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Post by DOOMS on Apr 7, 2011 9:39:06 GMT -5
Even with all the brilliant ideas, there is currently no money in the coffers. You might have a great idea, but it will take money and risk to make it work. Money and risk tolerance are two things we don't have, and risk tolerance is something that no institution of higher learning should have unless they have a boatload and a half of money to spare.
I've been a proponent of moving to d-2 for a very long time. My thinking is that we can outspend the competition and win, and then spend a ton on marketing our success. I realize I'm practically alone on that desire. Pride gets in the way, but I don't see very much to be proud of in our current situation, nor our past. I'm not overly excited over winning one game here or one game there. I'm excited about consistency.
When there are schools that don't even have to deal with funding football scholarships spending one and a half times what we do on their athletic programs, logic tells me we're in the wrong neighborhood.
Eaves (trying to stay on topic) is doing the best he is able to do with what we are able to give him. We extended his contract for some reason, he must add value in ways that are not apparent to the casual fan. We consistently make poor decisions that cost us financially. We don't have the funds to compesate for these poor decisions on the d-1 level.
Even if every idea we put forth brought hundreds of thousands of dollars to the coffers we would still be millions behind. We are restricted in who we can successfully recruit (we can bring any fool to look, but will they commit? No.) and we make a lot of costly mistakes. We are not skilled enough to work with less. We got by on dumb luck for years. The chickens have come home to roost.
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Post by thefriscotxaggie on Apr 7, 2011 10:43:56 GMT -5
[ In my opinion, Eaves isn't the one (and never was). But I'm also realistic. We don't have the money or resources to compete outside our conference on this level, and we won't. The game done changed.[/quote]
I agree with that but seems we have the cart before the horse. we dont have the money in the program to compete outside of our hbcu arena. But we are not even performing well against our peer group who all have similiar budgets.
Its not all money. But no question the admin has to feel comfortable with the Coach and program direction before they release any additional resources
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Post by aggiebred09 on Apr 7, 2011 11:02:21 GMT -5
How do our numbers compare to the CIAA Athletics Budgets? If we move down we may be too much of a school for a smaller conference. A&T Homecoming alone generates a revenue over a fourth of what the entire CIAA Tournament Revenue brings to Charlotte. If we move down in division we would probably be better off competing in a non-HBCU conference.
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 7, 2011 11:29:49 GMT -5
I don't know that we'll be "too much of a school" for a smaller conference. If anything we would either force other conference schools to step up their game or take a yearly @ss disruption.
There are a number of dangers in competing in a non-hbcu conference. If you drop down you already lose some fans who are dead-set on being d-1 for being d-1's sake. Give folks a steady diet of Lenoir-Rhyne and Catawba, they are gone.
As for Eaves, I don't think he can coach too well. It's like the old saying, those who can, do, those who can't, teach. He could and he did. He can't teach it. As a player he was probably immenently more talented than most any kid he's coached at A&T. That makes him hard for him to teach. It's difficult to teach something that came naturally to you.
Ultimately, what is Ayantee looking for? The school isn't looking for terribly much (I have to guess here because we never get any communication to the contrary). The fans are looking for anything from being competitive in the conference (reasonable) to getting to the sweet 16 (neverary). Right now we aren't ponying up enough funds for either goal. But I think we all can agree that even if we did spend near the top of the conference, Eaves wouldn't be able to get us there.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 7, 2011 11:51:23 GMT -5
funding is an issue, but our problems don't start with lack of funding. our problems start with poor leadership and poor decision making. so to me, the first thing we need to fix before we even think about dumping more money into athletics is leadership and decision making issues.
dooms is right, our poor decision making has gotten us into more trouble than anything else and it has cost us tons of money. that's why i'm less critical of our coaches than i am of our admins. folk want to talk about "aggie pride" when it comes to athletics, but our admins over the years certainly haven't shown any "aggie pride" in our athletics. otherwise, we wouldn't repeatedly find ourselves faced with near winless teams. if its not men's basketball, its women's basketball, or football, or volleyball.
in my opinion, a well managed athletic department should "NEVER" have a winless or near winless athletic team. yet, we've had 4 of our teams in that category over the last decade or so. when you have 4 teams go winless or near winless in one of the weakest d1 conferences in america, who do you blame? the coaches? hail no! its the folks who run our athletics starting from the very top (the chancellor) and everyone on down to the athletics director and his staff.
i don't blame the coaches because they didn't hire themselves, our admins did. folk on this site are quick to lobby for the firing of a coach, but have very little to say about the folk who make all the decisions. to me, i don't think the pressure should be applied to the coaches. i think the pressure should be applied to our admins. how 'bout judging our admins' job performance relative to athletics? because if we don't, it sends a message that we're satisfied with how our athletics are run. and i for one feel the total opposite! i'd like to see "all" of our teams be competitive, not just a couple or three...
