If you really studied the recruiting situation in the MAC, you would be damned impressed that we can attract ANY premier talent to our little school in the middle of nowhere. I encourage you to visit Oxford to tour some of the amenities they have developed for student athletes. I can't imagine any of their top recruiting targets would choose our school.

Let's also examine the two cities: I never willingly pay for parking, so I often walk a mile (or more) to games. I walked almost two miles through Oxford yesterday - it was Parents Day, so parking was tight. I was very surprised to not find student slums surrounding the campus. Their off-campus housing was mostly attractive and well cared for. And their fans were respectful and kind. I passed dozens of front-porch parties and never once did I hear "OU sucks!" How impressed Miami parents must be when they attend games in Athens and are greeted with "F*&K Miami!"

Meanwhile, we can brag that more of our fans attend games. But the truth is, our fan base does not adequately support our programs and student-athletes - not by a long shot. As I wrote in a separate thread, when Ohio alums are asked to join the Ohio Bobcat Club, they VERY often reply with something like: "Why should I do that? I only go down there for Homecoming," or "I don't like our schedule this year," or "I hate the coach," etc." A friend of mine refused to join at the $99 level because he is still angry at a journalism prof.

Bottom line, way too many of us come to Athens and Ohio University to EXTRACT everything we can from the experience. But when the university asks for something back, we come up with countless excuses. We all claim to love OU, but we don't really - we love the memories, the debauchery, the friendships. Very many of us dishonor the institution through our lack of financial support.

Miami alums talk about "love and honor." We brag about the fun we had on Court Street.

As for this, we're in the midst of the single largest shift in the college athletics landscape that's ever occurred. Only our weird, insular alumni base could possibly find a way to construe it as a bad thing that our AD is part of those conversations.

We're missing the Forrest for the trees. At the moment, I'm not even sure anybody can articulate what Ohio Athletics will be in 5 years, what level we're going to be competing at, or what we'll need to be funding. But we're still, for some reason, obsessed with "keeping up". We don't even know what we're building or the rules of the game, but just seem to be driven by a very vague idea of "keeping up".

For what reason?

Just because you think Cromer's focus is on her own career, doesn't mean it's accurate. What's your evidence that she's not focused on raising money?

SBH seems to put the blame on alums for not giving. Do you think Cromer has forgotten to ask? The University certainly seems to know how to track me down.

I don’t know how to judge our AD’s performance and whether the theory that’s she’s mostly interested in her next job. I’d love to see an objective look at how’s she done here, among other thing 1: how have her hires done, 2: how are the financials doing, 3:what specific programs, projects, initiatives , etc has she been responsible for and what are the results, 4:what has she done to get/keep the students involved , 5:how’s she done on scheduling, 6:how are we doing in our overall sports programs (even looking at all sports standings), 7:how are the grades of the athletes doing (APR), 7: specific fundraising results.

I’ve not seen enough or have not spent enough time looking at such things to be able to evaluate her job performance. Maybe that’s all been put out there somewhere, I’m not just aware of it and am certainly not in the loop anywhere.

Honestly, if she can prove success in most of these areas I’ve thought of ( nowhere close to exhaustive or meaningful list), I hope she’s able to get a better job someplace else, that’s most people’s professional wish I would think. If however, she gets a better job because of her connections (networking), no great loss.

Well, said, SBH. I was there for the Chaddock + Morrow celebration this past Friday night to help celebrate their 25 Million Dollar Endowment to Ohio Univerity to support the Fine Arts Department. The place was packed with enthusiastic and grateful students, faculty, administrators and even alumni. Chaddock, who was a communication major back in the 1980's and who made his fortune on Wall Street by doubling down on Apple talked about the feeling of support that he found while here at Ohio University to the point of feeling a debt of gratitude to the University itself, which he keeps giving back to.

By the way, the Fine Arts Profession is no less competitive than the Sports Business, and just as reliant on Team Work to develop success in life. It was an interesting contrast to the constant complaints on this Web site from most of us, though I do have to admit that if the Fine Arts Department had a Message Board like this, it too would have a lot of negativity thrown around as well.

