UMass to the MAC

[Hens79]

then the new Delaware Stadium north end zone money should be there without donations, yes?

I have heard that we only have enough money right now to pursue NIL effectively OR pursue the stadium upgrades. We do not have enough money to do both right now. It will be interesting to see which way we go.

$60-80 million in stadium upgrades...OR NIL money?

That isn't a good sign.

I agree it isn’t a good sign if it is really true. But it hasn’t felt like full speed ahead for the stadium upgrades for a while now, especially since the FBS/CUSA announcement.

UD has to find multiple big donors. I mean the Wilmington Italian ice family (ok they are real estate developers now too , just gave $5 million to Ursiline Academy in Wilmington to redo their gym.

[jd of de]

For clarification, the north end zone project is an indoor practice facility and locker room project with a small stadium component, not the other way around.

[Bluewyn Gold]

Well, we have never been ahead of the game… I do feel like we only moved up because we “had to” since not long ago Chrissi stated she would be laughed out of the room by the powers that be if she tried to talk about us moving to FBS.

Oh, without question. Delaware athletics has never, ever been ahead of the game at anything related to sports, except for maybe utilizing the Wing-T.

Historically, there had always been a great fear of big time college athletics mixed in with a dose of unfounded academic snobbery. We didn't make the move to University/I-A that our former peers Rutgers, Villanova, and Temple made in the 1970s; we waited too long to move to I-AA and then did so without athletic-related aid, only adding it after several years in the subdivision; and then sat like a potted plant for the next 35 years while many of our competitors either reclassified or eliminated football.

My great fear is that there are still elements on the board not fully committed to reclassification, who were reluctantly talked into the move. Unless there's a complete change in athletic philosophy away from the financially irresponsible 1990s broad based nonsense in favor of a more targeted approach, life in CUSA could be very difficult. I suppose we're about to find out if we've spread ourselves too thin sponsoring 22 sports when our conference opponents on average sponsor 15-16. Maybe adding women's ice hockey was just a trojan horse that will allow the school to cut 5-6 other sports in due time.

[Cluck U]

For clarification, the north end zone project is an indoor practice facility and locker room project with a small stadium component, not the other way around.

Oh, OK.

$60-80 million in facility and locker room upgrades...OR NIL money?

That isn't a good sign.

[UDPat]

I have heard that we only have enough money right now to pursue NIL effectively OR pursue the stadium upgrades. We do not have enough money to do both right now. It will be interesting to see which way we go.

$60-80 million in stadium upgrades...OR NIL money?

That isn't a good sign.

I agree it isn’t a good sign if it is really true. But it hasn’t felt like full speed ahead for the stadium upgrades for a while now, especially since the FBS/CUSA announcement.

UD has to find multiple big donors. I mean the Wilmington Italian ice family (ok they are real estate developers now too , just gave $5 million to Ursiline Academy in Wilmington to redo their gym.

He has also given much more to Sallies. He grew up in my neighborhood as his Dad was the Man, He was showed a lot of respect. You should read up on why he gives that kind of money to the catholic schools. You will learn a lot.

He ain't given UD one penny.

[tenn hen]

Well, we have never been ahead of the game… I do feel like we only moved up because we “had to” since not long ago Chrissi stated she would be laughed out of the room by the powers that be if she tried to talk about us moving to FBS.

Oh, without question. Delaware athletics has never, ever been ahead of the game at anything related to sports, except for maybe utilizing the Wing-T.

Historically, there had always been a great fear of big time college athletics mixed in with a dose of unfounded academic snobbery. We didn't make the move to University/I-A that our former peers Rutgers, Villanova, and Temple made in the 1970s; we waited too long to move to I-AA and then did so without athletic-related aid, only adding it after several years in the subdivision; and then sat like a potted plant for the next 35 years while many of our competitors either reclassified or eliminated football.

My great fear is that there are still elements on the board not fully committed to reclassification, who were reluctantly talked into the move. Unless there's a complete change in athletic philosophy away from the financially irresponsible 1990s broad based nonsense in favor of a more targeted approach, life in CUSA could be very difficult. I suppose we're about to find out if we've spread ourselves too thin sponsoring 22 sports when our conference opponents on average sponsor 15-16. Maybe adding women's ice hockey was just a trojan horse that will allow the school to cut 5-6 other sports in due time.

spot on- if CR/UD can't accomplish pulling together through funding campaigns-alumni and businesses/UD money/possible state funding,
then we will remain in a better affiliation (CUSA) but still undesirable sort of third class environment. A Half A** FBS effort just won't work. I agree with B&G. Accepting "Blue and YELLOW" is detrimental to our tradition/fight song for our Fightin' Blue Hens!

