WSU came in at 4-0 after a win over Washington.

Boise State's defense is impressive, but Jeanty is the real deal. He has over 200 yards rushing tonight against WSU.

It would be great to take Boise State out when they come to Laramie!

Great win Pokes,

Svoboda played well when team needed him to...

Sam Scott was a warrior....

Defense played with grit...

Onward and Upward...

Go Pokes.

Can we talk about the screen game? Is Svoboda late with throws, or is the blocking terrible? It’s atrocious and unfortunately a major part of this offense.

Defense has taken a lot of crap the last few weeks, and rightfully so, so let’s give some credit where due for the halftime adjusts he made tonight…..

nm

… In good times and the tough times!

God I hate AF!
Let’s send off the Pokes right today!

You know what to do!

Go Pokes!

Sold their souls to the devil for the PAC name. 😂
"All decisions involving Pac-12 Enterprises will require Oregon State and Washington State approval. Those schools also will hold approval power over decisions pertaining to future media deals and invitations to potential conference members."

Sounds like some shit Burman would agree to

Does anyone know what time the indoor facility opens to the public today? The kids really like going in there. Thanks in advance!

PAC-12 knocks on UW's door on bended knee, invite in hand to join them...

Does UW accept & why/why not....

Go Pokes

We seem dead.

Hopefully solidifies the future: https://7220sports.com/breaking-seven-mountain-west-teams-ink-binding-agreement/

The landscape of college athletics is at a critical juncture, with media conglomerates such as ESPN, ABC, CBS, and NBC exerting disproportionate influence, often to the detriment of collegiate sports' integrity and competitiveness. To counteract this and reclaim control, we propose a groundbreaking unification of all remaining Group of Five (G5) conferences—including the Mountain West (MW), Conference USA (C-USA), Mid-American Conference (MAC), American Athletic Conference (AAC), Sun Belt Conference—and willing Independent schools. This massive alliance aims to pool resources, talent, and market presence to create a formidable entity capable of challenging the Power Five (P5) conferences and diminishing the media's monopolistic grip on college athletics content.

By consolidating, we not only make every school "available" for inclusion but also strategically position ourselves to either force the P5 to include us in the top tier of college athletics or risk being overshadowed by our collective strength. This bold move secures the survival and prosperity of our athletic programs, ensuring we thrive on the national stage.

---

1. Strategic Unification to Challenge Media Dominance​

A. Reducing Media Leverage

• Content Control: By uniting, we consolidate a significant portion of college football content, making it challenging for media companies to ignore our collective bargaining power.
• Exclusive Broadcasting: Develop our own broadcasting platforms, limiting the content available to traditional media outlets and forcing them to negotiate on our terms.

B. Leveraging Collective Strength

• Negotiation Power: A unified G5 alliance can negotiate better media deals, sponsorships, and partnerships due to the sheer volume of content and market reach.
• Market Disruption: By controlling a large share of games, we can disrupt the content supply chain of major networks, compelling them to reassess their strategies.

Addressing Potential Criticism

• Overcoming Fragmentation: Unity eliminates fragmentation, presenting a cohesive front that maximizes our marketability and bargaining power.
• Strategic Necessity: In a landscape where media companies favor the P5, this alliance is essential to ensure our programs receive fair exposure and revenue.

---

2. Competitive Scheduling​

A. Dynamic Scheduling System

• Performance-Based Matchups: Implement a fluid scheduling system where top-performing teams face each other, creating high-profile games that attract national attention.
• Real-Time Adjustments: Adjust schedules mid-season based on team performance to maximize the competitiveness of matchups.

B. Maximizing Rivalries and National Relevance

• Preserving and Creating Rivalries: Maintain traditional rivalries and foster new ones across the expanded conference to boost fan engagement.
• High-Stakes Games: Schedule marquee games during peak viewing times to capture national interest.

C. Non-Conference Play

• Strategic P5 Matchups: Encourage games against P5 teams to maintain exposure, showcase talent, and potentially secure upset victories that enhance our reputation.
• Selective Scheduling: Prioritize non-conference games that offer the most significant competitive and financial benefits.

Addressing Potential Criticism

• Viewer Fatigue: Dynamic scheduling prevents repetitive matchups, keeping the season fresh and engaging for fans.
• Competitive Balance: Performance metrics ensure fairness, with teams playing opponents of similar caliber, enhancing the overall quality of games.

