I don’t understand the recurrent problems the Athletic Department has with coaching hires in the revenue generating sports. It stems from the instability at the athletic director position but is there any accountability on the part of the Chancellor and Board of Trustees? Granted the Chancellor is still relatively new, but the trustees should be held to a higher standard. The way this athletic dept has functioned over the last decade reflects poorly on the university overall. We can’t seem to make a meaningful coaching hire without looking like total jackasses first. We did it in football and now basketball. Ridiculous. Hopefully this is the end of the road, but I would like to see the Trustees be more accountable.
Thoughts on Recurring Athletic Dept Problems
- Thread starter chirurgo
- Start date
It’s a struggle between the University Eggheads and those trying to run athletics....goes back to Jock Sutherland at least.
The Eggheads usually win the day.....except for a couple runs here and there.
Two things are constant.... the incredible athletes who come through this university coupled with institutional stupidly.
The Eggheads usually win the day.....except for a couple runs here and there.
Two things are constant.... the incredible athletes who come through this university coupled with institutional stupidly.
We've hired some pretty good coaches in the last 20 odd years. Howland, Dixon. Walt, Chryst, arguably Wanny. Then they leave or we fire them.
Really just two periods recently. Firing Wanny and going to Haywood, then the Graham debacle. Chryst was fine, but left, and Narduzzi has really added stability with some great wins over the last 4 years. I think football is going to trend way up.
Hoops disaster with Dixon moving to TCU and the horrible search that led to Stallings and Barnes departure.
I could be wrong, but I think Lyke is doing a great job with this search and will get a really good coach.
In a couple/few years, things will be strong in football and hoops again. These aren't the 90s anymore. There is a financial commitment to succeed. Some horrible mistakes, but no indication that we are de-emphasizing sports like we had in the past. Quite the opposite.
Hoops disaster with Dixon moving to TCU and the horrible search that led to Stallings and Barnes departure.
I could be wrong, but I think Lyke is doing a great job with this search and will get a really good coach.
In a couple/few years, things will be strong in football and hoops again. These aren't the 90s anymore. There is a financial commitment to succeed. Some horrible mistakes, but no indication that we are de-emphasizing sports like we had in the past. Quite the opposite.
Universities should hire proven, successful business centered people to help out the academics and AD's who stumble around when they attempt to manage anything not related to academics or sports.
Business processes are business processes regardless of the business sector.
Some industries have smartened up like the hotel, resort and ski industries.
Mrs Buffett owns a media business, skiied in college and skis & snowboards now so a portion of her business is resort, travel, ski and snowboard.
The resort and ski industry used to promote and make resort and ski people CEO, GM's etc of the business until it became obvious these people knew the industry but most couldn't manage a two car parade.
So they began to hire successful, proven, business people, taught them the industry which made most resorts more successful.
Universities are limited by this exact issue!
In many cases its as simple as hiring the wrong people because they don't know how to manage the hiring process!
"it's five o'clock somewhere"
Signed: Mr Buffett
Go PITT & CSU Rams!
You can argue all you want but Walt helped save us from I-AA type status and Chryst helped right the wrecked ship and now wins 12 games a year at Wisconsin where there is more stability.
Howland and Dixon are top 20 level coaches at a non top 20 revenue school. Those were good hires and more relevant perhaps to the thread.
The awful-ness of the bad hires though was pretty remarkable, especially Haywood, Graham, and Stallings. None of them even made sense at the time, never mind hindsight.
Howland and Dixon are top 20 level coaches at a non top 20 revenue school. Those were good hires and more relevant perhaps to the thread.
The awful-ness of the bad hires though was pretty remarkable, especially Haywood, Graham, and Stallings. None of them even made sense at the time, never mind hindsight.
Well right now she has no men’s BB coach and potentially no team.
But I know of course that she is working to fix that. .....just saying
right now.
No. It's the war against the Eggheads. Schools with much better Academic reputations than Pitt get it but our Eggheads are somehow in Power. Unless our Eggheads are really Penn State plants who intentionally screw Pitt Athletics over. This is a possibility.
This is a completely invented narrative.
We have an athletic with a shoe string budget-because we have cheap tickets, very little interest, and bottom barrel donations to athletics compared to peers.
The eggheads have been subsidizing athletics millions a year for decades .
You people get dumber and dumber
Anybody with half a clue can see better academically rated schools can run Athletics.
Pitt struggles
Big time and always has for like say 80 yrs or so.
By mismanaging athletics for a very long time they've created the:
"We have an athletic with a shoe string budget-because we have cheap tickets, very little interest, and bottom barrel donations to athletics compared to peers."
