Fixing the athletic department

[shizzle787]

1. Convince Geno to coach for 10-12 more years. Why? By 2025, we will likely know how this is going to go. It is likely there will be CR shifts, and we will upgrade either to a weaker Big 12 or a power conference. We need the women to keep winning in order to guarantee us at least a chance of a promotion, and he's the best one to do that.

2. Fire Diaco January 2 to save $1.7 million. During December, conduct a thorough search for a new head coach. By thorough, I mean talk to Strong, Rich Rod, Miles, PJ Fleck, Brohm, Satterfield, Candle, Neal, Applewhite, Orlando, Moorehead, Bohl etc.

3. Drop several sports to get down to NCAA minimum: m/w cross country, m golf, m/w tennis. It saves money, and we can spend some of the savings toward football (the rest is savings).

4. After the current building projects are complete, announce a 10-year spending hiatus on athletic buildings to save money.

5. Tell Ollie to start using the graduate transfer waivers going forward. They have tended to work out well in the past, and they bring experience to the team.

 

[bigAbruns]

Also keep morons that influenced diacos hire away from Benedict should we fire diaco

 

[UConnNick]

1. Convince Geno to coach for 10-12 more years. Why? By 2025, we will likely know how this is going to go. It is likely there will be CR shifts, and we will upgrade either to a weaker Big 12 or a power conference. We need the women to keep winning in order to guarantee us at least a chance of a promotion, and he's the best one to do that.

2. Fire Diaco January 2 to save $1.7 million. During December, conduct a thorough search for a new head coach. By thorough, I mean talk to Strong, Rich Rod, Miles, PJ Fleck, Brohm, Satterfield, Candle, Neal, Applewhite, Orlando, Moorehead, Bohl etc.

3. Drop several sports to get down to NCAA minimum: m/w cross country, m golf, m/w tennis. It saves money, and we can spend some of the savings toward football (the rest is savings).

4. After the current building projects are complete, announce a 10-year spending hiatus on athletic buildings to save money.

5. Tell Ollie to start using the graduate transfer waivers going forward. They have tended to work out well in the past, and they bring experience to the team.

Agreed, but can we at least spend the money to fix the roof inside Gampel? It's an embarrassment, particularly during any games nationally televised.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

We have absolutely no shot at PJ Fleck. He's already turned down a Big 10 job.

 

[Dooley]

WBB dominance has not and will continue not to move us a single inch closer to a P5 conference. If we are serious about improving our P5 profile, and I'm not convinced we are, we have to increase the football coaching salary pool. Doubling assistant coaches pay is a good place to start. Football is quite literally the only P5 box we don't check but it's the most important box.

 

[shizzle787]

WBB dominance has not and will continue not to move us a single inch closer to a P5 conference. If we are serious about improving our P5 profile, and I'm not convinced we are, we have to increase the football coaching salary pool. Doubling assistant coaches pay is a good place to start. Football is quite literally the only P5 box we don't check but it's the most important box.

And the only way we can afford that is if we drop a couple of non-revenue sports.

 

[shizzle787]

Agreed, but can we at least spend the money to fix the roof inside Gampel? It's an embarrassment, particularly during any games nationally televised.

Yea, we might as well fix that, but that would be the exception.

 

[ktuck911]

Agreed, but can we at least spend the money to fix the roof inside Gampel? It's an embarrassment, particularly during any games nationally televised.

Hell yeah! I took my kid to open house there a few Sundays ago. It looked awful. Like black mold.

 

[HuskyNan]

WBB dominance has not and will continue not to move us a single inch closer to a P5 conference. If we are serious about improving our P5 profile, and I'm not convinced we are, we have to increase the football coaching salary pool. Doubling assistant coaches pay is a good place to start. Football is quite literally the only P5 box we don't check but it's the most important box.

No, women's hoops isn't a factor in CR but one thing it does is keeps the university visible. I'm watching a basketball game that doesn't involve UConn on ESPN right now and the announcers talked about Geno and UConn for 5 minutes. Even field hockey's string of Final Fours and national championships as well as the success of women's soccer create the perception of a strong athletic department. It's hardly a best case scenario but at least it's something at a time when men's hoops and football struggle to find their footing. UConn won't fall into the abyss of irrelevance as long as it keeps producing some powerhouse teams.

 

[Jimdish255]

3. Drop several sports to get down to NCAA minimum: m/w cross country, m golf, m/w tennis. It saves money, and we can spend some of the savings toward football (the rest is savings).

Just curious as to why you would drop these sports and not Ice Hockey? I love Hockey but it would seem to be a more expensive sport by a lot, and one other P5 conferences couldn't care less about. And you realize that dropping Cross Country means dropping Indoor/Outdoor Track as well because you need distance runners to field a full squad. That happens to be a sport P5 conferences participate in by and large.

Personally I don't believe dropping sports is a good look or the answer to our problems, but maybe you could explain the logic of the above choices. Poor decisions have hurt Football not the other sports, which have been successful and a positive for the University.

 

[shizzle787]

Just curious as to why you would drop these sports and not Ice Hockey? I love Hockey but it would seem to be a more expensive sport by a lot, and one other P5 conferences couldn't care less about. And you realize that dropping Cross Country means dropping Indoor/Outdoor Track as well because you need distance runners to field a full squad. That happens to be a sport P5 conferences participate in by and large.

Personally I don't believe dropping sports is a good look or the answer to our problems, but maybe you could explain the logic of the above choices. Poor decisions have hurt Football not the other sports, which have been successful and a positive for the University.

