(06-21-2016 05:31 PM)Longhorn Wrote:  

(06-21-2016 04:32 PM)Dukes2Space Wrote:  

(06-21-2016 11:43 AM)Longhorn Wrote:  COA was a move foisted upon all other NCAA schools by the P5 approximately 18 months ago, not 2 years. At most 1 recruiting cycle has been impacted, and in that time JMU has not lost a single recruit because of COA.

How in the world could we possibly know that? The way Kenny was outspoken about it upon his departure suggests otherwise. And you never know if a recruit just didn't even consider JMU having known we weren't offering it and had no assurance that we would.

Also, I know coach Houston and his staff compete for recruits against schools in the G5 regularly and I've got to believe that us not having COA makes those recruiting battles very difficult. They're difficult to begin with as far as us being at the FCS level and those schools having COA and JMU not could be a tipping point for a recruit. I know if I was a recruit on the fence between JMU and a school offering COA, it would certainly be a factor in my decision making process.

KB didn't leave JMU because JMU was still trying to figure out the COA issue (particularly how to pay for it). No doubt it frustrated KB (his exiting comments made that clear) but KB left because he was offered a life changing salary increase and coaching opportunity in the ACC. Making double what he was making at JMU would lure anyone, and because JMU was not going to offer him a salary greater than the President the . In the end, KB left because JMU didn't value him enough but to offer an extension without an increase, and then follow that offer with an insulting $25k counter.

As to the issue of recruiting against G5 FB programs, this may well be an emerging problem, but if JMU fans are expecting JMU to offer COA to our FB players the fan base is likely to be disappointed until such time (if ever) JMU decides to move to the 85 scholarship level (FBS). If a FB recruit JMU wants to sign can't decide between the value of a JMU education and what another program is offering via COA, well, JMU will just have to sign the player who wants to play for JMU. Budgets are a real thing, and until a JMU develops a funding mechanism for supporting FB COA it will be elusive.

In a rare event, I'll agree with most of that. I don't think having COA would have kept Kenny. He got an offer that was hard to turn down regardless so as much as I can't stand Tech, I hope he does well there. I think folks have to realize that there's a cap on how much we can pay a women's basketball coach. I don't think JMU purposely attempted to low ball him. It's just where we are at this point and asset allocation is what it is.

I also realize we probably can't afford to pay COA for football right now, but perhaps we could look into partial COA at least? So, instead of $4,200 maybe see if we could do $2k per player to start. That said, it would probably mean we'd have to do it for softball and probably another women's sport. That gets dicey for several reasons. If you do it for, say, women's soccer, you'll have field hockey and men's soccer saying WTF?

Also, it's risky at this point because even if we could pull in the private donations to pay full COA to all, the annual nature of it is still a risk. We may have some large dollar donors come in and be willing to pay it, but you have to evaluate the risk on whether they're going to continue to do so each year. Someone could own a business that has a down year. They could get frustrated with a move by the JMU administration and decide not to fund it going forward. It would be a bit of a disaster offering COA and then having to repeal it based on an annual lack of funding. So, you'd need assurance that this is solid for many years out because once you're in, there's really no way out. It would be a debacle to recruit a kid and promise them COA and midway through their time have to tell them "Sorry, we just didn't raise enough this year".

(06-21-2016 06:03 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  http://espnharrisonburg.com/podcasts/

Some good interviews of Lou Rowe and Jeff Bourne on COA here. One thing that I learned so far the reason for the difference in the amount of the COA school to school isn't necessarily up the school- it's a calculation each school goes through. Apparently Liberty's COA calculation yields a COA stipend of approx. $8800 while JMU's is $4200- $4300 and other are lower.

Is the difference between Liberty and JMU's COA a factor of costs at a private vs. a public? Or maybe Liberty requires their athletes to tithe?

