Miami Athletics 2022-2023 School Year Snapshot
March 27
MEN
Football 6-7
Basketball 12-20
Hockey 8-24-4
Baseball 5-20 (mid-season)
WOMEN
Volleyball 7-22
Basketball 12-19
Field Hockey 14-8
Soccer 9-7-6
Softball 14-12 (mid-season)
Tennis 8-7 (mid-season)
Ugh.
Ugh x 2
And our ACHA club hockey team.
I’ve never done the exercise but I suspect quite strongly that if you weigh the W-L records of the various teams by average attendance, it will look even worse thereby further contributing to the depressive state of mind many here harbor regarding Miami ICA.
I get the frustration for this season… It ignores the fact that each of those teams have won the MAC within the last four years.
We knew volleyball was going to have a rebuilding year. Coach C has earned that.
We knew tennis was going to have a rebuilding year. Their coach has earned that.
Soccer is actually rebuilding with a new coach and is much improved.
We knew field hockey was going to have a rebuilding year after their success.
Softball went with an insanely aggressive schedule to start positioning themselves with the big dogs of softball. This is the side effect.
What’s frustrating is this post suffers from the two problems every topic on this subject suffers from:
It is just what I called it - a snapshot of the current state of our program.
As such, this is what our 22-23 season looks like on precisely March 27, 2023.
It also ignores the fact that we are essentially a .500 football program following our head coach’s 9th year, our hockey program is atrocious entering our coach’s 5th year and our baseball team is struggling mightily deep into our coach’s contract - as is women’s hoops. It ignores how bad our men’s hoops teams have been and the fact that we were in the first year of a new, aggressive coach.
There is no denying that field hockey, volleyball and softball were due for down seasons following their superlative showings the past couple of years. In fact, FH actually did well in last fall’s playoffs.
But women’s teams seem to be having more success than the men’s teams. That is pretty obvious from the snapshot.
As for solutions, many have been offered in other forums - both constructive and ludicrous. Improved funding, coaching, recruiting, performance and overalll university commitment to success seem to be the solutions mentioned most often.
Four primary revenue sports over the past decade:
Football
45-71 (37-38). 3 winning seasons (8-6, 7-6, and 2-1 during covid). 1 conference championship. 4 postseason appearances (1-3 record in minor bowl games). 1 winless season.
Men’s basketball
132-181 (69-112). 1 winning season (12-11 during covid). 0 conference championships. 0 conference semifinal appearances. 1 postseason appearance (0-1 in the CBI). 0 seasons in the top half of the conference.
Hockey
115-205-36 (62-155-24). 1 winning season. 1 conference championship. 2 conference semifinal appearances. 1 postseason appearance (0-1). 8 seasons in last place or second to last place in the conference.
Women’s basketball
118-187 (59-125). 2 winning seasons. 0 conference championships. 2 conference tournament wins. 2 postseason appearances (0-2 in the WNIT). 3 last place conference finishes.
10 years, 4 sports, 40 seasons, and only like 4 teams that were worth a damn (only one of those four teams being in any way nationally relevant, 9 years ago in the least popular of the four sports). That’s a generation of potential fans lost forever.
I think it’s selling field hockey way short to call 2022 a rebuilding year. That senior class went out winning every MAC title, regular season and postseason, in their careers.
I wonder if Dr. Jive meant softball. I’m channeling my inner editor and think that’s most plausible.
Culture of Champions out in full force.
Your deeper dive placed my snapshot in perspective.
All of the above beg the question, why is David Sayler still employed.
Results in the top 4-fan-drawing sports kind of makes Miami’s Cartwright Awards a joke…
I’d guess a mixture of apathy from the powers that be, and his general likability and interpersonal skills. I mean, even here on the board, our admin acts as his hypeman and defender.
There’s that word “apathy” again. I know I’m an old man, but I never thought I would ever see the word “apathy” associated with Miami athletics. Students aren’t interested because they’ve been given little reason to be. And the powers to be seem to want to hang their hat on a great business school and a beautiful campus. Wake up. It’s 2023. I for one would like to see some sustainable athletic success while I’m alive on this earth.
And no, I have no solutions.
Nobody is making you agree with me. But it’s a weird coincidence that most of the Miami men’s sports finish right in line with the funding they receive. Football has low salaries and most of the conference has comparable facilities now. Basketball has some of the lowest funding in the conference. There’s only so much chicken salad you can make from shit…
And honestly, looking at the chicken salad, the rate of championships hasn’t changed much looking at the last 40 years: List of Mid-American Conference champions - Wikipedia
In the last 40 years:
Baseball has won the regular season 3 times (once in the last 10) and the tournament 3 times.
Basketball has clearly dropped off.
Women’s basketball has won the mac tournament twice ever. They’ve won the division (or regular season conference before divisions) 5 times ever.
Men’s X-Country has won the MAC 7 times, twice in the last decade. Pretty average.
Women’s X-Country has won the MAC 3 times, once in the past decade. Pretty average.
Field hockey has won the regular season 11 times. 8 of those in the last decade (and consecutive). They’ve won the tournament 8 times. 7 in the last decade including 6 straight. Seems like a considerable improvement.
Football has won the MAC 4 times. Once in the past decade. Perfectly average.
Golf - 8 times. Once in the last decade. One away from being average.
Weird women’s golf fact, Kent State has won the conference every year.
Soccer - 5 regular season titles, one in the last decade. 4 tournament wins, zero in the last decade. Below average.
Softball - 5 tourney titles. 2 in the last decade. 5 regular season. 2 in the last decade. Above average
Men’s Swim/Dive - 7 MAC titles. 4 in the last decade, including 3 straight.
Women’s Swim/Dive - 17 titles. 1 in the last decade. Way down.
Tennis - 20 regular season titles. 5 in the last decade. 17 tourney titles. 4 in the last decade. Tennis is still there.
Men’s T&F - 2 in the last 40. 1 in the last 10.
Women’s T&F - 2 ('86, '87)
Volleyball - 5 tourney titles, 1 in last 10. 9 regular season, 4 in last decade.
I excluded hockey because I don’t feel like looking up NCHC and CCHA stats and this wiki page had everything in one place.
There are a lot of fingers that really should be pointed at the BoT that for some reason are getting pointed at Sayler.
The BoT is not interested and/or not capable of funding a top-tier MAC Athletic Program.
Field Hockey was not down this year, that is crazy talk. They won the league as they do every year, they won the tournament as they do every year. They lost a bunch of nonleague games but mostly they were against top 25 teams.
We won an NCAA tournament game and lost the Sweet 16 game in OT because after a review they disallowed a goal in the shootout at Northwestern who was the defending National Champion and finished National runners up this year. That may have been our best postseason yet, the closest we ever came to winning a second game and advancing to the Elite 8.
These records also point out why it is so crazy that so many want to fire Chuck when he is running the best men’s program that we have. Obviously the conditions at Miami are not conducive to winning big.
