Cost of Attendance and Football Success

Blackshirt_Revival

Blackshirt_Revival

Four-Star Recruit
This is something I have been thinking a lot about lately that has gotten little discussion. While watching one of K State's games, the commentators were discussing one of K State's defensive lineman who joined the team as a walk-on. The commentators retold a conversation with the player, about how his parents had enough to pay for him to attend the school for one year as a walk-on, and that he had one year to earn a scholarship, otherwise, he would have to find a way to pay himself or seek another school where he could earn a scholarship to play.

I am still strongly of the opinion that having as many contributors from your state/region on your football team is a key to success at Nebraska. With reduced scholarships and roster positions, this has become much harder to accomplish than it has been in the past, as we all know. However, I believe what really compounds this problem even further is that it is simply out of reach for most kids and their families to consider paying out of pocket to attend school as a walk-on, especially if there is an opportunity to play elsewhere under scholarship. I realize cost of attendance is something every student must grapple with, regardless of their participation in sports (unless they are under a scholarship of some kind), but if a kid is talented enough to contribute at Nebraska but not offered a scholarship, I think most kids are going to look elsewhere to play and go to college. They simply cannot afford to bed developed. Basically, I'm saying the pool of potential contributors is diminished even further by financial impracticality.

Now, obviously there are still schools that have high tuition rates that are still fielding very successful football programs. With that being said, I am personally a firm believer that lowering the cost of attendance and making our public education institutions what they truly were created to be would do wonders for our football program and for our state in general. I think trying to be too much like other schools in many ways is what has led to Nebraska becoming mediocre. One of the things that made Nebraska so great for so long was that we thought outside of the box, and did things differently than other schools did. I don't mean to turn this into a political discussion, and you do not have to agree with me, I'm just curious to see what the members of Huskerboard think about this, or if anyone has given this any thought. I do realize the high unlikelihood of scenario coming to fruition any time soon.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Obviously we dont have a stellar pool of in state talent like most places. Unfortunate yes. But building our walk on program back up could give us that identity or attitude we have lacked for a long time. In state kids sick of hearing how great the SEC is, sick of seeing their old mans favorite team get embarrassed by Wisconsin, hungry to compete, hungry to give more effort than the 4 star from Cali who doesnt really care.

 
I agree, Redux. And while we may not have a stellar pool of talent in state, I would venture say that despite having a larger population, Wisconsin's pool is not substantially deeper than ours. And color me crazy, but I'm not convinced the Cotton brothers represent the absolute best Nebraska has to offer for in-state talent.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I agree.

The true quality of a football program is not the level of God given talent, its the level of individual and collective skill.

It's the position coaches job to push the players to develope them physically and mentally, to develope their individual skill at their position. The passion and love a player has for a team, the bonds a player developed with his coaches and teammates, and a players competitive drive are the key motivating factors in how a player developes.

It's the job of the coordinators and head coach to develope collective skill. That is, how well each player knows his job in the scheme, the 'execution' that has been lacking at this program. Higher collective skill will trump individual skill every day of the week.

If you ever get a chance, check out the story of Bob Ladouceur and his DE LA Salle Spartans. A private school of just over 1000 students, mostly from middle class backgrounds and predominantly caucasian, regularly faced schools in California's 3A High school football system with larger, stronger and faster players. The Spartans, through grueling preparation and extrordinarily strong team bonds managed to go on a 151 game winning streak from 1992 to 2004, the longest winning streak in football history at any level. This includes seven High school national championships, including 5 from USA Today.

All with smaller, slower players against the top California talent.

I would sell my soul to get success anywhere near that at Nebraska, and I'm firmly convinced that it's through team bonding, collective skill, and individal development. I only hope that someday we will have a coaching staff that brings these ideals (along with in state talent) to this program.

 
Excellent response, Emerald. I agree 100% with everything you said. I am vaguely familiar with the De La Salle story--wasn't their just recently a movie made about it? And yes, player development is as at least as much a part of success as recruiting. Bottom line is, there should be more of a focus on what we already have here, and will always have here, and what to do with that to maximize success.

 
Yeah, "When the Game Stands Tall" is about the season either during or after their streak came to an end, and also about one of their players who was killed just before going off to college and how the team recovered from it. I haven't seen it, and it's gotten some pretty poor reviews...

 
1995 Redux said:
Obviously we dont have a stellar pool of in state talent like most places. Unfortunate yes. But building our walk on program back up could give us that identity or attitude we have lacked for a long time. In state kids sick of hearing how great the SEC is, sick of seeing their old mans favorite team get embarrassed by Wisconsin, hungry to compete, hungry to give more effort than the 4 star from Cali who doesnt really care.
Click to expand...
You take your scrappy kids, I'll take my 4 star kids who may or may not care from California. We'd win 85-10.

