No, that's like saying it's better to act in a community theater for $50 million a year than to act in hollywood for $50 million a year.

Buc Wrote:EADA operating budget numbers do not include scholarships costs, coaches salaries, or the costs for the facilities. That being said, why can't ETSU's costs be close to UGA's? Does UGA have better tennis rackets than ETSU? Does UGA travel on chartered planes? Does UGA eat more lunches on a road trip than ETSU?

Why do the supporters of the current direction of the athletic program even care about the EADA numbers? If I was Mullins, I would tell everyone that "Surely, you didn't actually believe we dropped football to save money. We dropped football so we could pour the money into other sports and yes spend like the programs we want to be. The EADA numbers just prove that we did what we wanted to do which is to improve the funding of all the other sports at the expense of football."

Of course, if you want football back, you point to the EADA numbers as a possible way to lower costs which in combination with additional revenues would lead to a decision to bring football back.

And don't give me the bull crap about how we can't hurt the other sports to bring back football. The current administration had no problem completely eliminating a sport to help the other ones. That's a whole lot of hurt.

I hope a day will come when we see "championship funding" for all sports including football.

The sad reality is, at ETSU, football will NEVER come back while funding other sports at these levels. And, you'll never be able to build funding at ETSU without a football team. Too many people have written them off.

Instead of finding an ounce of creativity and getting aggressive at fundraising for football and others, they decided it would be easier to just drop football (which may be true - with some of the current staff at ETSU, creativity is like getting blood from a turnip). My solution would be to remove the current administration, bring football back at a significant level, get fans back on board, better your conference, and watch the money for the other sports start coming in. I mean, I'm not an AD, but neither is Dave Mullins.

Buc2002 Wrote:They said the numbers were provided by UT. How convenient

Doubt they were the EADA numbers. Just from what we've seen in the stories about ETSU in the BHC they are unreliable and obviously calculated differently at every school. For instance, the No. 1-ranked Georgia men's tennis expenditures are in no possible way close to ETSU, and the EADA shows them as very comparable. Just no way.

Then where did UT get their numbers? Does Auburn and UGA routinely report their expenditures to them? Maybe they're sharing recruiting prospects with each other too...

And even if you COULD act at a community theatre in Johnson City for the same amount of salary as you could in Hollywood, you would not be as known, have the clout, win the awards, or be remembered.

We were talking about Ron Bliss leaving a Ray Mears book for Rick Pitino. Now, Mears can't shine Pitino's shoes.

And once upon a time, Pitino had it made at Providence. Providence is a place you can win at. He went to the Final Four there. A national championship in the Big East at a place where basketball is king would have been the next logical point.

Hey, it could easily have happened. And Pitino would have been even bigger than Ernie Digregorio then. He would be widely respected as one of the best coaches in basketball.

His wife didn't want to leave. She was comfortable in New England- not in Kentucky. She used to have to spend a month in New York every year just to stay sane. Furthermore, the Pitinos had suffered tragedy when one of their children died at six months of age. He was buried in Providence.

But Pitino wanted to be great. And he knew there was a difference between being a respected basketball coach and being basketball.

If Pitino had stayed at Providence, I think he would have won National Championships (yes, plural) and been a millionaire.

But so what? So he would have been Denny Crum. So he would have been Guy Lewis. So he would have been Jim Boeheim.

He wouldn't have been Rick Pitino. He wouldn't be the first name you think of when contemporary college basketball coaches are named (yes, there is Mike Krzyzewski, and maybe Coach K does outrank Pitino. Fine. Pitino's in the Top Two then).

He wouldn't BE HIS SPORT. Nobody would have bought "Success is a Choice." He wouldn't be mentioned on Saturday Night Live skits, he wouldn't own a horseracing stable, he wouldn't have been able to raise as much money for unhealthy children, he wouldn't be the father of coaching 3-pointers and full court pressure.

He'd be the coach of the Providence Friars.

When Tubby Smith went to Minnesota, he forever became Bill Foster.

Unless Smith wins a National Championship with the Gophers (and which way are you going to bet on that one?) he's sitting in a room over here with Joe B. Hall.

And even if Smith DOES win a National Championship with the Gophers, he's not Rick Pitino.

So this is where Pearl is. He will ask for more money than Fulmer makes. He will not get it. He will then realize that as long as he stays at Tennessee he will never, ever, ever be considered the Top Dog there.

And so then he asks- "What else can I do here?" He gives everything he can to Tennessee- including his marriage- and they say a contemporary No. 1 ranking doesn't merit as much as one in football 10 years ago.

Remember, Indiana didn't make the overtures to Pearl. My guess is they thought he was too much of a palooka.

Maybe he will say that slow and steady wins the race. That at Tennessee you have a unique environment where they look the other way when you rub up against Erin Andrews and put your 14-year-old daughter on your lap in public.

And if so, that's great.

But he'll only be the coach of the Tennessee Volunteers then.

He'll be "Ray Mears Turned Palooka."

He'll never be Pitino, Krzyzewski- heck- even Billy Donovan or Jim Valvano.

No, I believe you said he went to Indiana.

Yes, I'm sure of it. I believe "Guaranteed" was the word you used.

Kev- I expect more out of you.

Do a search. Produce the quote.

I just did.

