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Older and Older Offline
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Post: #21
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-09-2019 06:43 PM)DavidCarducci Wrote:  
(10-09-2019 04:24 PM)thanksjim Wrote:  I'm think I'm getting on the #FireNielsen train.

Jump on! Join us! The train is starting to build some momentum!

We better add a few extra “Baggage Cars” to your train because their is a lot of BAGGAGE
10-09-2019 06:54 PM
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DavidCarducci Offline
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Post: #22
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-09-2019 06:13 PM)Proud pilot Wrote:  
(10-09-2019 04:24 PM)thanksjim Wrote:  I'm think I'm getting on the #FireNielsen train.
Could someone that knows the history please explain how J. Nielsen became the highest paid AD in the MAC?

Hi proud pilot,

The crazy contract extension was a parting gift from former KSU president Lester Lefton before his retirement.

Lefton was never interested in athletics. I remember one interview with him where he proved his lack of interest. After a fast start to the season, football had struggled down the stretch as Julian Edelman did his best to battle through an injury. The season had just ended and Lefton opened the interview by saying, "Well, we are all very disappointed not to make the football tournament, but we are all excited for a great year on the men's basketball field."

Elton Alexander of the Plain Dealer was with me. He glanced over at me, and it was all I could do to keep from breaking into uncontrollable laughter.

Anyway... Lefton wanted to have as little as possible to do with athletics. Nielsen is a people pleaser only when it comes to presidents and members of the board of trustees, so he was willing to take the bullets for Lefton, who rewarded him with the huge pay increase.

Nielsen received another extension from President Warren. Strangely, Nielsen didn't seem very happy about the extension at the time. We would later learn that Warren insisted a $100,000 buyout be included in the deal, offering the next president an out Lefton refused to give her.

For someone making nearly half a million a year, a $100,000 buyout is very affordable for President Diacon.

I had hoped Diacon would make a change after the Title IX investigation. That didn't happen, but the interview with Nielsen in the investigation summary confirmed the sloppy operation that led to the embarrassing incident.

As more information about Nielsen comes out in the weeks to come, my hope is Kent State will save the $100,000 and remove him as athletic director for cause.
10-09-2019 07:19 PM
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DavidCarducci Offline
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Post: #23
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-09-2019 06:54 PM)Older and Older Wrote:  
(10-09-2019 06:43 PM)DavidCarducci Wrote:  
(10-09-2019 04:24 PM)thanksjim Wrote:  I'm think I'm getting on the #FireNielsen train.

Jump on! Join us! The train is starting to build some momentum!

We better add a few extra “Baggage Cars” to your train because their is a lot of BAGGAGE

Stay tuned. We all may get a better look at some of that baggage very soon.

The story was expected to hit months ago, but it was killed at the Record Courier and Akron Beacon Journal after reporters had already reviewed key documents, conducted a slew of interviews with donors and former KSU staff members, and written multiple stories about the problems in the athletic department.

According to one former member of KSU Athletics senior staff, Nielsen bragged in a May 2018 meeting about being friends with Bill Albrecht, who had just been named GateHouse Media's new group publisher in Akron. Albrecht oversees several newspapers, including the Record Courier and Akron Beacon Journal. He also happens to be a former University of South Dakota football player who went on to be the president of Argus Media in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and to serve on the Sioux Falls Chamber of Commerce. He may not be close friends with Nielsen, but they certainly know each other.

In fact, Nielsen and Albrecht just happened to grow up in Iowa towns separated by just a 39-minute drive.

Coincidence? Maybe.
(This post was last modified: 10-09-2019 07:35 PM by DavidCarducci.)
10-09-2019 07:22 PM
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Post: #24
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-09-2019 06:15 AM)axeme Wrote:  G5 are the five football conferences which are not part of the Power 5: ACC, PAC, Big Ten, Big 12, & SEC.

G5: MAC, AAC, MWC, CUSA, and Sun Belt.

