(08-12-2015 10:47 PM)Kittonhead Wrote: (08-12-2015 09:48 PM)Frank the Tank Wrote: (08-12-2015 09:37 PM)Dasville Wrote: I think UofL in the P5 and in particular the ACC offends certain people. I think it offends certain people because of what we may do. What we are aiming for and have on our horizon academically can be propelled by our athletics. It is right that multiple posters have brought this up.
Also, what I think a lot of G5 people are missing when they say, "It's all about the money!" when pointing to Louisville is that they then can't show how the money they're making is anywhere close to what Louisivlle was able to do (and once again, this was even with the terrible old Big East TV deals). Like I said in my prior post, Louisville was bringing in SERIOUS money BEFORE it got invited to the ACC (as opposed to a G5 school hoping to start making serious money only AFTER they get s P5 invite). Louisville was a top 25 revenue generator even without getting propped up by large conference revenues, so I don't agree that many (if any) G5 schools come even close to that standard.
Louisville has always had a P5 level budget.
15 years ago MAC schools had 13 million dollar budget and Louisville had a 30 million dollar budget, the same size as Virginia Tech and WVU at the time.
Louisville had a rivalry with Kentucky in basketball going back since time immortal. They were a power school in hoops. Louisville is also the site of the Kentucky Derby and the most important city in the state while Lexington is #2. There was a lot of money from outside the region due to horse racing and it led to deep pockets in basketball for both schools.
Louisville football was much slower to get going because the NCAA controlled broadcasts in football from the 50's to the early 80's so Louisville couldn't monetize its football program. Once the NCAA shackles were removed Louisville had broadcast potential in football.
Schnellenberger turned around the football team to the point they were a player to join a conference. They were left out of the Big East and ACC so they had to settle for CUSA and that's when the realization came they needed Papa John's stadium to get into a BCS conference.
UConn right now is in a position not unlike Louisville was 15 years ago with elite basketball but mediocre football. The AAC is a horrible conference for them with their basketball rivals mostly in the Big East and they need a power conference to recruit football players to a campus nestled in the mountains of New England. Going back to the Big East and independent in football would be a good move, IMO.
This is a very important convo, and I'm glad it has been engaged in to this point. Because I really don't think a lot of people see beyond the games to what the UofL is trying to do. Das & Frank touched upon it. But essentially, Louisville was stuck, they are a smallish but nice city stuck in a backwards-azz Country-f*#@ state. It is relatively small & poor, which means they never had much money to give to the school even under the best of circumstances.
UofL, in lieu of all the money the state didn't have to give them, were at least allowed to significantly tighten their entrance requirements. They worked for some years to raise their profile up to tier 1, albeit at the bottom edge of the old rankings around 165, which was about where WVU was when they both shared the BE together.
But UofL's problem is: how do they make a better future for themselves? They can't get money from a broke state, and after 2008, no one's really getting good public monies any longer anyway.
Well, they can fundraise-- do one of those 10 yr. = billion dollar drives. And at the end of ten years really splurge but it doesn't change their status because, frankly-- a bil. over a decade is chump change at that level & they are still stuck in Tom Thumb land academically....and athletically.
This is where UofL and all supporters in the state for the university & city really came thru, and hiring Tom Jurich (NO Tom Thumb it must be said) was a stroke of genius, and really a big part of a much larger long term goal. The goal is nothing less than changing the university's, and the city's, Destiny by changing their academic status THRU athletics.
You see, it's really not about the games, oh they are important, and with the hideous blew thangs crawling about the landscape Cards fans need some way to combat them. But primarily UofL's ascension to a P5, and a very good academic conference, was
about ACADEMICS as the final goal.
Simple admission to this conference will not immediately instill a higher academic profile on the school, but over time it will because they are in the club, that meets in the cool marble halls, of the high, high ivory tower---and THAT is what UofL's ambition has been all along.
Yes the games are fun, but the growth of a truly good Academic & Research institution is Better. And we are seeing the beginnings of it already and it will continue. It's not easy, arguably the academic/research side of an institution is much more expensive and takes a great deal longer to pull off. But it is happening and has been since Louisville was invited to the ACC, in many ways not even readily obvious to us on the outside.
What the university, the city, Admins, the AD for sure, and even McConnell in DC pulled off has been an Immense Coup, and absolutely Brilliant...
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Populism versus Elitism
