My Warde Take | Page 2 | The Boneyard

My Warde Take

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In keeping with BY tradition My take is expressed in haiku.

Hail to the Victor
Warde to UM to replace
Wings with eyeballs now?
 
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Jimmy Serrano said:
My view on Warde, I think he served the university well. I liked what he did here. I'm happy for him that he truly did land his dream job. Freescooter, you can stop reading here.

- Realignment: I never bought the narrative that he got caught with his pants down in the Bahamas drinking Mai Tai's. Truth be told AD's do not have as much influence here as some would have you believe. His job was to put the school in position for consideration. I think he did himself proud in that regard. He cannot geographically move the campus to northern NJ.

- Rebranding: While this is very subjective, I personally love it. Everything about it.

- Fundraising: It's way up. On his watch we got the hoops practice facility up. He identified the need to improve fundraising given our lot in the conference. It was addressed.

- Hires: He hired 3 young coaches who show a lot of promise. I think he handled the Calhoun retirement/Ollie hiring brilliantly. Not sure what others wanted him to do. He made everyone happy while not compromising his authority.

- He fired P: Let's not forget he inherited that clown show. I wanted him to can him after his 2nd season, but I understand why he didn't. Firing his after that Buffalo disaster was an easy decision.

Our athletic dept is in much better shape now than when he took the reigns. We owe him our thanks and respect.
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I think those are the accomplishments. What one can't ignore is the huge financial deficit that's been run despite the BE team exit fees and conference naming fees - there seems to be no plan B and the financial day of reckoning us soon here.
 
Chief00 said:
I think those are the accomplishments. What one can't ignore is the huge financial deficit that's been run despite the BE team exit fees and conference naming fees - there seems to be no plan B and the financial day of reckoning us soon here.
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I think your logic is sound here. It is problem however, for the next AD. Fair or unfair, it is what it is. We are being mentioned for possible Big 12 bid, Warde helped keep us in the conversation. Next person up has to keep the train rolling in that direction.
 
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Chief00 said:
I think those are the accomplishments. What one can't ignore is the huge financial deficit that's been run despite the BE team exit fees and conference naming fees - there seems to be no plan B and the financial day of reckoning us soon here.
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Did all of those fees go to the Athletic Dept? Honest question. I'm guessing no. Warde continued to manage the dept like it was a P5 program while getting paid pennies on the dollar. If he cut sports and didn't spend the money required to run a big time program than you and everyone else would've had his head on top of a pitchfork.
 
Chief's logic: cut athletic funds while also successfully getting us into P5...

fzrtozl.jpg
 
uconnphil2016 said:
Chief's logic: cut athletic funds while also successfully getting us into P5...

fzrtozl.jpg
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We are not talking a couple million - depending on what accounting methodology - we are talking 10's of millions in the hole. Running huge deficits is generally not the business plan you want to highlight toward acceptance to anything.
 
Chief00 said:
We are not talking a couple million - depending on what accounting methodology - we are talking 10's of millions in the hole. Running huge deficits is generally not the business plan you want to highlight toward acceptance to anything.
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See New Jersey, State University of . . . oh, wait . . .
 
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Chief00 said:
We are not talking a couple million - depending on what accounting methodology - we are talking 10's of millions in the hole. Running huge deficits is generally not the business plan you want to highlight toward acceptance to anything.
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It's a gamble. Realignment involving UConn to a P5 will make up those dollars and put us in a better financial position long term. To get there, UConn has to show that it has a P5 level athletic department. We can't be deficient compared to others we may compete with for a spot. So they have to spend and bleed red ink now in order to get UConn where it wants to be.

How long can that continue? It's a valid question. Not indefinitely. But as to the strategy in the near term? It is absolutely the only option we have aside from abandoning any hope of ever being a big time public U. It's as simple as that. There are very few top tier public research universities that don't play FBS football and fund other D1 sports. Outside of the SUNY's and UConn, everybody else in our peer category is already P5. UConn does not want to return to the day when it was considered more like U Maine or URI than like Penn State.
 
Excalibur said:
So uconnphil and
freescooter have liked his post
that's all you need to know
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I think he's channeling stevie wonder-vision and I still liked it - it was funny.
 
Chief00 said:
We are not talking a couple million - depending on what accounting methodology - we are talking 10's of millions in the hole. Running huge deficits is generally not the business plan you want to highlight toward acceptance to anything.
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Specifically, what should've been cut? How many sports shut down?
 
Chief00 said:
We are not talking a couple million - depending on what accounting methodology - we are talking 10's of millions in the hole. Running huge deficits is generally not the business plan you want to highlight toward acceptance to anything.
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So with a $1.18B budget, and the fact that tuition isn't free, it is clear that the school as a whole is unprofitable. The entire model is built on deficits. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but what's to say they don't cut a flagging academic program instead? You and I don't have the data on the entire financial situation of the school and how decisions are made.

They could just decide that they are willing to spend $20 million a year on what amounts to marketing on sports. The ROI on UCONN sports cannot be solely measured on its cash return.
 
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J187Money said:
So with a $1.18B budget, and the fact that tuition isn't free, it is clear that the school as a whole is unprofitable. The entire model is built on deficits. I'm not saying it doesn't matter, but what's to say they don't cut a flagging academic program instead? You and I don't have the data on the entire financial situation of the school and how decisions are made.

They could just decide that they are willing to spend $20 million a year on what amounts to marketing on sports. The ROI on UCONN sports cannot be solely measured on its cash return.
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Also, if Warde were to cut our athletic budget at a time where we're trying desperately to make it into P5 we'd basically be accepting defeat and would be relegated to mid-level D1 athletics. Warde and Dr. Herbst aren't morons--they obviously know that the current financial model for our athletic department is unsustainable. But, we've got to keep spending while we can in hopes of making it into the sandbox with the big boys...spending money is both the solution and the problem. Budget is going to be a much bigger issue for the next AD as Big East money disappears and we have to figure out how to fit square pegs into a round hole
 
The state budget environment is dramatically changing due to a day of reckoning - anyone that is in denial of this fact misreads the landscape. The latest casualty are XL renovations and reports of 600 state employee layoffs.
 
Chief00 said:
The state budget environment is dramatically changing due to a day of reckoning - anyone that is in denial of this fact misreads the landscape. The latest casualty are XL renovations and reports of 600 state employee layoffs.
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Yes, a day of reckoning is on the horizon and it is a shame that most politicians ignored this for as long as they have.

That said, how can you be sure that attempting to improve our situation (and as a result, income) in athletics isn't the best course of action to deal with the arrival of said day of reckoning?
 
Are you saying that the position of Athletic Director at the University of Connecticut also includes Gubernatorial responsibilities?

Warde Manuel may resemble Huell in stature (though I think Huell is bigger), but his bed is not made up of $88 Million in cash. His budget must be approved. UConn does not own, nor operate, the XL Center. So to think any dollars saved (should he tighten his belt with the UConn athletic budget )would go toward renovations or save the jobs of 600 state employees is foolhardy at best.

 
I don't see how the state budget is the issue. I don't see how the students dont revolt over the subsidy. It's not like the state's general fund buys the Munchkins (required donut joke).
 
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