I would like to give Buckeye to Bobcat his due. Great suggestions, my Bobcat brother from another mother. While I am not sure how you pay for the likes of Schiano and Butch Jones, I do like those ideas and some of your other suggestions, and it is nice to observe a well thought out plan of action, even if some of it sounds like a stretch. You are definitely my choice for the next Athletic Director, because someone needs to have some sort of specific vision going forward from Solich other than continuing to support our party school reputation by arguing which craft beer is the best. Being the one to pull the proverbial trigger on a legend though would take some giant balls to say the least (and we are not talking about basketballs). How much time do you think it will take the next coach to improve on what is already there, or, more correctly, how much time will the fan base give such an individual? The fear that I detect that most people have is what happens if the whole thing begins to go South in a hurry? I think some Bobcat fans are worried that lightening won't strike twice, so to speak, even though Jim Grobe did a solid job before moving onto Wake Forrest.
In regards to what Solich has done is nothing short of spectacular. Everyone is right in that the history of this program should simply state that 3 wins is the maximum, anything beyond is champagne and caviar. With what has been done in the last 13 years, is great. What I wish though is that it would have gone from 8-4 to 10-2 with a push for 11-1 every couple of year. The only comparison I can think for him is Doug Collins. A guy who get a team to a certain point, but no further. Otherwise, for what he has done to get it here, crazy. The foundation talent wise is enough to give the next coach his cushion for at least two years to be a 6-6 outfit at worst if they can't coach worth a crap. I give respect to him in terms of that. Where we will need to capitalize is like I have stated is a coach who can come in and recruit his honeywells effectively, especially the I-71 corridor and Western PA, hence why the Tom Arth recommendation if we go beyond Solich's assistants.
In terms of facilities and structures, with the indoor facility, academic center, and weight room work, we'd be okay for at least 4 years. The problem you're going to see is we're due for some big work in regards to Peden and I hate to say this about a former employer, but we have nickel'ed and dime'd our fanbase on these projects we undertook. Whether it was the academic center, the weight room, or practice facility projects, it felt like each year there was a new 3 million dollar fundraiser that was needed. I wish that the athletic department would have laid out a 5 year project goal and done it all at once or at least some form of master plan for the athletic department. Because I was going through the archives of the athletic reports and did not find anything saying what next projects were coming down the tracks, I have always thought we were a reactionary department, not a trendsetting department. With what Eastern Michigan is doing as a whole is they are going to renovate their facilities all at once. To me, this would seem to be the kind of project that Ohio could do. But......
The biggest problem long term though is what is our giving capability as a school? This is no offense to the giving that has been done, but when hit for these projects on a year to year basis, it dries up what could be done for one big charge. Another problem stemming from this is that we do not have a lot of big hitters that can give north of $100,000 each year. I have always said that if a school is going to be viable athletically, it needs three things:
1. A respected and well-funded business school
2. A medical school (with doctors who perform surgeries, not just osteopathic medicine)
3. A law school
Since we do not have #2 and #3, this takes away the capabilities of having those donors who can write $10,000 checks on an annual basis for the sake of a tax write off. This is significant because if a school has enough of these, that number can add up in a hurry. With our business school, it is decent. But as shown here, the odds of producing an alum out of our business school that can print money is pretty limited due to being the only cog that can stand on its own hind leg.
That said, because this school has historically supported the liberal arts and damned capitalism, it makes having a donor with a focus on athletics odds go down significantly. Not knocking the education department or the liberal arts, but how often do you hear of big hitters from there writing the $5,000,000 checks to athletic departments? Not often.
Unfortunately it's what I get from working in Athletics and looking at schools this way. It is why I am intrigued by what Northern Kentucky can become and what Toledo can become with its acquisition in the last 10 years of MCO. Now I am not advocating for us to develop these medical and law programs, but it is why O$U and Cincinnati have better odds of being successful long-term in athletics than we do. It's simply a number's game as to how many donors can elevate themselves into that $10,000,000 gift area with $100,000 per year donations.
Now that can all change with just one donation, but the odds right now as they stand do not bode well for the immediate future unless someone develops the widget that everyone needs and loved athletics from their time at OU. That, and don't feel inclined to write checks to Columbus before they write one to Athens. Fortunately, I am the opposite in these regards, as my dollars are coming to Athens due to what I got out of here. I just hope that the spirit of giving to Athens continues from alums and hopefully there is a shot for someone to come along and hit big.