49 years of Doyt Perry Stadium

[Falcon137]

Which MAC schools are reaping recruiting benefits from new/renovated facilities?

I heard a rumor that BG hockey had a recruiting problem before the most recent ice arena renovations; had something to do with the locker room, I think. Can anyone verify that?

(although that doesn't really answer MacGuy's question, since we're not a MAC school in hockey )

As far as who's benefitting from better facilities, pretty much all of 'em. Akron football gets ranked low by the recruiting sites every year because of Bowden's philosophy of taking transfers and riskier players but when Ianello got InfoCision Stadium he was cleaning up. That's why everyone has built or is in the process of building something: indoor facilities, recruiting lounges, meeting rooms, offices, etc. One of the only things you can get coaches to agree on is that better facilities make recruiting easier.

In the past 5-10 years. I can not think of 1 example a MAC school has significantly improved because of a facility addition. Akron has gotten worse since their new stadium. BG basketball has not improved from the Stroh move.

The newest football stadium -
Akron (Infocision)- 3-9, 1-11, 1-11, 1-11, 5-7. 11-49 in 5 years at Infocision. Last 5 years at the Rubber Bowl, 27-33

The newest basketball arena -
Bowling Green (Stroh) - 16-16, 13-19, 12-20, 21-12. 4 years at the Stroh, 62-67 . 4 years before the Stroh, 62-66.

NIU made the Orange Bowl with no indoor facility. Toledo has not improved with their new indoor facility.

[Schadenfreude]

Is it possible that the state of Perry Stadium is more of an annoyance to fans than recruits? I mean, players don't have to drink lukewarm coffee or use restrooms where only cold water flows on blustery 30 degree days.

Coaches would seem to have plenty of eye candy to show recruits, including the fieldhouse and the Sebo Center.

[Falcon137]

Is it possible that the state of Perry Stadium is more of an annoyance to fans than recruits? I mean, players don't have to drink lukewarm coffee or use restrooms where only cold water flows on blustery 30 degree days.

Coaches would seem to have plenty of eye candy to show recruits, including the fieldhouse and the Sebo Center.

This is part of it. But, I could give you Ohio State's facilities at BG and have Rob Ianello coach them and you aren't going to be a bowl team.

[Schadenfreude]

I could give you Ohio State's facilities at BG and have Rob Ianello coach them and you aren't going to be a bowl team.

Or, to put it another way, I could give you InfoCision Stadium and have Terry Bowden coach them...

[jpfalcon09]

New facilities are great but I'm willing to bet more kids are concerned with the type of people who will be coaching them and their teammates. It seems like the recruiting angle becomes some sort of justification for spending millions to construct something a select few people on the campus are ever going to use, especially if it's an athletics only building.

If you really want to sell a kid on playing at your school, give him the full experience. I think it's pretty silly building a new football stadium and then trying to sell the player on the fact he'll only be spending 5-7 Saturday's a year playing there. Sell the player on the campus, the town, the history and tradition and I think you've got a winning formula.

[Flipper]

Some of the football players were bitching on twitter last spring because they couldn't use the indoor facility whenever they wanted to because other students were using it for frisbee tournaments. If it weren't for the fees that the Univerisity takes by force from those kids, the football team wouldn't have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out .

Perspective....one must always maintain a healthy, sensible perspective....

[Critical Thinker]

If you really want to sell a kid on playing at your school, give him the full experience. I think it's pretty silly building a new football stadium and then trying to sell the player on the fact he'll only be spending 5-7 Saturday's a year playing there. Sell the player on the campus, the town, the history and tradition and I think you've got a winning formula.

That reminds me of the SI article on the hockey team from 1979:

But Mason's system on the ice is not as masterful as his system for
conning players from the hotbeds of Ontario and Michigan to come
down and play in Ohio. The Bowling Green program, now in its 10th
year, has no tradition behind it, and the Ice Arena has dingy
cinder-block walls and a low tin roof. "Look at this place. It's a
dump, really," says Tom Jeffire, owner of Dino's Pizza Pub on
Wooster Street--the team's watering hole--and one of the few
knowledgeable hockey fans in town, having worked for five years at
the Detroit Olympia. "If Mason was selling Notre Dame, he'd never
lose."

Mason disagrees. "The campus is neat and tidy," he says. "That
appeals to recruits. They're not overwhelmed like they are at Notre
Dame and Michigan. I can stand them in one spot and point out the
dormitories, the rink, the football field, the golf course, the rec
center. Neat and tidy."

That one spot is not the top of a hill, either. There certainly
aren't any trees to block the view--part of the campus was a
cornfield 15 years back--but the truth is, Michigan and Ontario are
pretty flat, too. It reminds players of home. "People back in Flint
still say, `Bowling what?'" says Morrow, a fourth-round draft
choice of the N.Y. Islanders in 1976. "But I liked the idea of
being able to walk from one end of the campus to the other in a few
minutes."

[mscarn]

In the past 5-10 years. I can not think of 1 example a MAC school has significantly improved because of a facility addition. Akron has gotten worse since their new stadium. BG basketball has not improved from the Stroh move.

The newest football stadium -
Akron (Infocision)- 3-9, 1-11, 1-11, 1-11, 5-7. 11-49 in 5 years at Infocision. Last 5 years at the Rubber Bowl, 27-33

The newest basketball arena -
Bowling Green (Stroh) - 16-16, 13-19, 12-20, 21-12. 4 years at the Stroh, 62-67 . 4 years before the Stroh, 62-66.

NIU made the Orange Bowl with no indoor facility. Toledo has not improved with their new indoor facility.

If those were the only examples it would be difficult to argue causality, but there's a 50+ page running thread over on the MACbbs board where facility upgrade pictures from UMass, WMU and virtually every other school in the league have been posted. If facilities aren't integral to recruiting there's not a school in America willing to test that theory and consciously choose to stand pat. Fleck has credited the graphics and large leather chairs in their new team meeting room with helping recruiting. After NIU won the Orange Bowl they didn't halt plans to build their indoor facility because it wasn't needed; they accelerated them and pushed for even more.

Is it extravagant? Is it spending precious dollars on a small slice of campus untouched by most of the student population? Sure, but it's the minimum, bare bones basic cost of doing business at the level of college football we compete in. People's heads might explode if that saw what Tennessee and Michigan State were spending on their football facilities.

Meyer was fond of telling a story where he was pounding his hands on his desk trying to explain the importance of building new facilities at BGSU to keep up with the Joneses. He said an older administrator (strongly hinting at Seeliger although never mentioning him specifically) dismissed him by claiming they didn't need those things back in the day when he coached. We all know what he thought of that answer and how the story ultimately ended.