The Real Future - Merge U of I and ISU

S

SpecialKHawk

Well-Known Member
I know this post will get blasted by both sides but exploring the concept of conference expansion identifies some important facts....

# 1 Those who have the gold make the rules (bring something to the table)
# 2 Bigger is better,,,, there's strength in numbers
# 3 If you are not growing you are getting passed by
# 4 A hide tide floats all boats (Deace'ism)

Given these …..spend a few moments turning the current conference expansion analysis into an analysis of the population demographics and economic future within the State of Iowa. With this I think it would be extremely wise for the Board of Regents and both major Universities, Iowa and Iowa State, to strongly consider and execute a merger plan to be implemented over the next 5 years.

Although this would be extremely uncomfortable to each institution's pride this would be the most viable solution for long-term stability and growth. Each institution has a very good academic and research reputation but yet each has different strengths that would compliment one another. Athletically it goes without saying that a single institution would be able to rule the entire state and provide offerings in all major sporting programs. Combining the budgets alone of $80 + $40 million would push the new institution into the top 10 nationally. How competitive would State of Iowa athletics, academics and research be? Only look to at many of our borders to see similar setups; Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, etc.

Yes there are many logistical issues but first I would propose to keep both campuses as they are and determine the best fit for athletics. Basketball could be played at either one campus or split between campuses. It would be possible to expand the current or construct a new 100,000 seat stadium for football.... maybe in Des Moines ?

To my fellow U of I brethren that will balk at this merger idea should think about what might happen to ISU right now. What's to say future expansion 10 or 20 years from now might put Iowa's membership in a super conference in peril? Ask yourself this question.... if Iowa were not in the Big Ten now would they get an invite today? I think the answer might be no.

How do we strengthen the position at both universities going into the future? The answer is merger. Put away individual institution pride and the answer is obvious.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
I know this post will get blasted by both sides but exploring the concept of conference expansion identifies some important facts....

# 1 Those who have the gold make the rules (bring something to the table)
# 2 Bigger is better,,,, there's strength in numbers
# 3 If you are not growing you are getting passed by
# 4 A hide tide floats all boats (Deace'ism)

Given these …..spend a few moments turning the current conference expansion analysis into an analysis of the population demographics and economic future within the State of Iowa. With this I think it would be extremely wise for the Board of Regents and both major Universities, Iowa and Iowa State, to strongly consider and execute a merger plan to be implemented over the next 5 years.

Although this would be extremely uncomfortable to each institution's pride this would be the most viable solution for long-term stability and growth. Each institution has a very good academic and research reputation but yet each has different strengths that would compliment one another. Athletically it goes without saying that a single institution would be able to rule the entire state and provide offerings in all major sporting programs. Combining the budgets alone of $80 + $40 million would push the new institution into the top 10 nationally. How competitive would State of Iowa athletics, academics and research be? Only look to at many of our borders to see similar setups; Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, etc.

Yes there are many logistical issues but first I would propose to keep both campuses as they are and determine the best fit for athletics. Basketball could be played at either one campus or split between campuses. It would be possible to expand the current or construct a new 100,000 seat stadium for football.... maybe in Des Moines ?

To my fellow U of I brethren that will balk at this merger idea should think about what might happen to ISU right now. What's to say future expansion 10 or 20 years from now might put Iowa's membership in a super conference in peril? Ask yourself this question.... if Iowa were not in the Big Ten now would they get an invite today? I think the answer might be no.

How do we strengthen the position at both universities going into the future? The answer is merger. Put away individual institution pride and the answer is obvious.
Click to expand...

Should have stopped right there.
 
By the way no other state has that set up. Those states have a "university" system, but each each separate campus operates independently and has independent sports teams. University of Missouri Columbia does not share any sports teams with the University of Missouri Kansas-City, for example.

Kids need choices of where to go to school in this state. There are only 3 state schools, we probably shouldn't make it two and eliminate choices for us Iowans even further, then have two campuses over 150 mile apart be governed by the same people. Talk about a disaster.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
I do as well... but I would also hate being left out in the cold someday.
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What is the rationale behind thinking that will happen? A side benefit of expansion will be the conference positioning itself to be a stable a powerful entity for years to come.
 
ShadasRevenge said:
What is the rationale behind thinking that will happen? A side benefit of expansion will be the conference positioning itself to be a stable a powerful entity for years to come.
Click to expand...

The rationale is this is a long term game of the 'haves and have nots'....

Some sort of merger however it is designed and orchestrated would strengthen the overall position and bargaining power well into the future. It also makes sense for a small population state with limited resources and economics.

Expansion which I'm all for means more competition. A dollar earned and spent by another institution in this state in this new arena is a dollar lost.
 
Remember, there is a lot more to a university than just athletics. I don't see any reason to try and combine the universities in terms of academics. I might see this more likely to happen with Iowa and UNI than I would Iowa and Iowa State.
 
Your thinking outside the box of people's comfort zone, I think you know that. One athletic program shared by two Universities is unworkable. But let's discuss what is workable.


  1. There is no reason for three University presidents when one could preside over all three regents institutions. So merging administration of the U's in Iowa isn't that far fetched.
  2. Forming one admissions office for all three universities could be done. Why pay for three directors of admissions when one could handle it?
  3. Forming one Registrars office for all three universities could be done. Again why pay for three Head Registrars when one would do.
  4. Applying similar logic the undergrad liberal arts colleges of the three Universities could share department heads and deans.
Change is never easy, but ignoring trends is even worse. The state of Iowa could use some out of the box thinking, but let's agree on what is workable.
 
Thanks... I am trying to think out-of-the-box and I know the number one reason for resistance and rebuttable is individual institutional pride. We all know the passion in this State.