And they continue to swing and miss at the ball over and over again!
Hopefully Lyke marches to her own drummer, has some business/management skills, and will break the cycle!
All we want are winners in the AD spot, HC positions, players, and teams!
Winners will bring in the fans!
The fans will bring in the money!
Hopefully!
Honestly Pitt athletics is lucky to get the amount of revenue (from students and tax payers!) it does from the eggheads. We're lucky as sports fans the students haven't revolted against it yet.
So true. The meatheads running the AD and the leadership that hired these clowns have mismanaged the revenue sports since Jackie left. It’s amazing there is any support for the programs at this point.
Pitt hoops had incredible supper when they had a good product.
I like the duzz hire and it appears they are finally giving FB the support it needs to be successful.
This hoops hirenis critical. If they hire one of the top names floating around they will get the support of the fan base again
It’s really pretty simple
A). It is most certainly NOT the "Fan's Fault". I can't believe Pitt keeps pushing this. Pitt has better fans than it deserves.
B). People don't flock to inferior products. When you buy a new car do you say "I want to buy the worst car around because that car company needs my money so they someday might make a better car". Umm Hell NO!
C). People don't associate themselves with Losers. Do you see lots of Kansas Football Tee Shirts being worn? Think Pitt is generating a lot of revenue off of Pitt Basketball apparel now?
Why are these concepts SO FREAKING HARD FOR PITT'S ADMINISTRATION? Pitt must have an embarrassingly bad MBA program.
It all starts with the experiences one has as a student . When the games become a can’t miss part of your life the university has a fan for life . Pitt needs to make these games an important part of their students life which it currently isn’t . Then it takes time , but every time Pitt athletics start to excel the knuckleheads who runthe university f it up .
Maybe it starts over again for the bb program ....we'll see .
Maybe it starts over again for the bb program ....we'll see .
Well, there are about a 1000 people that are paying about $4,948 (based on OOS per credit rates) to take a calculus class every semester.
That’s just clueless bullshite as to what has gone on there for decades.
The Administration at Pitt has f’d things up so many different times it’s hard to keep track of it.
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Maybe so, but who donated to the math department? You? Me?
It ain't me. And I have lots of company.
I’m not blaming the fans.
I’m assessing the situation.
When your athletic war chest is mothballs-
It’s stupid to blame the administration for not going way farther into debt-
Because with the exception of about a decade or so in basketball -even winning at a high level doesn’t last with support.
And football has a way worse track record .
I don’t blame fans for withholding their cash-
But, I likewise don’t blame the administration for failing to win the lottery on every hire.
You’d have to be a dope to not recognize we have long has a revenue problem- not a spending problem.
The administration at Pitt wrt to athletics has institutional memory .......
Unfortunately it’s stupidly.
Are you actually trying to make the argument that athletics is a financially lucrative enterprise for the university? It has lost millions a year for decades.
That's because they don't know what the heck they're doing....Nordenberg tops the list of incompetent boobs
Pitt isn’t getting 27 million because of its volleyball teams . Funding an entire athletic department causes the loses Fb and bb even being as poorly run doesn’t lose money .
No athletic department bats 1.000
Pitt has to play long odds and hope for lighting in a bottle .
When it’s wrong- we get hurt and struggle to recover-
Because we have no war chest
That is because the medical is included.
Do your math on math.
And lay off the meth.
Yep. It's all about hiring the right people in the right places. It isn't Gallagher's job to oversee the athletics department. If he hired the right person to do that, he wouldn't have had the disaster that was Dixon being pushed out and the hiring of Sleepy. I'm hoping that Gallagher has hired the right person in Lyke and she is able to manage this hoops hiring process better and keep it trending upward.
More people donate more money to academics than to athletics. That's means Math, Science, Engineering, Medical, etc. If you donate to athletics, you're in a minority.
A good chunk of the endowment is for the med school. A good chunk of it isn't for for the med school. I believe less than 0.5% of the university's endowment has been given for athletics.
And athletic giving makes up roughly only 6% of total annual giving to the university.
It was a good original post asking why there seem to be continued problems. It's one thing to be have a low budget hindering the department, but Pitt has gone above and beyond just have financisl issues.
And Pitt no longer HAS to subsidize athletics. Pitt CHOOSES to do it, so that they can prop up the non revenue sports.
And Pitt no longer HAS to subsidize athletics. Pitt CHOOSES to do it, so that they can prop up the non revenue sports.
Walt was great, we should have kept him longer, his last year 2004, was really one of the better ones in recent history. Besides, what's the use of being a powerful coach if you can't fcck another university employee, I mean that in all seriousness, this modern USA sucks, they ruined all the fun.
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