---

3. Media Rights Distribution​

A. Creating a Unified G5 Media Platform

• G5 Network: Launch an exclusive media platform to broadcast games, leveraging modern streaming technology to reach a broad audience without reliance on traditional networks.
• Content Ownership: By controlling our own content, we reduce dependency on major media companies and keep a larger share of revenue.

B. Innovative Revenue Model

• Tiered Revenue Distribution: Allocate media rights revenue based on performance metrics and market contributions, ensuring schools that draw larger audiences receive proportionate shares.
• Hybrid Model: Combine guaranteed base revenue with performance incentives to maintain financial stability for all schools while rewarding excellence.

C. Strategic Partnerships

• Streaming Services Collaboration: Partner with platforms like Amazon Prime, Apple TV, or Netflix to broadcast games, tapping into their vast subscriber bases.
• Regional Broadcasting Deals: Negotiate with local networks to air games, increasing regional support and revenue.

Addressing Potential Criticism

• Market Inequality: The tiered system balances the need to reward high-performing, marketable teams while ensuring smaller programs remain financially viable.
• Content Accessibility: By diversifying broadcasting methods, we make games more accessible to fans, enhancing engagement and support.

---

4. NIL Distribution​

A. Establishing a Unified NIL Collective

• Pooled Resources: Create a conference-wide NIL collective that aggregates sponsorships and endorsement opportunities.
• Base Stipend for Athletes: Provide all athletes with a baseline compensation to ensure equitable support.

B. Incentivizing Performance and Marketability

• Performance Bonuses: Offer additional NIL earnings to top performers, rewarding athletic excellence.
• Market Equity Initiatives: Support athletes in building personal brands through media training and exposure opportunities.

Addressing Potential Criticism

• Fairness in Compensation: The collective approach ensures all athletes benefit from the conference's success while still rewarding individual achievements.
• Preventing Disparities: By providing base stipends, we avoid creating significant income gaps that could lead to team discord.

---

5. Facilities Growth Strategy​

A. Pooled Investment Fund

• Conference Facilities Fund: Allocate a portion of shared revenues to a fund dedicated to upgrading athletic facilities across member schools.
• Matching Grants Program: Encourage schools to invest in their facilities by offering to match funds raised independently.

B. Strategic Prioritization

• Needs-Based Allocation: Direct resources to programs with the greatest need and potential for competitive improvement.
• Transparent Criteria: Establish clear guidelines for fund distribution to maintain trust and fairness.

C. Sponsorship and Partnerships

• Collective Bargaining: Negotiate conference-wide sponsorships that include provisions for facility improvements.
• Naming Rights and Endowments: Offer opportunities for donors and corporations to invest in facilities in exchange for naming rights.

Addressing Potential Criticism

• Resource Allocation Fairness: Transparent processes ensure that all schools have equitable opportunities to improve facilities.
• Maintaining Competitiveness: Upgraded facilities enhance recruitment and performance, benefiting the entire conference.

---

​

https://www.espn.com/college-sports...nference-gets-commitments-7-remaining-members

UNLV is like “yeah we’re excited to use this money to someday move to a power 4 conference.” We’re just happy to be here lol.

Go to the 1:30 mark

Link

Through this process with CBS and FOX (TV partners). They gave guidance, so the relationship seems intact and good shape for the next TV deal in 2-years.

8th member, what’s your preference?

"The Lord has given me some unique gifts, and having been sidelined, you kind of just sit back and watch, and you know, you miss it... It was tough and definitely gave me some unique perspective."

https://www.pokesnews.com/post/high...nborg-to-reflect-i-m-glad-to-be-back-for-sure

*I have also added an audio version of the article at the bottom of the link above. Additionally, I added a link to J-Mike's story (just above the podcast widget at the bottom) about how he found football in high school, where he only played 3.5 games.

I beat Air Force 14-9 using Wyoming at home in College Football '25. So maybe there's hope.

as football only members. This makes no sense as the MWC still needs 2 full member schools. What’s Gloria up to?

Maybe Gloria is a genius and the league has been filming this shit show, to air an inside college football realignment series that could garner lots of eyeballs from sports junkies in the off-season and generate some major cash flow from Fox or CBS sports. That’s how ridiculous things have become. Nothing would surprise me at this point😂

So UNLV and AFA are going to stick around as the big boys of our league and the MW survives as sort of a western Conference USA. Let's chew on this a bit.

