Join A Grassroots Movement for Change of AD and MBB Coach

[cheeseman]

1 hour ago, cgeldmacher said:

Again, I have to be careful here, I don't disagree.  However, just saying it is a sunk cost is not altogether true.  If we let Ford go and have to pay the rest of his deal, then we have to do that and pay a new coach.  A new coach will want to be paid.  A good new coach, the kind we would want, will want to be paid more than some other options.  If we have a certain amount of money allocated to the head coaching position, and we have to use that money to pay the new coach and Ford, then we may not be able to afford the type of coach we want.  It's easy to throw out a business school term like sunk cost as a way to justify not having any limits on spending, but the practicalities of situation do not necessarily line up.

I don't know the details about Ford's contract or what it would take to buy it out.  I would assume that the people in charge and the big donors who are flipping the tab for our head coaches contract are very, very aware of all of this.  I guarantee they are strategizing about this and crunching the numbers.  The goal is to have the best coach put into the best position to succeed.  I don't want to change anything until it is certain that the finances work out for this to occur.  Like I said, the people that need to know this already do.

His contract is just that - sunk money.  If someone is not willing to accept that then the matter is closed - stick with him until the contract runs out.  My use of sunk money is not simply a business school term but a business practice.  Companies do it all the time - abandon a previous plan/direction without regard for what has been already spent because not to do so simply means you will continue to dump money into a situation that is not productive.  Anybody who thinks you are going to get out of this mess without spending more money simply doesn't have a realistic view.  When you screw up you always will be penalized for it monetarily.  You can strategize all you want and trying to lessen the financial impact is smart but you aren't going to do it without more money being spent.

[Dr Bird]

1 hour ago, cheeseman said:

His contract is just that - sunk money.  If someone is not willing to accept that then the matter is closed - stick with him until the contract runs out.  My use of sunk money is not simply a business school term but a business practice.  Companies do it all the time - abandon a previous plan/direction without regard for what has been already spent because not to do so simply means you will continue to dump money into a situation that is not productive.  Anybody who thinks you are going to get out of this mess without spending more money simply doesn't have a realistic view.  When you screw up you always will be penalized for it monetarily.  You can strategize all you want and trying to lessen the financial impact is smart but you aren't going to do it without more money being spent.

Yep.

Time is money. Surely revenues are dwindling with all the ticket give-aways and less "spur-of-the-moment" ticket sales. 

What if Lindenwood MBB makes an unbelievable coaching hire and leapfrogs the Billikens in local relevance?  On second thought, if that happens it will at least spur some major actions at SLU.  Competition is good.

[House]

On 1/4/2024 at 1:28 PM, JMM28 said:

It isn't 400k. It is 500k++. It comes from about as knowledgable as you can get and not be named Travis or Fred. Like any donor funded initiative, it is that now but could change by 2 pm if someone gets pissed and pulls their support or adds another 100k on top because they had a good year at the dog track. 

You'll never have evidence of what BVF has, sorry. No NIL collectives are really publishing what they're doing financially. They'll publicize cars, deals with companies, etc, but you won't get the actual payouts to players. There is a lot of bull**** floating around out there about all these deals which is what keeps it interesting. 

From a BVF board member: the budget for this season was high 6 figures. That is as much detail as he would give. 

[Brighton]

20 hours ago, Dr Bird said:

Yep.

Time is money. Surely revenues are dwindling with all the ticket give-aways and less "spur-of-the-moment" ticket sales. 

What if Lindenwood MBB makes an unbelievable coaching hire and leapfrogs the Billikens in local relevance?  On second thought, if that happens it will at least spur some major actions at SLU.  Competition is good.

Or SIUE or both. They may lack longevity in D1 and media coverage, but at least they're working to be better.

[Pistol]

4 hours ago, House said:

From a BVF board member: the budget for this season was high 6 figures. That is as much detail as he would give. 

I'd love to hear how/when the budget is paid out. That dollar range is about where we need to be to compete for an A10 title every season. How are we doing so much less with so much more? Are we spending almost nothing on incoming players, and only paying guys to stay?

I'm watching a bunch of transfers at Mason dominate SLU right now and I'd be surprised if they have the NIL budget we do.

Is there a D-I program with a lower ROI?

[TheA_Bomb]

8 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I'd love to hear how/when the budget is paid out. That dollar range is about where we need to be to compete for an A10 title every season. How are we doing so much less with so much more? Are we spending almost nothing on incoming players, and only paying guys to stay?

I'm watching a bunch of transfers at Mason dominate SLU right now and I'd be surprised if they have the NIL budget we do.

Is there a D-I program with a lower ROI?

Lots of questions. I appreciate anyone donating money to help SLU compete. I'm just curious as to the strategy and the alignment with the AD/coach. The results aren't good.

1st year HC at a school with a basketball budget of $3.7mil just took out 27 year total HC in his 8th year at SLU to the woodshed. SLU is spending $5.8mil

https://theresourcenexus.com/budget/

I know that's not NIL but it's an indicator.

Wasting a lot of funds with the current coach. Just getting embarrassed.

