Cancel the program

[J187Money]

Not caring about item number 2,474 on the list is how they get away with item number 2,473, and so on...

I'm not saying we should drop football. But the political climate in this country is rife with corruption, ignorance, and power imbalance. Taking your advice is the "what's one more beer?" approach to state spending, and while I'm hard pressed to disagree with you on a personal level, I think we'll have to acknowledge after a while that we're the ones reinforcing this cycle at every turn.

Connecticut is a state of about 3 and a half million people, so any state investment is going to yield minimal ripple effects. In theory, every person in the state could have paid $3 and the Kevin Ollie buyout would have been a non-issue. Instead, it could raise tuition costs considerably, pending the legal result.

And that's really where we're confronted with an ethical dilemma that's far less gripping than birth control or healthcare or police reform, but maybe in the long run as important. The people spending state money are predisposed to the particular thing they're spending on. That means the state is never going to get an accurate gauge of public sentiment on the investments that require its citizens to foot the largest part of the bill.

The fallacy that such a dissonance presents is fairly self-evident. People who are already in power keep their power by spending the money of people who don't know it's being spent.

This isn't new, of course, but it does speak to the diminishing returns of our democracy as it's stuffed further and further into the darkness by folks who lecture people on the value of voting but yet don't bother to live that way when they get the chance.

If we're going to OK another however many years of UConn football, which is almost guaranteed to operate at a loss, we should consider whether that makes us part of the problem or the solution.

As I've said before, it's not the most important issue, but it is the issue that calls on our expertise. We've seen what happens to that money. Other people haven't. I feel like we owe it to them to put the dog down if that's what it comes to. Otherwise, I don't know how we could expect anything different in return.

So if we are winning it is ok to waste money on athletics? That's the issue I'm getting at. Since all of the programs lose money other than MBB and WBB - should we kill them all? Clearly the answer is no. SCSU has football, so does CCSU - why? Even as bad as it is, people care more about UCONN football than SCSU football, and that loses money. I don't go on the cesspool so maybe I'm missing all of the threads about killing all of the state-funded sports or other programs at all of the state Us that don't make money.

So these arguments to me are basically: I'm super mad so I'm going to go on some rant - and then throw the state budget issues in there for good measure as the reason I want to disband the program.

Do you think I didn't want to disband the Packers for 10 minutes yesterday? I think I even yelled at the TV and said F-it - why even play the rest of the games. So I get it - it is an emotional argument. It was a terrible loss, and I was there (one of the few), and I said to BL on the way out of the stadium that it was honestly the first time I can say I was "disgusted" with the team. But to disband the program? Get over it. Seriously.

I 100% understand people saying ridiculous things on a message board after a game when they are half in the bag and pissed off. That's what the internet is for. To drone on for days, after sobering up, to try and make intellectual arguments defending such positions is my objection.

The state might be better off killing UCONN football - and football at all of the other directional schools as well. And as Whaler said - it might come to that. But that decision shouldn't be made while looking at the scoreboard. Because somehow - if we just had one more first down or made one more tackle we SHOULDN'T disband the program? That's a lot of pressure to put on our small-handed QB.

 

[Carl Spackler]

So if we are winning it is ok to waste money on athletics? That's the issue I'm getting at. Since all of the programs lose money other than MBB and WBB - should we kill them all? Clearly the answer is no. SCSU has football, so does CCSU - why? Even as bad as it is, people care more about UCONN football than SCSU football, and that loses money. I don't go on the cesspool so maybe I'm missing all of the threads about killing all of the state-funded sports or other programs at all of the state Us that don't make money.

So these arguments to me are basically: I'm super mad so I'm going to go on some rant - and then throw the state budget issues in there for good measure as the reason I want to disband the program.

Do you think I didn't want to disband the Packers for 10 minutes yesterday? I think I even yelled at the TV and said F-it - why even play the rest of the games. So I get it - it is an emotional argument. It was a terrible loss, and I was there (one of the few), and I said to BL on the way out of the stadium that it was honestly the first time I can say I was "disgusted" with the team. But to disband the program? Get over it. Seriously.

I 100% understand people saying ridiculous things on a message board after a game when they are half in the bag and pissed off. That's what the internet is for. To drone on for days, after sobering up, to try and make intellectual arguments defending such positions is my objection.

The state might be better off killing UCONN football - and football at all of the other directional schools as well. And as Whaler said - it might come to that. But that decision shouldn't be made while looking at the scoreboard. Because somehow - if we just had one more first down or made one more tackle we SHOULDN'T disband the program? That's a lot of pressure to put on our small-handed QB.

Nonsense! You MUST PANIC!!!

But if you're not so inclined, there is a big problem evident. It's not complicated to state the problem and that's the biggest step to initiating a solution plan.

Problem: We are not putting players on the field annually that are competing at the conference level and division level we are playing at.

Randy has a convenient excuse at present, in explaining that problem statement observation, in that he is playing a team of essentially underdeveloped physically and mentally high school players less than a year removed from their last high school games, and with no spring camp, and no weight training. I find that excuse nauseating, and as poorly as the roster had been assembled - this is his SECOND year now, and he purposely went with a roster of underdeveloped players. Even moreso on this - I don't want to hear or see him complain about a GD thing. He is lucky to have a job, and he is the reason this program went into a tailspin in 2011. So, shut up Randy, and fix it.

As for the players, they have scholarships and an education play for, most of us had to pay (and many in huge debt) to get a college degree. So I don't want to hear or see complaining an giving up there either. This 'culture' stuff is nauseating.

You are what your record says you are - so if you don't like the record - you got to do something different.

Back to the problem statement: My solution is the easy and corrupt one. Cheat like hell. What you got to lose - it's not like we don't play in a conference with SMU. Launder money and pay for hookers, and cars and everything else. (This is why I"m not a school administrator)

So - you need a better solution that fits. We need to be able to recruit players that can compete. That means you need a recruiting plan. I'd like to know what the recruiting plan is - and not from Edsall - because he's a schmuck to me - I want to know what the recruiting plan is from the Athletic Director and the President and the Board of Trustees.