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Post by aggiebred09 on Apr 7, 2011 13:31:14 GMT -5
I don't know that we'll be "too much of a school" for a smaller conference. If anything we would either force other conference schools to step up their game or take a yearly @ss disruption. I can think of four schools in the CIAA that will give us a run for our money in any sport. Shaw St. Aug FSU WSSU Now that I think about it, we could come into the CIAA today and still be considered sub-par in that conference.
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 7, 2011 13:44:06 GMT -5
i don't know about the rest of those schools but when wssu was transitioning to the meac, we "dominated" them in every sport we played them in except football and men's basketball. other than those two sports, we didn't lose any games at all to them in any other sport when i last checked...
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Post by neighborhoodsuperstar on Apr 7, 2011 13:55:07 GMT -5
funding is an issue, but our problems don't start with lack of funding. our problems start with poor leadership and poor decision making. so to me, the first thing we need to fix before we even think about dumping more money into athletics is leadership and decision making issues. dooms is right, our poor decision making has gotten us into more trouble than anything else and it has cost us tons of money. that's why i'm less critical of our coaches than i am of our admins. folk want to talk about "aggie pride" when it comes to athletics, but our admins over the years certainly haven't shown any "aggie pride" in our athletics. otherwise, we wouldn't repeatedly find ourselves faced with near winless teams. if its not men's basketball, its women's basketball, or football, or volleyball. in my opinion, a well managed athletic department should "NEVER" have a winless or near winless athletic team. yet, we've had 4 of our teams in that category over the last decade or so. when you have 4 teams go winless or near winless in one of the weakest d1 conferences in america, who do you blame? the coaches? hail no! its the folks who run our athletics starting from the very top (the chancellor) and everyone on down to the athletics director and his staff. i don't blame the coaches because they didn't hire themselves, our admins did. folk on this site are quick to lobby for the firing of a coach, but have very little to say about the folk who make all the decisions. to me, i don't think the pressure should be applied to the coaches. i think the pressure should be applied to our admins. how 'bout judging our admins' job performance relative to athletics? because if we don't, it sends a message that we're satisfied with how our athletics are run. and i for one feel the total opposite! i'd like to see "all" of our teams be competitive, not just a couple or three... You are correct in everything you say. The decision makers we've had over the past few years deserve an F-........However, WE HAVE NEW DECISION MAKERS NOW (Hilton, Martin). I don't think any of us are complaining with whom they got to be our football coach. It wasn't Eaves fault that he took the job. He was merely offered it by our past A.D. However, it is up to our CURRENT A.D. to recognize if Eaves is the answer. Hilton and Martin weren't here 10 years ago. I cannot blame the Eaves hiring on them......however I can blame them for not firing him quick enough, and not finding a more than suitable replacement. Again - I'm not asking for a sweet 16 appearance next year. However, asking to be tops in the conference (WITH OUR CURRENT BUDGET) simply isn't asking too much. As soon as we achieve this, we move the ball further......
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Post by thefriscotxaggie on Apr 7, 2011 14:44:21 GMT -5
Again - I'm not asking for a sweet 16 appearance next year. However, asking to be tops in the conference (WITH OUR CURRENT BUDGET) simply isn't asking too much. As soon as we achieve this, we move the ball further...... [/quote][/b]
Thats it in a nut shell. As I said before we cant get the cart before the horse. In my mind there is no reason why we should not have been challenging for the conference title the last 4 years with the current budget.
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Post by DOOMS on Apr 7, 2011 14:57:15 GMT -5
There's one reason...
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2011 15:19:47 GMT -5
Well we're stuck with eaves so either find ways to get him more support, including more money for quality assistant coaching, a bigger recruiting budget and improving the facilities to where he will have no choice but to dominate the MEAC and gives us a chance to get a seed higher than 15 in the NCAA Tourney or just wait until his contract runs out and hire someone who can become a "miracle worker".