(06-21-2016 06:03 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  http://espnharrisonburg.com/podcasts/

Some good interviews of Lou Rowe and Jeff Bourne on COA here. One thing that I learned so far the reason for the difference in the amount of the COA school to school isn't necessarily up the school- it's a calculation each school goes through. Apparently Liberty's COA calculation yields a COA stipend of approx. $8800 while JMU's is $4200- $4300 and other are lower.

I thought they were using the same calculations that are used for federal financial aid / FAF, which on the surface seems fair.

Suspect like most things there are ways to "game the system" on this and wouldn't put it past the UNC's of the world (maybe even Liberty) to do so. The risk is that this someday turns into an escalating arms battle for talent.

(06-21-2016 09:31 PM)JMURocks Wrote:  

(06-21-2016 06:03 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  http://espnharrisonburg.com/podcasts/

Some good interviews of Lou Rowe and Jeff Bourne on COA here. One thing that I learned so far the reason for the difference in the amount of the COA school to school isn't necessarily up the school- it's a calculation each school goes through. Apparently Liberty's COA calculation yields a COA stipend of approx. $8800 while JMU's is $4200- $4300 and other are lower.

I thought they were using the same calculations that are used for federal financial aid / FAF, which on the surface seems fair.

Suspect like most things there are ways to "game the system" on this and wouldn't put it past the UNC's of the world (maybe even Liberty) to do so. The risk is that this someday turns into an escalating arms battle for talent.

That's exactly where is this headed, and the P5 schools are seemingly intent on leveraging their significant monetary advantages so that non-P5s will forever be relegated to the sidelines.

(06-21-2016 06:03 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  http://espnharrisonburg.com/podcasts/

Some good interviews of Lou Rowe and Jeff Bourne on COA here. One thing that I learned so far the reason for the difference in the amount of the COA school to school isn't necessarily up the school- it's a calculation each school goes through. Apparently Liberty's COA calculation yields a COA stipend of approx. $8800 while JMU's is $4200- $4300 and other are lower.

Don't have time to listen to all those podcast, was this LU $8800 information in there or did you find it somewhere else? The reason I ask is that when LU first announced they would pay the stipends to scholarship athletes in all their sports and the total dollar amount was south of $800K per USA Today.
"According to numbers reported to the U.S. Department of Education, Liberty's full cost of attendance gap is $3,312 for 2013-14, which would in theory mean an additional $786,600 per year investment."

Bourne mentioned 8k at Liberty in the audio clip and kind of said he found it "interesting".

IF Liberty's number is now magically $8,800 it's a bit suspect, though I haven't found any other sources that confirm this. Maybe $800k total for COA got confused in a game of telephone? This sounds like incorrect info.

8800 would be significantly higher than what Alabama pays, which is considered one of the highest in the country:
http://www.cbssports.com/college-footbal...in-nation/

It's interesting that Saban slammed COA as being a problem until his school "adjusted" their number.

I hadn't heard the 8k figure either. And yes it seems steep and out of range of normal COA if true.

I follow Liberty sports closely and I've never heard a number if $8,800. That would be a very high number and I have a difficult time believing that. You would expect our recruiting to be better if we're paying the highest COA of any school I've heard of. The numbers I've seen are around $4,500.

(06-22-2016 03:45 PM)Libertygrad01 Wrote:  I follow Liberty sports closely and I've never heard a number if $8,800. That would be a very high number and I have a difficult time believing that. You would expect our recruiting to be better if we're paying the highest COA of any school I've heard of. The numbers I've seen are around $4,500.

As posted above, the number originally reported was $3,312 per athlete which is right where I would expect it to be since they will be supporting all sports with COA.

In fairness Bourne didn't mention Liberty by name he made reference to a school in Lynchburg so I assumed he meant Liberty.

(06-22-2016 09:03 PM)NJDuke97 Wrote:  In fairness Bourne didn't mention Liberty by name he made reference to a school in Lynchburg so I assumed he meant Liberty.

What other school do you know in Lynchburg that's going to pay over $8k?