Delaware AD getting grilled

Why wouldn't he go to a real D1 football school? Delaware is in the JV ranks.

I'm going to kick this athletic director's ass next time I'm in Deleware. He is a piece of crap.

Here is what I would say (which is why I would never be an AD):

The track and XC programs do nothing to promote the university. One of the missions of our sports programs is to market the university.

That statement is not correct. The XC/Track programs do market the university.

Every high school that has an indoor track team in Delaware will run at the field house numerous times through the indoor season.

Cross country has a large annual meet that also brings 25 teams from Delaware to the campus.

As a HS runner, I always left these events sponsored by the UD programs with a positive impression of the school. These events allowed me to get a better look at the campus and facilities.

The programs marketed the school tremendously on a state level. 85% of the high school coaches in Delaware are former UD runners. Can you guess what school they were telling their runners to attend?

If you are talking about the football team marketing the school - get real. No one watches or gives a shit on the national or regional level about the JV superbowl.

On the state level, no other program will come close to positively marketing the university.

This is great. Hats off to Pearlman for having some balls

pearlman just wrote a blog about the video, unfortunately he wasnt at the meeting. its a video taken by a kid at the meeting.

Before people rip on the AD, they should understand completely the administrative structure at Delaware, who makes the decisions, how the decisions are made, and what the precise role is of the AD.

Not saying it's true at Delaware, but the AD's authority is heavily circumscribed at other places I've seen, and the position is effectively that of front-man for the Board of Regents.

The AD is the public face of the Regents, and is responsible for publicly delivering bad news, as well as making public decisions that could turn out to be unfavorable, like the hiring of a football coach.

It is a VERY well-compensated position, but a total pain in the butt--mediating disputes between the various programs, between coaches and facilities managers, between men and women, and between football and its big-money donors, and everybody else.

An AD can still be a jerk, an idiot, or a moron, but if it's the decision with which you disagree, you're better off directing your ire elsewhere--the decision likely wasn't his.

And if the decision WAS his, his authority was probably framed thusly:

"OK Muir, decide which men's program will be cut, and then cut it."

what makes it ridiculous is that its such a small amount of money and people. they could easily cut 1-2 members per team and 500 bucks off each coach's salary and accomplish the same numbers probably without anyone in the public realizing. why lose a whole team and get a huge amount of bad PR?

Cut a coach's salary?

Are coaches in a union?

he had the choice of cutting some utterly unnecessary expenses from the football team or cutting an entire team, and he did the latter. Only 2 percent of Football Championship Subdivision football programs (as opposed to the entire athletic departments at these schools; only 6 percent of their men's basketball teams were profitable) in 2009 made a profit, while the median loss for FCS football teams was $1.45 million. Indeed, very few programs at any level made a profit, but FCS teams were particular losers. Delaware's priorities are out of whack, along with those at many, many programs.

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Resources/Latest+News/2010+news+stories/August+latest+news/Latest+revenues+and+expense+data+reveal+effects+of+slumping+economy

See pdf there as well, with all the data:

http://www.ncaapublications.com/productdownloads/REV_EXP_2010.pdf

Not to be a dick, since I have no idea how it all went down, but how do you know that was how his authority was framed?

Unless they get rid of the field house or stop hosting the XC meet, those things can still take place.

Few HS runners are going to run in college.

Does the football team's highlights get played on Delaware TV stations? Do the scores get reported? Are stories written in the paper about it?

Count the number of stories or even mentions of XC and track.

Face it, few people care about XC or track.

Actually vikki huber writes a few times a month in the state newspaper about running and running related stories. There is a HUGE running following in the state of DE. Delaware was the #1 state in the entire country for fund raising road races. I bet this fire goes out quick, or Muir is fired by next year.

Few football players will play in college.

Delaware does not have any major TV stations. They are all Philly stations so it's all Philly schools.

Football fans at UD are generally disgusted, first with the ever rising ticket prices/parking spot costs and losing the big game. This is expressed, along with basketball in the newspaper articles written.

XC gets a number of articles in the newspaper. There is a weekly column written by an Olympian who was the assistant coach at UD for years.

The arguably best XC runner in the history of the school ran for the local powerhouse Salesianum, and went to UD (made a great local hero type story). This generated tons of articles and positive press for the school, unlike the constant stories about the football players getting arrested or the coeds getting murdered on campus.

The best runners at UD generally come from instate, so there are quite a few articles written and press generated.

It should also be mentioned that two of the best runners at UD, Weaver and Feeney are from Delaware. Press has been written about them and the team.

90% of the UD football team is not from Delaware. The News Journal loves the home town hero stories and guess what sport constantly produces them? Running. Sorry but no one wants to read about some basketball player from New York on a team that consistently has a losing record.

The team was featured on a Philly newscast when the announcement was made. This cannot be said for the Delaware basketball team.

I was at the meeting with the AD and counted 4 members of the press.

They could cut 2 football players and save the whole program...but they won't...unbelievable.

A little off topic...

Looking at NCAAW basketball scores tonight, I thought about how we don't need more women's teams. ND beat SH 89-38 tonight. That is not sport. Having more teams than the talent can support leads to these lopsided games. Then looking at the rest of ND's schedule, they had 2 even more lopsided games this season. 91-28 and 97-21.

I'm for more opportunities for women, but at a rate of increase that makes sense instead of one where teams are recruiting just to fill the roster rather than trying to attract real talent.

Sprint Geezer wrote:

Not to be a dick, since I have no idea how it all went down, but how do you know that was how his authority was framed?

Are you telling me that he was told not to find cuts in general but to cut the cross country/track team? I don't think so. And he certainly was not inclined to cut anything from the football team, judging from his earlier comments. The point here is that 98 percent of football teams on that level are money losing, and indeed, they lose a lot more money (median loss is $1.5 million) than cross country and track teams cost. So, tell me what possible economic rationale holds to have a football team of 100 or more athletes? To have football at all? At least xc runners are good students.