I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
I'm sure there's a lot of data out there (quick search) to support my notion, but I think you're both well underestimating what the going rate for a good mid-major basketball coach is. Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.
This link shows some salaries from the NCAA tournament that are public.
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basket...We'd likely be looking at a first time HC in this scenario or a bounce back candidate.
As much as we'd like say "Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.", there's still only so many D1 head coaching jobs that exist.
I think you'd really have to allocate the budget the way Bobcat Tattoo suggests. From my understanding, Chad Estis was the main cog in jumpstarting the 1804 Collective for Boals. I imagine he's a big donor because of his friendship with Boals. If we move on, we're at risk of losing Estis and anyone else close to Boals who had been donating.
We'd either have to structure a lower offer with an NIL budget or find a coach with financial connections at a higher rate.
Pretty fair assessment.
It's not as simple as saying I hate his offense. Time to fire him.
The stench of firing a former player, a guy who has routinely called this his dream job, a guy who has the only recent NCAA Tournament win in the conference, who has a 60% career win rate, will be hard to wipe off.
Simply paying a coach less and expecting more... ehhhhh... that paying a player or two $50K to come wear the jersey, but play for one of the lowest paid coaches in the country... is a stretch.
I'm not saying people are lining up down the street to play for JEFF BOALS, but that line is probably longer than recruits who simply just want to play for OHIO UNIVERSITY.
Nor do I think we want to get ourselves into a situation where we're renting guys for who dont want to be here as long as the $50K check clears. And they're off to the next team.
Jeff has always been a great ambassador of the university. He's got a lot of deep contacts in the basketball world. Naturally, you'll get the "well its one of 300 jobs", but if you're picking and choosing... one call from Thad, or Diebler, or another of the dozen respected coaches he's pals with in the midwest.... I don't see who we possibly replace with him.
Last Edited: 11/20/2025 5:14:21 PM by M.D.W.S.T