The View From Section 241 -- Maine

[Dream Jobbed 2.0]

 

[uconnphil2016]

You guys both need to chill. This is a freakin message board lol don't take it so seriously

 

[uconndogs]

These threads become unreadable with this bulls**t. C'mon guys!

 

[Nostical]

When you think so little of the product you are selling why would your customers think differently. Tailgating is part of everyone's culture. It's like selling Cheerios by talking about how great milk is.

I'm not so sure. First, tailgating at The Rent needed to be hyped. It actually wasn't a part of everyone's culture. The process needed to be developed and refined by lots of folks who hadn't participated during our Div 1A days.
It was more about trying to "package the product" of UConn football, and it needed the attention. It wasn't about selling the greatness of milk, it was putting the Cheerios in a colorful box and using an advertising jingle so people would recognize it on the shelf. Then, the more they got to eat those small, dry, round circles--by adding milk--the more Cheerios they bought. For anyone who's now totally confused, tailgating is milk, Cheerios is football. Bottom line, you can love milk and pour lots of it in a bowl, but if the Cheerios don't taste good, you'll likely end up slurping up the milk and leaving the now mushy cardboard morsels in the bottom of the bowl.
This is exhausting--lol.

 

[Palatine]

I'm not so sure. First, tailgating at The Rent needed to be hyped. It actually wasn't a part of everyone's culture. The process needed to be developed and refined by lots of folks who hadn't participated during our Div 1A days.
It was more about trying to "package the product" of UConn football, and it needed the attention. It wasn't about selling the greatness of milk, it was putting the Cheerios in a colorful box and using an advertising jingle so people would recognize it on the shelf. Then, the more they got to eat those small, dry, round circles--by adding milk--the more Cheerios they bought. For anyone who's now totally confused, tailgating is milk, Cheerios is football. Bottom line, you can love milk and pour lots of it in a bowl, but if the Cheerios don't taste good, you'll likely end up slurping up the milk and leaving the now mushy cardboard morsels in the bottom of the bowl.
This is exhausting--lol.

This is where a university with a first class PR department would get the word out. UConn tailgating is perfect feature for almost every local broadcast outlet and blog. It should be aimed at non-football fans. Our media relations are still in the dark ages

 

[Pudge]

Certainly it's a difficult job. At it's core it's a political job. There are 12-15 people on the Boneyard who understand the economics of conference realignment better than the majority of college presidents.

If Herbst was the business person that C-Suite executives are, she doesn't really display it by making a tiny fraction of what many of them make.

Honestly ... this is stupid. It shows an ignorance of the scope of what happens on a college campus these days & the scope of mission the President pursues. Guess what ... watch what happens to a State U when they have a series of awful Presidents. I can provide examples.

 

[Pudge]

This is where a university with a first class PR department would get the word out. UConn tailgating is perfect feature for almost every local broadcast outlet and blog. It should be aimed at non-football fans. Our media relations are still in the dark ages

I have always agreed with you on this. Just simply a poor component of an Athletic Department that has so much excellence overall.

 

[whaler11]

Honestly ... this is stupid. It shows an ignorance of the scope of what happens on a college campus these days & the scope of mission the President pursues. Guess what ... watch what happens to a State U when they have a series of awful Presidents. I can provide examples.

Which has nothing to do with my point.

We are going to have to agree to disagree. I don't believe that
university presidents are the most talented business people in the world. I have the strange inclination to believe that business leaders may be actually be better at business than non-business people.

You really have to close you eyes to a lot of realities to convince yourself that people in a college administration are as business savvy as people who run actual businesses - but whatever floats your boat.

 

[J187Money]

Which has nothing to do with my point.

We are going to have to agree to disagree. I don't believe that
university presidents are the most talented business people in the world. I have the strange inclination to believe that business leaders may be actually be better at business than non-business people.

You really have to close you eyes to a lot of realities to convince yourself that people in a college administration are as business savvy as people who run actual businesses - but whatever floats your boat.

100%. My father and father-in-law spent their entire lives in college administration. They were very talented in what they did, and of course there are many "business" aspects to what they did, and they were more than competent. However, they chose to go into college administration, and not business, and so they didn't spend 20/30+ years honing their skills in the "for-profit business" world, which operates very differently than does a state-run university.

 

[Pudge]

Which has nothing to do with my point.

We are going to have to agree to disagree. I don't believe that
university presidents are the most talented business people in the world. I have the strange inclination to believe that business leaders may be actually be better at business than non-business people.

You really have to close you eyes to a lot of realities to convince yourself that people in a college administration are as business savvy as people who run actual businesses - but whatever floats your boat.

IF ... you see the EXECUTIVE role as the capacity to set a path for a large (or small) coherent goal-oriented organization and accomplish that with the resources and timeframe provided, then that is a business. It is not all about transactions. How to set a course; how to lead; how to team build; how to budget and prioritize. That - to me - is all about business. You can manage/lead a Not-for-profit in equally enormous accomplishment as you can run Pfizer.

 

[whaler11]

IF ... you see the EXECUTIVE role as the capacity to set a path for a large (or small) coherent goal-oriented organization and accomplish that with the resources and timeframe provided, then that is a business. It is not all about transactions. How to set a course; how to lead; how to team build; how to budget and prioritize. That - to me - is all about business. You can manage/lead a Not-for-profit in equally enormous accomplishment as you can run Pfizer.

It's similar in some ways and very different in others.

I'd wonder why executives who could run a Pfizer would choose to run a school... you don't usually see people willing to work for 1/10th or 1/20th of their market value. Maybe this collection of university presidents is more business savvy than actual business people... if so they have really sacraficed their personal gain. I've worked for complete clowns who make triple the university president median comp.

