December 11th, 2015 at 6:24 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 6:30 PM ^
They may have gone through with it anyway, but Jimbo Fisher reportedly turned them down.
The money quote (no pun intended) from the article:
There are, of course, examples of coaching changes that turn around football programs, Adler acknowledged, such as Nick Saban’s hire at Alabama in 2007, and Jim Harbaugh’s this season for Michigan.
December 11th, 2015 at 6:52 PM ^
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December 12th, 2015 at 5:34 PM ^
Without getting political, here is why firing Miles would have been "bad politics" at LSU. Outgoing governor Bobby Jindal has basically gutted the education budget during his terms in office. Even if every penny came from boosters, LSU would have been bombarded with negative publicity throughout the state.
No matter what Miles does on the field the next few years, it was a good move to keep him.
December 11th, 2015 at 6:30 PM ^
The University of Maryland paid Ralph Friedgen $2 million while he tried out retirement, played a lot of golf and cruised the South Carolina coastline in his 24-foot whaler, “Fishing with the Fridge.”
December 11th, 2015 at 6:32 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 6:34 PM ^
Not every school has the money that UM or OSU has.
December 11th, 2015 at 6:53 PM ^
They always brag about having Under Armour money.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:06 PM ^
The athletic department at the University of Maryland at College Park had a $3.5 million operating loss in the 2014 fiscal year, up from $1.2 million in 2013, according to information presented to the Board of Regents' Finance Committee on Thursday.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:39 PM ^
Some of that could come down to accounting though. I don't think Stephen Ross's $100 million donation to the athletic department is included in our annual budget, for instance. Kevin Plank's donations might be excluded from Maryland's budget as well.
December 11th, 2015 at 8:32 PM ^
There are about two dozen athletic departments that run in the black. The rest, meaning most universities, make up the difference by charging student activity fees, When an awful lot of students are amassing large amounts of educational debt, coaching salaries, including monies contractually owed to fired coaches, are a very big deal.
Michigan is very fortunate that it normally shows a substantial profit from its athletic department.
December 12th, 2015 at 12:27 PM ^
I agree- student athletics should be forced to run at least a balanced budget at all universities
December 12th, 2015 at 12:54 PM ^
I agree with the gist of your post, but the student activity fees at most schools account for the tiniest of percentages of a student's costs. So, bringing up student debt in this context is not extremely fair.
December 12th, 2015 at 9:15 AM ^
Not usually
December 11th, 2015 at 6:33 PM ^
December 12th, 2015 at 11:02 AM ^
it often is a net present value positive move to cut your losses and move on.
For example, when I last checked (pre-Harbaugh) the Michigan Football program was bringing in $85 million in annual revenues on ~$25 million in expenses. Would it have been prudent for the athletic/university administration to sit idly by while that revenue stream declined by tens of millions per year under a continued mediocre Hoke program? Or was it wise to spend a few million extra on Harbaugh to shore up that revenue stream and even grow it?
It's a competitive business with inherent uncertainty. The most profitable move is not always to be a miser.
Now there are other consequences to becoming a big money program (i.e. that the program will always follow the money in some way), but at least those who acknowledge it are describing reality and mad props to any university that forgoes the big money to maintain the academic mission character of the University at a considerable economic opportunity cost.
December 11th, 2015 at 6:51 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 7:11 PM ^
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December 11th, 2015 at 7:26 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 8:14 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 10:33 PM ^
Not going to argue with that.
December 11th, 2015 at 11:00 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 11:14 PM ^
Corporate officer at a Federal contractor, policy analysis, didn't like the regime after the third merger, got paid to go away for a year.
December 11th, 2015 at 11:56 PM ^
December 12th, 2015 at 12:37 AM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 7:10 PM ^
when hiring a coach. You also could do what EMU does and "fire" a coach after his contract runs out because you are too poor to fire him during the life of the deal.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:12 PM ^
In 2014, Kansas fired Charlie Weis, whom the school owed $5.6 million, which is part of more than $24 million Weis will reportedly collect in severance combined between Kansas and Notre Dame, which fired him in 2009.
In the case of Weis, it's almost worth it to be an astounding failure wherever you decide to take "decided schematic advantage" in college football. I wish someone would pay me that much to not implement my scheme any longer at two schools.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:26 PM ^
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December 11th, 2015 at 7:30 PM ^
I'll bet it puts it towards food
December 12th, 2015 at 12:00 AM ^
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December 12th, 2015 at 12:13 AM ^
a wafer thin mint
December 12th, 2015 at 6:19 AM ^
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December 11th, 2015 at 8:16 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 11:55 PM ^
December 12th, 2015 at 10:52 AM ^
is still in place.
What he kept to himself was the the "decided schematic advantage" was in contract negotiation.
"Let them try to stop a pro-style, which has multiple personnel groups (lawyers) and multiple formations (contingencies). Let’s see how they are going to do."
Notre Dame and Kansas weren't able to stop him.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:16 PM ^
I am still scratching my head trying to figure out how the LSU boosters think that Jimbo Fisher is any better than Les Miles. Younger maybe, but pretty equal other than that abd factoring in the risk of turning a program over, its not worth it to make a change.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
Fisher is 49-5 over the past four seasons, with a national title and a playoff appearance. Over the same timeframe, Miles is 36-14. Given that Fisher is also 12 years younger than Miles, I can see why they'd want him. I don't know why they thought they could get him, though.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:38 PM ^
I don't see any risk of transition. LSU's roster is loaded, they wouldn't be drastically changing systems, and the culture is probably pretty similar at both schools.
MIchigan fans might be conditioned to think there should be significant transition costs between coaches after 07-08, but that was a massive fuckup by the AD to let that happen.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:24 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 10:42 PM ^
Woah did you come up with "Brady Joke" on your own? that's fucking creative and cool.
December 12th, 2015 at 1:13 AM ^
A-Train. His tenure can be characterized by one big bad joke.Thus Brady Joke. I never thaught I would see a mumbling, bumbling idiot as a Michigan head coach. With exception of the first season it was a downward spiral. Michigan continues to pay him and I am the one getting the neg bangs...lol I am so thankful for Harbaugh. I just know he will improve this team with his recruits and these great coaches. I will never forget the recent past. I look forweard to a bright future and hope we win against Florida and carry momentum with recruiting into next year.
December 11th, 2015 at 7:37 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 7:49 PM ^
December 11th, 2015 at 8:08 PM ^
Each Maryland undergrad is paying $62 per year to Randy Edsall to not coach a football team they may or may not know exists.
That is fucking disgusting.
December 12th, 2015 at 11:05 AM ^
at all is fucking disgusting.
December 11th, 2015 at 8:41 PM ^
pay for Durkin and Edsell