As I said the "Pearl to Indiana" thread was generally for effect. It made a lot of sense and I knew it would produce the arrogance of UT fans who believe the Vols could compete in the NFL.

Mission accomplished. The idea that UT is suddenly a basketball school on par with Kentucky or Duke is laughable.

However, that last post you made accusing me of saying something I didn't- man, you let me down there.

As you know, I have defended you when you make critical comments. And remember, I don't get that.

What do I get? I get a sportswriter from the BHC who thinks he invented the English language unprofessionally getting in my face and costing me jobs.

By the way, a little known fact was that after that incident, I could have easily just washed my hands of it and treated the tourney like the joke it is. Let the papers who hired me deal with the situation. Let Burns and the BHC take the heat with real newspapers in big cities who would not appriciate him allowing uncredentialled reporters into the media room to attack the ones doing their job.

Instead, like a true professional, I found another writer for the papers I was stringing for to cover the event so the people in those communities would still be able to follow their teams. Didn't get me any more money. I did it because I"m a pro.

But what do I get? I get the BHC- which will soon be hiring its SIXTH sports editor in the last eight years- having ANOTHER reporter get in my face at a basketball game I was covering for "saying I called him fat FIVE YEARS AGO!"

Now, I had no idea what he was talking about. I did another search on this board and in TWO YEARS I have never once mentioned his name (which is why I'm not, now).

I don't read his stuff, I had never met him, I didn't know what he even looked like.

Yet here he was saying that FIVE YEARS AGO I had called him fat and bashed his writing.

FIVE YEARS AGO I was in Pittsburgh covering the Steelers, the Panthers, doing the Top 25 in the Preview Sports College Football Annual, and writing for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

I certainly didn't care about what a guy in Bristol, Va. was writing about John Battle High or what his appearance was.

But no- I'd called him fat and bashed his writing and I CHOSE not to remember it!

So I get accused of saying things on here that I don't. I get Mountain States Health Alliance calling up WFHG and asking them not to send me down to cover them- evidently they didn't like it when I sat by myself and ate my lunch or something. I get Mike White telling me that I said the women's soccer team should play topless. I get Andy Large- AKA Buccaneer Lover- saying I stalk people.

The thing is- I expect that stuff from those people.

I don't expect that from you.

As Fonzie once said- "A lot of people try to take the mask of The Lone Ranger, but Tonto never tried."

In the airport browsing, so I'll keep this short. I haven't been on the board in awhile, but I wanted to congratulate PittsburghBucs on his great work in the current edition of Baseball Digest if it was he who penned the piece.

Marky, I still think you should blog.

You finally get it, above all else. It's the same reason Jim Leavitt stayed at South Florida, the same reason that Frank Beamer never left Va. Tech for a higher profile program. Pearl's getting paid, he's putting fannies in the seats, and UT is getting on television.

kevster Wrote:No, that's like saying it's better to act in a community theater for $50 million a year than to act in hollywood for $50 million a year.

That's in this month? Wow. I didn't know.

PittsburghBucs Wrote:Kev- I expect more out of you.

Do a search. Produce the quote.

I just did.

As I said the "Pearl to Indiana" thread was generally for effect. It made a lot of sense and I knew it would produce the arrogance of UT fans who believe the Vols could compete in the NFL.

Good try, Pitt. You said that after it was announced Pearl wouldn't be leaving.

I expected more out of you.

The bottom line is this-

It's one thing to make a bad sports prediction. And if you can't figure out that I say things for effect on here by now, or that posting "I am saying Pearl will leave for effect" as I'm writing it will lose its impact, I can't help you.

It's another to accuse me of things I didn't do.

So in this case you are using the phrase for effect to mean if I turn out to be right I told you so and if I am wrong I really didn't mean it and I just said it to get a rise out of people. Wow thats a great way to make it look like you are never wrong. Really nice try but I gotta go with Kevster, it wasn't a one time statement, you made several posts advancing your theory and didn't start to backpedal until a couple of weeks later when you realized there was no chance Pearl was going.

I backpedaled?

I'm having him go to the Knicks now.

Boy, RodShaw takes what I write personally. What a surprise. You're the leading offender who doesn't get what I say is for effect.

Oh well. Just another case of the Vols fans who cannot believe their team can do any wrong.

Eight arrests? Must be vengeful cops!

No that's the Alabama people who say the Tuscaloosa Police Department has it in for the football team. That said, the thugs that get in trouble at every university have nothing to do with you saying that Pearl would leave for Indiana and had no reason to stay at UT. Bottom line is MONEY and no job pressure. Pearl is a hero in Knoxville, they've given him everything he's asked for, arena upgrades, a practice facility that's amazing, and most importantly, he's getting paid. At some point sure, he'll probably move on either to the NBA or maybe another program, but right now, he can ride a pretty good wave of success, both on the court and in his checking account.

Agreed.

Like I said, Indiana never contacted Pearl. I imagine the Hoosiers didn't want to take a chance on a Palooka.

But had they, would have been interesting . . .

I wonder if the Knicks might contact sweaty Bruce.

Nope. He's in Indiana.

I thought the Hoosiers might have gone after Isiah Thomas. Someone tell Bruce to say hey to Jim Nabors and Peyton Manning for us.

That's quite a trio when it comes right down to it.