[cgeldmacher]

On 1/5/2024 at 1:56 PM, Soderball said:

Dude i'm pretty sure a damp rag would do a better job than Ford at this point. booooo

You seem to regularly misinterpret what I’m saying. I’m not saying we shouldn’t change. I’m saying I want the next coach to be the right hire. Whenever and however that happens, I want us to get the right guy. Thus, I want to make sure that we’re in a position to make that happen. Anything that puts us in a position where we have to compromise on the next hire will be a bad move.

[cgeldmacher]

Nm

[cgeldmacher]

nm

[cgeldmacher]

Nm

[cgeldmacher]

A bad next hire, which would take several years to fix, would be worse than one more year of Ford followed by a great hire.

[TheA_Bomb]

4 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

A bad next hire, which would take several years to fix, would be worse than one more year of Ford followed by a great hire.

Glad your on board with firing May so he can't screw this up like he's done so many other things.

[wgstl]

4 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

A bad next hire, which would take several years to fix, would be worse than one more year of Ford followed by a great hire.

What’s the point in giving ford another year? Do you need 9 years and not just 8 to understand he is a horrible coach?

[johnbj14]

1 minute ago, wgstl said:

What’s the point in giving ford another year? Do you need 9 years and not just 8 to understand he is a horrible coach?

There isn’t one. Either donors and May think that SLU can be a relevant program, or they don’t. Wasting money on NIL as long as Travis is here makes 0 sense. Bite the bullet, pay the buyout, and bring someone in with a plan to get SLU where the program should be. 

[Lord Elrond]

37 minutes ago, Pistol said:

I'd love to hear how/when the budget is paid out. That dollar range is about where we need to be to compete for an A10 title every season. How are we doing so much less with so much more? Are we spending almost nothing on incoming players, and only paying guys to stay?

I'm watching a bunch of transfers at Mason dominate SLU right now and I'd be surprised if they have the NIL budget we do.

Is there a D-I program with a lower ROI?

No, there is not a D-1 program with a worse ROI, both on what we spend on a head coach and, if the NIL dollars is correct, on our players. We spend enough money to compete, but we don’t compete. Not spending money wisely is the SLU motto.

[Pistol]

6 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

No, there is not a D-1 program with a worse ROI, both on what we spend on a head coach and, if the NIL dollars is correct, on our players. We spend enough money to compete, but we don’t compete. Not spending money wisely is the SLU motto.

Facilities, too. We're extremely low-ROI in every category and as an overall program. It's shameful.

[Slowry]

Is there a bulletin board fund setup yet?

[Soderball]

I'm down to put some money towards the billboard.

[TheChosenOne]

11 minutes ago, Soderball said:

I'm down to put some money towards the billboard.

My wife has given up on me, so I think I can get that expense approved too! Who wants to run point on this? There are a ton of billboards along 40 near midtown, I wonder what sort of cost that is or if there are any we can jump on. Empty arenas and a billboard saying Fire Ford will get folks talking. Heck, even Martin K. questioned the direction of the program the other day on Fox 2, we could probably get him to give it some media attention.

[BillTheCat]

The George Mason HC is making well less than half of Ford's salary, and has quickly put together a team that will contend for the A10 title.  He's young and 'unproven'... but knows what it takes and what it feels like to be a winner.  

He has identified under-valued players in the portal, has brought them in and quickly convinced them to play as an alpha team instead of alpha individuals.

This could be easily turned around in one cycle if decision makers have the desire and vision. 

[TheA_Bomb]

1 hour ago, Slowry said:

Is there a bulletin board fund setup yet?

 

1 hour ago, Soderball said:

I'm down to put some money towards the billboard.

Not yet I did want to send letters to the BoT first and see if we get some movement. Need AD gone ASAP to get a new one in place to make the coach hire in March.  See my previous message in this thread eliciting input/help 

[gobillsgo]

Is there still a moratorium on “laughing stock” to describe this program, or are we now at the point that’s fair game?

[TheA_Bomb]

8 minutes ago, gobillsgo said:

Is there still a moratorium on “laughing stock” to describe this program, or are we now at the point that’s fair game?

We're at a point that we can't talk any smack to any other school. They can to us and you just gotta take it. In old CUSA at least we could say,"oh yeah well we have higher academic standards." Not so right now 

[cgeldmacher]

1 hour ago, wgstl said:

What’s the point in giving ford another year? Do you need 9 years and not just 8 to understand he is a horrible coach?

Wow, the reading comprehension is really suffering here lately.   If a coach that could turn us into Gonzaga is two years away I’d rather wait.  I’d much rather wait for that guy than hire somebody who is not going to work out next year.  I can’t imagine anyone disagree with that.
if a really good coach is available this off-season, let’s get him.

[TheA_Bomb]

14 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

Wow, the reading comprehension is really suffering here lately.   If a coach that could turn us into Gonzaga is two years away I’d rather wait.  I’d much rather wait for that guy than hire somebody who is not going to work out next year.  I can’t imagine anyone disagree with that.
if a really good coach is available this off-season, let’s get him.

Yeah I disagree with that because the most certain outcome is losing by keeping Ford. The "coach that could turn us into Gonzaga" being 2 years away is exceptionally unlikely. You seem like a nice person and I think you mean we need to make a right hire.  That has nothing to do with waiting a year. That's true anytime you make a hire.  There's a multitude of good coaches available at all times.