authors note: I originally wrote this piece “The Company You Keep” in late 2018. It’s intention was to compare Idaho to the other division 1 institutes out west. In statistics I saw relevant with intentions of creating new a FBS Conference, using the “Front Porch Argument”. I ened up not posting it because I felt it lack anything solid to my argument of needing a new land grant FBS conference and had to many cherry picked stats and ignored the others.
However, with the recent development at Eastern Washington about cutting athletics. This coupled with our upcoming FCS v FBS live podcast on April 17th. The research I preformed provides a bit of a lense on Eastern and Idaho in the greater picture out west.
The numbers used are slightly outdated now. This is being published simply because I now feel it provides some additional information in the wake of current news. It does not fit the narrative initially used through the piece.
The Company You Keep.
There have been many opinions on Idaho in the FCS. I want to compare the situation with something not talk as much about. Where are Idahos “Peer” Institute? FBS or FCS? People say football is the front porch to a university. They never talk about the neighborhood the front porch is in. Now decide if it is better to have the best front porch in the least desirable neighborhood or the worst front porch in the most desirable neighborhood. Today we are going to look at all the “Western” neighborhoods and have people decide where they think Idaho’s front porch would be best located.
I am going to do my best to layout just the statistics and let people come to their own conclusions. After reading article I encourage everyone to comment below or tweet us @TubsAtTheClub with what you found from article. I will provide some commentary after each statistical grouping.
I am going to limit this to the west. West will be as if you trace the border from south to north of the Texas Louisiana border and on its way north of States with DI sports. I also leave out the state of Texas. The reason I do this is simply the Eastern seaboard, Midwest, South & Texas just have more quantity of schools and history, paired with different challenges from the west. The West is very different in university structure then the rest.
One of the biggest things is Land Grant institutions. Land grant institutes will be typically the most similar Universities to Idaho. Another being Endowment and Enrollment. For Athletics, we are going to look at Facilities (to the best of our abilities), Attendance and budget.
These will be broken down in 4 “Neighborhoods” Pac 12, Mountain West, Big Sky & other. The first 3 are obviously western conferences. The “other” category is made of independents out west or schools belonging to other conferences along our imaginary boundary we setup for the west.
The Land Grant institutions in the states we are considering possible peer institutes are:
North Dakota State
South Dakota State
Nebraska
Kansas State
Oklahoma State
Montana State
Wyoming
Colorado State
New Mexico State
Idaho
Utah State
Arizona
Washington State
Oregon State
Nevada-Reno
California - Berkeley
Hawaii – Manoa
ENDOWMENT
According to the 2016 Endowment Numbers Idaho’s Endowment is $237.5 Million. We are going to look at Schools in the west from top to bottom to see where we rank.
| Big Sky | Mountain West | Pac 12 | Others |
| UC Davis
$1.6 Billion IDAHO $237.5 MILLION North Dakota $230.6 Million Cal Poly $190.3 Million Montana $167.3 Million Northern Arizona $143.9 Million Montana State $138.2 Million Weber State $110.6 Million Northern Colorado $76.3 Million $73 Million Idaho State* (2017) $53 Million Sacramento State $39.5 Million Eastern Washington $18.4 Million Southern Utah (Not Available?) |
Wyoming
$422.2 Million New Mexico $393.2 Million Utah State $325.5 Million Nevada $302.6 Million Colorado State $286.3 Million Hawaii $271.1 Million IDAHO $237.5 MILLION UNLV $230.8 Million San Diego State $219.9 Million Fresno State $146.3 Million San Jose State $125.6 Million Boise State $88.8 Million Air Force (Academies don’t make release) |
Stanford
