(06-05-2018 11:28 AM)Owl 69/70/75 Wrote:  What will be interesting is what sort of resource commitment we make to the new coach.

We need baseball going to Omaha on a regular basis for the positives including publicity and fan base retention. But baseball can't support an athletic program financially. The bucks just aren't there. Football can, but the stars have to align right. Basketball can have a bigger short term impact, because it can be turned around faster. If basketball were making money, instead of being a huge financial drain, we would actually be in decent shape. When baseball comes closer to breaking even than either football or basketball, and when golf comes closer to breaking even than any other sport, you have the makings of a financial disaster.

I think both CDC and JK had the plan that if Bailiff could keep football's head above water and Graham could keep baseball at least close to the level established a decade ago, until we could get basketball turned around, then we would be in decent financial shape. So we extended Bailiff and Graham and started moving resources to basketball. Unfortunately, with reduced resources we couldn't keep either football or baseball at prior levels. Enter the gang of 25(0) or whatever. They got a reputation for forcing JK to keep Bailiff at least two years too long, but my own conversations and correspondence with members of that group suggest that their main thrust was that we needed to be spending about $1 million a year more on football, and Bailiff got into the conversation because of the feeling that it was unfair to hold anyone accountable without proper resources. Skycatcher has suggested the same lack of resources for baseball, and I think she would know.

So we've hired Bloomgren, and all indications are that we have implemented the additional support that the gang of 25(0) pushed. Their deal was that they were supposedly going to contribute the funds to support that, if they could be satisfied that was where the money was going. With Tudor and Trauber having influence, I don't think basketball is going to get shortchanged. That makes me wonder where the money is coming from to rebuild baseball. With our tradition, it may be the easiest to rebuild, but that offers the least financial reward.

So it's time to make strategic decisions about alternatives. Our options would seem to be:
1) Shift resources to football, because it offers the highest total return, albeit at the highest cost and with probably the longest lead time; or
2) Stay with the plan to revise basketball, even though returns so far have been disappointing at best; or
3) Focus on getting baseball back to Omaha and plan on capitalizing on the goodwill that creates to overcome the minimal financial upside; or
4) Go to the BOT with a plan to fix all three, provided they front end the necessary investment, with payback to com from resulting enhanced revenues, realizing that is a hard sell at best; or
5) Appeal to alumni for the several million a year we need until we turn things around; or
6) Do everything we can to increase operating revenues (moneybag games; play anybody, anywhere, any time if te price is right); or
7) Some combination of the above; or
8) Something else; or
9) D-3 here we come.

Anybody got any other ideas?