Assign Robert Lee the Lady Cajuns head coaching job.

[Zeebart21]

_ Let my try it this way.

That 40k in ticket sales, etc can't be directly applied to the coaches salary.

In other words you can't claim that 40k lost is 40k gained for a prospective new coach (presuming that a new coach translates to more people, which is probably a safe assumption). Mainly because that 40k is split up many different ways. And because of that the decision isn't so clear cut.

Another way to say it is that firing Lee and hiring a new coach will not "pay for itself" with increased ticket sales imo.

The bottom line is you have to have the money to do it. And with the possible cuts coming, all I'm saying is that it's entirely possible that regardless of attendence figures, we may not have enough money in 2009 to fire a coach and offer another coach a highly competitive salary.

The AD may decide to simply let Lee play his contract out, and then look for a guy in 2010. (hopefully not, because this board would surely be in full on psycho lockdown mode!)

[CajunZ1]

_ _

Now why can't you make your avatar that big, Z...?

[CrazyCajun]

_ Let my try it this way.

That 40k in ticket sales, etc can't be directly applied to the coaches salary.

In other words you can't claim that 40k lost is 40k gained for a prospective new coach (presuming that a new coach translates to more people, which is probably a safe assumption). Mainly because that 40k is split up many different ways. And because of that the decision isn't so clear cut.

Another way to say it is that firing Lee and hiring a new coach will not "pay for itself" with increased ticket sales imo.

The bottom line is you have to have the money to do it. And with the possible cuts coming, all I'm saying is that it's entirely possible that regardless of attendence figures, we may not have enough money in 2009 to fire a coach and offer another coach a highly competitive salary.

The AD may decide to simply let Lee play his contract out, and then look for a guy in 2010. (hopefully not, because this board would surely be in full on psycho lockdown mode!) _

i know the 40k in last nights ticket sales cannot be applied directly. Take 4000 less fans over a period of 20 home games,take half of the season tickets and throw them out the window if you keep him. take a good chunk of the donations and throw them out the window. just like that 40k cant directly be applied, its not cut and dry that we dont have the money. i promise you if the administration was willing to move on and buyout lee and had a good coach willing to come here, we will find the money. talk recession all you want but everyone knows that lafayette has more money than it knows what to do with. somebody will step up and buy out his contract. now if you dont think that robert lee will cost us more than a 150,000 by staying next year your crazy.As i have said before i dont think it is all lee's fault. i think this team quit on him several times. its time for a change. people are tired of seeing the same ol crap from this administration. we are talking about 150k not 1.5 million.

[Zeebart21]

_ Now why can't you make your avatar that big, Z...? _

Summer is on its way!!!

[CajunZ1]

_ talk recession all you want but everyone knows that lafayette has more money than it knows what to do with. somebody will step up and buy out his contract.

I guess I've been watching too much glen beck lately...

I'll say this: I hope you're right.

[CrazyCajun]

_ I guess I've been watching too much glen beck lately...

I'll say this: I hope you're right. _

well i promise you the rest of the country is feeling the recession a lot harder than lafayette is.

[CajunProud]

I think a tremendous amount of harm has been done to the BBall program, not irreparable, but a lot. Having said that, I don't think we have the money to buy Coach Lee out and hire someone who is that much better than Coach Lee to justify the buy out. I have really had a change of heart on this issue after listening to Stevie P this morning. While I agree that this is a business and wins and losses are the ultimate driving force behind the decision to fire a coach, I think we have all (myself included) lost focus on what this University is here for. It is first and foremost an institution of higher learning. College sports has become big business and seems to be driving the bus when it should be academics. Don't get me wrong, I love college sports as much as any of you here, but at what expense. I believe in my heart that Coach Lee is a good man, and he loves this University. Is he the right coach for the job? I don't know, but what I do know is that he has cleaned up the program and the kids go to class, and for that, I respect and admire him. He has one more year left on his contract and I say he should be allowed to finish out his tenure. Being a good man and a quality person should count for something these days.

