It’s entirely plausible that Miami will win 28 or 29 games this year and not make the NCAA tournament. Even if you believe Travis Steele is willing to work for free, he probably also wants the opportunity as a coach not only to make the tournament but make some noise there. Literally any major conference job is going to provide more access to NIL, assistant coaches’ salaries, and multiple tournament bids.
Alex is pounding on all of us to donate more to Miami not just to increase the chances that this staff will stick around but also to make it a better job when we need to hire the next coach and maintain continuity. We’ve done it before in football and basketball, but it’s harder and more expensive now
I’m personally much more worried by jobs like Dayton, Butler and SLU than major conference jobs.
He’s a Butler alum and Dayton is in the region. Both jobs very well could open up.
Regardless of money, Steele is still relatively young, ambitious, and super competitive. If the right opportunity comes by, he will take it. That’s life in the MAC.
I do think his personal circumstances mean he’s also happy if Miami is the right job right now for him until that ideal circumstance comes.
When I was young the Old Bobcat used to tell people I was the kind of kid who could get a bag of shit under the Christmas tree and run to the window lookin’ for the pony. I’m still that guy. And I will be rooting hard for the magic to continue. But I was also a halfway decent math student, so I have a rough sense of the probabilities here.
I could be wrong on any or all accounts, but my understanding is that his in-laws wealth comes from owning a billion dollar company, and his wife makes a lot of money as one of the top level employees of said company. And she is unwilling to quit her job with the family business. In that scenario, his family, not his in-laws only, have considerable wealth. And also for him to take any job away from the Cincinnati area would require him being separated from his family consistently.
I have said it before but the one job that would surprise me is UC. For every other possible job opening their fan base would view Mr. Steele as the coach who resuscitated a struggling program and brought them to the top 25. UC boosters will think of him as the guy who struggled at Xavier. I think the UC AD would have a harder job selling his boosters than anyone else that Mr. Steele is the right guy
I’m a poet/degenerate. The long odds are more fun. That’s why people play the lottery. Someone always wins. Coach Steele is our lotto ticket. Might as well go for the win.