But the situation and question then becomes very stark for Rice:

Given that there is limited funding for D-1 athletics, what program do you 'juice' to make Rice Athletics more viable?

Seems to me Pera was the 'cheap out' for baskeball, although BB can be a huge margin if done correctly. But Rhoades skipped out and pulled the plug on that avenue especially with the diaspora of starters.

Bloomgren was probably not a complete 'all-in', but the salaries and monies to the program will go up substantially (comments about recruiting budgets at the Coaches Caravan being a good example of the increases).

So, given that Pera seems to be a 'sit in the cheap seats' solution and the Mens BB will not be the 'revenues increaser' that Karlgaard always alluded to and seemed to want it to be, and that FB pretty much ate up a huge chunk, where does this leave Baseball?

I have to believe that the person that will be tapped will *not* be a 'lots of talk' current Div-1 coach, or a 'rising star assistant' or a 'top tier assistant' in that same vein. The person that will be tapped will be a 'passing grade' Div-2, maybe even a very good Div-2 current coach who will be (at least initially) able to fit into the budget.

Karlgaard hitched his money train to football earlier this year; baseball will have to deal with the results of that budget allocation. I think that Karlgaard knew that money train switch had to be made when Rhoades bolted with the subsequent decimation of the starters --- it looks to be reflected in the choice of Pera, tbh.

FWIW, I have no inside knowledge --- just bringing a business perspective view to the issue.

edited to add: interesting to see that *every* men's major sports program at Rice is in 'startup' mode concurrently.