From Blauds: Michigan closing in on Manuel as AD

[DarthGrumpy]

Good analysis. If hockey can somehow help UConn in realignment then great, otherwise it's another large debit in the athletic budget.

On the ACC, I thought Warde had strong ties with the BC AD (one of the reasons he was hired) to help with future opportunities with the ACC?

I thought UNC, Duke, Wake, GT were sold nos on Louisville? How did Louisville overcome their objectors and UConn couldn't/didn't? I just don't know how Warde has zero accountability in that? If not, who does? Only Suzy?

Again, I would like he to stay at this point, I think he's learned a lot since and is more capable to lead. But if he leaves (which why not, it's Michigan), I just am not going to overinflate his accomplishments and neglect any of his misses.

Bath Bates (BC) and Warde (UConn) played football at Michigan and both are rumored to be candidates for the Michigan job, though Warde is thought to be the front-runner.

As for the 'vote,' please remember that no conference will ever admit any school that is not unanimous as a publicly split vote would be harmful to everyone. It is believed that UConn could have gotten in; but, it would have been a split vote 7 to 4. Such a vote would have destroyed the ACC with FSU, Clemson and possibly Miami bolting (BC can scream all it wants, they have no place to go). Thus, to save itself in the short-term, the ACC had to find an alternative and Louisville was it (likely beating out Cincinnati). As for the 'no' votes themselves (BC, FSU, Clemson, Miami), there was nothing Warde could have done to turn those as they all publicly came out against UConn before Warde was even in Storrs.

 

[JSM1970]

Good points. Bad timing probably, now could be different with FSU and Clemson having recent success and playoff.

Bath Bates (BC) and Warde (UConn) played football at Michigan and both are rumored to be candidates for the Michigan job, though Warde is thought to be the front-runner.

As for the 'vote,' please remember that no conference will ever admit any school that is not unanimous as a publicly split vote would be harmful to everyone. It is believed that UConn could have gotten in; but, it would have been a split vote 7 to 4. Such a vote would have destroyed the ACC with FSU, Clemson and possibly Miami bolting (BC can scream all it wants, they have no place to go). Thus, to save itself in the short-term, the ACC had to find an alternative and Louisville was it (likely beating out Cincinnati). As for the 'no' votes themselves (BC, FSU, Clemson, Miami), there was nothing Warde could have done to turn those as they all publicly came out against UConn before Warde was even in Storrs.

 

[FfldCntyFan]

And now Oklahoma is doing the same thing in the Big 12. Except this time UConn is in the opposite position where Oklahoma is threatening to leave if UConn and Cincinnati aren't added. It will be quite a screw job if this group of schools does the opposite of the acc.

The equation is a bit different as the ACC needed to add someone (to replace Maryland), the question was who. Part of the argument on Louisville was that if UConn was added, FSU (and possibly Clemson as well) would leave, forcing the ACC to again add membership, at which point Louisville would be the obvious frontrunner (with UConn already added). A big part of the argument was Louisville was going to end up in the ACC in either of two scenarios. The variable would then be whether UConn or FSU would be part of the ACC.

What will happen in the B-12 will be a decision on whether to placate OU (with expansion) or UT (without).

 

[EdgewoodNHV]

Man am I glad we're having this argument again.

 

[dayooper]

You may not have noticed but we are now in Hockey East (where UConn leads the league in attendance) with BC and have scheduled a series with them in football.

This is big. Rivalries are so important to college athletics and I can't think of a football rivalry for UConn. If you can develop one with BC, who seems to be lacking in that department as well, that will only help your football program to become stronger. Rutgers, because of proximity and common history, was the Big10 school that I thought would become your rival if you ever joined. BC would be the best, IMO, in that regard. Being the biggest Northeast football programs seems like you would be great natural rivals. The hate is already there and you also have history with them. Nothing but good can come from this.

 

[FDNY99]

UConn was overconfident, because their contacts in the ACC were overconfident in their own vote whipping abilities.

Jungle add to that what Hathaway had been saying all along....that we were in no matter what...

 

[Sportsman5]

The equation is a bit different as the ACC needed to add someone (to replace Maryland), the question was who. Part of the argument on Louisville was that if UConn was added, FSU (and possibly Clemson as well) would leave, forcing the ACC to again add membership, at which point Louisville would be the obvious frontrunner (with UConn already added). A big part of the argument was Louisville was going to end up in the ACC in either of two scenarios. The variable would then be whether UConn or FSU would be part of the ACC.

What will happen in the B-12 will be a decision on whether to placate OU (with expansion) or UT (without).

