Okay, let's start there. How do you link that back to Jeff Boals? I'm not seeing the connection.

I'm not an expert on our admissions (and it seems like there are some folks here who genuinely are and could comment), but this thread makes it seem like the class is bigger because we accepted more people, but that applications are basically static: https://bobcatattack.com/messageboard/topic.asp?FromPage=...

Also, pretty sure overall enrollment is down -- which is why we accepted a higher percentage of students this year.

Feels like a stretch to count that as a byproduct of paying Jeff Boals a lot more.


Our attendance is definitely differentiated relative to the MAC. But haven't we basically always outdrawn the league? That's not new to Boals, is it?

In fact, attendance is down under Boals, right? Under Saul, here's what the numbers looked like:

(Note, I'm using ohiobobcats.com -- some numbers differ from yours. Not sure why.

2014–15 -- 7395
2015–16 -- 6186
2016–17 -- 6704
2017–18 -- 4640
2018–19 -- 5490

Boals thus far:

2019–20 Ohio -- 3989
2020–21 Ohio -- 0 (throwing it out)
2021–22 Ohio -- 5732
2022–23 Ohio -- 4755

So even using your data, Boals' best two attendance seasons (throwing out covid numbers) average ~5700 and fall short of Saul's year average of 6083.

To be clear, I like Boals a lot. I'm glad he's our coach. But I do think it's hard to understand why we pay him so much more than so many other schools pay their coaches. And if our best arguments are attendance and enrollment, we don't have good arguments.

I dont have time to teach class tonight, and you wouldn't understand anyway... some other goober suggested we investigate how Boals is worth his contract so I pointed to two easy pieces of data. Is there a direct correlation? Nah. Would you cry regardless? Definitely. Can we use that same data to look at other MAC schools? Yes.


I'd be embarrassed too.

Agree G and Bobcat L- Boals is paid more than any MAC coach and if you look at his track record it is ok, but not worthy of the highest paid salary in the conference. Boals makes more than Groce at Akron, more than Kowalczyk at Toledo, and more than Senderoff at Kent to name a few. All those schools have outperformed the Bobcats the last four seasons. When was the last time the Bobcats won a regular season MAC championship outright?

I agree. He's worth every penny.

I'm just curious....between Groce, Todd K, Sendy and Boals....which Coach in this group has won an NCAA Tournament game in the last four years?

I'll hang up and listen.

I'll also add this...Ohio was the best team going into the 2020 MAC tournament before it got canceled. I'm convinced Boals would have made a run that year too.

I would rather have the tournament appearances because it is what casual fans pay attention to and it is more marketing opportunities for Ohio and both its academic and athletic programs. I might argue though that winning regular season titles might be a better indicator of a coach that is more likely to win both regular season titles and and tournament titles in the future because he is probably fielding better teams more consistently. So even if what you really crave as an AD is the tournament result over the conference championship you might be inclined to play the guy with the conference championships more. Fans don't like to talk about it because it goes against the way that we want to think about sports because we desire the narratives to have meaning and it certainly goes against the way those who market sports sell it to us. I'm sure that there is A LOT of luck involved in winning a regular season title and probably even more in a single elimination tournament title.

I honestly don't know what the math on my statement above is but I know how the math on stuff like that usually comes out. I mean, you hear people talk about a team that has won a lot of close games against good teams as "Battle Tested" and "knows how to win" and gets results "when it matters". But the statistics are very, very, very clear on this. If you have that team play a team that has beat the living crap out of a bunch of good teams bet on the team that has won in blowouts because it had taken getting the breaks out of the equation. Vegas knows that and billions of dollars are dependent on them knowing that. I expect nearly all GM's and AD's are aware of this too. Similarly, I expect that a team that has proven it can win over 18 games is more likely to win over 3 games in the future than a team that has proven it can win over 3 games because it is less likely to have won by getting the right breaks at the right time.

That's obtuse. Go watch all the games and support the coach, players and university. Watch them grow. Watch them mesh. Have fun. Root for them and hope they win every game, but don't get hung up on wins and losses because in the grand scheme it means little. Always have an eye on Cleveland. That's where seasons, exposure and money are made. This isn't rocket science.

That is your opinion. Boals is paid more than any professor or employee at Ohio University. I expect more for a coach who is by far the highest paid in the conference. I guess you only care about what happens in Cleveland in March. If that is the case, then why not schedule more power five teams and bring in some cash for the athletics program? I guess season ticket holders need not purchase tickets, because regular season games don't "count". Nobody cares what happens in the months of November, December, January and February.

Not taking a side in this debate, but reading this back-and-forth brings to mind something Columbus Crew coach Wilfried Nancy recently shared.

Perhaps not a perfect correlation with MAC basketball, but Nancy says he would prefer his Crew win the MLS Supporters' Shield (equivalent to the MAC regular season championship) than the MLS Cup (equivalent to the MAC tourney championship). I'm guessing his opinion is rooted in his European upbringing.

Boals may not actually be the highest paid OHIO employee. For the medical school faculty, you don't actually know all their compensation, because in addition to their state salary many of them get a lot of additional income from working in the clinic and/or hospital. All of these funds are handled by the practice plan. They are not part of the base salary. I believe that this information could be acquired through a FOIA request, but it's not routinely reported in these salary lists. And, if you put in a FOIA request for this information, the university might fight it, in which case you would have to go to court to get it, but I suspect you'd win that case. This hypothetical strikes me as similar to the case that the Toledo Blade won against the UT Foundation when they claimed that they were a private organization and not subject to FOIA requests. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that since the UT Foundation's sole reason for being was to support UT that it was in essence a public corporation in terms of the privacy of its records and, therefore, subject to the Blade's FOIA request.

This is the thread where someone wins Powerball and will bitch because they had to split it with another person, or that it wasn’t a full $2Billion. Why not enjoy some winning seasons and success?

And the next highest is Albin, is he overpaid too?

Many of you are seeing things that aren't there. If you owned a business and you had a department that either lost money or broke even, would that department head/manager be the highest paid in your company? We are a university and athletics are not our mission. They are an extra-curricular activity. Our president should be the highest paid person. I think many of you have dreams that if we just get the right coach and pay big money, that one day we will be the next Gonzaga. Then you can wear your Ohio gear to Hooters and strut your stuff.