E, I got you. But for me, I realized some time ago that during my 47 years of rooting for, and supporting Marshall the university world has changed around me. Schools like UNCC, ODU, JMU, Liberty Georgia State, Coastal Carolina, Appy State...on and on, have grown by leaps and bounds while we've grown unsteadily and sporadically. Heck, I used to go to the Coastal Carolina Community College baseball field to watch pro developmental league baseball, the Blue Jays...
While this is a challenge for us athletically, the fact is that great universities have grown up in our midst and are educating hundreds of thousands of people every year. They all have ambitions and money too; are based in population growth areas, and have missions that require them to recruit effectivelly too.
I wish MU had been on the same mission as these schools, but it wasn't. Whether it is the state making it almost impossible, or the lack of creative leadership, I don't know. But I do know the days of thinking we should roll over these schools because We Are Marshall is long past. Think about it, we've got players who are the third generation after our plane crash. Some of their grand parents were only elementary students back then. We have to live in today on today's nickel and have a pitch of / for today.
I hate it, but I believe this is absolutely true. One of my sons often laments that although we are disappointed we do pretty well for being the "second thought" school in the third poorest state in the country. These aren't excuses to me, but they are true.
Well stated, whf. Answers to the main question posed are many.
First, the poverty of the state is prime factor, IMO. However, its more than just economic poverty. It is also a poverty of ideas and vision, especially when it comes to education, and particularly higher education. For decades going back probably to the 40s, there's been little to NO emphasis on developing a quality higher education system in this state. Politicians, particularly those one party rulers for decades knew the state's economic viability depended on labor intensive entities: especially mining, chemicals, manufacturing, and, to a lesser extent, lumber extraction and wood products manufacturing.
When those industries started significant downturns running from the late 50s forward, the state looked a little harder at higher ed. But, unfortunately, they have equated higher ed to one institution in particular; and the state'smainfinancial support has mainly flowed mainly in the direction of that institution. The result: higher ed entities not located in Morgantown have struggled with severe underfunding in basic budgets, in being unable to develop the required physical plant/facilities needed to provide the quality education needed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
In contrast, look at the states surrounding WV. Go to schools like WKU, EKU, MTSU, JMU, George Mason, Ohio U., etc., etc., and marvel at the extensive physical plants, including dorms, classroom/labs, recreational facilities, etc. Then look at MU's landlocked campus, with many outmoded, obsolete classroom and dorm facilities, lack of that much in way of recreational and "green space". No small wonder school's enrollment has stagnated for nearly 2 decades.
Want some comparisons? When I graduated from MU in latter 60s. George Mason was a small, one building "branch" of the University of Virginia. Today, an exploding suburban university with international reach just outside the nation's campus. When they made it to the NCAA Final 4, their head coach, now at Miami, FL, did some PR spots on television in the DC area, touting the building boom going on around the GMU campus, at a cost of over ONE BILLION DOLLARS!! I believe their enrollment is now the largest of ALL of Virginia's state supported higher ed colleges, even more than VA Tech or UVA (the "flagship" school). Another example: at same time, in Harrisonburg, VA, there was a small women's college. Today, it is now James Madison U., ranked at or near the top of the South's regional comprehensive universities and colleges. It has over 20,000 students, 700+ acre campus, 110+ major buildings, and from top to bottom probably the best and most successful overall athletics program in FCS and ahead of most G5 FBS schools like Marshall.
The main difference: a state like Virginia's governmental LEADERS realized early on that a quality and successful system of OVERALL higher ed. institutions was key to the state's growth and economic vitality. In WV, decades of career politicians, NOT LEADERS, instead decided to cater to the whims and desires of ONE school on the PA border. The result: the state has been, for half a century and continuing, watching the rest of the nation and its neighboring states progress and grow, while it stagnates, falls further behind, and prays that it doesn't one day wake up and find out that Mississippi is no longer a state in the Union!!
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