We don't need woman's field Hockey or checkers- we need quality major sports to move up. The AD needs to figure how to handle Title 9 and work it to our advantage in saving costs. The travel due to the late CUSA acceptance has unfortunately created more travel costs though CR has successfully chosen major OOC opponents that will enhance our FBS legits. All the schollies applied to several minor sports is an issue as many of the kids brought in from outside the US is a questionable return on investment.

If we wish to become a player-though not SEC/BIG- in college sports, we need a quality public relations campaign That's why a limited horseshow stadium works. The locker room/indoor facilities can follow later. Even simply announcing NOW that construction will begin after the 2024 season will be sufficient to prove out FBS intent. Most everything else is unnecessary to how UD will appear to the college football world. Appearances do matter! Marshall McLuhan made it clear-"the Median is the Message"

[Bluewyn Gold]

Agree, Tenn. I have no qualms about adding women's ice hockey; in fact, that's a terrific move. But it won't be terrific if we don't start cutting sports and laser focus resources on those that give us the best chance to succeed and promote UD nationally - both with men's and women's sports. We have little chance of succeeding in CUSA sponsoring 22 programs. It's fiscally irresponsible and makes no competitive sense.

(BTW, I'd argue that field hockey is one sport we really DO need to have and one we can continue to succeed at on a national level.)

[jd of de]

HOW THE HECK did we go from a conversation that the student-athletes deserved a share of the massive media money being paid for the broadcast rights of the games they play in, to a NIL system that asks donors to support paying student-athletes. Asking for a friend.

[Caribbean Hen]

then the new Delaware Stadium north end zone money should be there without donations, yes?

I have heard that we only have enough money right now to pursue NIL effectively OR pursue the stadium upgrades. We do not have enough money to do both right now. It will be interesting to see which way we go.

$60-80 million in stadium upgrades...OR NIL money?

That isn't a good sign.

If true, I would prioritize NIL, bring better talent to Newark, the kind of talent that can create a buzz and that leads to winning right off the bat in CUSA.

If the talent and winning creates demand for tickets, you have a good reason to build more stadium and seats

Prioritizing building more Stadium first comes with serious risk, and that’s fine I guess as long as somebody else is paying for it

[Bluewyn Gold]

HOW THE HECK did we go from a conversation that the student-athletes deserved a share of the massive media money being paid for the broadcast rights of the games they play in, to a NIL system that asks donors to support paying student-athletes. Asking for a friend.

It's a pendulum swing too far in the other direction, right? You'd have to think there will be a (consumer-driven) correction in fairly short order when reality slaps the schools and employee-athletes (since student-athlete no longer defines them) with a bit of economic reality.

[tomdawg00022]

My great fear is that there are still elements on the board not fully committed to reclassification, who were reluctantly talked into the move. Unless there's a complete change in athletic philosophy away from the financially irresponsible 1990s broad based nonsense in favor of a more targeted approach, life in CUSA could be very difficult. I suppose we're about to find out if we've spread ourselves too thin sponsoring 22 sports when our conference opponents on average sponsor 15-16. Maybe adding women's ice hockey was just a trojan horse that will allow the school to cut 5-6 other sports in due time.

UMass and UConn each have 21 sports and Temple 19 (as a comparable). Most East Coast schools sponsor more stuff, generally.

We're in a southern conference and the things that the East Coast generally supports/sponsors (lacrosse, soccer, field hockey) aren't commonly sponsored by as many schools down south.

Getting rid of the East Coast-centric sports isn't necessarily helpful given we will ultimately leave CUSA at some point and the costs for rebooting those programs isn't cheap.

[dchen]

Well, we have never been ahead of the game… I do feel like we only moved up because we “had to” since not long ago Chrissi stated she would be laughed out of the room by the powers that be if she tried to talk about us moving to FBS.

Oh, without question. Delaware athletics has never, ever been ahead of the game at anything related to sports, except for maybe utilizing the Wing-T.

Historically, there had always been a great fear of big time college athletics mixed in with a dose of unfounded academic snobbery. We didn't make the move to University/I-A that our former peers Rutgers, Villanova, and Temple made in the 1970s; we waited too long to move to I-AA and then did so without athletic-related aid, only adding it after several years in the subdivision; and then sat like a potted plant for the next 35 years while many of our competitors either reclassified or eliminated football.