Hockey is one of the major American team sports (IMO along with basketball, baseball, football, and soccer). It has the potential to be a revenue sport (we should pitch it to SNY).
I don't see why we can't give scholarships to distance runners for track and field. If not, I would take one of two actions: drop track and field as well and make water polo a scholarship sport or don't drop cross country but still get rid of golf and tennis.

 

[brasssbonanzaa]

Many NCAA Hockey programs are revenue generators, including numerous ones in Hockey East. Dropping the hockey program right now would make the athletic department appear to be in a state of disarray and in shambles. They just invested a lot of resources into making it a revenue generator, and it's on the path to being there if it's not already. Why in the world would you drop a program that's drawing top 25% attendance numbers nationally and competing in the top conference in the nation? Also, it's your program that has the lowest travel costs. As of next year, zero conference road trips require a flight.

 

[zls44]

No, women's hoops isn't a factor in CR but one thing it does is keeps the university visible. I'm watching a basketball game that doesn't involve UConn on ESPN right now and the announcers talked about Geno and UConn for 5 minutes.

An Iowa State-Gonzaga game on opposite the NFL on a Sunday afternoon.

Just saying.

 

[zls44]

Many NCAA Hockey programs are revenue generators, including numerous ones in Hockey East. Dropping the hockey program right now would make the athletic department appear to be in a state of disarray and in shambles. They just invested a lot of resources into making it a revenue generator, and it's on the path to being there if it's not already. Why in the world would you drop a program that's drawing top 25% attendance numbers nationally and competing in the top conference in the nation? Also, it's your program that has the lowest travel costs. As of next year, zero conference road trips require a flight.

The question isn't if UConn should drop hockey, the question is how does UConn make many of the other programs as economically+athletically successful as hockey.

 

[huskymedic]

Water polo...

 

[Ldandy]

Water polo...

LOL. Yeah lets drop Golf and Tennis but add water polo. The fuq?

 

[Redding Husky]

Men's BB, FB, baseball, ice hockey, and soccer are untouchable. Everything else needs to be on the table.

 

[huskeynut]

Men's BB, FB, baseball, ice hockey, and soccer are untouchable. Everything else needs to be on the table.

WBB is untouchable too.

 

[HuskyNan]

Men's BB, FB, baseball, ice hockey, and soccer are untouchable. Everything else needs to be on the table.

You might want to read the Title IX rules about providing equal opportunities for girls and women in educational institutions that accept Federal funding.

Title IX Frequently Asked Questions

 

[Dooley]

No, women's hoops isn't a factor in CR but one thing it does is keeps the university visible. I'm watching a basketball game that doesn't involve UConn on ESPN right now and the announcers talked about Geno and UConn for 5 minutes. Even field hockey's string of Final Fours and national championships as well as the success of women's soccer create the perception of a strong athletic department. It's hardly a best case scenario but at least it's something at a time when men's hoops and football struggle to find their footing. UConn won't fall into the abyss of irrelevance as long as it keeps producing some powerhouse teams.

I agree with you - WBB gives the name "UConn" exposure. I was responding to the OP's claim that we need WBB to keep winning to have a chance at a promotion. We could win every women's hoops game from now until 2030 and it wouldn't move us any closer to the ACC or B1G.

 

[Redding Husky]

You might want to read the Title IX rules about providing equal opportunities for girls and women in educational institutions that accept Federal funding.

Title IX Frequently Asked Questions

I was talking about men's sports.

 

[J187Money]

I'll be honest - if the only choice is to gut the entire athletic department so that we "hope" we can save football?

Our problem in football has been rooted in a late start, and once Edsall departed in the middle of the night like the Baltimore Colts, a raft of bad decision making.

The athletic department isn't broken - we just chose two bad coaches in a row.

 

[huskyinfl]

I think WBB does move us closer. Is it a huge factor? No. But its icing on the cake compared to what other universities offer. Most conferences hate the Title IX stuff, adding a crown jewel WBB program is a good look in the times of Baylor etc.

 

[Dooley]

I think WBB does move us closer. Is it a huge factor? No. But its icing on the cake compared to what other universities offer. Most conferences hate the Title IX stuff, adding a crown jewel WBB program is a good look in the times of Baylor etc.

Agree that it is a very good "icing" and a antithesis to all of the disgusting happening at other schools. However, the icing is only good if the cake supporting it isn't a moldy, 3-9 mess.

 

[huskyinfl]

Right, I mean they have to hold their nose and throw money at WBB so why not have the best program in your league to throw money at.

 

[Stainmaster]

I think WBB does move us closer. Is it a huge factor? No. But its icing on the cake compared to what other universities offer. Most conferences hate the Title IX stuff, adding a crown jewel WBB program is a good look in the times of Baylor etc.

It'd be a lot better if those WBB fans decided to support the rest of the AD. I'm not even talking tickets or donations. Some of the comments they make about our basketball and football student-athletes sound like they'd be more appropriate coming from BC or Cuse fans.

 

[Jimdish255]

Many NCAA Hockey programs are revenue generators, including numerous ones in Hockey East. Dropping the hockey program right now would make the athletic department appear to be in a state of disarray and in shambles. They just invested a lot of resources into making it a revenue generator, and it's on the path to being there if it's not already. Why in the world would you drop a program that's drawing top 25% attendance numbers nationally and competing in the top conference in the nation? Also, it's your program that has the lowest travel costs. As of next year, zero conference road trips require a flight.

I wouldn't drop it or any of the sports. I love hockey played all my life. But it's not a P5 sport except for the B1G and we're planning to spend a bundle on a new facility. Track requires a track, coaches and a few schollies. Just seems like random ideas thrown against the wall when the real issue is stupid coaching hires that a handful of people on this board could have avoided. My point is the AD doesn't need "fixing" just the FB Program. All these other sports have been doing just fine.