Geno's Sandy Hook Scholarship project generated over a million in donations. Calhoun's cardiac thing got what $30k alone from the boneyard. People in CT have money, and they are willing to donate to what they think are worthy causes. But there is without a doubt, a government induced entitlement culture in this state. I brought up the "not a dime back" thing, b/c fund raising for UCONN is all PR. Public relations. People - specifically alumni - need to turned onto realizing that giving back, simply in the form of general donations, whether it be to the academic school they earned their degree from, or the athletic department - is a worthy cause.
That historically has not been Jim Calhoun's strong suit. I'd like to see the guy, at this stage of his career at UCONN, take some PR lessons from somebody and turn into the greatest fund raiser in the history of the school.
As for the topic at hand, Louisville, that school, was cut out of the big time college football money sharing in crowd in 1991-1992. Tom Jurich, for his entire time there, has been working to find a way back in, and the Big East provided the route back in, through the basketball programs, and he managed to get them into the ACC and stay in it.
THey raised a ton of money at that school, for athletics, and they built large facilities for ticket sales, and they did what it took to doctor the books to be at the top of every media list.
People, that have gotten somethign meaningful from UCONN - need to give back to the university. It's a culture shift that needs to happen among students and alumni. It's a shame that it's taken as long as it has, for a leadership to arise that is focused on it. Lots of time and energy for people to bitch about our situation, but if you want to do something meaningful, donate back to the school.
Soapbox out.