Well, here they are:
- I read about the measures which conferences are taking to save money in the current economic climate, yet none of these measure seem to include the three largest drains on the budgets of schools - Football, Men's Basketball and Women's Basketball. Conference tourneys are being reduced or cut for all sports, except Men's and Women's Basketball. Conference Championship Football games are still being played. To say these sports "make money" is such a wonderful farce which nobody has the courage to call a lie.
- Instead of conferences or schools taking an honest economic look at the three largest expenditure sports and how they can save significant amounts of money, they would rather slice the salami even thinner for sports which have as much extra fat as Lindsay Lohan.
- Here is a simple and effective way for schools to save huge money - Don't allow football teams to take all their players and staff to a hotel the night before home games!!! How this was ever allowed in the first place is a such a display of weakness by administrators. What a great waste of money - Since coaches cannot trust their team to go to sleep early and be prepared to compete the next day, we will spend the following: Rooms in a hotel for the entire home roster and staff ($5,500), charter buses to and from campus ($2,400), all meals while away from campus ($7,000) - Conservatively, it looks like almost $15,000.00 just to play a home game. Times that by 6 home games and I have found a way to save each school $100,000.00 minimum without taking anything away from the student-athletes.
- I wish I would have been smarter or studied harder or not been such a brilliant athlete, because being a Tenured Professor sure is a nice blanket in these economic times. I once had a professor say that they could walk through campus stark naked with their hair on fire and not be terminated because they had tenure.
- All volleyball club events (including the 94 different championships) should end no later than June 15th. Let's give the players at least six weeks off before high school volleyball starts up. Let's give the parents time to take a vacation without making some volleyball coach upset.
- Speaking of changing the dates of everything - I would vote for adjusting the July 1st Open Season on Recruiting (calling players, doing home visits for Seniors) back to at least July 15th. Just think, when the last tournament ends on June 15th, college coaches would have a lunar cycle to just do other things than chase the next best whatever.
- You may not be a loyal reader of the opening page of the ncaa.org web page, but I have just about had my fill of the sand volleyball propaganda (at least they put something which looks like a volleyball on the sand in the picture). It has been voted as an "Emerging Sport", now let's see if it emerges. Don't sell it to me, don't tell me why this is the greatest thing to happen to indoor volleyball since rally score, don't do anything (believe me, you have done too much) - Just let schools decide if they will want to sponsor the sport based on their own interests.
- Ever wonder why the NCAA did not allocate more scholarships to women's indoor volleyball instead of creating sand volleyball? It is because sand volleyball can be counted as a women's sport, and thus be counted in the total of women's sports sponsored to meet minimum sport levels for Division I certification. Oh, I am sure the equity counters do not mind the opportunity to add to the total of female athletes within the athletic department to off-set the 100+ football players either.
- Instead of the NCAA or the conferences or the athletic departments having the courage to yank the chain of football and limit rosters, they have supported the rowing as a NCAA sport. Nothing like having a varsity boat, a novice boat, a freshman boat and boats for 2 or 4 or 8 person teams on the water in each classification - A little bit of math goes a long ways towards balancing inequity. I wonder if the rowing team goes to a hotel before a home event?
- By the way, when we do pull out of the economic down turn, which programs do you think will benefit first? All the Olympic sports which have been cut? Or will it be the football and basketball programs which have really 'suffered' lately and must be brought back up to competitive levels for the future of the team and my gosh, the university? Why will they get the fresh squeezed green juice first? I think because they have a coaches association which focuses on one thing - Making life better for their coaches.
- I really hope my team works out this summer. You tell them to work out, you call and ask how their workouts are going, then you just hold your breath to see what walks in the door for the first practice. A tan looks good, but it can't hide what you have not done in the off-season. I have grown to view athletes returning heavier and not in good (I don't expect great shape) shape as nothing more than an insult to the program, myself and a very selfish statement.
- How come a first assistant women's basketball coach in Division I will be paid more money than a Head Volleyball coach at 90% of schools? Approximately the same roster, one less staff member, same travel schedule, etc., but the assistant makes more! When I think of this and then read the drivel coming out about sand volleyball, I get a headache in my eye.
- It seems to me that the formula to gain financial reward in college athletics is to win, but to do so in an egomaniac manner with a smile on your face while driving your team into the ground and breaking every rule you can get away with. Oh the stories I could tell (and not about volleyball programs, just the things I have seen in other sports).
OK - Time to go to sleep and I wish all my readers (I wonder how many people actually read my blog?) a wonderful week!