So what's the 'G' stand for? - "Garbage 5"? "Gobsmacked 5?" "Grade 5"? "Gullible 5"?
10-10-2019 07:13 AM
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Post: #25
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-08-2019 05:46 PM)thanksjim Wrote:  I think I posted this elsewhere, but great news, got out of playing Arkansas next year. Here is what the article said:

The Razorbacks had originally contracted to play Kent State in the 2020 season opener, but that game was moved to Sept. 9, 2023, based on a copy of the amended contract obtained by the Democrat-Gazette.

The guarantee amount for that game was also redacted. The Golden Flashes were leery of playing three SEC games in the first month next season, as they are scheduled to play road games at Kentucky on Sept. 19 and Alabama on Sept. 26.

https://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2019...on-nevada/

We need to stop nickel-and-diming these cheap teams...how much can we get for a game against the New England Patriots?
10-10-2019 07:15 AM
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goldenflash99 Offline
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Post: #26
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-10-2019 07:13 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  
(10-09-2019 06:15 AM)axeme Wrote:  G5 are the five football conferences which are not part of the Power 5: ACC, PAC, Big Ten, Big 12, & SEC.

G5: MAC, AAC, MWC, CUSA, and Sun Belt.

So what's the 'G' stand for? - "Garbage 5"? "Gobsmacked 5?" "Grade 5"? "Gullible 5"?

Group of 5.
10-10-2019 07:17 AM
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DavidCarducci Offline
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Post: #27
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-10-2019 07:15 AM)Slinkin Street Flash Wrote:  
(10-08-2019 05:46 PM)thanksjim Wrote:  I think I posted this elsewhere, but great news, got out of playing Arkansas next year. Here is what the article said:

The Razorbacks had originally contracted to play Kent State in the 2020 season opener, but that game was moved to Sept. 9, 2023, based on a copy of the amended contract obtained by the Democrat-Gazette.

The guarantee amount for that game was also redacted. The Golden Flashes were leery of playing three SEC games in the first month next season, as they are scheduled to play road games at Kentucky on Sept. 19 and Alabama on Sept. 26.

https://www.wholehogsports.com/news/2019...on-nevada/



We need to stop nickel-and-diming these cheap teams...how much can we get for a game against the New England Patriots?

Playing the Patriots is a solid idea!

Sadly, we may have missed our window. When former Kent State head football coach Dean Pees was the Patriots' defensive coordinator, his love of KSU may have helped to convince Belichick to keep the score down!

Dean is now the DC for the Tennessee Titans. In fact, there are I believe four or five coaches for the Titans with KSU ties. Maybe we should look to schedule a trip to Nashville for similar money.

While I'm obviously kidding, playing the Titans isn't a whole lot more daunting than playing at Arizona State, Auburn and Wisconsin in the non-conference season.

That sure was a nice $4 million boon to the Kent State Athletics coffers... Until you realize more than 10 percent of it goes right into Nielsen's pocket to pay that ridiculous salary.
10-10-2019 08:19 AM
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Post: #28
RE: Future Football Schedule
Ya know, we’ve heard all about these damning evil deeds by Joel for the last few years now. And yet every “investigation” turns up nothing. I’m not one to bring politics to a sports board, but do you think maybe, just maybe there could be no smoking gun?
10-10-2019 09:22 AM
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DavidCarducci Offline
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Post: #29
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-10-2019 09:22 AM)JimJoyce Wrote:  Ya know, we’ve heard all about these damning evil deeds by Joel for the last few years now. And yet every “investigation” turns up nothing. I’m not one to bring politics to a sports board, but do you think maybe, just maybe there could be no smoking gun?

Hi Jim,

There is a smoking gun. The Akron Beacon Journal and the Record Courier have it, their reporters have interviewed former staff, reviewed the documents and filed stories ... stories that were killed.

