I just received my copy of the Miamian magazine. After reading it, there is, once again, a COMPLETE lack of ANY info on MU athletics. This same thing happened in the report sent two quarters ago (or so) which was also was completely devoid of any mention of athletics. At the time, I wrote to the Alumni Office and complained about the lack of info on athletics. Not surprisingly, my letter was not printed in the next issue and I received no feedback–good, bad, or indifferent. This time, all there is is a drawing of a softball player and Wayne Embry on the cover. And a very brief mention of a coach at a branch campus received honors… But not a damn thing about what athletics did over the past seasons, despite having All Americans in baseball, softball, and success in men’s and, especially, women’s athletics the last year or two.
I am totally disgusted with the lack of recognition and support that the university gives to athletics. Is it any wonder there is NO interest in our teams?
Read about our $1B campaign. Money going to very good programs. Miami is, after all, a university that emphasizes and supports academic support and success. But not a dime for athletics.
I am one who sees the world in one way–through Red and White lenses. If it’s good for us, I like it. If not, I don’t. And I sure as hell don’t have any loyalty to any school but ours. But after 50 years, I am about done. I have been a member of the Brice Society for years, with a bequeath for men’s basketball. I also hoped to provide a significant donation for men’s hoops. But the lack of institutional support for athletics makes me angry–and sick to death! I also question what the hell the administration, BoT, etc, are doing to support our programs (not a damn thing). Unfortunately, with this continued lack of support, even from the Alumni Office, it sends a clear message to former players and potential donors. As in–“Why? What’s the point?”
Sorry this is so long. It makes me angry to have to write this.
The “Administration” from the top----down do not give a rat’s arse about ICA. They manage to “tap” students (parents) for about a $$$$Thou a year…and then totally ignore what at many schools front porch…Shameful.
The ONLY way they will ever get the message is when parents demand that their kids’ fees be accounted for and, for those fees they expect some Admin involvement…Not likely to happen.
At Miami, as I’ve said for years, ICA is treated like a Chess Club…absolutely no top level care…
I noticed the mention of the deaths of Don Peddie ‘66 - from Bo’s football era and of former Michigsn Head Coach Gary Moeller, who was an assistant coach for Miami under Bo. There was also an article about the two former football teammates and the donated kidney. In yesteryears our alumni base drove the emphasis on athletics and the Alumni Office was highly responsive.
I don’t think our recent alumni care nearly as much. One indicator was the lack of watch parties for our bowl game. Granted it was an 11:30 EST start on a Friday but it was the Friday before Christmas week and lots of folks were probably off work - or easily could have been for a few hours. It could have been a breakfast event for West Coast chapters. But I think the only watch parties were Oxford and Southwest Florida, and that one was driven by retired Miami alums.
IMHO, Miami’s making efforts to go forward with athletics and not spending boo-koo bucks to keep up with the Joneses, esp. in the uncertainty of NIL and rent-a-student/athlete. I seriously see any conferences that aren’t B1G & SEC are in limbo, and spending huge sums of money right now for athletics seems to be unwise at the present time.
I’d like it if Miami could schedule some decent home games against teams that aren’t Div. 1-aa, though… aside from that, I’m good with how Miami Athletics is operating.
You should schedule a sit down with Travis Steele, and let him know you think Miami is operating correctly and shouldn’t invest more in athletics. I’m guessing it is going to be an enlightening conversation for you.
This bothers me the most about our alma mater. Athletics is one thing, and I love following our teams, but 20 years ago when I was a student, we were a top 60 school academically, and the highest ranked public school in Ohio. OSU has since left us in the dust, and now we’re not even in the top 100. It makes me sad. And yes, I realize that there are components of those rankings that are weighted more heavily toward research and areas that Miami has never been known for, but we’ve even dropped in areas like undergraduate teaching and business that we used to dominate. And I’d imagine the 89% acceptance rate (at least that was the last I saw) has played a big role in the drop in the rankings.
I don’t at all disagree with your main premise here - I have been frustrated for years with the overall weak support for athletics at Miami. I will say this though - the AD and team are working on raising funds for Millett, it just isn’t ready to announce because of rules they have about how many $$ are in hand before going public. I have been told by AD personnel that if they come through with $X million for Millett or any other sports facility during the $1 Billion campaign, those $$ will count as part of the goal. In fact, the main office of development is counting on the AD delivering at least a small chunk of the goal number.
The campaign is fairly vague in terms of naming projects - it mentions an emphasis on health sciences (new bldg almost finished), business, data analytics (new bldg under construction) and overall scholarship support as the main 3 pillars. But of course, any other projects they are working on behind the scenes will be tallied up to the big overall number.
Here’s the thing: No one knows what’s going to happen to college football for the have-nots, and by that I mean ANY CONFERENCE that isn’t the B1G or SEC. There’s a fairly reasonable chance that these 2 conferences say “Forget the NCAA, we’re setting our own rules, our own eligibility requirements, our own NIL standards, and the rest of the conferences are going to deal with it”.
Plunking down $100M so that “The U” plays home games against Louisiana-Monroe, Liberty, Coastal Carolina and UCF doesn’t seem that wise…
Not your “boss”. Just making a suggestion. He is very approachable. And he will tell you where Miami basketball stands, not with teams outside our conference, but within the MAC. Things other MAC basketball programs have, ours does not. If you don’t know, Steele’s brother is John Groce at Akron. One of his closest friends is Rob Senderoff at Kent. And to DG and anyone else who thinks commenting on funding mens basketball is somehow a comment against funding the various academic campaigns, it is not. They are not mutually exclusive.