[Turbine]

The mistake was the rewarding of a 2 year extension for only going .500 even though you had the luxury of being in a mediocre conference.

jmo


igeaux.mobi

[CajunProud]

_ The mistake was the rewarding of a 2 year extension for only going .500 even though you had the luxury of being in a mediocre conference.

jmo


igeaux.mobi _

I agree, but whos fault is that? Certainly not Coach Lee's. If you were offered an extension on your job, you would take it in a heartbeat, especailly in a profession where loyalty from your employer is only as good as your W-L record.

The mistake in my opinion is the ______ poor leadership in the administration.

[rhineaux]

The AD may decide to simply let Lee play his contract out, and then look for a guy in 2010. (hopefully not, because this board would surely be in full on psycho lockdown mode!) _

This goes back to what I said yesterday about this being a program that should be thought of in terms of 5 and 10 years down the road, and not in terms of the next 6 months. By doing what you mention, the AD would be gambling that that this lame duck year wouldn't cost the Cajuns more than the 150k in the long run from increased fan apathy and from them running the program below the Baldwin line and it costing that much more to get it back to a respectable level. You're gambling that all the fans would come screaming back after that year, and that you'd still be able to find a quality coach that would want to pull a program from an even deeper tank. I think that if Lee is kept, then program damage may begin to increase exponentially, if it's not already. You're also implying to fans that you're not willing to make the investment for the future. If you're not willing to invest the $$ to improve the program, then why should they invest their $$ in tickets, concessions, advertisements, etc.

If the AD were to pull something like that, then he might as well put the program on hiatus for a year, because the program is losing money as it is. If you're that concerned with pinching that many pennies, and you are going to have a lame duck season with minor fan interest and almost 0 income from outside sources, then at least you could suspend play so you could save money on rent, travel, scholarships, and anything else.

And about the extra money to hire someone else...I have to believe it's there. If I'm not mistaken, Cyprien's offer was 190-200k. Since then, the athletic budget has increased about $2-3MM per year. So one would think that since they have more to work with now, they SHOULD be able to afford better than $200k. Especially since they've known since the Lee hire was made, that an increase in pay would be on it's way, whether it was going to Lee for being successful, or to his successor. And secondly, I would find it hard to believe that all of that budgetary increase is spent. I know that as a whole, this Ath Dept doesn't make much money, if it's not in the red, but I have to think that some of that money was put aside for emergency situations like this. If I'm wrong or off-base on this logic, then someone please inform me.

[HoustonCajun]

_ i know the 40k in last nights ticket sales cannot be applied directly. Take 4000 less fans over a period of 20 home games,take half of the season tickets and throw them out the window if you keep him. take a good chunk of the donations and throw them out the window. just like that 40k cant directly be applied, its not cut and dry that we dont have the money. i promise you if the administration was willing to move on and buyout lee and had a good coach willing to come here, we will find the money. talk recession all you want but everyone knows that lafayette has more money than it knows what to do with. somebody will step up and buy out his contract. now if you dont think that robert lee will cost us more than a 150,000 by staying next year your crazy.As i have said before i dont think it is all lee's fault. i think this team quit on him several times. its time for a change. people are tired of seeing the same ol crap from this administration. we are talking about 150k not 1.5 million. _

If we can't afford to straighten out this mess, what the hell are we doing in 1A? I mean, all we ever do is scrape the bottom of the barrel, exist at the minimum level to call ourselves 1A, never have the money needed to do anything, end up with some of the worse programs in the country, and we all spend our time moaning and _____ing about how lousy things are at UL, and I am one of the biggest culprits. I am getting tired of all of this and won't put up much longer. It is time clean this crap up, make a committment to excellence and turn this whole thing around, or just admit who and what we are and drop down a level so we can afford to maintain status quo at our current level of mediocrity. It is now time to s*** or get off the pot.

[ZuluCajun]

_ Buyouts are a part of college athletics.

But unfortunately oil is only like 40 bucks a barrel and there's a ton of money being cut from our budget.

What if we simply can't afford it? _

We can't aford not to do it. If 3 to 4 thousand fans stay home for each game,that revenue adds up fast. And when you factor in the long term damage to the program, you must correct an obvious problem. This coach is
not getting to his players, and that cannot be tolerated.