As a former reporter for one of those newspapers, I know how a powerful organization in a small town can squash a story simply by threatening to pull advertising. It happened with an investigative piece I wrote back in 2010. The story had been edited and fact checked. It was basically on the page for the next day's newspaper when the publisher came in and said he trusted my reporting but couldn't afford to risk losing KSU's advertising during a difficult time in the newspaper business.

The smoking gun for Nielsen, in my mind, is proof that he was dishonest in an HR investigation looking into sexual harassment by one of his senior staff members against another senior staff member. In that 2015 investigation, Nielsen is quoted as saying he hadn't heard any complaints against this staff member until September 2015.

The problem with internal investigations is that they usually turn up exactly what an organization wants the investigations to turn up.

Nielsen is a master of the cover up. When I was on his senior staff, we were told not to use our kent.edu email to communicate about sensitive subjects because the messages would be subject to the freedom of information act.

The proof that Nielsen was dishonest with the HR investigation happens to be an internal email by a former HR investigator in a different, earlier investigation, which proves he knew about complaints and questionable conduct months earlier.

HR investigators in the second investigation would have needed to have known to look for that email. We only know about it now because it was provided by a former KSU employee. It has likely never been considered by KSU leaders and compared against Nielsen's claims in his interview with HR. Nielsen probably doesn't even know about its existence until now. Another former member of Nielsen's senior staff has also gone on the record with reporters that Nielsen was informed three years earlier of predatory behavior involving the senior staff member with the gymnastics team, and that student athletes had come forward with complaints.

Those allegations came up again in the 2015 investigation, yet nothing was done. He was finally let go in the summer of 2018.

Nothing was done could be the KSU motto. In 2017, the KSU university campus-wide climate study was released. Athletics results were the worst by a "significantly significant margin" when compared with all other departments. What did KSU do? They gave Nielsen a contract extension rather than investigate the claims in the study.

Now KSU is going to initiate another climate study. And they are going to examine the running joke that is the Kent State Athletics "Game Plan." Why would anyone have faith in these studies?

I was part of a large group of former KSU Athletics senior staff members, head and assistant coaches, Varsity "K" Hall of Fame student athletes and presidents of the KSU student body, along with current members of the board of directors of the Kent State University Foundation, KSU's National Athletic Development Council, community and business leaders who signed a letter to President Diacon last month applauding him for starting an investigation and requesting a meeting to discuss why we believe the handling of the fireworks/field hockey situation was a symptom of a much larger problem, and offering documents that had been overlooked.

Our request was declined. And, as usual, the internal investigation turned up what was best for the organization... although Nielsen's own comments were pretty damning.

We'll be releasing documentation, including what we believe is a smoking gun, for the public to review and make up their own minds.

Like I've said in previous posts, there's been a smoking gun in the public domain for a decade, and that's Nielsen's record. It isn't very good when you hold it up against what KSU is paying him.

Even if you like Joel, it's hard to argue the lack of ROI.

Hopefully the fact that longtime donors are pulling back their gift commitments to KSU Athletics until Nielsen is replaced might also make some people in power see that there have been smoking guns all over the department.

Dave
(This post was last modified: 10-10-2019 10:04 AM by DavidCarducci.)
10-10-2019 09:50 AM
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Post: #30
RE: Future Football Schedule
I hear (see) what you are saying. But this is a state school. If half of what you say is true, the media would have come out with it a long time ago - advertising dollars be damned. Especially in this day and age of the college athletics scandal. For instance, why hasn’t the female employee who was under such dramatic distress come forward? Did she sign a non-disclosure agreement?

