cgeldmacher

All other college bands I see are student bands. Should alumni be able to participate in students musicals just because non-students are in the audience? Should alumni be able to play for the baseball team just because non-students are in the stands? The only reasoning behind why we have the only mostly non-student band anywhere is that "its always been that way. Where is the logic behind that?

No, we always have 60% alumni in the band. Not occasionally to fill in. The fact that it has always been that way 1) is probably not true, and 2) doesn't resonate with me. If having more than 50% non-students in your pep band is not a thing, then we really should move to a student only band. Like I said before, these organizations are for the students. That's why they exist.

Someone answer this for me. Are any other pep bands in the A-10 or even outside the A-10 made up of roughly 60% non-students and 40% students? Seems like every other pep band out there is is student organization. That's what the University and its clubs are for, the students. It would be similar to 60% of our cheerleading squad being made up of 40 to 60 year old alumni. If that split is a standard makeup of university pep band, then things should have been left alone. If not, then I have no problem with the University and the Athletic Department wanting to transition to a student only band like everyone else.

I found an NIL sponsor for Dalger…

I think D3 is a bit dramatic, but I have the same fears you do. If it is the beginning of the end for us, it is also the beginning of the end for VCU, Dayton, St. Mary's, St. Joe's, Belmont, etc. If success is going to be directly tied to how much money your donors want to pay for a team, we're screwed and all other similar schools are screwed as well. It doesn't matter when we decided to go all in.

LE, I appreciate your posts about soccer very much. I have Courtside blocked and love having someone who attends the games and practices provide information that doesn't come with the possibility of a lawsuit if shared by someone else. Thank you.

The Bus?

Bruce Davis @BruceinNJ Credit here goes to SLU assistant Chris Harriman. As an assistant last year at Cal, the Bears played a summer tour game at Bayer Giants Leverkusen. Got blown out 85-59. Van Bussel played for Bayer Giants Leverkusen in 22-23. Harriman’s international connections are outstanding. Don't know Bruce Davis, but interesting that Harriman is paying dividends already.

Any chance he may want to transfer next year to finish out his career in his home town?

Harriman was here from 2008 to 2012. If he gets us a Loe and an Ellis every 4 to 5 years, that would be just fine by me.

I don't think that Majerus gets Ellis or Loe without Harriman. So, I don't know that I would say his success had little to do with his assistants. He relied on Harriman to recruit kids from that part of the world to SLU. It's hard to get kids to come to the US at all from Australia and New Zealand. It's harder to get them to come to the Midwest. Harriman did that with Ellis and Loe. I'm not sure Majerus would have known who they were if not for Harriman.

Cal's starting senior point guard, with one year of eligibility left, is also in the portal and is "undecided." Could be a good bridge to Medley.

Since we now have two spots open, I would really like to see Conklin get one of the spots. He could coach up our bigs, something we could have used last season. He also could be a great resource for possibly pulling recruits from Australia or New Zealand. I don't think he'd have to actually fly back and forth to accomplish this, as the connections he has made during his time down under should be enough to be able to bird dog us some talent from that corner of the world. If there is someone we really want and have a chance at, a flight would probably be worth it to see the kid play in person and then seal the deal.

Great thought. Poach Martin might be just the assistant coach we need in this new era.

If this is the way of the NCAA now, then why would we not scour the recruits who have signed with lower conference teams, find guys who signed at a lower level and then blew up high school or AAU ball since signing, and go after them? If the NLI doesn't mean anything, then lets recruit right off of other teams signees.

I wouldn't be surprised if Ford is holding out for a new assistant coach that can bring a player with him.

Yuri is not to blame for our lack of success during his years here. He is a fantastic talent and put up numbers that are undeniable. Please stop the revisionist history here. The culprit is the system that we ran with Yuri at the helm of the offense. He is not responsible for that system. Ford and coaches are. I am not a "fire Ford" guy (right now), but they shoulder the blame for lack of overall success, not a point guard that lead the nation in assists. In my opinion, a system that would have given us more success would have caused Yuri to get less assists but slightly more points.

Then, I'll say 1) SLU is first team ranked #1 in first ever AP poll and 2) the final year of SLU's football program.

If our best recruiting coach in a long time if not ever does not have success getting recruits to come here in the NIL era, then we have a much bigger problem on our hands. This off-season actually scares me quite a bit. If we cannot get quality guys to come in, it may be a sign that we will never be able to outbid the power conferences. They will always have more money to offer. I think recruiting still matters quite a bit, but identifying diamonds in the rough (coming down from power conferences or up from lesser conferences) may be the most important attribute of a head coach for our program if we are not going to be able to outspend many of the other programs we want to compete with. It will be interesting to see if a program like Gonzaga (7,300 students) starts to lose ground in the NIL era to programs like Washington (36,200 students) just based on the availability of NIL funds from its alumni.

Has it been confirmed that we granted him his release? I haven't heard that we have. I only saw that he requested a release. I know the popular opinion is that if a kid asks for a release you should give it to him, but what would be so bad about saying "No?" He stays, plays a year, knows that he has to showcase his skills if he wants to transfer somewhere else next year. Then he leaves. Also, you've sent the message that if you commit to SLU plan on being here at least a year. If a recruit has a problem with the policy of not granting releases from commitments, we probably don't want that kid anyway.

Maybe someone on the team already had, or had been promised, the uniform number he wanted.

Not to pile on what is already a difficult day for our program, but I hope people are not looking at the BVF as a way to elevate our program. Here is what I mean. There is almost no chance that our NIL fund is in the same league as the NIL funds of power conference state schools that kick out tens of thousands of graduates each year. The power conference schools will always have more NIL money to spend, possibly by a lot, than we will. Also, while I agree that kids will follow the money, there probably will not be a direct correlation between money offered and getting a kid. If we offer a kid $100,000 to come to SLU out of the BVF, and, let's say, West Virginia offers the same kid $50,000, that kid may still choose WV, because he wants to play in a power conference. He might think that he's going to be just fine on $50,000 a year, and the difference between that and the $100,000 we offer is not enough to sway him. Having NIL money to offer and the BVF to organize that money and utilize it well is necessary in the present environment, but please don't think that our fund is going to change the landscape in comparison to others or suddenly cause us to get kids we wouldn't have gotten in the past.

I know its unlikely, but can't we just say "No." I get the arguments about not wanting a kid to play somewhere he doesn't want to be, but if every kid gets let out of their commitments every time they ask, then commitments to a school don't mean anything.

I also want to add that it is awesome that you went to see our guys play (assuming you will catch a Yuri game as well). Thanks for taking the time to support our guys.

Flights and hotels cost money. Any money spent on those things comes from somewhere and takes away from using that money on something else (NIL funds). I'd rather have the coaches concentrating their efforts on guys who could play for us next year than an entire tournament full of guys who cannot.