Having said that though,the model of Nebraska kids getting huge in the S&C program, plus other,with sprinkled in talent from the coasts in skill positions is always a winner provided the coaching and S&C is.

 
A local news guy did an article on the shrinking Nebraska youth population and sports participation in small towns. Some schools can hardly field a team.

 
NUpolo8 said:
1995 Redux said:
Obviously we dont have a stellar pool of in state talent like most places. Unfortunate yes. But building our walk on program back up could give us that identity or attitude we have lacked for a long time. In state kids sick of hearing how great the SEC is, sick of seeing their old mans favorite team get embarrassed by Wisconsin, hungry to compete, hungry to give more effort than the 4 star from Cali who doesnt really care.
Click to expand...
You take your scrappy kids, I'll take my 4 star kids who may or may not care from California. We'd win 85-10.

Having said that though,the model of Nebraska kids getting huge in the S&C program, plus other,with sprinkled in talent from the coasts in skill positions is always a winner provided the coaching and S&C is.
Click to expand...
+1 good sir
 
Yes, rural flight is a real thing that is happening here, and we do have a comparatively older population demographically than many other states. In addition to the dwindling populations in the rural areas, many of those smaller schools are closing due to funding and budget constraints and end up consolidating with other schools to participate in sports. With that being said, our state population is still slightly greater than it was in the 90s, and we do still have football players. I should clarify that I am not endorsing a team made up entirely of Nebraska kids or walk-on players, I agree with Polo that a balance is ideal, and that was something that helped us to be very successful in our golden era. Besides the obvious constraints of roster size, there are other factors such as cost of attendance which have contributed to the difficulty of sustaining a strong walk-on program and shrinking the local talent presence on the team.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
NUpolo8 said:
1995 Redux said:
Obviously we dont have a stellar pool of in state talent like most places. Unfortunate yes. But building our walk on program back up could give us that identity or attitude we have lacked for a long time. In state kids sick of hearing how great the SEC is, sick of seeing their old mans favorite team get embarrassed by Wisconsin, hungry to compete, hungry to give more effort than the 4 star from Cali who doesnt really care.
Click to expand...
You take your scrappy kids, I'll take my 4 star kids who may or may not care from California. We'd win 85-10.

Having said that though,the model of Nebraska kids getting huge in the S&C program, plus other,with sprinkled in talent from the coasts in skill positions is always a winner provided the coaching and S&C is.
Click to expand...


 
Kids use to choose walking on at Nebraska over taking a scholarship at a place like ISU or KSU. (I played with one in HS). With the cost of going to college now, I would hope any kid would take the scholarship unless the parents could easily handle the financials.

 
OP, what are you saying, you want UNL to make tuition free or ultra cheap for everyone in-state, so we can get more walk-ons and improve the football program? I think it'd be cheaper to try to buy Saban, and more effective.

 
What I am saying is, at a school like Nebraska, which had a thriving walk-on program, this had a substantial hand in diminishing the presence and feasibility said program. The walk-on program was always a key component to the team's success in its best years. We are all aware of roster restrictions, yet this is another substantial contributing factor that is often overlooked and rarely gets discussed.

Do I want UNL to make tuition free or ultra cheap for everyone in-state? I suppose that would certainly be my ideal, and that goes beyond just the success of the football program. It seems laughable to suggest or discuss now, but it wasn't such a laughable concept 20-30 years ago before the erosion and privatization of the public model of higher education.

I guess some additional basis for my own views (aside from ethical beliefs about the purpose and state of public education): I do look at what fans of other schools have done to give back to their football programs in some manner to make them better. Nebraska has a great fan base who shows up to the games and supports their team very well, buys merchandise. That is something we have always prided ourselves on. Texas A&M fans donated over $740 million dollars for the construction of their new stadium. I do realize that is a different example than what I am discussing here (freewill donations vs. taxation to do the 'giving back'), but perhaps that gives a bit more clarity of where I am personally coming from, VA.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
I should add: I do realize not everyone in the state of Nebraska is a fan of the football team or is obligated to be a fan of the football team, and has no obligation to care about the cost of tuition for our walk-ons. I am simply saying cost of attendance has been a contributing factor to the erosion of the walk-on program. And tying into my last paragraph, as a fan who thinks about ways to give back and ways to improve our football team, it is an issue I personally think about.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top