Gator
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Posts: 3,554
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Post by Gator on Nov 9, 2006 13:28:13 GMT -5
Dooms,
It's like the saying goes, "you have to pay the cost to be the boss." That's the bottom line. It makes no sense for us to be in this situation when we're twice as big as other programs. This is why we need an administrator that's athletic friendly and supportive. We need to increase the recruiting budget so coaches can actually get out and see what they're getting before a kid arrives on campus. I feel we're missing out on a lot of kids from the eastern part of the state because we're focusing to much in the west. Lately, some of the best talent has come from the east and we were not in the running for them. Again, we're losing out to CIAA schools on talent. Can someone explain why this is?
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Post by DOOMS on Nov 9, 2006 13:29:45 GMT -5
Jaybee:
I sent my letter a week ago. Now that my threat's been exposed as just a threat it probably won't matter. But if we keep running a revolving-door, one year of attendance open enrollment campus that threat might not remain an empty one.
Gator:
I hit you up in a minute. It's gonna be a loooooong post, even for me...
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Post by Bornthrilla on Nov 9, 2006 13:40:41 GMT -5
I would like for someone to break down exactly what current problems an increased budget would fix. For example: $40,000 for more scholarships, $50,000 for a new defensive coordinator, $60,000 for travel expenses incurred during recruiting trips, $25,000 for under-the-table- player bonuses given out after big wins, etc.
I'm tired of everyone of this board just saying that raising the athletic budget will immediately cure all our problems. I want to see a detailed report of exactly how that money would translate into success on the field.
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Maxell
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Post by Maxell on Nov 9, 2006 14:00:43 GMT -5
I'll start: Recruiting
If Bethune-Cookman spends nearly $100,000 on recruiting and we spend $35,000 then the money makes an immediate impact on the field. More trips can be made out to high schools and homes; more kids can come on campus for recruiting visits. The bigger the pool of recruits you have, you make better choices. Better talent automatically improves your field performance.
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Maxell
Official BDF member
Director of BDF Marketing
Posts: 12,460
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Post by Maxell on Nov 9, 2006 14:02:33 GMT -5
I would like for someone to break down exactly what current problems an increased budget would fix. For example: $40,000 for more scholarships, $50,000 for a new defensive coordinator, $60,000 for travel expenses incurred during recruiting trips, $25,000 for under-the-table- player bonuses given out after big wins, etc.I'm tired of everyone of this board just saying that raising the athletic budget will immediately cure all our problems. I want to see a detailed report of exactly how that money would translate into success on the field.
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Post by DOOMS on Nov 9, 2006 14:16:08 GMT -5
Ok, Gator, everybody, check it out...
There are several reasons the ciaa gets more talent than we do:
As you know, division II's academic requirements are less stringent than those in division I. I've never been a proponent of the "a dumber player is a better player" theory, but as a divison I-AA hbcu, we are in no man's land. Meaning the best kids are going to want to go to I-A schools first. The ones that are academically ineligible to play at I-As and don't want to sit out a year will go to junior college or d-II. We are saddled with the same basic academic qualification requirements as every I-A in the nation.
Now, add to that these additional negatives. We mainly recruit black players. We've immediately left off 75% of the population of North Carolina and 87% of the population of the USA. So we start from a smaller pool. We get a non-black kid from time to time, but he's either a kicker on a full ride or a walk on. The one gem we got (Drew Carter) we didn't even bother to play. Generally, what non-black person that has other options is going to go to an hbcu? The only way to improve that would be to hire a non-black coach. Since that ain't happening...
We're not retaining our athletes. We get them in and they drop out. What the student body at large is doing is going to have an effect on what your players are doing. The most successful programs are the ones with older players. The average age of a Hayes team with eight or more wins was (and I'm guessing) probably over 22. Recruiting them, as difficult a battle as it is, is only half the battle. We've got to keep them or it's a waste of our time and theirs.
In basketball, who are the teams that come out of nowhere? The ones with senior lineups. George Mason is a prime example. We have a lot of turnover across the board. Turnovers are only good as dessert.
The ciaa has become a better conference. I know you just stopped reading right there but let me explain the statement. The ciaa is going to win a playoff game in football this year; the meac clearly is not. The ciaa is going to be a factor in the d-II basketball tournament and probably win it all. The meac will be in a play-in game or a 16 seed.
I have no earthly idea why we are not down east more. I agree, almost all the dynamite players come from Charlotte or the east. It must be the water down east and the gunfire around Charlotte that makes 'em so fast. For all we know, we could be down east and simply losing the battle. Let's face it, A&T is not an attractive destination right now. If I'm a high school coach I'm leery about sending my kid somewhere where there's a 60% chance he won't graduate and a 75% chance his coach won't be there by the time he's a senior. I'm more leery when I see the budget hasn't been raised in six years. That shows the school has no desire to be competitive even locally, much less nationally.
