HERALD EDITORIAL: Western Michigan football team, Cubit deserves credit for a great season

Even with the loss to Ball State University last week, Western Michigan University’s football team had an impressive regular season. They won nine games for the first time since 2000 and, according to wmubroncos.com, will be heading to a bowl game.

Much of the credit is due to head coach Bill Cubit, who took over the Broncos in 2005. The year before, they had won exactly one game.

In Cubit’s four years at WMU, the Broncos have a 29-19 record, including wins over Bowl Championship Series conference opponents Virginia and Illinois.

The .604 win percentage is the best percentage the Broncos have enjoyed under one coach since Mitchell Gary during the Depression Era.

Including this upcoming bowl game, WMU’s football team has only been invited to four bowls in school history, with Cubit responsible for two of them. The Broncos will find out on Dec. 5 which bowl game they will be going to.

Cubit has made a change in the program’s attitude as well. The Broncos suffered through a 5-7 season last year, which in years past may have been accepted, but under Cubit, it was seen as a step backwards.

Even more impressive is the way Cubit has turned the football team into one of the best academic programs in the MAC, including a 2.84 grade point average this past spring.

Starting in 2003-04, the NCAA tracks a program’s academics through the Academic Progress Rate. The APR looks at the graduation and retention rate of student-athletes in the NCAA through a four year window.

The baseline for the APR is a score of 925. If a program scores lower than that 925, it faces the possibility of losing scholarships or a ban from postseason play.

When the NCAA implemented the program, WMU was going through a few difficult seasons and a transition with a new coach, which lead to ARP scores in the mid-800s. Since the scores carry over for four years, the Broncos were tied down by these score for at least four years.

In 2006 and 2007, the Broncos lost a total of 10 scholarships for the low scores. Cubit has worked hard to improve WMU’s ARP score to 921 and the NCAA ruled the Broncos will not lose any more scholarships this year.

It has been a monumental task getting the program back into good academic standing, but Cubit has put in the work and made sure that the focus of the team is on both football and academics.

However, all the success Cubit is having will not go unnoticed, and bigger schools, with bigger budgets and better facilities, may look to him to turn around their programs.

If those bigger schools do approach Cubit, it would be a shame to see Cubit go, but he certainly deserves it.
The Western Michigan football program was in disarray when Cubit took over four years ago, now they are quickly becoming one of the class programs of the MAC both on and off the field.

Short URL: http://www.westernherald.com/?p=2637

Posted by HeraldAdmin on Nov 30 2008. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

Cody Kimball
Web Manager: I'm a Communication Student at WMU, a SCUBA Diver, Boater, Ordained Minister, Notary Public, Web Designer, Film Maker, DJ, and of course a Journalist. Born and raised in Port Huron, MI and a graduate of SC4. http://www.codykimball.com