College Football Claiming Poverty

[Gunnerclone]

I disagree with the notion that college athletic departments could have had a plan in place for what we've seen this year. But, it's completely valid to examine and question athletic budgets and spending in the situation we find ourselves in. Athletic budgets are incredibly bloated. The arms race is the reason. These programs spend huge amounts of money keeping up with the Joneses. Massive coaching salaries, endless facility updates, huge recruiting budgets, etc. It all gets inflated because people are afraid that if their program didn't spend the cash, then the ones that do will get an advantage.

And that's not necessarily wrong. But it's worth acknowledging, and examining Inna time like this.

You get it. The point of planning is to have a guide for something that hasn’t happened yet.

 

[Clonehomer]

Mistakes were made. That would be the more honest answer instead of claiming poverty.

Can you describe the mistakes made? What should have been done differently? Should the AD create an escrow account to fund the department a year in advance? Should we stop paying general contractors for work they've done on our facilities?

 

[Rural]

There's going to be a reboot to end all reboots of this system courtesy of a virus.

 

[Clonehomer]

You get it. The point of planning is to have a guide for something that hasn’t happened yet.

So what's your plan to keep ISU football going when Yellowstone erupts? Should JP build an indoor stadium to avoid the ash buildup?

 

[BryceC]

Sorry you are correct, but these were pandemics correct? My company had plans in place for pandemic response. Was it just the attitude of “it won’t happen here” that has caused the lack of a coherent plan?

There is no plan for a 32% reduction in GDP in a quarter.

 

[cycloneman003]

You get it. The point of planning is to have a guide for something that hasn’t happened yet.

You can plan all you want, but you'll never have plan that compensates for losing virtually all of your revenue overnight. If there's no football, there's not a "plan" that any AD could have that would solve the problem.

 

[JM4CY]

You can plan all you want, but you'll never have plan that compensates for losing virtually all of your revenue overnight. If there's no football, there's not a "plan" that any AD could have that would solve the problem.

This. To examine how things work is one thing, to place blame on JP for not having sound plan well in advance is just beyond dumb.

 

[Gunnerclone]

This. To examine how things work is one thing, to place blame on JP for not having sound plan well in advance is just beyond dumb.

Im not blaming JP. This isn’t unique to ISU, hence the thread title.

 

[CapnCy]

I disagree with the notion that college athletic departments could have had a plan in place for what we've seen this year. But, it's completely valid to examine and question athletic budgets and spending in the situation we find ourselves in. Athletic budgets are incredibly bloated. The arms race is the reason. These programs spend huge amounts of money keeping up with the Joneses. Massive coaching salaries, endless facility updates, huge recruiting budgets, etc. It all gets inflated because people are afraid that if their program didn't spend the cash, then the ones that do will get an advantage.

And that's not necessarily wrong. But it's worth acknowledging, and examining in a time like this, and consider making changes in priority. Significant change isn't likely to happen, but it's not wrong to consider it at a time like this.

Agree.

Certainly, this is probably going to adjust how ADs look at budgets moving forward. There always is a bit of give/take with budgets (like when an AD pays a buyout, that is usually rooted in a short hit for a long term budget increase, etc).

I have said this to some friends, but think of the coaches that may be lucky (meaning, could have been fired but now ADs hesitant about a buyout AND hiring a new coach competitively) and also how fortunate the coaches that signed big contracts 6 months ago.

The money received from Big 12 contracts (espn, etc) is a life saver and has probably helped ADs at least have a stable base, but also has likely inflated things as you shared.

 

[20eyes]

This isn't the cave.

You should remember what Yoda said.

"It will be, ...it will be..."

paraphrased

 

[Clonefan32]

I disagree with the notion that college athletic departments could have had a plan in place for what we've seen this year. But, it's completely valid to examine and question athletic budgets and spending in the situation we find ourselves in. Athletic budgets are incredibly bloated. The arms race is the reason. These programs spend huge amounts of money keeping up with the Joneses. Massive coaching salaries, endless facility updates, huge recruiting budgets, etc. It all gets inflated because people are afraid that if their program didn't spend the cash, then the ones that do will get an advantage.

And that's not necessarily wrong. But it's worth acknowledging, and examining in a time like this, and consider making changes in priority. Significant change isn't likely to happen, but it's not wrong to consider it at a time like this.

I agree with this. I don't think you can fault someone for not anticipating a pandemic when building new facilities well before there was any indication of COVID. I mean, the financial loss of not playing is such that there's no chance you could hold back enough "rainy day money" to offset the losses.

