4 MVC visits ?

[MidWestMidMajor]

I think Omaha is an improving program. I think it has a good future. However, it is not ready at this time for the MVC. I looked at their hockey fanboard, and many had similar thoughts (mavpuck.com/mpboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=10245). Maybe 5-10 years from now it could be a contender. Murray, Valpo, and Milw are better candidates today.

Now, if you want to read the tea leaves: does that fact that the MVC is considering UNO say anything about the vision for the conference that the MVC staff and presidents are exploring (remembering that they took long looks at UMKC and UI-C in the past)? or are they just checking out D-1 schools in the neighborhood? I wish I could sneak a peak at those memos.

[Redhawk]

UW-Milwaukee has had a push at times for a name change...specifically Wisconsin State University.
I agree that would be great for their marketing and for separation from all the other UW-x schools.

PantherU...could you make Wisconsin State a reality?

Why not University of Milwaukee or Milwaukee University?

From Wiki:
Wisconsin State College of Milwaukee was the predecessor institution of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee

Would guess because that name has more state-wide and national relevance.

[Jsnhbe1Birds]

My guess is because if they dropped UW they lose funding

[RacerJoeD]

I think it's pretty clear that if basketball is the driver, Valpo Amd Murray St are the best choices. What's left (assuming no Belmont and no Slu) is pretty bad. If the choice is three adds, and valpo and Murray agree, does presence in another sport get the third add across the line? Omaha is good at hockey, but the MVC doesn't have hockey. What else is UMKC or UWM good at that would appeal to the front office?

[tribecalledquest]

Both Omaha and umkc are horrible adds. I could live with Milwaukee, at least. My comment regarding Elgin adding Omaha despite Creighton wasn't because I thought teams would jump ship it's because elgin is delusional enough to believe Omaha will become the new Creighton.

If Omaha happens blame the University Presidents, not Doug Elgin. He wants basketball first teams....but he isn't voting.

[PantherU]

Haha I've been waiting for someone to mention our dumbass name problem.

I've quite literally been banging on this drum for over 10 years. I'll give you the relatively quick rundown.

In spring 2006, a group of students and faculty lined up "Wisconsin State University" for a vote in the spring elections. They went public after having organized a ton of stuff, including giveaway t-shirts, brochures, buttons, and some hats. They pointed out that more Wisconsin-born students attend our school than anyone else, so we should "Graduate from State." They assumed that the Student Black and Gold Club, the organizing arm of the basketball student section and several hundred members strong, would tacitly accept this.

We didn't. I was a freshman but the heir to the SBGC President's chair, and then-current President Ben Goodhue responded to the "WSU" fans by publicly slapping down the idea, stating that the name Wisconsin State University, while definitely better than UWM, was not the best name. For the public doctoral urban research university that we were, indeed the best name was the University of Milwaukee. Our profile as a school matches other urban research schools such as Cincinnati, Louisville etc., and the mission of the university more closely matches U of M - that this is a school that exists to serve and educate its community. That community is Milwaukee.

So for the spring elections in 2006, the student government allowed both names to go against UWM - as well as two other names suggested, Milwaukee University and Milwaukee State University as well as a write-in. While the grand majority of students voted for change, UWM received the most votes. In a funny turn of events, 10 students wrote in "Jedi Academy."

It was around this time that athletic director Bud Haidet announced that "Milwaukee" would be the preferred name of the athletics program, but they failed to push that through the SID office to local and national media. So it's been a long process, but most national media will refer to us by our preferred name of "Milwaukee" unless they don't do any research into brand guidelines.

Three years later, the student government had been taken over by some of the students who had favored WSU three years earlier. Instead of reopening that pitch, however, they recognized that the SBGC's preferred name was best - the University of Milwaukee. We were a much smaller organization at that point, but the Student Association (gov) brought me in to ask if I would give a couple speeches and talk to students and faculty one-on-one in the lead-up to the election. I agreed, but when I asked if I should be setting up space to make the push, the SA kids told me they'd handle it. They never did.

As then-Sports Editor at the UWM Post, I wrote a point-counterpoint on changing the name to the University of Milwaukee against one of the other editors, the girlfriend of the then-Editor-in-Chief of the paper. With the elections on a Tuesday, the Post was supposed to run the two stories side-by-side for the edition that published on Sunday night, just a day and a half before the election. By the time I left the Post office that night, my "pro-change" editorial was pushed to lead the sports section, while the "pro-UWM" editorial was on the front page. This was spring 2009, when almost everyone was conscious of money in the early days of the recession, so a combination of the "costs" involved in a name change and the lack of publicity for changing the name led to "UWM" winning the vote handily. They had said that changing the name of the school would cost several million, but most of that cost was about changing stationery, which is constantly changed anyways. The actual cost, including signage etc., would have been about $1.2 million over several years.

Since then, our university has taken to the same track as UNC-Charlotte - saying that "Milwaukee" is the name of the athletics program while maintaining "UWM" as the name of the university. Had either of the student votes been successful, the Board of Regents would then vote on whether or not to let us change the name of the school.

