Re: Upside
Posted: Thu Dec 12, 2019 3:02 pmle crone shoulda been fired15 years ago. he single handedly turned this conference into the summit league
professorjackson wrote:Couldn't we just use the money we spend giving scholarships to student-athletes and salaries to coaches to give scholarships to students?
110-71 loss to Notre Dame, and 1-8.
What is achieved by the millions spent on this program that could not be achieved by walk-on players and a volunteer coaching staff?
Would the school really save that much money switching to D-3 as you allude to above and more specifically in other parts of this thread? You would still have to maintain facilities (Calihan) and athletic fields. Even at lower level, schools still have administrative staff such as Athletic Director, compliance officer, sports information director, etc. You propose a “volunteer coaching staff” — where in the United States does that happen? Teams filled with “walk-on players” is not going to fly, most D-3 programs find a creative way to get scholarships or other aid for athletes they recruit. Yes we’d saving on coaching salaries for MBB, but we’d lose all the income from D-1 basketball buy games (more than $500,000 generated this year). Probably most of our other sports offered (track, softball, soccer, etc.) already have salaries close to D-3 level scale. We would lose a share of NCAA tournament money currently received through the Horizon League. Donations to Titan Athletics would almost certainly decrease. And you then propose joining the MIAA and adding D-3 football — that requires new facilities, large coaching staff, uniforms and equipment, etc. A move to D-3 would also involve conference exit and entrance fees. I don’t think the downgrade you envision would save much if any dough in the long run.