Non-Key Tweets

[Chuck]

The arms race, with the playoff money, is getting almost ridiculous.

Dabo is getting a new player village exclusively for football...with barbershop, 9 hole miniature golf course, laser tag, etc. etc.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...384dd4-a558-11e5-9c4e-be37f66848bb_story.html

Disclosure: I didn't read the full article so some of this may have been addressed, but here's my opinion/questions:

OPINION (feel free to mock): These facilities and costs are disgusting. I hate when other people judge what people do with their money, especially since frivolous spending supports the people providing the frivolous services. But to me these facilities are wrong considering the debt that some kids leave school with. This may be sour grapes or naivete, but this just doesn't seem right. My suggestion? Schools should tax athletic contributions. 10% of all contributions are taxed to the schools general endowment or to specific academic departments/non-athletic scholarships.

QUESTION: When do these facilities become "improper benefits." This may have been addressed in the article, but if a program can't pay for players to play mini golf, play laser tag, get haircuts, watch movies, does it become okay because it's part of the Player Village? What if we have a club that has a big stage and chairs all around it. Maybe add some brass poles. I don't know what it would be used for, but maybe Louisville can figure it out for everyone.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

The arms race, with the playoff money, is getting almost ridiculous.

Dabo is getting a new player village exclusively for football...with barbershop, 9 hole miniature golf course, laser tag, etc. etc.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...384dd4-a558-11e5-9c4e-be37f66848bb_story.html

'Student' athletes at certain major programs will not even have to interact at all with the university population in general. Isn't that a key part of what true university life life supposed to be? Then the same school administrators will wonder why these privilege few, many who come from difficult backgrounds and need to learn these lessons to survive in the real world,especially as maybe 10% go onto pro sports careers, don't behave well outside the doors of their self-sufficient football/basketball campus.

 

[Fishy]

We are in trouble. Fishy is speechless

Clemson just put in a freaking golf course for their football players.

Of course, you wonder how many potential football recruits have ever played golf and if the New England School of Dentistry might want to consider something similar.

 

[Pudge]

As someone observant of Student Housing in general, a mini-golf scheme is not all that different than the lazy rivers and swim up bars and rooftop party sections commonly being built for a wholly specifically targeted sub-section of University students - the "affluent" rent payers with big parental guarantors. Include lots of foreign kids. So ... if you aren't aware of what is at Clemson or UT or Arizona State today, this is not a leap forward just for football/basketball. Existing in a sunbelt hotspot, today's indulgent parents are already providing "amenitized" housing.

 

[FDNY99]

The arms race, with the playoff money, is getting almost ridiculous.

Dabo is getting a new player village exclusively for football...with barbershop, 9 hole miniature golf course, laser tag, etc. etc.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/spor...384dd4-a558-11e5-9c4e-be37f66848bb_story.html

That playoff $$ goes a lot farther down south than up north...just look at what Jerry Jones paid for his place and the Giants/Jets paid for Met Life.

 

[SAMCRO]

But where do the hookers live?

Pitino's basement.

 

[The Funster]

Wow. How soon before the "anything to get a recruit" bubble bursts? Colleges and universities keep making bad decisions. I mean, it's fine if it's all funded by donor money but if States and students have to pay for it...that's just wrong.

 

[CL82]

Pitino's basement.

Nah, he's was asking about the live ones.

 

[Kolumbo]

It seems anything being built on campus has to be for the benefit of all students, unless it relates directly to practice, training, and private tutoring of athletes. Besides, how in the world would football players taking a full course load have time for all the extra stuff? I would think they'd be more interested in socializing with the general population, and with the females in particular, than wasting their free time playing with themselves.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

Besides, how in the world would football players taking a full course load have time for all the extra stuff? I would think they'd be more interested in socializing with the general population, and with the females in particular, than wasting their free time playing with themselves.

Well the university's pro athletes have to do something while the females and others that they would like to social with are actually taking classes and trying to pass said classes for a career outside of College Town USA when they graduate.

