Most Successful Bengal Sports Programs 2000-2010

[mauijim]

How would you rank the various Bengal athletic programs over the past decade using criteria such as:

Number of Big Sky Team Championships won.
Percent of squad size or team that was named All Big Sky Conference.
Percent of squad size or team that was named All Academic Big Sky.
NCAA Championship tournament participation on a team level or individual level.

Combine these variables and rank the programs top to bottom. Or perhaps there are some other variables that should be included???

Also, given this ranking, which program has had the greatest success versus the budget allocated to them over the past decade? In other words, which program has made the best use of their money to deliver athletic and academic success?

Of course, I recognize that a successful football and/or basketball program can greatly impact a university in terms of fundraising, ticket sales, school enrollment, school apparel sales, ect and therefore return on investment of these two programs is a little more difficult to measure.

This is just a fun little exercise and perhaps some avid Bengal fans will have some interesting input to this question!

[soccerfanatic]

Okay... I'll bite.

Let me present the soccer team's case, and I will let other fans handle the other sports and compare to soccer. The soccer team has represented ISU well, but I have little idea as to how the other sports stack up.

First, the ten-year win record for the team is 87-42-13 overall for a win percentage of 66%. In the big sky, the team is 43-24-8 for a win percentage of 63%. ISU has won the regular season twice in ten years. The ISU coach has earned Big Sky Coach of the Year honors four out of the ten years.

Over the ten years, ISU has qualified for the tournament championship six times. Of those six times, ISU won the tournament four times, took second one time, and lost in the first round one time. They have placed 20 players on the All-Tournament Team. Four players have earned tournament MVP honors over the ten years. ISU holds an amazing tournament record of 8-2-1.

Winning the tournament four times, ISU qualified for the NCAA tournament each of those years. In 2003, they beat Utah on penalty kicks to move to the second round. In 2006, they took Utah to overtime before losing 3-2.

As to individual honors, 22 players have earned All-Conference 1st Team honors, 23 have earned all conference 2nd-honors, and 24 have earned All-Conference honorable mentions. This amazing record means that 20% of all of the starting players have earned a place on the All-Conference 1st Team, and 63% have received some type of post-season recognition. Even viewing the entire roster, nearly 35% of ISU soccer players have qualified for some type of post-season honor.

As to the Big Sky All-Academic Team, 76 players have earned all-academic honors, which represents nearly 40% of the entire roster. One player, Anna-Marie Hofstetter, earned All-American All-Acedemic honors last year, one of twelve players recognized across the nation. It is the first such honor for any ISU team since 1996.

Soccer holds an annual Governor's Cup Tournament to crown the best team in the state. ISU has won the honor four out of ten years, and tied for first one year.

ISU has one of the best soccer attendance averages in the intermountain west. Over the past six years (the years I could find attendance records,) ISU has averaged 496 attendees per home game.

Overall, the soccer team has done a fantastic job of representing ISU. This shows up not only in success on the field, but in providing quality entertainment for the community and in providing quality education to its players.