$22.2 Billion USC $4.6 Billion Washington $2.9 Billion UCLA $1.6 Billion Cal-Berkeley $1.5 Billion Colorado $1 Billion Utah $1 Billion Washington State $907.8 Million Oregon $758.6 Million Arizona $754.6 Million Arizona State $612.5 Million Oregon State $492.5 Million IDAHO $237.5 MILLION
|
Oklahoma
$1.5 Billion Nebraska $1.4 Billion Kansas $1.4 Billion Tulsa $957.5 Million Oklahoma State $847 Million Kansas State $457.3 Million San Diego $449.7 Million IDAHO $237.5 MILLION New Mexico State $214.7 Million South Dakota $209 Million North Dakota State $150.4 Million South Dakota State $104.7 Million BYU (Religious institutes don’t release)
|
* Numbers found on different source than the res
ENROLLMENT
Idaho 2018 Enrollment 12k
| Big Sky | Mountain West | Pac 12 | Others |
| UC Davis
37.2k Northern Arizona 31k Sacramento State 30.6k @ Weber State 27.9k Portland State 27.3k @ Cal Poly 22.1k Montana State 16.9k North Dakota 14.4k Idaho State 13.3k Northern Colorado 12.9k Eastern Washington 12.6k @ IDAHO 12k Montana 10.6k Southern Utah 9.4k |
San Diego State
30.1k @ San Jose State 27.7k @ Colorado State 25.9k UNLV 25.2k @ Utah State 24.6k Fresno State 22.2k Boise State 20.7k @ New Mexico 19.5k Nevada 18.3k Hawaii 12.8k IDAHO 12k Wyoming 9.7k Air Force 4.2k
|
UCLA
45.5k USC 43k Arizona State 42.4k Arizona 35.1k Washington 31.3k Cal-Berkeley 30.5k Washington State 29.6k Colorado 29k Oregon State 25.8k Utah 24.6k Oregon 22.9k IDAHO 12k Stanford 7k
|
BYU
31.2k Oklahoma 22.8k Nebraska 20.9k Oklahoma State 20.9k Kansas 19.3k Kansas State 18.4k IDAHO 12k North Dakota State 11.9k New Mexico State 11.7k South Dakota State 10.8k South Dakota 10.2k San Diego 9k Tulsa 3.3k
|
@ Considered a commuter School
World Report & US News Best School 2019 Rankings
Idaho is #165(t)
| Big Sky | Mountain West | Pac 12 | Others |
| UC Davis
38(t) IDAHO 165(t) Montana 201(t) Montana State 205(t) North Dakota 205(t) Northern Colorado 230-301(t) Northern Arizona 230-301(t) Portland State 230-301(t) Eastern Washington Not Ranked Southern Utah Not Ranked Sacramento State Not Ranked Weber State Not Ranked Cal Poly Not Ranked Idaho State Not Ranked |
San Diego State
127(t) Colorado State 140(t) Hawaii 157(t) IDAHO 165(t) Wyoming 183(t) New Mexico 187(t) Nevada 201(t) Utah State 205(t) Fresno State 205(t) UNLV 230-301 Boise State 230-301 San Jose State NR Air Force NR
|
Stanford
7 UCLA 19 Cal-Berkeley 22(t) USC 22(t) Washington 59(t) Colorado 96(t) Oregon 102(t) Arizona 106(t) Arizona State 115(t) Utah 119(t) Washington State 140(t) Oregon State 140(t) IDAHO 165(t)
|
BYU
60(t) San Diego 85(t) Tulsa 106(t) Nebraska 129(t) Kansas 129(t) Kansas State 147(t) Oklahoma State 157(t) IDAHO 165(t) New Mexico State 221(t) North Dakota State 215(t) South Dakota State 226(t) South Dakota 226(t) Oklahoma Not Ranked
|
(t) Tie
Stadium Capacity
Idaho is 16,000
| Big Sky | Mountain West | Pac 12 | Others |
| Montana
25,200 Sacramento State 21,195 Montana State 19,000 Weber State 17,000 IDAHO 16,000 Northern Arizona 15,300 North Dakota 12,283 Idaho State 12,000 Cal Poly 11,075 UC Davis 10,849 Eastern Washington 8,600* Northern Colorado 8,533 Southern Utah 8,500 Portland State 7,600%
|
San Diego State
70,561 Hawaii 50,000 Air Force 46,692 Colorado State 41,200 Fresno State 41,031 New Mexico 39,224 UNLV 36,800 Boise State 36,387 San Jose State 30,456 Wyoming 29,181 Nevada 26,000 Utah State 25,513 IDAHO 16,000
|
UCLA
90,888 USC 77,500 Washington 70,500 Cal-Berkeley 62,717 Arizona State 56,232 Arizona 56,029 Oregon 54,000 Stanford 50,424 Colorado 50,183 Utah 45,807 Oregon State 45,674 Washington State 32,248 IDAHO 16,000
|
Oklahoma
86,112 Nebraska 86,047 BYU 63,470 Oklahoma State 60,218 Kansas 50,071 Kansas State 50,000 New Mexico State 30,343 Tulsa 30,000 South Dakota State 19,340 North Dakota State 19,000 IDAHO 16,000 South Dakota 10,000 San Diego 6,000
|
* Started fundraising/have real plans for new stadium
% Play a few game in larger facility
Now that we see where everyone in the conferences out west rank lets rank all schools 1 through 50 in all the categories above and this should start What 12-13 schools are most similar in all subjects. I will then sort everyone by their average finish in the categories and create 4 new “Neighborhoods” as they were.
