Ohio State Athletic Dept Finances

[ORD_Buckeye]

Nice article in the Plain Dealer breaking down Ohio State's and the rest of the Big Ten's a.d. finances.

http://www.cleveland.com/expo/erry-...g_tens_16_billion_sports_emp.html#incart_2box

 

[MaxBuck]

Nice article in the Plain Dealer breaking down Ohio State's and the rest of the Big Ten's a.d. finances.

http://www.cleveland.com/expo/erry-...g_tens_16_billion_sports_emp.html#incart_2box

Goes to point out that Ohio State has by far the best managed athletic department in the B1G (and likely the nation) from a financial perspective. Gene Smith is a rare treasure.

 

[Hetuck]

Corporatize college athletics. Charge the fans more than anybody else does. (Remember $20 spring game tickets?) He's no visionary. He's Dave Brandon with a winning football team.

 

[Steve19]

Corporatize college athletics. Charge the fans more than anybody else does. (Remember $20 spring game tickets?) He's no visionary. He's Dave Brandon with a winning football team.

Really? What I see is...Create value that fans are wiiling to pay to support. Have the resources necessary to have the most comprehensive sports offering in college sports. Have enough to contribute surpluses to the University, thus insulating the programs from intrauniversity politics that would block your ability to pay market-related salaries required to hire the best coaches.

You want a Lambo, you gots to pay for one.

 

[MaxBuck]

Corporatize college athletics. Charge the fans more than anybody else does. (Remember $20 spring game tickets?) He's no visionary. He's Dave Brandon with a winning football team.

If you think Gene Smith is the one who "corporatized" Big Time College Football, you aren't to be trusted with sharp objects.

The game was on, and unless you wanted tOSU to become the University of Chicago redux, we had to play by the rules in place. Gene Smith has done so with excellence.

 

[Buckeyeskickbuttocks]

Yeah, seems to me his only real fuck up was the bowl ban. Even then, fairly, he was relying on precedent available at the time which suggested firing the coach and suspending the players would constitute enough punishment. While he was ultimately proven to be wrong, it wasn't a reckless choice he made.

Comparing him to Dave Brandon is unsupportable on every level.

 

[MaxBuck]

... seems to me his only real fuck up was the bowl ban.

If you want a psych test on whether someone seriously holds a grudge, just ask them their opinion on Gene Smith.

 

[Jaxbuck]

If you want a psych test on whether someone seriously holds a grudge, just ask them their opinion on Gene Smith.

false

Ask them their opinion on scUM, Indiana and darkest Day or Wisconsin and logo dancing. Never forget, never forgive.

Smith fucked up the Bowl game thing but little else. Overall the athletic department is in great shape on the field(s) and in the financial ledgers so I'm not sure how anyone can be negative about him overall.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

Yeah, seems to me his only real fuck up was the bowl ban not firing Tressel at the initial press conference.

Nobody without inside ncaa info knows if the ncaa would have accepted our self-imposed bowl ban and not slapped us with the second year anyways. We do know that the three month firestorm could have been avoided had Smith and Gee stepped up to the microphone and announced what everyone familiar with the situation knew was going to happen anyways.

But yeah, other than that I've turned my opinion around on him and concluded that he's done a great job.

 

[Jagdaddy]

We do know that the three month firestorm could have been avoided had Smith and Gee stepped up to the microphone and announced what everyone familiar with the situation knew was going to happen anyways.

He had to factor in the millions of alumni and fans who weren't "familiar with the situation" as well as Tressel himself. Cut the cord without some absorption time and you've got much more of a ticked off fan base, a legend who seems not to have gotten "due process", much more potential for a Joesus-lite martyrdom/cult situation, and maybe even a Tressel who chooses not to go quietly. Besides what I'm sure was use of the time behind the scenes working out the details of separation by "resignation" with Tressel and letting him work through the stages of grief and exit with some dignity, the "firestorm" (which IMO was basically a fart in the wind in the grand scheme of things), gave the cover of necessity to do the inevitable, possibly helped other coaches know that Ohio State isn't a "graveyard of coaches" that just casually tosses its legends aside, and let the media and outsiders (and to a degree Tressel himself), rather than the administration/institution, look like the bad guys.

 

[ORD_Buckeye]

He had to factor in the millions of alumni and fans who weren't "familiar with the situation" as well as Tressel himself. Cut the cord without some absorption time and you've got much more of a ticked off fan base, a legend who seems not to have gotten "due process", much more potential for a Joesus-lite martyrdom/cult situation, and maybe even a Tressel who chooses not to go quietly. Besides what I'm sure was use of the time behind the scenes working out the details of separation by "resignation" with Tressel and letting him work through the stages of grief and exit with some dignity, the "firestorm" (which IMO was basically a fart in the wind in the grand scheme of things), gave the cover of necessity to do the inevitable, possibly helped other coaches know that Ohio State isn't a "graveyard of coaches" that just casually tosses its legends aside, and let the media and outsiders (and to a degree Tressel himself), rather than the administration/institution, look like the bad guys.

All very true.- Though I'd probably say the reaction of the fans would have been more uniformly pro-Tressel. The alumni that I spoke to probably broke about 80-20 in favor of "why hasn't he been fired already." There was also the memory of the O'Brien situation where Geiger did pull the quick trigger, and it ended up costing a couple of million dollars in a settlement. My understanding was that behind the scenes, the ncaa had been notified of the violations and as soon as they formally sanctioned the program, JT was out. Yahoo just threw the whole thing into chaos when they let the cat out of the bag. The whole suspending JT was another colossal mistake. The proper public line should have been "his future will be determined based on the ncaa's findings." Though that, of course, throws recruiting into chaos. And much of that shitshow of a press conference can be laid directly at Gee's feet rather than Smith. Anyways, it's all water under the bridge at this point.