I do think the "arms race" is ridiculous though. I don't blame JP at all-- his job is to create a competitive product and a large part of that is having facilities on par with the schools you're competing against and paying coaches a competitive salary. But you look at the absurdity of the facilities at Clemson, LSU, Bama, etc., especially in some of the poorest states in the country, and it's just absurd.

 

[Cyched]

In regards to the pandemic, it’s true that pandemics happen and will continue to happen, but we haven’t had a pandemic that disrupted our economy and society like this in a long time. Past pandemics like the avian flu and swine flu in the 2000s were effectively suppressed. I guess I always assumed we had mechanisms in place to deal with it; I can’t fault JP or anyone for not expecting it to reach the levels it did.

 

[20eyes]

I disagree with the notion that college athletic departments could have had a plan in place for what we've seen this year. But, it's completely valid to examine and question athletic budgets and spending in the situation we find ourselves in. Athletic budgets are incredibly bloated. The arms race is the reason. These programs spend huge amounts of money keeping up with the Joneses. Massive coaching salaries, endless facility updates, huge recruiting budgets, etc. It all gets inflated because people are afraid that if their program didn't spend the cash, then the ones that do will get an advantage.

And that's not necessarily wrong. But it's worth acknowledging, and examining in a time like this, and consider making changes in priority. Significant change isn't likely to happen, but it's not wrong to consider it at a time like this.

Except at ISU it's not about an advantage, it's about survival.

JP isn't trying to dazzle us (ISU fans) with his fancy facility renderings or big (for us) contract for Campbell. He's trying to dazzle UT, OU, and media partners. JP's been gambling... hoping he can let it ride until the end of the GOR or new media deal at which point ISU can get some real P5 security. And I support him 100%.

 

[Shawker]

Can you describe the mistakes made? What should have been done differently? Should the AD create an escrow account to fund the department a year in advance? Should we stop paying general contractors for work they've done on our facilities?

As an Iowa fan the answer to the bolded part is obviously yes.

 

[VeloClone]

Anyone else sick of this? 8 months ago Pollard is up there touting the new mega-mall of ISU Football fandom to be built in the Hilton/JTS parking lots. Now he’s claiming poverty. I don’t care about endowments, revenue, or anything else. Was this not in the contingencies? Pandemics happen, they actually happen all of the time. I hope we have a season and we can make some money but CFB and ADs better take a good ******* look when we’re past this because it’s a horrible look.

What is your plan for losing your job(s) and your entire family income for 8 months to a year? Do you have a year's wages squirreled away?

 

[Clonefan32]

As an Iowa fan the answer to the bolded part is obviously yes.

"Wait, you have to pay those people...?"

 

[Clonefan32]

What is your plan for losing your job(s) and your entire family income for 8 months to a year? Do you have a year's wages squirreled away?

I find the thought that they could have saved enough money to deal with this comical anyway.

This article estimates the average loss for a P5 school at 62 million dollars. I can't imagine we have 62 million dollars we could have just held back for contingency planning.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports...l-financial-wreckage-due-coronavirus-pandemic

 

[JDDDCy]

I have always thought JP has done a great job with limited resources when you compare ISU to the blue bloods. For example he built our practice facility for about 1/4 of what Iowa spent on their basketball practice facility.(Someone correct me if I am off on those figures) I have never heard a player, coach or recruit say our basketball practice facility doesn't measure up.
I am a small business owner so I can only compare to other small business owners. I have seen a lot of businesses fail. Normally they are either way to aggressive or way to conservative in their spending habits. The folks that can't take on any risk and spend all of their time worrying about some impending disaster never succeed. Spending in college athletic has always been crazy but it is the price of competing. In the end well managed Athletic Departments will survive. I think we are in a pretty good position with the guy we have running ours.

 

[JCloned]

Gunner, I have seen some dumb posts on CF before, but wow you just set a new standard. This will go in the hall of fame for records that will never be broken dumb. The complete lack of understanding of anything is well just record breaking.

 

[ISUTex]

Anyone else sick of this? 8 months ago Pollard is up there touting the new mega-mall of ISU Football fandom to be built in the Hilton/JTS parking lots. Now he’s claiming poverty. I don’t care about endowments, revenue, or anything else. Was this not in the contingencies? Pandemics happen, they actually happen all of the time. I hope we have a season and we can make some money but CFB and ADs better take a good ******* look when we’re past this because it’s a horrible look.

I agree P5 athletic departments should have more of a rainy day fund, but the Spanish Flu was the last time anything like this happened. We didn't even shut down like this during the Hong Kong Flu ,even though it killed more people worldwide. What kind of rainy day fund would cover the losses they are seeing this year?