Niagara is expected to hire Patrick Beilein, sources told @Stadium. Not done yet, but headed that way. Was also involved at Elon. First reported by @rothstein.

Alabama is actually a pretty smart choice. Unlimited resources in a P5 multiple bid league but not a lot of pressure playing in the shadow of the football team. He will get time to build something.

(03-28-2019 07:31 AM)Copy Cat Wrote:  You can't blame Oats for taking a massive raise and going to a multibid P5 league and a school with incredibly deep pockets. And he's at least doubling the salaries of all of his assistants and staff.

Good MAC programs in just about any sport will almost never have stability. If they excel, coaches will get lured away by P5s. If they are mediocre or worse, the coaches will be canned due to high expectations. The longest-tenured coaches in this league are guys like Hawkins, who does just enough to keep getting renewed but has won zero NCAA games and is now trending downward. Or Murphy at EMU, who cobbles together a decent program but has so little support that his .500 MAC record looks like a minor miracle. Dambrot was the closest thing this basketball league had to sustained excellence... and he never won an NCAA game and was still hired away by a program with deeper pockets.

Buffalo will have to keep its commitment in terms of money and fan interest (and hope like hell that the new hire is great) to sustain what they had. As an Ohio fan, I can tell you it's not easy.

Buffalo graduates a ton this year. Whoever comes in will still have talent, but if the expectation is to carry over this year's results to next year, they'll be disappointed with whoever gets hired

Good for Nate Oats... He just has to keep in mind that football is king in Bama... But I’m sure he already knew that when he signed on for the big $$$...

(03-28-2019 11:20 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  

(03-28-2019 07:31 AM)Copy Cat Wrote:  You can't blame Oats for taking a massive raise and going to a multibid P5 league and a school with incredibly deep pockets. And he's at least doubling the salaries of all of his assistants and staff.

Good MAC programs in just about any sport will almost never have stability. If they excel, coaches will get lured away by P5s. If they are mediocre or worse, the coaches will be canned due to high expectations. The longest-tenured coaches in this league are guys like Hawkins, who does just enough to keep getting renewed but has won zero NCAA games and is now trending downward. Or Murphy at EMU, who cobbles together a decent program but has so little support that his .500 MAC record looks like a minor miracle. Dambrot was the closest thing this basketball league had to sustained excellence... and he never won an NCAA game and was still hired away by a program with deeper pockets.

Buffalo will have to keep its commitment in terms of money and fan interest (and hope like hell that the new hire is great) to sustain what they had. As an Ohio fan, I can tell you it's not easy.

Buffalo graduates a ton this year. Whoever comes in will still have talent, but if the expectation is to carry over this year's results to next year, they'll be disappointed with whoever gets hired

The Hawkins kid is out and now another highly touted recruit, Dre Allen, has asked for his release from his Buffalo commitment. This thing is imploding. I think the Bulls only have 6 guys left on the team and no big man. It's going to be a complete rebuild year. I got the mid-major blues.

It's the unfortunate reality of being a mid major school. Thanks for the memories Nate.

(03-27-2019 11:55 PM)Kit-Cat Wrote:  I like the move for Oates simply because the SEC outside of Kentucky and maybe Tennessee is an open slate.

He could quickly have Alabama as a 3rd or 4th power in the conference.

A much better situation than UNLV and a 1.6 million dollar dead end wad of cash IMO.

Bruce Pearl and Auburn may disagree. Pearl wins at an elite level wherever he goes (though some may find his methods questionable.)

One thing any Alabama coach will need to do quickly is figure out how to beat Auburn.

Florida won a couple of national championships.

Do not think that keeping a good coach is strictly a mid major problem. Remove the top 4-5 programs in any P5 league, and see what happens if a good young coach turns around a traditional losing P5 program. It will not be long before a traditionally winning P5 program with several losing seasons will start snooping around with twice the money. There are only approximately 25 programs that would be considered "top of the mountain" destinations. Mid level P5s are also subject to losing to the NBA, a la Iowa State.

(03-29-2019 01:55 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  Do not think that keeping a good coach is strictly a mid major problem. Remove the top 4-5 programs in any P5 league, and see what happens if a good young coach turns around a traditional losing P5 program. It will not be long before a traditionally winning P5 program with several losing seasons will start snooping around with twice the money. There are only approximately 25 programs that would be considered "top of the mountain" destinations. Mid level P5s are also subject to losing to the NBA, a la Iowa State.

Even Kansas lost Roy Williams to North Carolina.

I’m looking forward to next season. New coach, a bunch of new players. Let’s see if the rest of the MAC can take advantage of the opening before Buffalo reloads!

Outside of Bruce Pearl, coaches from Midwest-Northeast do not have good track record when taking jobs in Deep South.

It’s not just Midwest/NE coaches. Unless you’re at one of the Deep South power programs, your shelf life is not long, even if you’re one of those schools’s alums.

(03-29-2019 01:55 PM)GFlash68 Wrote:  Do not think that keeping a good coach is strictly a mid major problem. Remove the top 4-5 programs in any P5 league, and see what happens if a good young coach turns around a traditional losing P5 program. It will not be long before a traditionally winning P5 program with several losing seasons will start snooping around with twice the money. There are only approximately 25 programs that would be considered "top of the mountain" destinations. Mid level P5s are also subject to losing to the NBA, a la Iowa State.

Its different in basketball than FB.

In FB any P5>G5. It doesn't matter what you spend.

In BB there are 10 to 15 blueblood jobs (mostly ACC/B1G) to die for but the major schools pay around 2 million so it takes some massive ponying up to have a shot at retaining.

It sucks but it's life when you are a mid major.