| Endowment | Enrollment | School Ranking | Stadium Capacity |
| 1. Stanford
2. USC 3. Washington 4. UCLA 5. UC Davis 6. Cal-Berkeley 7. Oklahoma 8. Nebraska 9. Kansas 10. Colorado 11. Utah 12. Tulsa 13. Washington State 14. Oklahoma State 15. Oregon 16. Arizona 17. Arizona State 18. Oregon State 19. Kansas state 20. San Diego 21. Wyoming 22. New Mexico 23. Utah State 24. Nevada 25. Colorado State 26. Hawaii 27. Idaho 28. UNLV 29. North Dakota 30. San Diego State 31. New Mexico State 32. South Dakota 33. Cal Poly 34. Montana 35. North Dakota State 36. Fresno State 37. Northern Arizona 38. Montana State 39. San Jose State 40. Weber State 41. South Dakota State 42. Boise State 43. Portland State 44. Idaho State 45. Sacramento State 46. Eastern Washington 47. Southern Utah |
1. UCLA
2. USC 3. Arizona State 4. UC Davis 5. Arizona 6. Washington 7. BYU 8. Northern Arizona 9. Sacramento State 10. Cal-Berkeley 11. San Diego State 12. Washington State 13. Colorado 14. Weber State 15. San Jose State 16. Portland State 17. Colorado State 18. Oregon State 19. UNLV 20. Utah 21. Utah State 22. Oregon 23. Oklahoma 24. Fresno State 25. Cal Poly 26. Nebraska 27. Oklahoma State 28. Boise State 29. New Mexico 30. Kansas 31. Kansas State 32. Nevada 33. Montana State 34. North Dakota 35. Idaho state 36. Northern Colorado 37. Hawaii 38. Eastern Washington 39. Idaho 40. North Dakota State 41. New Mexico State 42. South Dakota State 43. Montana 44. South Dakota 45. Wyoming 46. Southern Utah 47. San Diego 48. Stanford 49. Air Force 50. Tulsa |
1. Stanford
2. UCLA 3. Cal-Berkeley 3. USC 5. UC Davis 6. Washington 7. BYU 8. San Diego 9. Colorado 10. Oregon 11. Tulsa 11. Arizona 13. Arizona State 14. Utah 15. San Diego State 16. Nebraska 16. Kansas 18. Washington State 18. Oregon State 18. Colorado State 21. Kansas State 22. Oklahoma State 22. Hawaii 24. Idaho 25. Wyoming 26. New Mexico 27. Nevada 27. Montana 29. Montana State 29. Utah State 29. Fresno State 29. North Dakota 33. North Dakota State 34. New Mexico State 35. South Dakota state 35. South Dakota 37. Northern Colorado 37. Northern Arizona 37. Portland State 37. UNLV 37. Boise State 42. Oklahoma 42. San Jose State 42. Air Force 42. Eastern Washington 42. Southern Utah 42. Sacramento State 42. Weber State 42. Cal Poly 42. Idaho State
|
1. UCLA
2. Oklahoma 3. Nebraska 4. USC 5. San Diego State 6. Washington 7. BYU 8. Cal-Berkeley 9. Oklahoma state 10. Arizona State 11. Arizona 12. Oregon 13. Stanford 14. Colorado 15. Kansas 16. Kansas State 17. Hawaii 18. Air Force 19. Utah 20. Oregon State 21. Colorado State 22. Fresno State 23. New Mexico 24. UNLV 25. Boise State 26. Washington State 27. San Jose State 28. New Mexico State 29. Tulsa 30. Wyoming 31. Nevada 32. Utah state 33. Montana 34. Sacramento State 35. South Dakota State 36. North Dakota State 37. Montana State 38. Weber State 39. Idaho 40. Northern Arizona 41. North Dakota 42. Idaho State 43. Cal Poly 44. UC Davis 45. South Dakota 46. Eastern Washington 47. Northern Colorado 48. Southern Utah 49. Portland State 50. San Diego |
Interesting takeaways. Stanford literally might lose an amount larger than Eastern Washington’s Endowment and not even notice. The whole Pac 12 is by far the best neighborhood in terms of Endowment. I know what a surprise (just like Boise States Endowment). There numbers are extremely high (except poor Oregon State) while having 4 land grant institutions.
Some more surprising statistics when looking at these numbers (other than Southern Utah not existing apparently) is Idaho would be Smack dab in the middle of Mountain west conference; which contains 5 of the 17 Land Grant institutions out west.
What 12 Schools are most similar compared to Idaho?
Wyoming, Montana, Montana State & South Dakota -3
New Mexico, Utah State, Colorado State, Hawaii, North Dakota, Cal Poly, Idaho State, North Dakota State-2
Breakdown by conference
0 Pac 12 schools
5 Mountain West Schools
6 Big Sky Schools
2 Other Western Schools.
Idaho fits best with Mountain West and Big Sky.
Tubs at The Club 
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