When you compare college facilities to the NFL, you have to ask yourself "really"? Been in almost a dozen NFL facilities, and aside from the Jets new facility, nothing even comes close to what the big boys of college football have!

It's probably not a weight room; it's probably an Athletic Performance Facility, and that makes the expenses OK.
>:p

Keep eye on target: MACC.



All this stuff about other schools--I don't care, don't get it.

In the NFL the players are paid directly. In colleges they can't pay them directly, but they can give them perks like nice facilities.

I did some research on weight rooms square feet to compare Ohio with the ACC which is not as competitive as the other power leagues. The research was interesting. Virginia Tech who has the largest conference weight room built their weight room in 1997 coinciding with their rise to national prominence. Georgia Tech which has a weight room the same size as Ohio's is planning to do a $1 million dollar renovation to its space. Ohio's weight room is one of the largest in the MAC and would be average by ACC standards.

http://georgiatech.blog.ajc.com/2014/06/13/tech-weight-ro.../

Virginia Tech 17,000
Florida State 15,000
Clemson 15,000
Duke 14,000
NC State 14,000
Miami 11,500
Syracuse 11,500
Ohio 10,000
Georgia Tech 10,000
Louisville 8,500
Virginia 8,000
North Carolina 7,000
Boston College 7,000
Wake Forest 7,000
Pittsburgh 6,800

Familiar with all 3 campuses I would take Ohio's over what they have every day. Most academic areas also. That is why I don't buy the idea that we can't be on a national stage in athletics.

And Pullman really isolated.

L.C., to carry this one step further I wonder what Wyoming's home record is compared to other schools at varying altitudes. In other words, can you construct a chart showing winning percentage for home games depending on the altitude of the school? ;-) I'm only half serious about this.

On the Division I school in rural location issue, there are two important factors to include:

1) How many other FBS schools are in that state? What is the stature of the school in the state? Virginia Tech and Washington State are in states w far fewer FBS programs than Ohio. Plus, I believe those schools have more prominence in their states than Ohio University does in the state of Ohio.
2) Another factor is affluence of the geographical area. Ohio is in an area with more problems with social, health and poverty data than most of the other schools mentioned. Also, the corporate presence in SE Ohio is scant.

Thus, I believe Ohio's location certainly is a bigger barrier to becoming bigtime than these other schools.

Correct about VA Tech, it is the state land grant institution (so is Washington State and Clemson in their states)so it has a very large "prominence" {both athletically and educationally) in VA. FWIW Ohio's population continues to decline while Virginia's population and most of the Sunbelt states are increasing. The problem with Ohio is that it is not the state land grant institution nor is it the "profession" university with the major doctoral and the professional degrees, like UVA in Virginia. Ohio needs to separate itself from the other state schools to become a "player" in big time sports.

Washington State is only in the PAC-12 because of academics. They've done nothing athletically and back in the 60's USC refused to play there on the road so their existence in the PAC-12 is controversial. Virginia Tech is a different scenario. VT's land grant status was not recognized until the 1970's by the legislature. It had the Morril Act land appropriation but it was kept down by big brother UVA. VT made a decision in the 60's to invest in their football program and they built a brand new 35,000 seat stadium like some have talked about for OU. That stadium was a big statement at the time since UVA only had 28,000 seats and from that point forward they cemented themselves as the #2 school athletically in Virginia. That led to a football arms race between the two schools. When UVA expanded to 60,000 VT one upped them with 66,000. They leveraged themselves all the way out with those capacities. UVA is more 35,000 actual fans. VT after selling out at first has slipped to about 90% capacity. More or less VT just pushed their way into the ACC like TCU did with Big XII. Too good to ignore. Michigan State did the same thing with the Big Ten in the 1950's. Ohio didn't decide to enter the football arms race against Ohio State. Realize too that Peden while tiny was a solid size for a college stadium up until the 60's. Ohio upgraded with The Convo in the 60's but the money wasn't there to upgrade the football stadium. Ohio's plan to create separation from the Miami's and BG's is to bring in higher profile coaches and to maximize the game atmosphere. Banners outside the stadium say Ohio has the best fans in the MAC. Ohio has put some facilities in but as Bcat2 has pointed out the athletic fundraising situation at the school is only average for the MAC. Ohio built its weight room with a 1 million dollar donation, lowered the field for 2 million and is raising 6 million for an academic center.

Clemson is spending $62 million on a 157,000 sq.ft football operations building with private donations. Ohio has between Peden Tower, Weight Room and the proposed academic center 56,000 sq.ft. At first Clemson was going to build something that was 60,000 feet with a 30 million dollar price tag on it which Ohio over the course of 2 decades spent 17 million on. Ohio doesn't have the capacity to raise 60 million for athletics or even 30 million that is needed to compete with the elite football schools. Some of the ACC schools don't have that capacity either. Pitt's renovation plan is to have a team meeting room where all the players can sit at one time like Ohio put in Peden when Solich became coach. Then for the intent of dominating the MAC the facilities are fine. NIU has the best football ops center at 62,000 sq.ft with a new 12,500 weight room. The were able to do it for $14 million with $2.5 million from the naming donor. Peden Tower had to be built as an educational facility for $10 million in state money. It all has to do with the capacity of a school to raise money for athletics.

Uncle Wes states:

Virginia Tech is a different scenario. VT's land grant status was not recognized until the 1970's by the legislature. It had the Morril Act land appropriation but it was kept down by big brother UVA.

You are not correct about the founding of VA Tech. In the 1970's VA Tech name was changed to add "State University" to reflect that is more than a land grant school.
Pre-Founding: 1850-1872

The disposition of the money derived from the Morrill Land Grant Act passed by Congress in 1862 led to the founding of Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. The location of the college at Blacksburg was the result of several years of legislative debate, dubbed the 'War of the Colleges' by the press.

Claims for the money were made by some twenty-four different schools in the state. Many different proposals were also made as to the disposition of the fund. One proposal was that the money be given to a new school or to one that would give up its charter and become the Agricultural and Mechanical College. Another proposal was to divide the money between whites and blacks and establish a new school for blacks.

In the State Senate, Penn secured the whole hearted support of Gabriel C. Wharton in the House of Delegates, and these two after a long and often bitter and acrimonious struggle succeeded in getting a bill passed which provided that one third of the land-grant fund be donated to the Hampton Normal and Industrial Institute for the blacks, and two thirds to be donated to the Preston and Olin Institute, if the latter institute relinquished its charter, donated its property to the state and reorganized as the Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College. Governor Walker signed the bill on March 19, 1872.

The Virginia Agricultural and Mechanical College was thereby born.
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/arc/125th/kinnear/founding.htm

Dr. Hahn's administration showed such fantastic growth and progress in all the administrative, instructional, and extension programs that long before the end of his administration it was abundantly clear that VPI was a flourishing land grant university in all ways except name. By 1970, however, legislation was introduced to and passed by the legislature whereby the name of the college officially became Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, effective July 1, 1970.
http://spec.lib.vt.edu/arc/125th/kinnear/hahn.htm

The point is that the schools mentioned in the above post; WSU; MSU and Clemson are their state's land grant schools. Through their missions, they serve their entire states and thus were able to prosper.