I have no horse in the race nor do I have any personal relationships with anyone at the school. I’m just a fan. And if you try and look at it objectively, it sounds more like a group of disgruntled former employees (for one reason or another) have an axe to grind because they didn’t - and don’t - like their boss.
(This post was last modified: 10-10-2019 01:37 PM by JimJoyce.)
10-10-2019 01:32 PM
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Post: #31
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-10-2019 08:19 AM)DavidCarducci Wrote:  That sure was a nice $4 million boon to the Kent State Athletics coffers... Until you realize more than 10 percent of it goes right into Nielsen's pocket to pay that ridiculous salary.
Maybe we can give Joel a bonus for securing those deals that already help pay him. Kind of like the 90Ksu deal where they used department funds to buy up tickets which ensured they reached the necessary sales level which then granted him a bonus.
10-10-2019 03:26 PM
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DavidCarducci Offline
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Post: #32
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-10-2019 01:32 PM)JimJoyce Wrote:  I hear (see) what you are saying. But this is a state school. If half of what you say is true, the media would have come out with it a long time ago - advertising dollars be damned. Especially in this day and age of the college athletics scandal. For instance, why hasn’t the female employee who was under such dramatic distress come forward? Did she sign a non-disclosure agreement?

I have no horse in the race nor do I have any personal relationships with anyone at the school. I’m just a fan. And if you try and look at it objectively, it sounds more like a group of disgruntled former employees (for one reason or another) have an axe to grind because they didn’t - and don’t - like their boss.

You have a right to your opinion.

I certainly have a bias. I admit that. The things I saw at Kent State were awful.

I love the place. I've spent my entire life there. I started going to games in the 70s with my dad. I have a master's degree from Kent State. I was a reporter who covered Kent State for two decades, and I worked in the athletic department under Nielsen.

Like I've mentioned before, Nielsen never really did anything to me. But I saw him hurt others. I also saw him make decisions that hurt the department.

As a former member of the media who covered KSU, I can also tell you that I had an investigative story get killed by my publisher over fear that KSU would pull its advertising.

Sadly, newspapers are not what they used to be.

There also isn't a consistent group of reporters, covering Kent State and capable of doing the leg work that would get a story like this to the public.

When I was on the beat, three different newspapers had full-time reporters assigned to cover KSU athletics. Now there are no reporters covering Kent State full-time. Allen Moff is an excellent reporter, but he has other responsibilities beyond KSU due to lack of staff.

I'm guessing you don't know me, and you have no reason to believe me. Heck, if you knew me, you still might not believe me. I hope you would.

But you are right. Nothing has come out yet.

I'm happy to discuss this more if you like after all the information is available to the public. Maybe you'll feel differently. Maybe you won't. But I won't question your right to your opinion.

We both care about Kent State, and that's what matters to me!
10-10-2019 03:29 PM
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Post: #33
RE: Future Football Schedule
Sounds like the reporters should pass the information over to one of the local news investigation teams. Once a video is made of it then it would get spread to all stations and probably hit nationally. After the field hockey incident I'm sure it would take off instantly.
10-10-2019 04:18 PM
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Post: #34
RE: Future Football Schedule
Dave, I appreciate your passion for the school/department and efforts to make us aware of the inner workings. You could easily turn tail and hide or even just drop crumbs while hiding behind some anonymous ID here, but you don’t. You could easily stay silent and nobody would know anything, but you stand up for what is right. 04-bow04-bow04-bow04-bow
10-10-2019 05:02 PM
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DavidCarducci Offline
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Post: #35
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-10-2019 05:02 PM)Polish Hammer Wrote:  Dave, I appreciate your passion for the school/department and efforts to make us aware of the inner workings. You could easily turn tail and hide or even just drop crumbs while hiding behind some anonymous ID here, but you don’t. You could easily stay silent and nobody would know anything, but you stand up for what is right. 04-bow04-bow04-bow04-bow

Thanks for the kind words PH. Very nice of you to say!