I'm also trying to get people to think outside of this state. Take a look at Kansas. Here's one of the top rated and storied basketball programs in history and they also may be left out in the cold to some degree.
 
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Why not merge with Northwestern? Or combine NW,Iowa,Wisc,and Minny into one program?

Out of the box thinking like this is way too far out of the box. Please cite all the examples of the Big Ten dropping charter members out of the conference. Even U. of Chicago dropped out of the athletic part voluntarily. But yes, if Iowa de-emphasizes athletics and drops down to club football,and club bb,then they probably would not share in the big bucks in the conference tv packages...but barring that, they will be in the Big Ten til the Big Ten is no more.
 
University of Arkansas / Arkansas State
University of South Dakota / SDSU
Ole Miss / MSU
New Mexico / NMSU
Utah / UTSU
Montana / MTSU
Kansas / KSU
Oklahoma / OSU

need I go on?
 
Clonehomer said:
Remember, there is a lot more to a university than just athletics. I don't see any reason to try and combine the universities in terms of academics. I might see this more likely to happen with Iowa and UNI than I would Iowa and Iowa State.
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And Iowa State could merge with DMACC. Situation resolved.
 
Why not merge all 50 states into one big state? We'd save a ton of money not having fund 50 different bureaucracies, legislatures, governor's mansions, tax systems, public school systems, etc. Just let the feds handle everything.

There are benefits to centralization. And there are very real benefits to decentralization.
 
SpecialKHawk said:
I know this post will get blasted by both sides but exploring the concept of conference expansion identifies some important facts....

# 1 Those who have the gold make the rules (bring something to the table)
# 2 Bigger is better,,,, there's strength in numbers
# 3 If you are not growing you are getting passed by
# 4 A hide tide floats all boats (Deace'ism)

Given these …..spend a few moments turning the current conference expansion analysis into an analysis of the population demographics and economic future within the State of Iowa. With this I think it would be extremely wise for the Board of Regents and both major Universities, Iowa and Iowa State, to strongly consider and execute a merger plan to be implemented over the next 5 years.

Although this would be extremely uncomfortable to each institution's pride this would be the most viable solution for long-term stability and growth. Each institution has a very good academic and research reputation but yet each has different strengths that would compliment one another. Athletically it goes without saying that a single institution would be able to rule the entire state and provide offerings in all major sporting programs. Combining the budgets alone of $80 + $40 million would push the new institution into the top 10 nationally. How competitive would State of Iowa athletics, academics and research be? Only look to at many of our borders to see similar setups; Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Missouri, etc.

Yes there are many logistical issues but first I would propose to keep both campuses as they are and determine the best fit for athletics. Basketball could be played at either one campus or split between campuses. It would be possible to expand the current or construct a new 100,000 seat stadium for football.... maybe in Des Moines ?

To my fellow U of I brethren that will balk at this merger idea should think about what might happen to ISU right now. What's to say future expansion 10 or 20 years from now might put Iowa's membership in a super conference in peril? Ask yourself this question.... if Iowa were not in the Big Ten now would they get an invite today? I think the answer might be no.

How do we strengthen the position at both universities going into the future? The answer is merger. Put away individual institution pride and the answer is obvious.
Click to expand...

If you are growing what you are smoking-I highly recommend never telling anyone where you live.
 
Billso said:
Why not merge all 50 states into one big state? We'd save a ton of money not having fund 50 different bureaucracies, legislatures, governor's mansions, tax systems, public school systems, etc. Just let the feds handle everything.

There are benefits to centralization. And there are very real benefits to decentralization.
Click to expand...

I know this (merging Iowa and ISU's athletics programs) will never happen, but I am going to cut the OP some slack. It would help the Iowa program tremendously, if ISU would drop athletics. The state of Iowa isn't really big enough to support two top notch winning athletic programs over any extended period of time. You all think Nebraska would have had the success they have had over the years if they had had to fight for every contribution dollar and every in state recruit with a Nebraska State University that was a member of a BCS conference?

Looking at contributors, how many really rich folks do you think there are in Iowa? Look at just one example, Mr. Jacobson. He is a major, major donor to each school's athletic department. Don't you think Iowa would have greatly benefited if there were no big time ISU athletics and no multi-million dollar Jacobson Building at ISU?

Looking at sports, as we all know ISU (and UNI) have dropped baseball. It hasn't happened yet, but I think we will see Iowa's baseball team be increasingly successful on a year in and year out basis as a result. This year's second place finish in the Big Ten tourney may be just the start. If I heard this correctly it had been like 20 years since Iowa had played in the conference championship game prior to this year.

I don't really favor the Big Ten's money grab (er, I mean expansion). But, if it does happen, it would really help Iowa if as a result ISU dropped out of a BCS conference and moved down a level. Maybe if we really want to make athletics in the state of Iowa successful year in and year out, ISU should just completely drop football, and Iowa should drop basketball. Then, between the two schools we could hopefully compete for the title in both sports every year. (Yes, I know that won't happen. Nor, do I really want it to. But, if the state of Iowa was newly colonized today and we were setting up the collegiate sports programs for the state, there is no way that thinking minds would try to set up two major programs in our underpopulated state.) So, cut the OP some slack.
 
Billso said:
Why not merge all 50 states into one big state? We'd save a ton of money not having fund 50 different bureaucracies, legislatures, governor's mansions, tax systems, public school systems, etc. Just let the feds handle everything.

There are benefits to centralization. And there are very real benefits to decentralization.
Click to expand...

One more thing. I think it is a bit ironic that many of you who are flat out blasting the idea of consolidation when it comes to combining Iowa and ISU's athletic programs, are all gung ho for consolidation when it comes to the expansion of the Big Ten and the resultant consolidation of the BCS conferences.
 
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