 

[BoatShow]

Disclosure: I didn't read the full article so some of this may have been addressed, but here's my opinion/questions:

OPINION (feel free to mock): These facilities and costs are disgusting. I hate when other people judge what people do with their money, especially since frivolous spending supports the people providing the frivolous services. But to me these facilities are wrong considering the debt that some kids leave school with. This may be sour grapes or naivete, but this just doesn't seem right. My suggestion? Schools should tax athletic contributions. 10% of all contributions are taxed to the schools general endowment or to specific academic departments/non-athletic scholarships.

QUESTION: When do these facilities become "improper benefits." This may have been addressed in the article, but if a program can't pay for players to play mini golf, play laser tag, get haircuts, watch movies, does it become okay because it's part of the Player Village? What if we have a club that has a big stage and chairs all around it. Maybe add some brass poles. I don't know what it would be used for, but maybe Louisville can figure it out for everyone.

That's what I don't get. All that nonessential leisure stuff. How do they get away with that. May as well have mint to make their own money.

 

[jostar1]

Christopher Lambert‏@theDudeofWV 9h9 hours ago
FYI: Gee tell Charleston Gazette Mail Big 12 expansion on back burner. Gee favors 14 instead of 12.
http://www.wvgazettemail.com/sports/20151221/mitch-vingle-big-12-wvu-looking-for-bowl-beauty

WVBurghFans‏@WVBurghFans @theDudeofWV In the end...Houston, BYU, Cincinnati and Memphis? Your thoughts?

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
@WVBurghFans Add a TV market, a recruiting market & 2 best programs.

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
Big 12 schools in favor of expanding to 12: WVU, OU, BU, KSU, ISU

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
Big 12 schools in favor of expanding to 14: WVU & ISU.

Jeff Ruff ‏@jeff_ruff · 8h8 hours ago
@theDudeofWV better think long and hard before bringing in a bunch of commuter schools with no TV footprint.

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
@jeff_ruff Well, Memphis, UCF & BYU all boast top 20 CFB watching markets.

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
@jeff_ruff But if you're smart you make the decision based on cultural fit & 50 year projections.

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
2.5 Big 12 schools need to change their mind about expansion. Most likely: Kansas & OkST Least Likely: Texas

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
@jeff_ruff Is the Big 12 smart? Is no move the best move? OU's playoff spot put the breaks on expansion.

Christopher Lambert ‏@theDudeofWV · 8h8 hours ago
@jeff_ruff Big 12 tells me emphatically they will not approach any ACC school.

Jeff Ruff ‏@jeff_ruff · 7h7 hours ago
@theDudeofWV what do you know about a "Big12/ACC strategic alliance? Heard that on some sports talk out here in OKC but, not sure.

Christopher Lambert‏@theDudeofWV @jeff_ruff I think you see it WVU's scheduling & the cooperation on such things like legislation.

 

[pj]

50 year projections. Like anyone in the B12 knows how to predict 50 years into the future.

 

[MASSconn]

If you want to talk about a projection: BYU and Houston make a lot more sense than Cinci and UCF. Geographical, better programs and more potential. Houston is a huge city, BYU has a cult following. They would be good, legitimate choices.

 

[upstater]

If you want to talk about a projection: BYU and Houston make a lot more sense than Cinci and UCF. Geographical, better programs and more potential. Houston is a huge city, BYU has a cult following. They would be good, legitimate choices.

Cincy is very close to West Virginia. The geographics have changed. Besides, Utah really is very far away from anything. It's over 1000 miles from Provo to U. Kansas. From U. Kansas to West Virginia? 879 miles.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Wow. How soon before the "anything to get a recruit" bubble bursts? Colleges and universities keep making bad decisions. I mean, it's fine if it's all funded by donor money but if States and students have to pay for it...that's just wrong.

The whole thing is a bubble ready to burst, including what they charge all the students, the grotesque administrative overhead and massive spending on non-educational activity and luxuries and pseudo educational departments. Dry up the tuition money and make these schools compete on cost.

 

[HuskyHawk]

Cincy is very close to West Virginia. The geographics have changed. Besides, Utah really is very far away from anything. It's over 1000 miles from Provo to U. Kansas. From U. Kansas to West Virginia? 879 miles.