The great thing is that more people are coming forward, and now that they have left Kent State, they are not as afraid of the retaliation from Nielsen and those higher up at the university who support him.
(This post was last modified: 10-11-2019 08:10 AM by DavidCarducci.)
10-11-2019 08:08 AM
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Post: #36
RE: Future Football Schedule
I don't have an ax to grind. I'm just a lowly alumni. Not even one rich enough to donate. Just buy GA tickets to some sporting events, eat burgers at Rays, and buy tee-shirts and hoodies. Never worked for the AD.
With that said, this department sucks. It has clearly deteriorated since Mr. Kennedy retired. The game day experiences suck. The forced traditions suck. The coaches are coddled. Have you driven by our old golf course recently?
When Joel got here there was the whole push to sell 10k tickets/game; ticket deals, tailgate specials. What happened? I remember Joel saying how the shape of our football program was "unacceptable." Now not only is out football team bad, our basketball teams are both back to their late -80s form. Looks like a lot of smoke and mirrors. I've followed KSU Athletics intimately since 1994. NOTHING HAS CHANGED! New coaches, presidents and an AD. Still the same lame shotty game day experience at Dix and that pathetic basketball arena.
I'm not envious because teams got new stadiums or arenas. They get it because they needed it. What does make me envious is schools in the MAC and in Ohio make changes. They attempt new things. They don't act like the crap that was done in 2005 works in 2019. They are progressive. We -under this AD- are stagnant.
(This post was last modified: 10-13-2019 09:42 PM by AlphaFlash.)
10-13-2019 09:27 PM
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Post: #37
RE: Future Football Schedule
Looks like Dave was on to something.
https://removenielsenksu.com/2019/10/10/...eadership/
10-13-2019 09:42 PM
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Post: #38
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-13-2019 09:27 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  When Joel got here there was the whole push to sell 10k tickets/game; ticket deals, tailgate specials. What happened?
It was actually 15k/game, which we would’ve fell woefully short of the 90k total, but Joel used department funds to get to that level, which also led to him getting a bonus. 04-jawdrop

(10-13-2019 09:27 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  We -under this AD- are stagnant.
As long as Joel continues to pull his salary, highest in the MAC by far, it doesn’t matter that we generally have the lowest paid coaching staffs and are using the least desirable facilities (outside of golf).
10-13-2019 09:58 PM
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Post: #39
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-13-2019 09:27 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  I don't have an ax to grind. I'm just a lowly alumni. Not even one rich enough to donate. Just buy GA tickets to some sporting events, eat burgers at Rays, and buy tee-shirts and hoodies. Never worked for the AD.
With that said, this department sucks. It has clearly deteriorated since Mr. Kennedy retired. The game day experiences suck. The forced traditions suck. The coaches are coddled. Have you driven by our old golf course recently?
When Joel got here there was the whole push to sell 10k tickets/game; ticket deals, tailgate specials. What happened? I remember Joel saying how the shape of our football program was "unacceptable." Now not only is out football team bad, our basketball teams are both back to their late -80s form. Looks like a lot of smoke and mirrors. I've followed KSU Athletics intimately since 1994. NOTHING HAS CHANGED! New coaches, presidents and an AD. Still the same lame shotty game day experience at Dix and that pathetic basketball arena.
I'm not envious because teams got new stadiums or arenas. They get it because they needed it. What does make me envious is schools in the MAC and in Ohio make changes. They attempt new things. They don't act like the crap that was done in 2005 works in 2019. They are progressive. We -under this AD- are stagnant.

The game day experience may suck, but the football team is respectable this season (outside of Ariz St, Auburn and Wisc. we are undefeated) and the basketball team is absolutely not back to late 1980's form. Come on man. If you want to critique and offer opinions, I am down with that. Just try to keep them legit.
10-13-2019 10:47 PM
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Post: #40
RE: Future Football Schedule
(10-13-2019 09:42 PM)AlphaFlash Wrote:  Looks like Dave was on to something.
https://removenielsenksu.com/2019/10/10/...eadership/

Interesting reading. I wonder if that one jerk is the cause for the Athletic Department scoring so low in the attitude survey. Obviously a 20 women gymnastic team could drive statistical significance all by themselves if they all have similar negative opinions. Anybody know why or at least have a theory as to why Nielsen would defend this guy. An employee using a master key to get into somebody’s office for no good business reason should be fired just for that.
10-14-2019 08:27 PM
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