OU is threatening to leave if they don't get their way. OU leaving would likely lead to a collapse of the conference or force the conference to add more schools for stability. It's a very similar situation.

 

[JSM1970]

Not really since there is a GOR in place for 9 years. It's not like they can just bolt quickly, this can be negotiated over a longer period.

OU is threatening to leave if they don't get their way. OU leaving would likely lead to a collapse of the conference or force the conference to add more schools for stability. It's a very similar situation.

 

[Sportsman5]

Not really since there is a GOR in place for 9 years. It's not like they can just bolt quickly, this can be negotiated over a longer period.

9 years is not very long considering many schools take a couple of years to transfer over to a new conference and there are negotiations happening behind the scenes years before there is an official announcement.

Plus OU can simply challenge the GOR in court.

The bottom line is that as soon as OU makes any sort of move to leave the conference whether its challenging the GOR or leaked information about negotiations (which will certainly happen), then it will lead to immense instability regardless of when they officially switch to a different conference. This instability will bring down the conference because any team that can get out will try ASAP so they aren't one of the 4-6 teams out of 10 that will be joining the AAC.

 

[junglehusky]

Jungle add to that what Hathaway had been saying all along....that we were in no matter what...

That's a new one (to me), who was he saying that to?

 

[FDNY99]

He was saying that to the coaches and the donors (when he talked to them).

 

[FfldCntyFan]

That's a new one (to me), who was he saying that to?

I heard from a couple of highly placed people that JH told them as much (I heard this in '09). Supposedly JH was told by senior ACC people that when (not if) he ACC expands again (there was no timetable in this and it did not sound as if it would happen anywhere near as quickly as things ended up) Cuse & UConn would be the additions. It would take the two top BE programs (killing the conference as the '04 raid was supposed to), give the ACC what could be promoted as the two top hoops rivalries (UNC-Duke & Cuse-UConn), surround the NYC market and provide access for the ACC to play games in the NYC market.

Expansion in other conferences (Pac-10, B1G) led the ACC to hasten their next expansion. It did not help us that BC was on the three member committee but if JH had done enough (other than once again saying 'my work is done here') maintaining relationships with ACC members BC may not have had sufficient clout to replace us with Pitt.

 

[junglehusky]

I heard from a couple of highly placed people that JH told them as much (I heard this in '09). Supposedly JH was told by senior ACC people that when (not if) he ACC expands again (there was no timetable in this and it did not sound as if it would happen anywhere near as quickly as things ended up) Cuse & UConn would be the additions. It would take the two top BE programs (killing the conference as the '04 raid was supposed to), give the ACC what could be promoted as the two top hoops rivalries (UNC-Duke & Cuse-UConn), surround the NYC market and provide access for the ACC to play games in the NYC market.

Expansion in other conferences (Pac-10, B1G) led the ACC to hasten their next expansion. It did not help us that BC was on the three member committee but if JH had done enough (other than once again saying 'my work is done here') maintaining relationships with ACC members BC may not have had sufficient clout to replace us with Pitt.

Wow.

This makes sense with Swofford's mode of operation. Finishing the job. And with the Carolina section of the ACC originally holding the power in the ACC, FSU/Clemson/Miami/BC would have been chafing at the basketball schools from the time of the original BE raid through the last one. You can also see how UConn under Hogan/Hathaway could become complacent having had that information. Susan was on the job for a year, and Warde for a few months, by the time the last spot opened when Maryland left. Not enough time to fix Hathaway's mess and make the political connections needed.

 

[CL82]

Louisville got in over UConn into the ACC because FSU and Clemson pulled the card and threatened to leave for the B-12 unless a solid football school was added. And as we all know VERY well especially if you are on here..Paul Pasqualoni was well on his way to torpedoing a good program.
Not true.... Jeff Hathaway raised $0 in 8 years for that facility! In the time Paul Pendergast was interim AD and the 18 months Warde Manuel was here before it was built the 2 of them raised enough money to demo Memorial Stadium, hire a design firm and get the thing built. The man flat out got that project done.

That is really a stunning fact.

 

[CL82]

But they don't have twitter in the USVI.

Or cell phones or email.

We were one tweet away from P5 memebership, and that fat b--tard was sitting at a pool drinking Pina Coladas? Bah.

 

[CallMeBruce]

 

[FDNY99]

When he became a finalist it was just a matter of time before he got the job.

