We can't and we shouldn't. We don't have the money, nor is the potential there in the future. That's the dangerous thinking that gets a lot of schools in trouble financially. "If we only just pay the head coach more money, the wins come in and we jump to the next level and the money will follow." If you want it, get out your checkbook.

I understand on the money if it's huge, giacomo. But there could be a middle ground the first time around, like there was with Larry Hunter. Maybe coach Boals would take less to stay and see how far he can take us--he has an on-paper outstanding recruiting class coming in with the ability to add to it--than go and try to revive a floundering Power 5 school.

What I disagree with is that we can't go to the next level. There have been several MAC teams that could have gone to the next level if the coach had stayed. Hey, what about us after we went to the Sweet 16 with the entire D.J. Cooper team staying intact for one more year AND Caris LeVert, the MVP of the Ohio State high school hoops tournament, joining that group--until John Groce left. We'll never know what that team could have done and how coach Groce could have built upon it. I realize it's looking back in retrospect, but how did the move to Illinois work out?

The premise is deeply flawed. Just ask Buffalo. They did everything possible to keep Nate Oates, paying him an astounding (for the MAC) base of $837,000. Oates and his wife loved Buffalo. When Alabama came calling with $2.46 million a year, guess what happened! Ditto for PJ Fleck and Western, who was the highest paid MAC football coach at $800,000 when Minnesota came and got him. He’s currently at the midpoint of B1G coaches at over $4.4 million.

If Boals makes another run or has a couple more 20+ win seasons with huge recruiting classes, a suitor will come calling and doubling or tripling his salary with money we don’t have won’t stop him from leaving. The crappiest P5 program in the country can still double anything Ohio can give Boals — and do it without going deeper in the red as an athletic department, which is what any MAC school has to do for any coaching salary..

One thing I will add is the larger the salary, the larger the buyout. Due to this I could see Boals making Oates money in an extension. Will it work long term if Boals continues to win in the NCAAs?

In my estimation if you can get a coach to hang around 8 years for an extension and raise you had yourself a long term coach.

Yet you want players to be paid. They ain’t getting paid if the program doesn’t rise.

Removed. Changed my mind,