In my research over recent years, I've come to the belief that the best route for the university is not an official name change - that would change the name on our diplomas - but rather a brand change, a la the State University of New York at Buffalo. That's a really long name, so they've branded differently - and pretty much everyone in the country knows that school as the University at Buffalo.

We'd be the second school in the state that is largely branded under a different name. The University of Wisconsin's official name has been the University of Wisconsin-Madison since we became the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in 1956.

I know the UW System prefers we all carry the UW name, but I feel that at this point this is more of a hindrance to Milwaukee than a benefit. The University of Milwaukee is strong enough to stand on its own merit; just saying "the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee" elicits visions of Bucky Badger before the reader finishes saying the name. This also has negative effects on Madison - a few years ago, one of our fraternities was accused of drugging female students at their parties. Many national media outlets referred to the school as the University of Wisconsin - which, while true, is again the brand of the flagship in Madison, not Milwaukee. The biggest surprise to me was that the fraternity actually got girls to show up to their parties; when I was in school, they were practically the Neckbeards-and-D&D Society.

Branding the school as the "University of Milwaukee" is just one of many things that should have happened a very long time ago at our university; it's not unprecedented, even in recent history, for schools to change names. Memphis State University became the University of Memphis in the early 1990's.

In Virginia, the public universities all carry a bunch of different names. Schools like Old Dominion, George Mason, William and Mary are public, not private. So are Virginia Commonwealth, Virginia State and Virginia Tech. They all pull their money from the same source, the Commonwealth of Virginia. They all have their own brand and their own history. Why is it such a bad thing that Milwaukee be allowed to stand on its own two feet?

I saw someone mention that if we dropped the UW name, we could lose funding. I don't think the UW System would be anywhere near that petty, to try and hold money from a school that doesn't carry someone else's brand. Milwaukee is not Madison, to be sure, but we're closer to Madison than we are to any of the other 4-year schools in the UW System. One of the smaller reasons I want to be in the MVC is because it's in our university's best interest to be in a better athletic conference than UW-Green Bay. Our shared membership in the Horizon League has caused most non-academics to believe that academically, UWGB and UWM are on the same level. This couldn't be further than the truth. Green Bay doesn't register as a research institution; Milwaukee is at the R1 level with Big Ten and Ivy League schools. Green Bay is a regional school of 6,000 students; Milwaukee is a national university of 28,000 students. Green Bay doesn't even award doctorates; Milwaukee has 33 doctoral programs. Our former Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton is the highest-ranking political alumni from UWGB and she didn't graduate from there; you ever heard of Golda Meir? She went to Milwaukee. One of their alumni used to run a retail called Supervalu; our alumni have been CEO's of Northwestern Mutual, Harley-Davidson, Rockwell Automation, Johnson Controls, and don't let me forget to mention that Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is also a Panther.

The fact that we're both in the Horizon League causes many people in this state to think that Milwaukee and Green Bay are on a similar level as institutions. This couldn't be further than the truth. The difference between Milwaukee and Green Bay is roughly the same difference between Madison and Oshkosh in the UW System. That's not a knock on UWGB; it's a fine university and I've recommended to many people that they consider going to school there. But Milwaukee needs to stand above them in athletics so people who don't pay close attention to academics understand that we're on a whole other level. Not "better," per se, but by our profile.

The name is something that we need to address. Most people are confused, even after they graduate, as to what they should call the school to everyone else. Seriously, look at our alumni roster for #TBT2017. There's something like 6 names for the school listed by our players (and me, I'm on there as the Booster). I just say "Milwaukee." If we need a secondary brand for local use because Milwaukee is too generic to use in the greater Milwaukee area, then we should brand ourselves as the University of Milwaukee and call ourselves "UMIL" locally.

I know athletics wants to do it. Should we become new members of the Missouri Valley Conference, I'm sure the official move will be used as a reason to consider a re-brand to the University of Milwaukee. It would certainly be used in fundraising to try and get as much money as possible to build our proposed practice facility. The student segregated fee will eventually have enough money so we can build it, and by my calculations it will have enough to cover the cost by the early 2020's. But a potential move to the MVC is a huge deal, so if that comes to fruition the Foundation will probably use it to see if we can finish off all the fundraising for it so we don't need to ask the state for an advance if we want the doors to open before 2020.

As for the name: if you guys are deciding what to call us, might I suggest just going with Milwaukee or MKE, as the athletic department is branded?

[Play Angry]

wow tl;dr but congrats on your endurance

[uniftw]

wow tl;dr but congrats on your endurance

Worst of all, he didn't even TL;DR it at the end.

Not reading it. No longer give a damn

[Redhawk]

PantherU:
I'll give you the relatively quick rundown.

Then took 17 paragraphs to tell you that UWM isn't going to change their name!

[PurpleAcesFootball]

Thanks for the rundown. I appreciate the 'quick synopsis'.

I didn't realize your SID tried the rebranding route with Milwaukee. Kind of proves your point about the failed marketing efforts.

Now my only problem with Milwaukee is that they hired the snake-oil salesman Bruce Pearl, but that is a discussion for another day.