My great fear is that there are still elements on the board not fully committed to reclassification, who were reluctantly talked into the move. Unless there's a complete change in athletic philosophy away from the financially irresponsible 1990s broad based nonsense in favor of a more targeted approach, life in CUSA could be very difficult. I suppose we're about to find out if we've spread ourselves too thin sponsoring 22 sports when our conference opponents on average sponsor 15-16. Maybe adding women's ice hockey was just a trojan horse that will allow the school to cut 5-6 other sports in due time.

spot on- if CR/UD can't accomplish pulling together through funding campaigns-alumni and businesses/UD money/possible state funding,
then we will remain in a better affiliation (CUSA) but still undesirable sort of third class environment. A Half A** FBS effort just won't work. I agree with B&G. Accepting "Blue and YELLOW" is detrimental to our tradition/fight song for our Fightin' Blue Hens!

We don't need woman's field Hockey or checkers- we need quality major sports to move up. The AD needs to figure how to handle Title 9 and work it to our advantage in saving costs. The travel due to the late CUSA acceptance has unfortunately created more travel costs though CR has successfully chosen major OOC opponents that will enhance our FBS legits. All the schollies applied to several minor sports is an issue as many of the kids brought in from outside the US is a questionable return on investment.

If we wish to become a player-though not SEC/BIG- in college sports, we need a quality public relations campaign That's why a limited horseshow stadium works. The locker room/indoor facilities can follow later. Even simply announcing NOW that construction will begin after the 2024 season will be sufficient to prove out FBS intent. Most everything else is unnecessary to how UD will appear to the college football world. Appearances do matter! Marshall McLuhan made it clear-"the Median is the Message"

“The ‘median’ is the message”?

“Forget it, he’s on a roll”. From Animal House.

[dchen]

HOW THE HECK did we go from a conversation that the student-athletes deserved a share of the massive media money being paid for the broadcast rights of the games they play in, to a NIL system that asks donors to support paying student-athletes. Asking for a friend.

In an NIL world, would Jim Tressel get fired over his players getting free tattoos?

[Bluewyn Gold]

UMass and UConn each have 21 sports and Temple 19 (as a comparable). Most East Coast schools sponsor more stuff, generally.

We're in a southern conference and the things that the East Coast generally supports/sponsors (lacrosse, soccer, field hockey) aren't commonly sponsored by as many schools down south.

Getting rid of the East Coast-centric sports isn't necessarily helpful given we will ultimately leave CUSA at some point and the costs for rebooting those programs isn't cheap.

The broad based philosophy hasn't exactly propelled UMass, Temple, or UConn football to any great heights. UConn hoops is as strong as ever, of course.

If past is any pretense, UD will be married to CUSA for a decade or longer. Other conferences aren't going to be looking at UD if our football and hoops programs aren't competing favorably in CUSA. And if we expect football to lead the way, as it always has, we're inevitably going to be partnering up with schools south of Newark, many of whom offer far fewer than 22 sports programs.

It doesn't seem like UD is in the cutting mode yet and that's fine. We'll see how it works out for us in CUSA. As it inevitably does, time will prove the wiser.

[Cluck U]

HOW THE HECK did we go from a conversation that the student-athletes deserved a share of the massive media money being paid for the broadcast rights of the games they play in, to a NIL system that asks donors to support paying student-athletes. Asking for a friend.

Pretty funny, isn’t it?

Those who demanded that the kids get a LARGE share of the TV money were only fooling themselves. Workers (and that is what the players are) are replaceable. Heck, the rules of college sports limit kids playing a max of 4-5 years (4 years, really, since they can only play in a limited number of games in a redshirt year). Plug in a new name and repeat. In sailing terms, most of them are simply rail meat. If the bags of TV money get divided up and the universities want to distribute moolah to the kids, then by all means, have at it. Similar to other employers, they will have to pay the kids what the market will sustain.

The NIL money, on the other hand, is a different beast. If a fan wants a sippy cup with a particular player’s image…pay up. That’s fair. If the players want to make money selling their image to a local pizza joint: cool, too. Let the kids earn money on their images.

But, what I find strange is the universities suddenly wanting fans to contribute money to a pool of NIL money for the players (above and beyond the scholarship stuff). Hey, good luck. If the college players are going to be tramping themselves around from team to team every year with zero loyalty, then why should a fan give a hoot about the individual players? Fans are usually loyal to the TEAM…the school…not a player.

Many, including the players, seem to have forgotten that the student athletes were already getting compensated with a free education (for whatever that is worth these days). It wasn’t a perfect system, but…I am not interested in participating in paying 18-22 year olds gobs of money to put on a uniform, show their face for a year or two, just to *checks notes* play a game.

Again, I agree entirely that the kids should be able to earn whatever the market will pay them. Free enterprise. If they get creative and find a great market fit for their image and can get paid…yes-ha! The American dream.

But, if UD or the kids want me to pay separately for a fund that will be used specifically to recruit kids…just to play a sport for the university…no thanks.

The market will settle in after a few years. Should be a fun ride.