Post by illwauk on May 1, 2012 1:14:42 GMT -6
1. AD - Due to a chancellor (Santiago) that didn't really care, we never really had the right person here for the job. Now that Lovell is here, in spite of the fact that he missed on Costello, he should be given a chance to find the right person. Give him credit for getting rid of Costello once he realized he wasn't the right guy. The new person needs to be local, who has a good business sence, and the right vision as I lay out below. Forget about previous experience and follow the UW and MU model for all I care. This is crucial.
2. Facilities - we need to have legitimate D1 facilities for all of our sports. A new athletic village is a must. Henry Aaron field is an embarrassment - truly - to the entire conference. Our student athletes deserve better, and without good facilities we are stuck in the Horizon League and will always be the red haired D1 step child of Wisconsin.
3. Horizon League - once we get facilities, we can do much better than the HL. We are a huge university that sells itself short on sports. It could be a tremendous brand for us in a bigger/better conference, but we treat athletics like an expense vs. a marketing tool and an asset.
4. Football - once we get the right AD, improve our facilities, and move into a new conference, we can then start thinking about football. We are too big of a state not to have more than one D1 football program, and it can be a money maker along with hoops. We can't think about it, however, until we can do the rest of sports right.
If we don't follow this plan, we are stuck with underachieving as a D1 university, and the student athletes, who do so well here and make the university proud, alumni, and fans are getting short changed.
Great points all around, but I have to take issue with this. Yes, in a perfect world of collegiate athletics, that's what would make sense for us to do. But in the world that actually exists, there's no way we'll ever get out of the Horizon League without football.
This is probably one of my less popular opinions around here, but I think reviving the football program needs to be a bigger priority than a new basketball arena... especially when we could do it for about half the cost of a new arena.