Revenue split: In the new league, UNLV and AFA will have strategic advantages in terms of the revenue split. We haven't seen the deal, but it appears those two will get a greater bonus payment out of the exit fees, and probably a bigger split of the next media deal. The impact to Wyoming of this is probably negligible. AFA has strategic disadvantages in terms of the kinds of kids they can recruit, so additional revenue to them likely doesn't equate to competitive changes on the court or field. UNLV already has resource advantages, so we probably won't feel that much, either.

The key piece, that will be ignored by most, is that every dollar that flows to UNLV and AFA represents part of a dollar that will not flow to Wyoming. In the post-Maury, post-Mick and Vicki world of UW athletics, every private dollar raised in Wyoming is precious. We've seen CJC membership decline significantly since the late 2010's. I would argue that, under our current impaired leadership, raising dollars at Wyoming is exponentially more difficult than at a school like UNLV or even Reno. We NEEDED all those extra exit fee dollars in order to support our own currently floundering efforts. Giving AFA and UNLV more dollars to spend won't sting, but reducing the dollars we potentially could have received will be a tough pill to swallow. In the long run it's probably a wash so I understand why we agreed to it, but let's have our eyes open about the consequences.

Media Rights: The revenue outlook gets even worse in the context of a 2026 media deal. The way the Navigate consultancy landed at the presumed media rights valuation of the "new" PAC that we've all been reading about is basically this: they took the current MW media rights deal and used it as a comp since the new PAC is essentially the old MW. They looked at media rights inflation in other leagues like the AAC and Big 12 and saw about a 40% rise over the last term of the deal. Then they added a kicker because OSU and WSU still own all the PAC-12 production assets, which increases the value of a deal by reducing costs. Hey presto, they get a deal that works out to about $90 million/year in total. I personally think this is fantasy land, and they will end up with a deal that pays them closer to $7 million to $8 million per year for each school. But what do I know. I'm just a little league coach (who has bought or brokered probably $50mm in tv and OTT advertising over my career, but whatever).

The rights environment for the new MW without the Traitorous 4 is catastrophic. One sports business executive I read described our likely value as a "rounding error." The current media rights package after the addition of the Turner deal pays us more than $5 million per year. Anyone familiar with the linear and streaming broadcast markets knows the money is not infinite. The market is getting tight. So the new PAC will fill the old MW spot in the market when their rights come up in 2026. That will slot us down to something more like the Conference USA deal that pays each school around $750k per year. That's reality. That's the market based on something close to a like-for-like comp. Can Wyoming absorb a $4 million per year reduction in its annual revenue? I suppose, but imagine what that looks like on the field (where we are already non-competitive).

Other Revenue: For years, the CSU home basketball game was the only guaranteed crowd in the AA. That becomes an every other year thing, at best. We'll never see SDSU again. Same with Boise. That changes the basketball revenue picture significantly. Now consider the NCAA units. The MW will likely keep the tournament units earned by SDSU and Boise over the past few years, as that is the precedent that has been set. But the new MW is almost certainly a 2-bid league even in a good year. Most years we're probably a one bid league. That changes the revenue picture over time significantly.

So what?: The PAC is in a jam here and ****ed this thing up flatter than hammered shit. As things stand today, the new PAC-7 has to stay together at all costs. That's the only way to keep the legacy PAC-12 money and ensure themselves of a respectable media rights deal in 2026. They also don't want to add many more schools, because none of the likely suspects raise their rights value in a material way. My guess is they try to poach one more school from somewhere to get to 8, they go to the rights market in 2026, and then they wait to see if the ACC or AAC (in that order) run into trouble.

I do believe there is a small, but shrinking, chance that they complete a full or nearly full merger with the MW. This should have been their play all along. That way they still get a media rights deal in 2026 of something around $6 million per school, but OSU and WSU keep the $255 million in legacy PAC-12 assets to themselves. They could have portioned that out for 10 years and lived in a world where OSU and WSU get around $15 million per year in extra revenue while the rest of us get what the old MW was basically paying. We would have taken that in a heartbeat.

If I'm Gloria and the MW, I go to the PAC people tomorrow and say let's knock all this bullshit off and make medicine. We'll merge into the PAC if you guarantee us a media rights minimum in 2026 of at least $6 million per school. You seven assholes fight over the legacy PAC12 money and assets however you want, and you take larger cuts of the new rights deal so long as we get our minimum. All litigation gets dropped, all exit fees are waived, and we have an actual regional league that makes sense.