BTW: Going the Div-2 is a copout and will cut us off from one of our biggest funding sources (games with NCCU), cuts us off from the March Madness cash, doesn't give us the incentive to find and apply resources to keep our student athletes academically eligible and it will make that nice new sky box just that much harder to pay off.
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Post by neighborhoodsuperstar on Apr 7, 2011 15:32:03 GMT -5
Well we're stuck with eaves so either find ways to get him more support, including more money for quality assistant coaching, a bigger recruiting budget and improving the facilities to where he will have no choice but to dominate the MEAC and gives us a chance to get a seed higher than 15 in the NCAA Tourney or just wait until his contract runs out and hire someone who can become a "miracle worker". BTW: Going the Div-2 is a copout and will cut us off from one of our biggest funding sources (games with NCCU), cuts us off from the March Madness cash, doesn't give us the incentive to find and apply resources to keep our student athletes academically eligible and it will make that nice new sky box just that much harder to pay off. WCA, The man has 4 asst coaches, including one who led WSSU to a CIAA title. 13 of 16 players on our roster are OUT-OF-STATE. Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't out-of-staters require more dollars per scholly than in-state players?? That's how it was for normal students..... We have players from DC, Michigan, Florida, Maryland, South Carolina.....it ain't as if the man is relegated to recruit within a 30-mile radius ((hell, he probably should)). We complain about how poor a facility Corbett Gym is when our women have no problem being a top MEAC team with the same gym. Our conference is loaded with antequated gyms. Folks are quick to compare A&T to UNC or even ODU.......I'm not doing that. I'm comparing A&T to Bethune, Coppin, Morgan, NCCU, etc......... On a level playing field with THESE TEAMS ----- WE'RE NOT WINNING..........and we still don't think he has enough.... Exactly when are folks going to admit that Eaves just doesn't have it.
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Post by aggie2ru on Apr 7, 2011 15:39:44 GMT -5
I think the correct way to help our basketball success is to fire Eaves and move forward. True, it will be costly (having to eat the last 2 yrs. on his contract). Very, very true past decisions by administrations have put our entire sports program in a hole so deep it has sucked the blood and we have seen first hand the results. Wheels should not have recommended Eaves to be given a 3 yr. extension, just like Lee was not the answer as HEAD coach (head coach, not DC). But even before that, we can look back at the baffling moves of administrators and just shake our heads. It "looks" like we have made a decent hire w/football ( a proven winner), it's time to do that in basketball. Fire Eaves!!!!
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oleschoolaggie
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Post by oleschoolaggie on Apr 7, 2011 16:43:24 GMT -5
We complain about how poor a facility Corbett Gym is when our women have no problem being a top MEAC team with the same gym. Our conference is loaded with antequated gyms. the only part i disagree with is your meac comparison description of corbett sports center. you say the meac is loaded with antiquated gyms, which ones are you referring too? imo, the only meac gyms that are more outdated than ours are bcu, nccu, scsu, and maybe howard. i've physically been to all meac arenas except famu's new arena and only the one's i mentioned are more outdated than corbett, in my opinion. that puts us in the lower quarter of the conference in that regard. is corbett adequate enough for eaves to win the meac? of course it is. but that's not my point when i complain about corbett. my point is that we should give all of our coaches the tools they need to be successful and that definitely includes above average facilities relative to the rest of the meac. as i stated, i've been to every arena in the meac except famu and only the schools i mentioned above take a back seat to corbett. even dsu's little arena is more modern (on the interior) than corbett. howard's interior could give corbett's interior a run for the money. corbett's lower level is nice, but the upper level is horrible. and i really don't think its fair to compare a "hall of fame coach" to eaves. sure coach bibbs can win at a&t, but she can win at any school she coaches at. i don't think its fair to expect a coach to be able to win at any school in the country, most coaches can't. i agree that corbett is not an excuse for eaves not being able to win the meac, it just makes it more difficult when recruiting...
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Post by thefriscotxaggie on Apr 8, 2011 9:14:32 GMT -5
In regards to Corbett. It may be out dated but no school in the MEAC can generate its atmosphere. I personaly think a hyped up Corbett is more of a draw to a recruit than a dead azz new FAMU arena.
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