, it suddenly hit me that we might be looking back at this decade as the end of BG sports as we know it.

Well, I'm not ready to throw in the towel there yet buddy. Yes, the mens' programs have been pretty bad the last several years. What its going to take to get them all back to respectability is getting coaches who can recruit and coach up the players to be the best they can be. Coaches like Curt Miller , Van De Walle and others have done this quite well over the last several years. The men's coaches have not.

For men's basketball I think we have a pretty good coach in Louis Orr here. It'll just take us some time to figure out if he can get us back to prominence, but I believe he can. GB on the other hand....., I dont think anyone expects much now from a GB lead football team. A change is probably needed there. As for falcon hockey I don't know enough about hockey in general to know if he's as terrible as some proclaim, but it is getting down to the point to where we should be seeing some improvement in players play and recruiting. Yeah, its not good when most of your mens' program's coaches could be let go at the end of their contracts in a few years here. AD Christophere could get mighty busy here real soon.

dannyk wrote:
With facilities falling below rival schools, and bandwagon attendance, it suddenly hit me that we might be looking back at this decade as the end of BG sports as we know it.

I think you could make the argument that the Sebo gives us the best workout/team football facility in the MAC.

How do the BG men's sports (football, soccer, X-country, basketball, hockey, and baseball) stack up against the other MAC schools??? Are we lowman on the totem pole? ------

Dr. Reality wrote:How do the BG men's sports (football, soccer, X-country, basketball, hockey, and baseball) stack up against the other MAC schools??? Are we lowman on the totem pole? ------

Not in X-country. You are being held up by your friendly neighbors to the north. Of course, everyone else is sitting on top of you, but you did beat us in the MAC's

Dr. Reality wrote:How do the BG men's sports (football, soccer, X-country, basketball, hockey, and baseball) stack up against the other MAC schools??? Are we lowman on the totem pole? ------

Based off the last several years I'd have to say yeah. There was some Mac overall sports rating that rated all the schools in men's and women's sports. The BG men's programs came in dead last if I remember correctly.

I say to give Christopher a chance. He's going to end up being a GREAT hire for this school. FB schedule of 2007 notwithstanding, he has made a great many good decisions. He adopted football and Hockey coaches both with extentions (contract, not hair.)

Give Orr a chance. He hasn't even coached a game yet.

I'm hoping to have a fun ride in the next several years.

Football - Sadly I'm beginning to join the anti-GB crowd as well. I've stuck behind him through thick and thin, but this loss last night really put a dent in my psyche. A loss on Friday night and this team is dead to me until next year. Anything lower than 6-6 and GB has to go. I thought we had a good football team here, but we're just mediocre instead.

Basketball - Orr seems like a good guy. We'll see what he can do here, I'd say this program is in much better shape now that Dakich is gone. He was a tool and has proven such ever since his departure. That being said, our talent level relative to the rest of the MAC is poor.

Hockey - This program is going nowhere but the CCHA basement again. How we gave Paluch an extension, I have no idea. I've got no faith whatsoever in this program. It was so bad last year I considered boycotting the ice arena totally, and while I never did that, its still on the table pending early results this year. Paluch sucks!

dannyk wrote:With facilities falling below rival schools,

I stopped reading here.

Im afraid I disagree, have you seen the ice arena and Anderson Arena lately?

dannyk wrote:Im afraid I disagree, have you seen the ice arena and Anderson Arena lately?

The Sebo is the only facility we have that out classes most if not all the rest of the Mac.

dannk wrote:

Schadenfreude wrote:

dannyk wrote:With facilities falling below rival schools,

I stopped reading here.

Im afraid I disagree, have you seen the ice arena and Anderson Arena lately?

Of course.

But look carefully at what you wrote.

We are not falling.

In fact, we are gaining.

Schadenfreude wrote:

dannyk wrote:With facilities falling below rival schools,

I stopped reading here.

This is about the same point I lost it. Lets take a real picture of BGSU.

Anderson Arena, Doyt Perry Stadium and the Ice Arena were all opened in the 1960's with the Rec Center following shortly after in the 70's (swimming). They were all motivation for peer schools to upgrade their facilities. Although it took Ohio State around 30 years to start playing home games outside their dinky rink next to St. John Arena their hockey survived. It took Toledo 30 years to get a real press box compared to BG and 20 years for Miami to move out of their truly HS-ish facility while they both remained strong rivals of BG the whole time. Anderson Arena with all the flaws and faults was built while Ohio and Miami played in what would be considered large HS gyms today. They survived and continue to play today.

At this point in time BG has just opened an athletic training facility that rivals if not exceeds the rest of the MAC. Perry Fieldhouse remains a dream for Toledo over a decade after it opened. Perry Stadium just upgraded the playing surface and drainage to same quality as other MAC schools and many of the BiG Ten schools.

IMHO with all things considered we will be ok as the next round of renovations and rebuilding goes forward. As far as championships go we will find the right kids with the right coach and again climb to the top.

Finding problem $0.00, solving a problem priceless. Can you be priceless?

FalconTurf wrote:

Schadenfreude wrote:

dannyk wrote:With facilities falling below rival schools,

I stopped reading here.

This is about the same point I lost it. Lets take a real picture of BGSU.

Anderson Arena, Doyt Perry Stadium and the Ice Arena were all opened in the 1960's with the Rec Center following shortly after in the 70's (swimming). They were all motivation for peer schools to upgrade their facilities. Although it took Ohio State around 30 years to start playing home games outside their dinky rink next to St. John Arena their hockey survived. It took Toledo 30 years to get a real press box compared to BG and 20 years for Miami to move out of their truly HS-ish facility while they both remained strong rivals of BG the whole time. Anderson Arena with all the flaws and faults was built while Ohio and Miami played in what would be considered large HS gyms today. They survived and continue to play today.

At this point in time BG has just opened an athletic training facility that rivals if not exceeds the rest of the MAC. Perry Fieldhouse remains a dream for Toledo over a decade after it opened. Perry Stadium just upgraded the playing surface and drainage to same quality as other MAC schools and many of the BiG Ten schools.

IMHO with all things considered we will be ok as the next round of renovations and rebuilding goes forward. As far as championships go we will find the right kids with the right coach and again climb to the top.

Finding problem $0.00, solving a problem priceless. Can you be priceless?

That was beautiful...and dead on. How anyone can say our facilities are not as good as the rest of the MAC is beyond me. Yes, there is work to be done but have you seen everything happening on campus?

BGSU is a GREAT school and has so much to offer student-athletes.