Athletic Department Philosophy

[VegasSpider]

I don't post much.... but I was watching Bill Belichick's introductory press conference at UNC and Bubba Cunningham (UNC AD) was asked the following question... and I was struck by the answer... given the context of our own Athletic Department philosophy.

David Teal with the Virginia Pilot Daily Press:
"Bubba in this era of Revenue sharing player compensation and the house settlement is it possible to be all in on football and men's basketball institutionally financially?"

Bubba Cunningham:
"Yeah great question David... and uh I think so and I think it's uh what we're trying to do [and] what we're doing. I think if you go all in on those two sports... those two sports provide all of the finances for the rest of the department. The more successful we are in football.... the more successful we are in basketball... the more opportunities we're going to be able to provide for for everyone else here. So I'm delighted with it and I think uh our future is incredibly bright given his leadership and that of Hubert Davis our women's
basketball program starting Revenue share this year with the NCAA tournament and Courtney's done a fantastic job. So i think the continued investment is an investment in the future of Carolina Athletics."

This seems 100% spot on to me.... and honestly, i don't see how any mid-major to major program could think differently. What am i missing and why isn't there a bigger commitment to this philosophy here and how could one run an athletic department and not understand this to be the case? Why are we going in the opposite direction? Does anyone have any insight into the business of athletics here that I am unaware of that mitigates the effectiveness of this ideological approach or leads to another approach being more optimal?

I know there are a lot of posters here with a great deal more insight into this and Im curious what im missing, if anything..... or if at this point we just have it historically, totally backwards.

 

[Wood Hall]

Expenditures on our football and basketball programs are also the biggest items in our athletic budget. Just like Carolina.

The financial rewards for a successful football program at FBS/P4 Carolina are 1000X the financial reward for a successful FCS program at Richmond.

 

[VegasSpider]

Thank you for taking the time to respond. I agree that's certainly fair...... but our budget is also likely 1/1000th of theirs.... (just to use your same number, not to assert anything specifically).

So, to that point, I think this would have to be based on an internal evaluation in terms of running and funding our athletic department based on our overall budget and the relative reward of our success to our specific budget.

Im torn, personally. I don't have an issue with our move to the Patriot League, as an example, based on the changes to the CAA, but I just hate to see any move that feels like we're going backwards and moving us away from the type of opportunities that would lead to additional recognition and reward that should/would benefit our entire athletic program.

I think its clear that this point is shared by many on here... and perhaps this question/answer in the presser today wasn't all that eye opening.... it just struck me as antithetical to the way we tend to approach things at Richmond historically... and that pains me.

 

[brooklyn brownstone]

football destroys everything in college sports. I truly believe this and feel like we're watching it happen in real time. the water's boiling and everyone is in the pot not noticing. the SEC commissioner is Jerry Jones with his hand on the burner knob.

I don't think it any surprise that Alabama, Auburn, SMU have really successful basketball coaches.

 

[VegasSpider]

I mean, fair enough. I have no specific opinion, but I absolutely wouldn't argue the point.... and I can absolutely get on board with the narrative.

But, then, if we assume that's the case... and the system works that way... why would we want to specifically approach things the way we are currently?

 

[Eight Legger]

I agree that theory is correct and also that success in both sports is much more rewarding to Carolina than it would be to us, but Vegas is also correct that we shouldn't need the same return to see the benefits. We don't have 85 scholarship football players, we aren't paying a coach $50M, etc.

At face value, i suspect we are trying to do this, but we are trying in the Richmond way. We clearly spend the most money on football and men's basketball, so if that's how you want to measure it, we are already taking this approach. But football's relative success the past few years has not translated into more fans, partially because we haven't made gameday a marketing focal point, partially because our home games have been pretty bad/unknown opponents, and partially because we play FCS football.

Basketball probably did pretty well by our standards last year financially, but I'm not sure what that looks like in the grand scheme of things.

Basketball for us clearly is the biggest opportunity to elevate our entire athletic program and university's profile outwardly, and we've invested in it accordingly. The question is, have we done so just for the sake of it or do we have specific goals in place that we're holding ourselves accountable to?