Mismanagement? Priorities? Unwillingness to sacrifice its academic reputation? Probably a lot of things.
When you have treated your football program like a cheap date for 40 years you don't get much in the way of donations. I'm glad to see Gabel getting on Lyke's behind about her failure to emphasize importance of UIL. Gabel looks like a winner. Told Lyke to get on the ball and money for the revenue sports
I would love to see them correct this. I don’t donate a ton but each year when my wife and I talk about making donations at Christmas I always end up sending bucks to Pitt. Sometimes athletics. Sometimes academics. It might buy Duzz an extra roll of tape but whatever.
I value the institution greater then the athletics. PITT can actually change the world (and has) through the brilliant teachers, students, and researchers. The best an athlete can do is sell some jerseys and tickets. It's a non-starter for me.
Athletics has its place in a university. Just shouldn't be the first thing you think about when the school is mentioned.
I'll be honest, there are far better causes for your spare coin than stroking the ego of a college kid with NIL money. I will still send money to the athletic fund but never to an NIL.
I would also add, the poor bastards that threw their $$$ at UF and FSU NIL.....and look at the return on investment so far......
I mean, that's what pro sports are. There wouldn't be a legit reason for Pitt to associate with a scheme that involved turning over it's athletics to a private firm.
Let them. It's not that anyone cares about amateurism. That's a long forgotten notion. Colleges trying to be minor league pro football franchises isn't going to work for schools that aren't already football first. There isn't any interest in that from a school like Pitt. You already have a huge brand pro football brand in the city. There isn't a profitable outcome for throwing tons of money at Pitt or even a dozen or so football programs that are nestled in the corn fields and hollers or fly over country that are already #2 in those areas that doesn't leave those schools in worse shape. All you end up with is some PE firm that squeezes the last few bucks out of your brand and leaves you for dead.
I do understand how valuable Pitt football is but I also understand why. There is a limit on returns once you start monkeying around with it from the perspective of treating it like a professional franchise. You seem to think that you can just throw the baby out with the bathwater and it's pretty likely that won't be the case.
I disagree. They would raise as much as their market value...not their popularity. Big difference.
I was describing the SWPA market. Pitt doesn't have 50% of the AGH market. I'd guess 40% and PSU is 20%. There's a lot of transplants in the county that pull for odd teams. Other is around 20% here.
The athletic department is charged by the university for the cost of tuition, fees, etc. As are the athletic departments at every school. It pretty much works the same everywhere. So it is a very real expense for the athletic department. That doesn't get into the fairly newish cost of attendance payments to athletes, or the long existing costs of training tables, nutritionists, medical and sports medicine, athletic trainers, academic tutors, and the myriad of other athlete support programs that all FBS D1 schools offer to stay competitive at a minimum level.
Interesting that the school charges athletic department for tuition. My wife worked in higher ed and our daughter received her Pitt tuition for free because in theory a child of a Pitt employee wanted to attend the school that my wife worked at. Do I think that really happened? Absolutely not. Pretty sure it was just a wink and a nod agreement amongst schools as a means to keep employees.