We lost a lot when Bill Hayes was fired. He was probably the only bit of common sense in the athletic dept. He'd gone at least two years with no budget increase; how the hell was he supposed to do better than 4-7? Of course, we only recently found that out. Had we known beforehand our tunes probably would've changed. I known my would have.
Back to us recruiting. We're recruiting one race. We're doing it with chump change. We're doing it in no man's land. Don't forget, we're doing it against over 25 other schools in-state alone. Not to mention the dozens upon dozens of schools that come here for a player or two. Not to mention there are now three I-AA programs in the triad and we sit in-between the other two. One of them has the advantage of being able to recruit both races, getting more monetary support from the school, a big money donor, a clearly superior conference, and a head coach that is far more experienced in head coaching.
The other has the advantage of division II athletes we couldn't get into A&T and a chip on their shoulder, as well as a coach that's been coaching for a minute and had been a coordinator for years prior.
Well... we got a bigger stadium...
It's aluminimum...
Gator, I keep a weekly list entitled "the truest isht I heard this week."
Welcome to the list buddy. It simply does not make sense. It doesn't make sense that Hayes was lining the field and had to wait 16 years for a field house. It doesn't make sense that we hired a man with a losing record, as nice as he was, to replace the winningest coach in school history. It doesn't make sense that we replaced him with someone with even less experience. It really doesn't make sense that a church school with 1/3 the students beat us on national t.v. 70-7 with what is now an average BCC team a mere 10 years after we beat them 73-7 with an average A&T team. What really doesn't make sense to me is that the same school that produced the A&T Four is producing alumni that are standing pat and accepting it.
Everybody needs to pony up! But it's not the hard-working alumni that scrape and give every year that are responsible for this mess. It is the people with an inability to budget and recruit dollars effectively that are responsible for this mess.
In my opinion logic says if the school isn't going to pony up, why in the hell should I? If the school is going to tell these kids we don't care that you have to ride a bus to Florida (they didn't, only because the Aggie Club ponied up), we don't care if you graduate, we don't care if you don't win a game, we don't care if we fire the man that recruited you, we don't care if the basketball team goes winless, etc., logically, why should we tell the school we care?
I'll tell you why. BECAUSE WE DO CARE!!!!! As much as we disagree on everything, we all agree on one thing, we're not pleased. Sometimes you have to show how much you care by doing the hardest thing. My daddy didn't spank me because he was a sadist, he spanked me because he cared and wanted to make sure I didn't end up in a gutter, or losing 70-7 on national t.v.
I'll tell you what, I may or may not think Fobbs can get the job done, but it doesn't matter what I think. What matters is that we give him the support he needs TO PROVE MY a$$ WRONG! Nothing, and I mean nothing, would make me happier. 'Cept maybe dating Dee Todd when she was at Winston or having relations with Halle Berry, but that's neither here nor there.
Man, we gotta increase the recruiting budget to get the kids in the door and we gotta increase academic support to keep them there. We owe them an education. I got an excellent education at A&T. I want nothing less than the same for every kid that's there. We owe them. But got dammit A&T has got to do its part!
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Post by DOOMS on Nov 9, 2006 14:25:44 GMT -5
I would like for someone to break down exactly what current problems an increased budget would fix. For example: $40,000 for more scholarships, $50,000 for a new defensive coordinator, $60,000 for travel expenses incurred during recruiting trips, $25,000 for under-the-table- player bonuses given out after big wins, etc. I'm tired of everyone of this board just saying that raising the athletic budget will immediately cure all our problems. I want to see a detailed report of exactly how that money would translate into success on the field. I mean, it won't. You've got to know what the hell to do with it once you get it. A new d.c. (a good one anyway) should cost you twice that. I mean, just cause Del State pays 45 grand for their assistants doesn't mean we can get away with it. They're tax-free you know. Even though I can't believe you don't see how more money translates into wins, I'll entertain you a second. If you read DOOMSDAY's post on Nov 7, 2006, 10:19 am you'll see a partial answer to your question. It costs money to travel. It costs money to give a kid a scholarship. It costs money to get a tutor for a kid. It costs money to pay coaches. It costs money to feed a kid properly (the "training table"). It costs money to get weights, clothes, jerseys, pads, cleats, helmets. That stuff has to be replaced. It cost big money to get the assistants out of the classroom. It costs money to send game tape. It costs money to transport players. It costs money to buy whistles, blocking sleds, water, gatorade, coolers, tables, hats,... It costs money to buy projectors. It costs money to damn near breathe. When you've got to budget that many things into a smaller number, stuff is going to be left out. You will be hard-pressed to find a team with a large budget losing on a consistent basis and vice-versa. You cannot win under any circumstances spending the same thing you spent six years ago. Do you think Dee Todd wanted to can men's tennis? Her hand was forced! There was nothing else she could do. Raise money? Guess what? It costs money to even raise money!!! To tie this in with the previous thread, if you take into account all the obstacles we face as a division I hbcu in the state of North Carolina it's obvious in order to be even regionally competitive we actually have to outspend most I-AA schools. We can't do that without the school stepping up to the plate.
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