Thanks for the reminder of the importance of being a good ambassador for the University and the community of Athens and how regardless of what plays out on the football field, there is far more to Ohio University than the success of their Sports Program. In fact, those complaining about such should probably look in the mirror and ask themselves why they have not been successful enough in life to flood the Athletic Department with program changing wealth.

I had no idea that they used endowments for buildings, I figured they sold bonds

The university is currently using 50 million from the Patton gift for an arts education center as discussed in Ohio Today. This was the big performing arts gift Glidden was trying to track down for the university 20 years ago but didn't think it would ever be realistic to find the money.

For another college university years ago made a decision to tear down the old CSC building and it still waiting for the business college to find a gift to build something on that spot.

Dorms and dorm renovations the university has gone the bond route for those.

The endowment totals included those very generous Russ, HCOM and Patton gifts. The university is also is spending 25 million a year from the endowment to support scholarships. I do believe the Hertiage gift was counted in the endowment numbers at one point but now no longer. The endowment totals are gifts in money spent out and so for the last couple of years the reported number has trended lower because of spending. General giving in recent years has hovered in the 35-45 million range per year when I last viewed the numbers so there isn't a drop off. Its the cycle of spending out the larger gifts which is causing a relative dip.

I had a whole thing ready to be typed and you said it all perfectly well. I can be two things at once: A Bobcat fan to my dying breath and someone who appreciates other colleges. Miami is a beautiful campus with a fantastic resume of former coaches and athletes. It is a top-notch educational setting. But I agree that their fans suck as fans unless it is convenient. Take a ride down there for a MACtion game. I went 2 years ago when we beat them on a Tuesday night. There were 10 fans on the home side and 50 or more OU fans. Don't be fooled by Parent's Weekend crowds or crowds there to see Sean McVay accept a meaningless statue. I went to OU-Miami basketball last year and I swear their fans were asleep. I personally sat near a whole section looking at the jerseys (It was Charlie Coles jersey night) they had and they literally left them at their seats. They were saying, "I don't know who this Coles guy is but I don't need this." I took their jerseys because I respect the heck out of Charlie Coles more than seeing his name become beer-soaked. I have since shared those jerseys with my MAC buddies (one from Kent, two from BG, who respect traditions as well).That is the difference between the two fanbases. We are passionate, loving through thick and thin and respectful of traditions. Miami sports fans care about hockey and their other teams when it is convenient. You are entitled to your opinion but don't base it on platitudes you discover after one weekend in Oxford.

The Osteopathic Heritage Foundations have not made just one big gift to OU-HCOM, but many over an extended period of time. I'm not sure how many of these have been funneled through the OU Foundation and how many have just gone directly to the med school.

I'd rather have had a couple of league titles, thank you very much.

If you want to discount the value of modern facilities, that's your right. But I urge you to ask our coaches if they consistently lose recruits to Miami because of our perceived lack of investment.

Tell you what, pick up the phone and make a donation to Ohio Athletics for the planned/much needed facelift of our football locker room. Miami's got amenities that are light years beyond ours. Our locker room by comparison is dark, dank and worn out. Right or not, players (and their parents) care about this.

If you're not willing to give back - and only care about what the department and university give to you - then STFU.

As for the comparison of cities, my criticism stands: Athens has done a pathetic job of policing the slumlords who own property surrounding our campus. Students and their parents care about this as well.

This topic hits on alumni support/giving. Nationwide, only 8% of alumni donate to their alma mater. Of that 8%, approximately 14% contribute to athletics. That figure can be skewed though because of required giving for seats. Giving to a college or university is generally correlated with the level of involvement alumni had while students. In areas where Greek life is on the decline, that doesn't bode well for giving in 20 to 40 years.

If a dollar equals a dollar, then it comes to opportunities and amminities. The program that offers the same dollar but less frills, has a disadvantage. We have that disadvantage, and not sure how well we are going to do on the NIL front.