anorris, great points! Regarding Geno: he's worth it because they are willing to pay him.

Flomo, you just don't get it.  We have been winning lately in football and it doesn't mean anything to you-great!  I'd rather us be winning with what we have than drop back any by cutting the budget.  I'm not so sure that the MAC is a laughingstock to 95% of the country.  Most intelligent fans understand where we are money wise, but that doesn't make the MAC a laughingstock.   Every time a MAC product suceeds in the NFL, it proves the legitimacy of the MAC.  Nobody is saying this is the SEC for God's sake.  Did you notice all the ex-MAC players in the Super Bowl?  And $1 million or more of the IPF money will go to upgrade the Convo-that's putting money into BB-right?

I don't believe that the President of KSU would even be able to consider paying a coach that much money.  This is the very point that will prevent the non-Ohio State state schools (read every other state college who's sports don't cash flow off gate and other royalties) from paying $700k for a head coaches position.

Unless any significant increase in athletics budgets are 100% privately funded (not from students or the state), those kinds of salaries aren't going to happen in the Ohio based-MAC schools because the State of Ohio would not allow a state empolyee to make that kind of money to coach hoops.

Here's how that conversation would go: "Hey Governor Kasich, we wanna' pay Geno Ford $750,000 because he won two consecutive MAC Regular Season Championships.  Now I know our gym only seats 2,5k, but he's really gonna take us to the next level."  Then sit back in your chair for about five minutes while the guy laughs his head off.

For goodness sake, some people on this board were up in arms when Groce was given a $50k raise and an extension last year, and 100% of that money came from private donations, not student fees.  Not trying to be a Debbie downer, but if someone can sell me on that happening, feel free, because I would like to be smoking that Meigs Gold and actually believing it.

I'm all for Ohio investing more in men's hoops AND FB, AND WVB, AND EVERY OTHER ICA PROGRAM.  As borna put it, "swing for the fences."  I just don't see the point of FB's existence always being the reason why hoops struggles to be a periennial mid major power.  It reminds me of the Lewis Black routine about the girl who insisted she would have been able to graduate from college if it wasn't for having to care for her horse.

  Thanks JSF, I knew I was close but too many years have passed since I heard it.

No one is talking about dropping football.  Again, we're just talking about diverting a small fraction of the $5.6 million that the average MAC football team spends to basketball.  Until someone can prove that ESPN will stop providing the MAC its mid-week showcase if we collectively divert $500K each from our football to basketball budgets, then we would still get all of the same marketing exposure from football, without doing it at the expense of basketball.

Perhaps you should be spending more time touting your thoughts on other MAC teams boards since we apparently are not the problem.

I can think of 110 reasons why Ohio will never get rid of football.

JSF wrote:expand_more

The line is actually, "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college."

Boy, this quote is even older than I thought.  Thanks for clarifying, Dragon.  Even way back when Doc, oldkatz and I went to college they had invented the automobile!   A little birdie told me that this quote is from Ephraim Cutler, who had to ride from his farm to Athens every day for his college classes.    This leaves us with the Socratic question: What affect do birds have on college matriculation and MAC basketball?

I believe Socrates would have been looking for effect from birds rather than affect

DAMNNNN!!!!  he said what I have been saying.....only 2k short on the CONVO.    I like his way of saying it better than my Steve Fisher analogy.......Swing for the fences and Fill it up.

That doesn't stop us from increasing spending on football...

If anyone has access to the clip of Steve Fisher when he went to SDSU and what he did to build up that fanbase (sell tickets, speak, etc) that would be something pretty neat for the group to see. I'm not sure if it was something CBS had, or where it was. Very impressive to me. I think that is what Ohio needs to do. It's the attitude all Ohio fans (& Ath dept employees) need to embrace.

Not saying parts and pieces haven't been done already - but to get the funds, and the full houses, it's going to take a big effort. By the team, the coach, the AD & staff, us fans, our checkbooks, the Athens community, Central Ohio folk, and more. The gist of it was that Fisher devoted his whole being, getting in front and speaking to any group who would listen, about his dreams to build a winner (and fan support). He even said he had pockets full of tickets and for a while was a one man ticket retailer, to anyone that was interested.

I say this because folks can bicker over what sport should get more/less funds, but in all cases, a GOOD argument can be made that each and every Ohio sport is underfunded and could use a healthy infusion of $$$ to become/remain more competitive. I would be more in favor of growing the base, instead of cutting off the nose to spite the face. I doubt any sport is going to get a infusion from another sport, especially since each is arguably underfunded in the scheme of things also.

It's not like Ohio is a Big Ten school, where small amounts really amount to a drop in the bucket. At Ohio it matters. In the case of hoops, Ohio's budget is about 50K away from a MVC budget, and about 350K from being an A10 budget. That's do-able. That can be done with season tickets. That can be done with the OBC. That can be Ohio fans snapping up 30 or so courtside seats next year at $1000 apiece instead of us saying it's a bad idea. Gotta write that check. Gotta buy those tickets, even if you're going to mail them to the BBBS because you live far away. Gotta drag your friends down to Athens and get them (or RE-get) them involved in backing the Cats. Every little bit helps, and when you know the school isn't in a position to help funding at the moment, us fans have to do whatever we're able to further the progress. We're a good fan base, no reason why we can't be a great one.

ben

I didn't realize that Socrates was an expert on English grammar.    <== That's me with a chagrined look on my face.