You're probably right.

I see where URI offered Hurley $2 mil, a practice facility in two years, and the ability to charter to away games ... he said no and left for UConn.

Can you imagine W&M hiring a coach for $2 mil, and having the ability to charter to away games? That's a reality check for sure!

:-)

URI: 13,641 undergrads, 18 sports teams sponsored
W&M: 6,301 undergrads, 23 sports teams sponsored

There's your money right there. Too bad no one here wants to either grow the pie by adding more students or reduce the number of pie slices. Fans want things done but don't want to do the things necessary to do what they want so everything muddles along because no one within the program is pushing to make things better.

Bigger pie and get rid of some of the slices. Start with the sports that don't have a national competitive landscape and make them club sports.

Someone (Mr. Got Ribe?) made a great point about using basketball success to attract a more well rounded student body. I know when I interviewed someone from W&M I started them off with one strike against them because I was looking for people skills, not technical knowledge, even though we were an IT department.

Our succeccessful hires were the non-revenue athletes (and strangely enough, girlfriends of revenue athletes).

So we should drop non-revenue sports to fund basketball? Not in my book. The measure of the value add of a non-revenue sport is the caliber of student it attracts and the learning experience athletic competition provides, not the won-loss record.

If we have to drop our academic standards or our commitment to a well-rounded student body to win, then what’s the point?

Anytime your school is the premier named state school, you are at a huge advantage in terms of finances. URI is THE school of Rhode Island. Although a small state, it is THE state school so they will have the most fans, advertisers and donors. It's the advantage UVA and UNC have vs. William and Mary and UNCW. School size is less relevant, in that UNCW is bigger than URI and is growing, but we aren't in the ball bark in finances.

2016 Athletic budgets. You guys are right on par with URI. Take a peek at JMU...

http://sports.usatoday.com/ncaa/finances/

We're higher by seven or eight million dollars more than I had last heard..and this is the budget for two years ago.