Is USF Athletics meeting their goals?

[Mike Stuben]

I think my statement of goals goes back to Paul Griffin. He explained the goals of the athletic department as these (in a random order):

 

Have academic success of our student athletes (which also includes preparing them for life after sports).

 

Be compliant to all rules that govern over USF Athletics (including NCAA, conference, university and the law).

 

Be fiscally responsible.

 

Win

 

 

Now my take:

 

I think, in general, our student athletes are academically successful and prepared for life after sports. 

 

I think we run a clean program for the most part. We got caught cheating on Title 9 with our inflated Cross Country roster. Bill McGillis was quoted as a representative of the department we would no longer do what we got caught doing, and it looks like we are still doing the same cheating (it may not be cheating by the letter of the law, but it is sleazy, we got caught, promised to clean up our act and failed to live up to our promise).

 

I am scared to death of our finances right now. Lots of debt that was taken out assuming a large tv contract that never materialized. We are paying 3 head football coaches and 2 defensive coordinators. I have read and assume it to be correct that our AD will be the highest paid in our conference next year. I hope our "sorry you are stuck in the American" slush fund of the lucky schools that got to leave left behind for us is enough to keep our heads above water. Ticket revenue and donor revenue will be down drastically.

 

Right now we aren't winning. I am only going to evaluate our ticketed sports. Men's Soccer, Softball and Women's Basketball are all doing good. All coaches have been with our department for a long time. Jose and Ken were Paul Griffin hires, George was either a Paul Griffin or LRS hire. Baseball and Volleyball are drastically down from the programs they used to be. Go to a volleyball match, look at a wall of banners, and notice that none are from the last 10 years. MBB is coming off a bad year (but to be fair was at an all time high the year before). I hate to steal the phrase, but right now football is a dumpster fire. And, guess what, we will probably be bad next year too, because we will still be relying on many of the same players.  Football is how most of America views our university, and right now it isn't pretty.

[USF_Grouper]

I would say the only reasonable goal for USF athletics is to promote the university.  I don't think anyone would look at our football program over the past 3 years and say it is promoted the university.

[Jamie]

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it.

 

"We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East."

 

That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

[Mike Stuben]

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it.

 

"We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East."

 

That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

 

That statement has no method of measurement. For example without a eye on compliance or fiscal responsibility, we could win more. Simply offer the best recruits a million dollars each to not tell anyone we paid them and play for us. Then we could be the winningest program in the Big East. Or we could only take 4.0 GPA kids and lose every game, but have the best GPA. There has to be a balance and a standard of measurement.

[Jamie]

 

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it.

 

"We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East."

 

That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

 

That statement has no method of measurement. For example without a eye on compliance or fiscal responsibility, we could win more. Simply offer the best recruits a million dollars each to not tell anyone we paid them and play for us. Then we could be the winningest program in the Big East. Or we could only take 4.0 GPA kids and lose every game, but have the best GPA. There has to be a balance and a standard of measurement.

 

 

Scoreboards are a pretty good standard of measurement. Championships too.

[USF_Grouper]

Penn State did OK on the scoreboards over the past 10 years -- would you say their Athletic Department met expectations?

[Mike Stuben]

 

 

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it.

 

"We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East."

 

That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

 

That statement has no method of measurement. For example without a eye on compliance or fiscal responsibility, we could win more. Simply offer the best recruits a million dollars each to not tell anyone we paid them and play for us. Then we could be the winningest program in the Big East. Or we could only take 4.0 GPA kids and lose every game, but have the best GPA. There has to be a balance and a standard of measurement.

 

 

Scoreboards are a pretty good standard of measurement. Championships too.

 

 

Those are part of it, but don't paint the whole picture.

[Jamie]

 

 

 

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it.

 

"We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East."

 

That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

 

That statement has no method of measurement. For example without a eye on compliance or fiscal responsibility, we could win more. Simply offer the best recruits a million dollars each to not tell anyone we paid them and play for us. Then we could be the winningest program in the Big East. Or we could only take 4.0 GPA kids and lose every game, but have the best GPA. There has to be a balance and a standard of measurement.

 

 

Scoreboards are a pretty good standard of measurement. Championships too.

 

 

Those are part of it, but don't paint the whole picture.

 

 

I do agree with you on finances, though. That could get really ugly if football doesn't turn it around quickly. We spent several years telling ourselves we weren't going to borrow a huge pile of money like UCF did to build their stuff, and then we ended up borrowing a huge pile of money anyway. What revenues are those going to be paid off with? More student money?

[Triple B]

Every time Doug Woolard got up in front of a group of alums or donors or fans at road games or whatever, he told you what the goal of USF Athletics was. He said it so many times that he should be evaluated on it.

 

"We want to be the best athletic department in the Big East."

 

That did not happen. That didn't even come close to happening. And it's not going to come close to happening any time soon.

 

I'll make a bold prediction that it never happens ....

[smazza]

not a chance

 

all of our coaches have been overpaid for last 5 years