 

[31GuardTrap]

Show me a team not named Alabama, Ohio St. and Louisville that didn't finish their games with areas of concern to work on. UConnJim's accurate comments need to be mixed into the fruit salad of analysis. For sure there were lemons vs Maine but I also saw lots of lemonade. I'll predict right now we head to Houston at 4-0 and play to a much wider and more attentive audience. Beating them down there will make a more important statement than anything else. I've got my flight booked. Let's head down there and show lots of blue in their stadium.

I am giving you a stick with a picture of my face glued to it. I can be there that way.

 

[31GuardTrap]

You better take control of your thread.

Obvious first game analysis hiccup on your part.

By mid-season your analysis will have 5-6 pages of debatable analysis before it gets thread jacked.

Also, you were screwed by a benign game plan that really left all of us, yourself included, to say "Well, that sucked".

Take better notes for Navy and get to your 200 level posting.

Wait....i'm at 200 level.

 

[sdhusky]

Good lord you quoted it 15 posts above. THE THIRD TO LAST WORD IS AVERAGE.

It said AVERAGE then and it says AVERAGE now.

Maybe comprehend what you read before you become so outraged you have to stalk a poster.

i don't think you are very good at blocking another poster.

 

[huskypantz]

You really have to close you eyes to a lot of realities to convince yourself that people in a college administration are as business savvy as people who run actual businesses - but whatever floats your boat.

Hmmm - there are different kinds of business savvy. In the for-profit world, you shutter a business segment because it's revenue-neutral or provides modest returns. College presidents are a little more philanthropic. Otherwise, there would be no schools of social work. I've worked in health care all of my life, similar scenario. While my employer is now for-profit, there are general components that are known money losers. You don't have an emergency department because you're looking to generate a profit - you do it because it's a critical component of the health care continuum. Yet all of our hospitals have emergency departments, go figure. Our president's a damn brilliant and savvy dude who I'd put in a room against anyone you could offer up.

 

[whaler11]

Our president's a damn brilliant and savvy dude who I'd put in a room against anyone you could offer up.

Do you think you might just be a wee bit biased there?

No offense to you or her because I think she is doing a very good job - but this is crazy talk.

 

[BlueDogs]

I think Herbst is a lightweight when comes to the world of college sports. There is nothing in her resume to suggest she has the faintest clue. On the academic side, she certainly has the bonafides being a former dean of academics for Georgia. Her instinct to bring in an advisor was smart. She just picked the wrong guy, Traghese, a basketball guy with no chops in big time football. In fairness, the amount of money and deal complexity involved with big time college football has escalated in the last 15 years, and outpaced college administrators. That has given rise to a whole industry of sports management companies sucking off the proverbial teet. It is much more like a "for profit" enterprise than ever before. So, we'll have to see how this shakes out. As I've said in the past, if we get a Big12 invite she is a hero forever ensconced as one of the greats. If we lose out, she's on borrowed time, right or wrong. This is fairly existential for UConn sports as a whole. Given the alternatives, let's hope she is forever looked upon favorably for posterity.

 

[huskymedic]

She just picked the wrong guy, Traghese, a basketball guy with no chops in big time football.

Guessing you missed the part where Mike Tranghese was on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for two years?

 

[Pudge]

Guessing you missed the part where Mike Tranghese was on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for two years?

Or ... that Tranghese is universally acknowledged as very savvy in the business of college sports. (and Neal Pilson is also pitched in on UConn) Herbst, imo, is smart enought t0 build the right coalition to get us to where we need to go. Both Manuel and Benedict, imo, are excellent choices for leading us forward. Let's see ...

 

[Palatine]

Guessing you missed the part where Mike Tranghese was on the College Football Playoff Selection Committee for two years?

He has never run a big time football program.

Hathaway headed the NCAA basketball tourney selection committee. He is no genius.

 

[Excalibur]

He has never run a big time football program.

Hathaway headed the NCAA basketball tourney selection committee. He is no genius.

Trangese was the guy that pushed the Big East to expand to include football.

 

[huskymedic]

He has never run a big time football program.

You don't need to run a big time football program to have credibility/respect in the industry.

 

[Excalibur]

It's similar in some ways and very different in others.

I'd wonder why executives who could run a Pfizer would choose to run a school... you don't usually see people willing to work for 1/10th or 1/20th of their market value. Maybe this collection of university presidents is more business savvy than actual business people... if so they have really sacraficed their personal gain. I've worked for complete clowns who make triple the university president median comp.

That decision is made long before "executive" status is reached. Both the University President and CEO have reached the pinnacle of their respective professions. It's very difficult to choose a life in academia, get close to the pinnacle of that profession, and then convert that over to the business world. It is similarly difficult (though more common) to advance an entire career in business and then transition to run a university.

I guess my point is that the fact that the people who run big companies know more about business than University Presidents has more to do with their chosen profession than inherent ability or intelligence.

 

[Palatine]

Trangese was the guy that pushed the Big East to expand to include football.

His hand was forced. MT and the rest of the morons in Providence never got out of the basketball mindset, everything else was secondary. The football schools should have left the BE immediately after Miami's exit.

 

[Pudge]

Or ... you take the path less traveled. Put Whitey Bulger's brother in as Chancellor. And a decade later, another Politician in Marty Meehan. One of my biz school classmates WAS the CFO of Pfizer; and then they promoted him to run a large off-shoot important business. That guy is a wizard with numbers and structuring; always was. But, you would never want him to be on top of a State University of 25,000 with its mission. And, yes, he makes gobs of money.

I watch College Campuse for the business I am in. I think Herbst is great; and you can really really tell when a President isn't good. It's not a Private Equity shop and the renumeration incentives are far far different.