CSNbbs

Those of you who may think tennis and golf have cannibilized other sports are misguided and misinformed. Fred Warren, Yaser Zaatini, and even Steve Brooks have done what they needed to do extramurally to get *student*-athletes that were superior, almost exclusively, to locally available student-athletes. Monies they have taken in did NOT come from monies that otherwise would have gone to football or basketball, for example. This I know as a fact.


So was written by thedoctor on another thread.

Here's why tennis and golf HAVE canibalized other sports.

First of all, you hire the tennis coach to be the AD and the first thing he does is cut football and gets the school kicked out of the So Con.

Sounds pretty canibalizing to me.

Second, while I'm sure the coaches at every school are responsible for raising money for their programs, at ETSU that philosophy is emphasized to the Nth degree.

And golf and tennis coaches simply have more time to raise money with local business leaders than a football coach does.

I've heard stories about Fred Warren being told by previous athletic administrators that golf would be deemphasized and he pulled enough strings that he'd stay and the administrator would go.

Now, yes, he's trying to save his own skin, and it's hard to fault him for that.

But at the end of the day, if a wealthy donor gives $2 million to golf that's $2 million you didn't spend for the sport that the athletic department desperately needed money for.

So you have to ask why somebody- ANYBODY- didn't sit down and say "Fred, you're gonna get your $100,000 a year either way and everybody's gonna say you're the best golf coach in the world, even if you don't win. But we're gonna go down the tubes if we put all this money into a golf facility while other sports languish.

"You're bringing in guys from everywhere south of the moon while we can't even budget Paul Hamilton to go to Florida. And you know he doesn't have the same time and perhaps skills to raise money the way you do. No football coach we could hire will.

"So here's what we're going to need for you to do- and I'll get Paty and Hamilton on the presentation as well. We're going to have to ask Bill Green or whoever for another $2 mil to match this golf facility donation you want so badly. Otherwise, I'm going to have to direct the golf facility donation into a general athletic fund, which is where it's needed.

"Don't give me it's not fair. The time you have and the free lessons and tee times you can give the donors means it's not fair when you try to raise money compared to other coaches.

"And it's not fair for you to have a house of silver and gold while our higher profile sports must live in houses of straw. You know that."

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AND IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE IN THAT- THEN YOU HAVE TO HOLD WARREN TO STANDARDS THAT SAY IF WE GIVE YOU ALL THIS POWER AND LET YOU HAVE ALL THESE GIFTS- YOU HAVE TO FINISH BETTER THAN NO. 16 (or whatever it was) in the country. YOU HAVE TO CONTEND FOR A NATIONAL TITLE!

On this end, I actually agree with Mullins. Fred Warren doesn't deserve an extension or a raise. He's not winning enough with what he has.

And that's difficult for Inferiority Complex ETSU to grasp, where Joe Bucs Fan is just so happy to be nationally ranked in anything he thinks that's enough.

Ultimately, a successful high profile athletic program can have trickle down donations to golf, tennis, cross country, etc.

But donations to golf, tennis, cross country, etc. do not relate into greater donations for high profile athletic programs.

So if Warren were to leave after 2010, sure golf would go in the toilet.

Or maybe not. The facilities would still be there. Would a team of local athletes and a part-time coach not be able to finish No. 49 in the country (which I believe is where Chattanooga finished)?

And would you rather have an athletic program trying to go Division I-A with the No. 49 golf team or an athletic program that is stagnant in the A-Sun but has the No. 16 golf team?

Without Warren, the donor money would be there for a bold try at raising the overall prestige of the athletic department to a higher level conference.

As for foreign born students being better than local ones- I merely show you that Clemson won the 2004 National Championship in Golf with all South Carolinians on their roster- and I simply refuse to believe South Carolinians are so leaps and bounds ahead of Tennesseeans in golf.

The fact is I can look at the roster of Chattanooga and Austin Peay and find Tennessee golfers with better scores than the foreign born players of ETSU. I even mentioned how Tennessee beat ETSU by one stroke in the 2006 Bank of Tennessee Tournament because of a low score and final putt made by a Volunteer State native.

Warren spends more time getting that player to come to ETSU and a little less on getting a fifth European and it saves money and wins the tournament.

Because UT surely isn't going to land Rhys Davies.

I've told you, factually, that the money Greene gave would NOT have been given to the general athletic fund. You can choose to disbelieve that if you want, but it's the truth. Same is true for lesser (but numerous) donations to the tennis program. There are people who just happen to believe in specific programs and choose to support them, be it the radio station, or the banking chair, or whatever. Nothing wrong with that. The problem has been the overall message that the university as a whole, and the woefully inadequate old Pirate Club has put forth.
Designated giving is both good and bad, but it exists, and will continue to exist.

And I know that Greene has also said that if and when football comes back, he will financially support it.

Now, it only stands to reason that if he's said that, if ETSU had gone to Greene and suggested to him the strategy I mentioned above he'd probably do it. It makes no sense he'd give money to revive football, but not give money to keep the program alive.

Regardless, with the budget golf has we can ask Warren for more than what his team is accomplishing and he does not deserve a contract extension or renewal.

I doubt that the AD could redirect money that a donor had specifically earmarked for certain purpose without that donor getting pretty pissed and demanding his money back.

That's why I presented a Plan B and Plan C.

The first being that the AD or whoever demands to have Greene match the offer. Again- if he's willing to fund football's revival (and he is), I can't believe he wouldn't offer to fund football's survival.

The second being that if that doesn't work- for whatever reason- you have to hold Warren accountable that he has to contend with the nation's golf elite.

And that doesn't mean No. 16. He's getting everything. He has no excuse not to contend for a National Championship.