Reinert310

And I admitted above that I very easily could be wrong. My main point had absolutely nothing to do with the exact amount Loyola’s enrollment went up. You can take or leave the statistic I gave. If I was wrong, was wrong. Doesn’t change the value of anything else I said.

How was I sawing at anything when I used that statistic? It was secondary to the point I was making. Something I thought I had read, in support of points other people had made. If the statistic was inaccurate, I extend my deepest apologies to all who I’ve offended.

Lol. Why the hostility? I read about it a year ago. Wasn’t aware it would have to hold up in a court of law. Not to mention the accuracy of that statistic means very little to the overall point I was trying to make. Take a Xanax.

Agreed. NBA teams already know how French and Goodwin can defend and rebound. They about their heart and effort and athleticism. It’s gonna be about can Goodwin develop any sort of reliable perimeter shooting. Can French develop a jumper consistently? How are they going to contribute to an NBA team?

I think it was freshman class enrollment, not the entire student body. If somebody wants to fact check me, it’s all good with me, definitely could be off on the numbers.

To build top of the line baseball facilities, you have to find someone, a donor/donors who want to fund said top of the line baseball facilities. Exactly ZERO donors are willing to write schools a blanks check and say, “here you go, build whatever you like.” If SLU has a donor interested in investing in a baseball facility, I’m sure it would be discussed, but things like that don’t just happen out of thin air.

But again, that only matters to a fraction of those involved with the school. Even if it is a big fraction. I have no doubt there’s a very large percentage of those who attend/work at the University who couldn’t care less if we’re a top-50 program, a top-150 program, or have a basketball program at all. Their priorities aren’t any less important just because they’re not sports fans. So as a school, we have to find away to keep both groups of people happy somehow.

I hear you. I’d also love Billikens athletics to take the next step and women’s and men’s soccer are advancing in the NCAA’s. Women’s basketball makes it. We move to a power conference. I’d love all of that. But imagine the fallout if, hypothetically, we fund all these projects, have top of the line facilities across the board, but we never make that big run in the tournament, the other sports never take that next step, and despite all those tens of millions of dollars, we get passed up again when the next expansion happens. What a waste of money that would look like to students and faculty who were promised that this is what’s best for the school and how bad that would look for the president, the trustees and the execs. In an ideal world, we’d make all these investments and everything would work out perfectly and everyone would be happy, but we’re not the only one’s who realize that heavily televised sports can financially benefit a school. This isn’t new information. Only so many teams can make the Sweet 16 every year. It’s not as simple as throwing money into facilities and we’re automatically gonna be making deep tourney runs and exponentially growing our enrollment and endowment. I wish it were that easy, but it’s just not.

You’re missing my point. I agree with everything everyone has said about the financial benefit of being top tier in athletics. But if you’re on the board of trustees or an executive at the university, you also have to deal with the interests of all the students and faculty, even if those interests are misaligned from potential financial growth. Having to deal with tenured professors, even on trivial matters, is probably just a delight (blue font). Then you had in the discussion of funding, and everything goes off the rails. You get a large group of students protesting at the clock tower because the school funded athletics over academics, now you’ve got a new PR problem. The solution is not as simple as the president getting on a loud speaker and proclaiming, “Advancing our athletic department is what’s best for the university...deal with it!”

I agree. We can’t do everything all at once. That was my main point, although I’m not sure how clearly I made it. There needs to be a balance between funding for academic facilities and athletic facilities to keep everyone happy. I realize it may not happen as quickly as some of us (including myself) would like, but there’s another side of the argument that can’t (and shouldn’t) be ignored.

You’re absolutely right. I heard when Loyola made their Final Four run, their enrollment went up over 100% the next year. But try explaining that to the Psychology major (or the psychology professor for that matter) who has zero interest in sports. I’m not claiming these arguments are wrong, just saying there are other points of view that need to be accounted for.

I agree with both of you. But I’m sure there are a lot of students and faculty who not only don’t care about athletics, but resent the fact that millions of dollars are going to a new basketball arena or a new soccer field. And those perspectives deserve the same amount of attention whether you or I or the trustees agree with them. And when it comes to fundraising, if you ask Dr. C or any other major donor $10 million dollars for an indoor tennis facility, it means you’re probably not gonna come back next year and ask for 5 million dollars for a new English department building. It’s really easy for us to say, being higher profile athletically will help us grow as a university, but while you’re doing that, you’ve got students and faculty picketing around the clock tower because all those funds went to athletics instead of academics. You can’t fix everything all at once. I’d be willing to bet 20 years from now, the situation will look a lot different than it does now. But nobody has a magic wand to upgrade everything by November 1st, 2020. The Big East isn’t going to be expanding anytime soon anyway.

I can’t figure out how tiger board works...like the format.

I think it’s all matter of perspective, as a die hard Bills fan, would I love to see us have top-tier facilities in every sport and move to a power conference? Of course. But we have to keep in mind that there is, in all likelihood, a large portion of trustees, donors, faculty and students, who couldn’t care less about SLU athletics. So those in charge have a delicate balancing act of trying to keep everyone happy.

I’ve never been a fan of playoff formats where half the league gets a postseason berth. I think NHL hockey is my favorite postseason, just the intensity of it, but having 16 teams get in devalues the regular season for me.

I think he was referring to “rest days”. And I think we can all agree the NBA regular season and NBA playoffs are 2 completely different things.

Agreed. The playoffs are fantastic to watch, when everyone puts effort in on both ends of the floor. I’m actually cool with players getting rest here and there. But building in rest days in early November, for nationally televised games? Give me a break. The season just started!

Speaking of...

Not to mention the players complain about officiating more than the Billikens board in a game day thread...which is a high bar. Lol

To each their own, but I couldn’t be any less interested in the NBA. Yes, they’re the best players in the world. Yes, there are a few special players who might be worth watching on any given night. But the complete lack of effort and matador defense on a regular basis is a huge turnoff. The fact that they basically no longer have to dribble and still not get called for a travel. The amount possessions consisting of nothing but ISO plays for the “Star”. And the fact that all star players are taking “rest nights” for nationally televised games in November is, quite frankly, nauseating. I know it’s popularity has never been higher and I’m in the minority, but it’s just mind-numbingly boring to me.

I agree with you 72, but I think if J-Good could improve his outside shot his senior season, he could have a chance to get drafted. I would never blame somebody for making money, but if JGood comes back, he has much better chance of sticking in the league, in my opinion. It depends on how much he needs/wants the immediate money. In terms of his long term prospects as a player, I think it would benefit him to come back for his senior year. I’d like to think I’ve removed as much of my Bills fan bias as possible in making that point, but I do realize that it’s really easy for me to say on the outside. We’ll see.

Hey 72, love your list. This is probably nitpicking, but if Hargrove isn’t starting in ‘21-‘22, I’ll be shocked. Although, I’m not sure who I would remove from your starter list either. Lol what a time to be a Billikens fan!

Great post!

Can we all agree that snap chatting. Is the worst?

6 Alaska time?