Would that be a good deal for Wyoming? Maybe. Maybe not. But goddamn, we're ALREADY agreeing to a reduced-split, little brother deal with AFA and UNLV. WHY WOULDN'T WE EAT A LITTLE CROW AND DO THE SAME DEAL WITH THE PAC?

Christ! Does anyone in Laramie or Colorado Springs have any ability to think strategically AT ALL?!?!

LARAMIE, Wyo. (Sept. 25, 2024) – A new era of Cowboy basketball officially began on Wednesday afternoon in the Arena-Auditorium with the first practice of the Sundance Wicks era. Wyoming will host College of Idaho a month from Wednesday in an exhibition contest inside the Arena-Auditorium.



Notes on the Pokes

- Head Coach Sundance Wicks is in his first season as head coach of the Cowboys. A

native of Wyoming, Wicks is the 23rd coach in school history. He spent three seasons

as an assistant at UW leading Wyoming to the NCAA tournament in 2022.



- In his only season at Green Bay, Wicks was named the 2023-24 Horizon League

Coach of the Year. He was also named the Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year,

which is presented annually to the top rookie, first-year head coach in NCAA

Division I college basketball. Green Bay improved in the win column by 15 games for

the ninth most in NCAA History.



- Wyoming welcomes back four-letterwinners and a redshirt from last season’s team

and welcome nine transfers along with two incoming freshmen.



- Kobe Newton is the leading returning scorer for the Pokes at 4.5 points per game.

he shot 49 percent from behind the arc for the season in 20 games. He missed time

with an injury.



- Oleg Kojenets grabbed 2.5 rebounds per game last season, as he is Wyoming’s top

returning rebounder.



- Touko Tainamo was an All-Summit League selection at Denver last season with

15.2 points per game and 7.7 rebounds.



- Obi Agbim added 15.5 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.9 assists. He was an All-RMAC

player and All-Region selection at Fort Lewis College.



- Jordan Nesbitt comes to UW from Hampton University. He has over 1,000 career

points with 500 career rebounds and 250 assists.



- Dontaie Allen recorded 56 three-pointers last season at Western Kentucky.



2024 Schedule



The 30-game slate features 20 Mountain West Conference contests along with 10 non-conference games with five of those contests being played inside the Arena-Auditorium.



Mountain West national television partners CBS Sports and FOX Sports are now in a selection procedure, which will include the shifting of games from their current dates. Additional announcements on television selections will be made soon along with game times.


Season tickets are currently available for Cowboy Basketball. Fans may order tickets online, via email or by phone at:
•Go to GoWyo.com/tickets
•Email tickets@uwyo.edu
•Call (307) 766-7220
•Stop by the UW Athletics Ticket Office on the West Side of the Arena-Auditorium on the corner of Willett Drive and 19th Street.


The Pokes will host College of Idaho in an exhibition contest on October 25. Wyoming will officially open the season against Concordia-St. Paul on November 4. UW will then host Tennessee State on November 11. The Cowboys will battle Utah Tech (November 16), Southeastern Louisiana (November 22) and Bellarmine (December 19) to round out non-conference home contests.



Wyoming will play a non-conference road game at Texas Tech on November 13. Wyoming will close out non-conference play at Cal State Fullerton on December 22.



UW will play in the Cancun Challenge on November 26 opening against Tulane then will either battle Loyola-Marymount or Belmont the following day. Wyoming will also face BYU in a neutral site game at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City, Utah on December 14.



The 20-game MW slate starts on December 4 with a trip to Utah State. Wyoming will open the home portion of the conference schedule against Nevada on December 28 and Boise State on New Year’s Eve. Other conference home games include New Mexico on January 7 and the Border War against Colorado State on January 18.



The Pokes will host Fresno State on January 28, Utah State on February 4 and UNLV on February 8. UW will welcome Air Force on February 18 and San Jose State on February 22. UW will close the conference home schedule against San Diego State on March 1.



Wyoming will play Front Range foe Air Force on the road on January 4 and make a trip to Boise State on January 14. UW will head to UNLV on January 21 and San Jose State on January 25. A trip to San Diego State is set for February 1 and back-to-back road games at New Mexico (February 11) and Colorado State (February 15). UW will close the road schedule at Nevada on February 25 and at Fresno to close the regular season on March 4.