I get the idea that under JP's leadership a decision has been made to place greater emphasis on the football program and lesser emphasis on the men's basketball program. This appears to be a reversal of course from almost all of his immediate predecessors. As evidence of this, I submit the new double deck south end zone plan vs. the long-awaited and still waiting BB practice facility. If this is all true, I wholeheartedly agree with the approach. FB is the major breadwinner for every BCS school and as JP said at the time of the DM firing "football has to be healthy". ISU BB appears to be trending downward and I hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel. And as bleak as the prospects appear for BB, I am equally as optimistic for the near-term prospects for the FB program.
Football vs Basketball at ISU
- Thread starter URBCLONE
- Start date
Lets see this has been repeated a thousand times.... We need football to get healthy to make money and afford the upgrades needed at Hilton. Without football increasing profits we can forget about all sports progress and facility upgrades.
Not hard to understand. Yes it seems like basketball is taking a hit. But we are the lowest school in the big12 for spending. Which means we are the lowest at making money. Basketball can't pay all the bills, so it makes sense getting football going first.
Not hard to understand. Yes it seems like basketball is taking a hit. But we are the lowest school in the big12 for spending. Which means we are the lowest at making money. Basketball can't pay all the bills, so it makes sense getting football going first.
Do I want both good football and basketball? Yes. Would I trade basketball for top 25 football? In a millisecond. As lond as it was sustained success I wouldn't shed a tear. Hopefully we can get football strong and save the BB program at the same time, but if Pollard and Chizik are building a second deck south endzone I am in.
Gene Smith believed football had to lead the way for the athletic department. I suspect his successors understood that also.
Football, ftmfw. Bring on the double deck, hooters girls, and Gene's sweatshirt. I'm ready for some football.
Van De Velde understood that football was the revenue producer and to improve the program we needed to be able to recruit that is why he chose to build the indoor faciltiy for football and then the academic center, to help recruit top student athletes to ISU. No ISU AD had more success in football than Van De Velde going to 5 bowl games in six years and beatrng Iowa 5 years in a row.
There has been criticism of his decison to let LE go but the bottom
line is he did the right thing for the school and program and in one year had the basketball program under Morgans leadership back in the NCAA Tournment something LE supporters could not stand.
From my position, after I left the news sink in yesterday, one of my thoughts was "at least this isn't happening to the FB program". Right or wrong, just my opinion. FB means much more to me than hoops.
However, it still stinks.
However, it still stinks.
nanosecond, millisecond as long as it happened by August I would be up for this trade off.
I don't think that JP is directing JT construction over Hilton. He's said before that whichever project gets a lead donor, that one will move forward. Well, it's obvious that they must have made some progress in that regard with JT while not as much progress with Hilton. He's also said that ISU is much closer to the "haves" in MBB as opposed to FB.
I personally am more of a FB fan than MBB, but there are plenty of people that feel the opposite. Bottom line is money...sell out JT, 50k x $300 avg season ticket price = $15M. Hilton, 14k x $300 avg season ticket price = $4.2M. Generalities, of course, but that's an easy choice.
I personally am more of a FB fan than MBB, but there are plenty of people that feel the opposite. Bottom line is money...sell out JT, 50k x $300 avg season ticket price = $15M. Hilton, 14k x $300 avg season ticket price = $4.2M. Generalities, of course, but that's an easy choice.
Hoops is the main revenue source for schools like UNC and Duke. That said, it will take a while for us to get to that level, and I agree that football should be the priority in terms of facilities, since those facilities will directly equal more money coming in.
Here's how I break it down:
Basketball practice facility = better recruiting = better teams = NCAA tourneys = more ticket sales = more TV coverage = more products sold = $$$
Football stadium additions/renovations = $$$
Here's how I break it down:
Basketball practice facility = better recruiting = better teams = NCAA tourneys = more ticket sales = more TV coverage = more products sold = $$$
Football stadium additions/renovations = $$$
Its a close call for me, but I'm a little more into football. The thing that drives me nuts about sucking at bball is that it only takes two real difference-makers along with a supporting cast to have a good team.
I hope it works and I think it has a chance to but I just don't want to fall into the K-State trap where they put everything into football at the expense of everything else. They had some great years there but the future isn't bright and what did it get their athletic program in the long term?
There's risk in letting one of the only sports that we've had any sort of sustained success fall further and further behind while we chase the golden football ring.
There's risk in letting one of the only sports that we've had any sort of sustained success fall further and further behind while we chase the golden football ring.
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