The world got more cowboys — The Third Side

I am going to say something that may surprise people who have known me for the better part of five decades: the Wyoming Cowboys have no business continuing to compete at the top level of college sports and the Wyoming legislature was wrong to perpetuate the illusion that we belong in those ranks by throwing money away in a misguided effort to “keep up.”

A few weeks ago it looked like lawmakers may pound some sense into the university, but that was all apparently just political theatre. After months of angst, warnings, press conferences and handwringing over proposed budget reductions, the Legislature largely passed the governor’s budget with only modest carve-outs and caveats.

The Wyoming Business Council is intact. The University of Wyoming is intact. Wyoming Public Media is intact. There are a few trims here and there, promises of efficiency studies, task forces, and performance reviews — but nothing that fundamentally alters the trajectory of state government.

In other words, much ado about nothing.

Either the Freedom Caucus did not have the votes to make their cuts stick, or they lacked the political will to endure the backlash. Their threatened cuts were supposed to be a wake-up call to state and local governments, but wake-up calls only work if someone actually gets out of bed, and the first item the Freedom Caucus caved on was the spending request that it made the most sense to deny. 

I knew the proposed cuts weren’t going to survive when the caucus quickly relented on a $6 million request from the University of Wyoming athletic department to help fund Cowboy sports in the era of NIL — name, image and likeness money — so Wyoming can compete at the highest level of college athletics.

If there was one place for budget-conscious lawmakers to hold firm, it was there because I don’t think it is possible for Wyoming to compete at that level…and that is painful for me to say.

I have been a diehard Wyoming fan for nearly 50 years. I was there in the late 1980s when the Pokes won back-to-back Western Athletic Conference football championships, and I helped tear down a goalpost and parade it down Grand Avenue after we clinched one of those titles. I was in the Arena Auditorium in 1986 when the Cowboys beat Clemson to advance to the NIT Final Four, and two years later, I tutored Fennis Dembo in political science after he had graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. 

I even camped out for basketball tickets that year to make sure I had my place in the student section. Those were certainly electric days, but today the Arena can’t even draw 3,000 fans for a home game.

That is not because Wyoming fans have forgotten how to cheer. It is because the University of Wyoming — and particularly its athletic department — has taken the support of Wyoming fans and communities for granted.

I’ve witnessed the decline in interest in recent years, and take it somewhat personally because I know players who experienced it. Former Cowboy basketball players Akuel Kot and Obi Agbim transferred from Fort Lewis College, where I served as play-by-play announcer and watched them win Division II Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference championships in front of packed houses.

I encouraged those young men to chase their Division I dreams in Laramie, and they performed well. Unfortunately, they performed in front of empty seats, and that should have been enough to back up the budget threat from Cheyenne.

Instead, the Legislature handed over $6 million so Wyoming can continue trying to compete with programs from the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and whatever remains of the Pac-12 — conferences whose budgets dwarf ours and whose recruiting footprints span the globe. Half of the Mountain West is already bolting, and the college sports landscape is shifting under our feet.

But we choose to ignore it, and are writing checks to chase a dream we have never actually realized.

Here is the hard truth: Wyoming does not belong in the Football Bowl Subdivision, and it is time to have a serious, statewide conversation about dropping to the Football Championship Subdivision — or even Division II.

The Cowboys could compete against more natural regional rivals like Montana, Montana State, Idaho, the Dakotas and others. We would likely spend less. We would likely win more. We would almost certainly see more Wyoming high school athletes moving on to compete for their in-state university, and we would conceivably reconnect with communities that feel forgotten. 

Once upon a time, Wyoming athletes and coaches traveled the state holding camps and clinics in small towns. There was a bond between the university and its people. Now marketing campaigns chase out-of-state students and national branding slogans — including one purchased from the same agency that sold an identical concept to Oklahoma State — while in-state communities are treated as automatic supporters.

The university paid big money for “The World Needs More Cowboys,” so it became the guiding mantra, but it certainly wasn’t to the benefit of the Cowboy State. The world may have gotten more Cowboys, but what did Wyoming get...and what does the state need?

What Wyoming needs is a university that reflects Wyoming — in its priorities, its outreach and its ambitions.

Consider this: at least 70% of UW graduates leave the state after earning their degrees. Some estimates put it closer to 80%. We subsidize their education, celebrate their commencement, and then watch them build careers elsewhere. That raises a legitimate question about return on investment.

But instead of asking that question, we provide additional funding to an athletic department that struggles to fill seats. Factor in the knowledge that this newspaper can’t even give tickets away, and it becomes harder to argue that writing larger checks is the answer.

If lawmakers are going to fund NIL collectives with taxpayer dollars, the least they could demand is a comprehensive, statewide study asking whether Wyoming citizens want to remain at the highest level of Division I athletics — and whether that pursuit reflects our character and capacity. Perhaps most importantly, the powers-that-be in UW athletics could actually become reacquainted with Wyoming’s people. That might help them realize this state does not need to mimic Texas, Florida or California to matter. 

In fact, we matter precisely because we are not them.

The people who control the checkbook in Cheyenne should make it clear to the University of Wyoming athletic department that the days of chasing prestige without accountability are over. Either prove decisively why we belong at the highest level of Division I sports — financially, competitively and culturally — or begin the process of aligning our programs with the state we actually are.

It is time for the University of Wyoming’s athletic ambitions to realistically reflect the state of Wyoming — and for lawmakers to rediscover the courage to hold the line when it matters most.