I know...I drove it, well...Salt Lake to Lawrence. Not a day trip.

 

[CL82]

Cincy is very close to West Virginia. The geographics have changed. Besides, Utah really is very far away from anything. It's over 1000 miles from Provo to U. Kansas. From U. Kansas to West Virginia? 879 miles.

1391 mile from Storrs to Lawrence, FWIW.

While I think the Dude has no contacts whatsoever, I wish the conference realignment fantasy of the day didn't always seem to involve the evisceration of whatever conference UConn finds itself in. That would be a nice change.

 

[upstater]

The whole thing is a bubble ready to burst, including what they charge all the students, the grotesque administrative overhead and massive spending on non-educational activity and luxuries and pseudo educational departments. Dry up the tuition money and make these schools compete on cost.

Go pro.

 

[Pudge]

Let me point out one thing ... DUDE ... taking West Virginia into a conference that is largely Texas-centric for football isn't smart. And, then, compounding that with not taking that step with Louisville.

When you are talking stupid in CR ... the B12 regularly gets to that platform. When looking at the next move, all discussed leads me to believe the Conference Universities with leverage & market power (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas) have far more to gain by moving on.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

'Student' athletes at certain major programs will not even have to interact at all with the university population in general. Isn't that a key part of what true university life life supposed to be? Then the same school administrators will wonder why these privilege few, many who come from difficult backgrounds and need to learn these lessons to survive in the real world,especially as maybe 10% go onto pro sports careers, don't behave well outside the doors of their self-sufficient football/basketball campus.

This is something the NCAA should address but won't out of fear of the major players in college football. When Oklahoma football had its meltdown and Barry Switzer got canned (two and a half decades ago) a major contributing factor in the general disregard for rules, sense of entitlement and belief of being above the law was that OU set up it's football housing in isolation from the general campus population and many football players did not interact with other (non athlete) students beyond stray incidents where the football player abused his position of status.

I have no doubt that this will escalate across the bible belt and I see this ending badly at one or more schools.

 

[businesslawyer]

It seems anything being built on campus has to be for the benefit of all students, unless it relates directly to practice, training, and private tutoring of athletes. Besides, how in the world would football players taking a full course load have time for all the extra stuff? I would think they'd be more interested in socializing with the general population, and with the females in particular, than wasting their free time playing with themselves.

Never underestimate the imprtance to young men of "playing with themselves."

 

[CallMeBruce]

Let me point out one thing ... DUDE ... taking West Virginia into a conference that is largely Texas-centric for football isn't smart. And, then, compounding that with not taking that step with Louisville.

When you are talking stupid in CR ... the B12 regularly gets to that platform. When looking at the next move, all discussed leads me to believe the Conference Universities with leverage & market power (Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas) have far more to gain by moving on.

The Big 12 would be in dramatically better shape (and so would UConn) if they'd pulled the trigger and invited Louisville and Cincinnati along with WVU, like they should have. There wouldn't be any issues about a conference championship game, they'd have expanded their footprint into some good markets and good recruiting territory, and they'd have added three quality football/basketball programs. Additionally, this would have left UConn as the last one left standing when the ACC needed to replace Maryland, which would have been nice for me.

 

[DarthGrumpy]

The Big 12 would be in dramatically better shape (and so would UConn) if they'd pulled the trigger and invited Louisville and Cincinnati along with WVU, like they should have. There wouldn't be any issues about a conference championship game, they'd have expanded their footprint into some good markets and good recruiting territory, and they'd have added three quality football/basketball programs. Additionally, this would have left UConn as the last one left standing when the ACC needed to replace Maryland, which would have been nice for me.

You forget rule #1, if the XII did that, then the ACC would have invited Cincinnati or Temple or Memphis or Tunxis Community College, etc. Anyone but UConn.

 

[uconnfan68]

It seems anything being built on campus has to be for the benefit of all students, unless it relates directly to practice, training, and private tutoring of athletes. Besides, how in the world would football players taking a full course load have time for all the extra stuff? I would think they'd be more interested in socializing with the general population, and with the females in particular, than wasting their free time playing with themselves.

They take UNC classes on-line.