I'd argue that Buffalo is the biggest underachiever in the MAC relative to the type of institution they are, they're a flagship in one of the largest states in the nation and have a large metro area in their backyard. Aside from a fluke conference championship and a season where they had Khalil Mack they've done very little, and that's going up against a bunch of Ohio schools competing for fans and resources.
(10-06-2017 02:15 PM)bullet Wrote: Miami U. has underperformed over the last decade, but that may just be coaching issues.
Yes and no, the blame almost exclusively rests on our former AD (who was forced out at BC earlier in the year). He basically neglected football and basketball during his tenure in favor of hockey and Olympic sports, and it shows. To give an example, our football coach after Terry Hoeppner and the Big Ben years was Shane Montgomery about a decade ago - he made
$150K for being HC and OC, so imagine how much support he had in hiring assistants. His next coaching choice was overruled by the president since he sucked, we won the MAC with the actual coach, and then to replace him after he was hired away he brought in one of the worst coaches in MAC history, taking a ten win team returning almost everyone down to a nine-point per game offense when we went winless in 2013. By that point the AD was in Boston and we're still cleaning up the mess.
Quote:I agree with this. Reading up on Miami of Ohio's history, it's insane how good they used to be. (Then from what I understand, basically it was deemed only Ohio St could have graduate programs which killed Miami of Ohio and Ohio U - and presumably Cinci too)
That graduate law lasted from the late 19th century until the WWII era IIRC and that solidified OSU as 'the' flagship in Ohio along with them being in the capital city. Miami as a result put all our eggs in the undergrad basket and that's still our bread and butter today, the USNWR rankings always put us in the Top 3 on their 'undergrad teaching' lists but our grad programs are basically limited to some PhD programs and accounting.
Interestingly enough, OU and Miami both were founded decades before OSU and there was a debate on whether or not to grant one of them flagship status until then-Governor Rutherford Hayes pushed for a new school in Columbus after the Morrill Act. It's not too hard to imagine them coming up with an arrangement similar to Indiana and Purdue with us both being in the Big Ten today.