(05-05-2021 04:03 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: (05-05-2021 12:22 PM)GoodOwl Wrote: (05-05-2021 12:02 PM)waltgreenberg Wrote: (05-05-2021 11:48 AM)GoodOwl Wrote: (05-05-2021 07:23 AM)waltgreenberg Wrote: Just one man's opinion, but under JK the athletic department is being run just fine, and the best it's been run in 50+ years. And the focus on the student-athlete (including academic tutoring/mentoring, scholarship and career development) is the best it's ever been. Ditto operational budgets of the various sport programs.
The issue is the vision and leadership, particularly of the men's programs.
Wondering what percent of those two would you weight each for an AD then?
That's hard to say. Certainly he should be held accountable for the dismal performance of the men's sports and, especially, for overseeing the disgraceful and precipitous collapse of our once great baseball program (for which he played a leading role). However, by the same token, he should get credit for the unprecedented success of almost every women's sports program. More to the point, JK is directly responsible for turning around a long disfunctional athletic department. How you weigh the grade is up to interpretation.
Okay, fair enough.
But if we could have the exact reverse of the current situation, i.e.:
a) unprecedented success of the top 3 Men's sports programs (football, basketball, baseball),
b) coupled with dismal performance of the women's sports and most other lesser men's sports,
c) as well as vision and leadership being just fine, particularly of the men's program
d) coupled with how the athletic department runs an issue
e) along with a the focus on the student-athlete (including academic tutoring/mentoring, scholarship and career development) not being so great Ditto operational budgets of the various sport programs.
Now, I get that all those together might not be exactly compatible with unprecedented success in top 3 men's sports (Football, basketball, baseball) but I think you get my question; would you be happier with the reverse of what we have going on in athletics now?
Interesting question. The obvious answer would be, yes, as unprecedented success of the big 3 men's sports would position us strongly for admission into a P5 conference, with all the benefits that that would entail. Having said that, if not for the recent success of our women's programs, I would never have fallen in love with volleyball and women's basketball, for which I'm now a season ticketholder and SID supporter.
Women's sports... based on the value of our scholarship vs our athletic peer group (not even close) and the lack of a massive potential payday at the end 'fit' us better than men's. The value of losing in p5 vs winning in g5 is not only less, but is actually a disadvantage as opposed to an advantage. The same thing happened in Baseball... because winning your conference got you to the tournament... and once in the tournament, anything could happen. It's also why some small schools from small conferences do well in basketball... but of course, now you're talking about 1 and done's... which isn't consistent with our academic model... and the millions guaranteed in a two round draft vs often much less money, lots of rounds and years of 'development' in baseball is entirely different. Wayne effectively leveraged this... and women's coaches are as well. Basketball hasn't done it... and Football can't (no tournament).
So I give Joe credit for recognizing this reality, but I struggle to put a lot of significance to it.... To me its like Rice sports winning the SAT bowl. It's something Rice MAY be able to do without even trying, but certainly could if we simply decided to. The key thing here is to DO something with this (like leverage it to a better conference) and not only haven't we (at least not yet)... but the handling of baseball alone all but negates that... especially in that I can see at least some (if not a whole lot of) credit going to Stacy for women's sports, and Baseball lies entirely on JK.
So if nothing else, Joe needs to hire a new/better director of Men's athletics (or empower someone else on his staff).
Joe is not remotely bereft of skills.... and is clearly HIGHLY skilled in a number of important areas... and MAYBE this is an area where the man at the top doesn't need to be the one in charge of Football operations... MAYBE this is an opportunity to take an AD from an FCS type school as opposed to a BCS type school, because our marketing is perhaps much more like FCS than BCS.... HOWEVER....
Revenues are our issue. If we had more revenues, we could continue to invest in women's sports. We could continue to invest in and improve upon the academic areas... we could invest in more alumni outreach and AD staff. The amount of revenue that women's sports can generate is HIGHLY limited... and the costs really aren't measurably different from (the same) men's.... meaning I think the top women's basketball coach makes $2.4mm. The top men's coach certainly makes more... but they also make a multiple of the revenue of women's.... a LARGE multiple.
SO we STILL need to increase revenues.... and the common theme seems to be to get it from alumni donations rather than to 'earn' it with the product on the field in at least the top 2 men's sports.... those in the best position to increase revenues.
I constantly go back to the idea that 'what everyone else does' doesn't work for us. We don't own our city like say Marshall does... We don't even own West U. Why does someone who didn't attend Rice want to attend a game at our stadium? We likely aren't playing THEIR school... We don't have a great experience... No great food, no immersive experience... I've made LOTS of suggestions on this and for a decade, invested my OWN time and money into it... I once again go back to food trucks on the concourse... free wifi and charging stations in the stadium... a charging rail/cocktails tables at the top of the concourse... TVs everywhere... a video board capturing other games... a kids area... turning HRS into a sports bar open before and after the game... build a 'new' press box (and suites) in front of the 'old' one... It could be made out of aluminum... use solar and/or wind and some batteries... maybe technology developed on the campus to extend recycled lead acid batteries or something. We have the space. Back-feed the campus during the week. I could go on and on (and have, numerous times). All of these things by the way could also apply to women's sports... which might not make the same revenue, but could still improve the experience and thus our profile and ability to continue to improve.