 

[CTMike]

Just infuriating the levels of incompetence in the prior regime

 

[Dooley]

The more I read about Frazier, the more I like him. Football guy with hockey roots, B1G connections, and from the northeast. I also like that his NIU student athletes rank highly in the MAC academic standings (grad rate, GPA, etc). He's made some pretty impressive expansion upgrades to NIU facilities and has scheduled very well for the NIU football program (something we desperately need). The fact that he was a finalist at BC and RU says to me that he's more than interested in working in the northeast corridor.

 

[Dooley]

Warde is pulling down about $500K/yr at UConn, in line with many P5 AD jobs. Assuming we stay in the same comp scale, I think that would be enough to lure Frazier (or anyone) to UConn. I can't find anything about Frazier's salary at NIU, but they paid their previous AD about $280K/yr. I'm guessing they didn't go too much more north of that with Frazier.

 

[methodology]

Aman at rivals is saying its Manuel's job to lose and he expect Warde to be the next guy from people he has talked to connected to both UConn and Michigan

 

[SAMCRO]

Aman at rivals is saying its Manuel's job to lose and he expect Warde to be the next guy from people he has talked to connected to both UConn and Michigan

it would be kind of funny is Jurich came out of nowhere and was hired at Michigan, and at his presser made the comment "Warde wasn't penciled in, he was written in pen... and I go the job"

 

[IMind]

FSU and Clemson waking up and freaking out about their football status held the whole ACC hostage. Maryland leaving was a such a shock to the system.

Louisville Community College was added out of fear, not really deliberate strategic thinking.

This pretty much describes EVERY move the ACC made... the B1G on the other hand is the very antithesis of this. Every move was deliberate and strategic.

 

[CL82]

it would be kind of funny is Jurich came out of nowhere and was hired at Michigan, and at his presser made the comment "Warde wasn't penciled in, he was written in pen... and I go the job"

Lol, too funny!

 

[pj]

it would be kind of funny is Jurich came out of nowhere and was hired at Michigan, and at his presser made the comment "Warde wasn't penciled in, he was written in pen... and I go the job"

Warde is monitoring the situation and won't be surprised.

 

[CL82]

Warde is monitoring the situation and won't be surprised.

"What can you do? You make yourself as attractive as possible to another university, but it the end you can't just walk in and become the AD. You have to be invited. So I will continue to make myself an attractive candidate as possible and in the meantime, I will continue to monitor Monster.com."

 

[BoatShow]

Do people think it was easy to get Cuse and BC off their ivory towers to play a football series with us? The marketing is the best it's been since "That's what I like about U-Conn" was released. Getting into Hockey East was easy with QU in our backyard? Those complaining about KOs interim title, would you have rather he gave the reigns of our MBB team to a guy who had never been a head coach and had only 2 years as an assistant under his belt without having him prove himself? Or taken Stevens before he left for the NBA after 2 years? Or Smart before he bolted for Texas?

Bob Diaco hire may go down like the JC or Geno hired too soon to tell but how many of you thought he would get us back to a bowl this soon?

 

[junglehusky]

Do people think it was easy to get Cuse and BC off their ivory towers to play a football series with us? The marketing is the best it's been since "That's what I like about U-Conn" was released. Getting into Hockey East was easy with QU in our backyard? Those complaining about KOs interim title, would you have rather he gave the reigns of our MBB team to a guy who had never been a head coach and had only 2 years as an assistant under his belt without having him prove himself? Or taken Stevens before he left for the NBA after 2 years? Or Smart before he bolted for Texas?

Bob Diaco hire may go down like the JC or Geno hired too soon to tell but how many of you thought he would get us back to a bowl this soon?

...but donuts.

 

[SubbaBub]

The rules are the same for any replacement. Someone with major program football experience with ties to the B1G. It would be nice if they also ran their own AD at some point. Would consider ties to the ACC or B12 as a substitute for the tight candidate.

UCONN connection is so far down on the list that it isn't a consideration in my mind.

We hired exactly what we needed in Wade and we should follow the same plan if possible. The USVI meme is afunny boneyard shenanigan, but not relevant in a serious discussion of the AD succession.

 

[noeynox]

I think @ZooCougar, nailed it earlier in the thread when called Warde being in the US VIRGIN, bad optics after Jurich came out and said he went door to door to beg for UL'S inclusion. A small part of me will always resent that, but Warde hadn't been here long enough to know his way around campus at that point. Warde overall has done a great job here getting facilities built or started that will make us the most attractive G5 school in the event of more expansion in the P5.

The next AD hired needs to understand that getting to in a P5 league ASAP, is his biggest overall responsibility. I'm sure this will be conveyed during the interview process.