I guess I don’t understand your post 97. If we aren’t, at a minimum, going to “chase MAC championships” then what should we being chasing in athletics? If you don’t value to some degree MAC championships, then it seems to me we should drop athletics all together. Which I would venture to say no one on this board advocates.
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I think there is one thing you aren’t considering: if we go undefeated in football we end up playing a huge bowl game. See WMU and NIU as examples.
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Question: Is an overall common factor that holds back Athletic Dept. Revenue Poor Ticket Sales? Name a sport that’s killin it at the box office… ?
Are ticket sales the responsibility of the Athletics Dept? I think so.
Why not involve the Business school? Some decent marketing and an efficient sales operation should be an improvement.
Most “normal” sales organizations are terminated with poor performance.
I think Miami tried that once upon a time with Laws Hall and Associates with tepid success.
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Tepid success might be deemed an improvement currently.
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They need proven experts, not students. The problems are complex.
Make a grad school ( with prof supervision) project.
Have you seen the type of impressive work they’re doing?
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I have nothing against anyone there or the work they may be doing. My opinion is based on my own personal experience. I think outside perspective is essential or you end up talking to yourself.
How much has WMU’s & NIU’s past success in going to NY6 bowls helped their academic ranking or reputation or increased their applications? I’m going to guess that it hasn’t.
I suggest that you could drop ALL Men’s athletics at Miami except football and basketball, and very few students - and NO incoming freshman - would even care. Perhaps you could argue to keep Men’s hockey (especially given the investment the university has made into facilities), but that’s it, IMO. Every other men’s sport could be abolished tomorrow, and no one (except for those students playing those sports) would even notice by this time next year.
Instead of guessing, you can actually look it up… It’s definitely changed WMU’s reputation. And not only that, they’ve had some insane fundraising come out of it. NIU was able to spin their success into a complete athletics overhaul.
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Question: were you ever a student or just a townie? Because I’d very much disagree with you. As in, the amount you’d change the student experience would change drastically.
I wouldn’t be in a position to know one way or the other. I spend my time reading dog track and country or horse racing fancier. Not a dated publication like US News
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Experts that could design programs that deliver the revenue and exposure needed to maximize the value of multi-media rights, enable capital projects and increase fan engagement? Experts that could offer a more comprehensive and coordinated revenue and exposure solution? Experts that could maximize the true value of Miami Athletics by capitalizing on partnership opportunities and prioritizing the mission, goals and objectives of the department?
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Yep. And I personally don’t think the bulk of them are on campus. (And that’s no dig to anyone in Oxford.) This is a complex thing.
well…maybe we can start with the three people from Van Wagner that are listed on the ICA website staff directory?
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@JiveHawk if we dropped all men’s sports except football, basketball and hockey how would that drastically affect the student experience? The students aren’t going to football or basketball now, I can’t imagine many are going to baseball, golf, swimming or track and field, nor do they care.
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In the six seasons since WMU played in the 2017 Cotton Bowl the Broncos lost their head coach and have won a grand total of 34 football games. That’s an average of under 6 victories per season. Their 2018-2019 USN&WR ranking was 285 out from 443 in national universities. In 2022 WMU is still ranked 285.
Investing money on MAC football success as a means to improved academic rankings makes as much sense as investing in scratch-offs to buy a new car; people do it but not the smart ones.
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I don’t have the data or knowledge the admissions folks have to answer whether this is a trend or not. Anecdotally, I haven’t seen it yet. When I ask, virtually all the students tell me they chose Miami because of the quality of the education, unique programs (like robotics or entrepreneurship), or because of placement/employability. I know some folks might not like it as much, but employability (i.e., teaching what the job market demands) is driving most of what we do on campus. One can see that by looking at the other three cornerstones of the fundraising campaign: health, biz/entrepreneurship, and data science/tech.
Boise State definitely capitalized on their success in football. They had come from an obscure junior college to a full-service state university in 1974. They didn’t begin playing FBS football until 1996. They knocked off Oklahoma in 2007 and nationally ranked Virginia Tech in FedEx field in 2008 - creating a national brand and launching several years of success and access to a number of better bowls. The money they made helped upgrade a number of university programs and also let them expand and upgrade Albertsons Stadium to include more seats and revenue-generating suites. They are now Idaho’s dominant state university with nearly 25,000 students being considered for membership in the prestigious PAC-12. Successful football was a solid front porch for Boise.
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