SHOW ME THE MONEY

[rbilleaud]

Here's what I have a hard time understanding. We all know that one of the biggest problems we have in hiring a top notch coach is that we don't pay anything near what other 1-A schools pay. The arguement has always been that the money simply isn't there. Then I look at all the infrastructure improvements in recent history - indoor practice facility, new locker rooms, renovated athletic dept. offices and it's obvious the money IS there, we just spend it on stuff that would be important AFTER we improve the product on the field by hiring a decent coach. Of course, there are other issues that would make a coach reluctant to come to UL, not the least of which is that the athletic department staff is completely dysfuncitonal, rotten with corruption and cronyism. The sports information department is worst of all, a ton of dead weight and staff that does nothing. But all of that aside, why can't we at least offer a reasonable salary to at least bring more candidates into consideration.

[SlappyCajun]

_ Here's what I have a hard time understanding. We all know that one of the biggest problems we have in hiring a top notch coach is that we don't pay anything near what other 1-A schools pay. The arguement has always been that the money simply isn't there. Then I look at all the infrastructure improvements in recent history - indoor practice facility, new locker rooms, renovated athletic dept. offices and it's obvious the money IS there, we just spend it on stuff that would be important AFTER we improve the product on the field by hiring a decent coach. Of course, there are other issues that would make a coach reluctant to come to UL, not the least of which is that the athletic department staff is completely dysfuncitonal, rotten with corruption and cronyism. The sports information department is worst of all, a ton of dead weight and staff that does nothing. But all of that aside, why can't we at least offer a reasonable salary to at least bring more candidates into consideration. _

Chicken and the egg question. Now that you have invested in infrastructure as you call it. You can pay the coach more, now he has more to recruit too. We have drastically increased our pay in basketball, baseball, and football is about to be next.

Hopefully, it makes a difference.

[Hammer58]

_ Here's what I have a hard time understanding. We all know that one of the biggest problems we have in hiring a top notch coach is that we don't pay anything near what other 1-A schools pay. The arguement has always been that the money simply isn't there. Then I look at all the infrastructure improvements in recent history - indoor practice facility, new locker rooms, renovated athletic dept. offices and it's obvious the money IS there, we just spend it on stuff that would be important AFTER we improve the product on the field by hiring a decent coach. Of course, there are other issues that would make a coach reluctant to come to UL, not the least of which is that the athletic department staff is completely dysfuncitonal, rotten with corruption and cronyism. The sports information department is worst of all, a ton of dead weight and staff that does nothing. But all of that aside, why can't we at least offer a reasonable salary to at least bring more candidates into consideration. _

I'm not sure of the funding mechanism (state money or RCAF funds?) of the locker rooms, offices, etc but the IPF was paid for with student fees. I suspect those building renovations were also paid for with state funds. So the pool of money available for the IPF was not available for coaches salaries. And their is a cap on the amount of state budget money that can be used for salaries so anything above that has to come from private funds. My point is you can't necessarily look at money used for building improvements and say it should have been used for salaries because it may not have been allowed by law.

[GetTheFacts1st]

_ Here's what I have a hard time understanding.......not the least of which is that the athletic department staff is completely dysfuncitonal, rotten with corruption and cronyism. The sports information department is worst of all, a ton of dead weight and staff that does nothing. _

Some of that SID staff might be OK if given some direction....but not the mystery head guy. By the way, who is he? Have never seen him since he replaced Dan McDonald. Does he really exist? Will Farmer hire a REAL one?

[Faisdodo]

The grapevine says that RCAF has 500K to help pay for a new football coach. TAG puts up ALOT of Les Miles salary. Remember that.

[lcitsh]

_ Some of that SID staff might be OK if given some direction....but not the mystery head guy. By the way, who is he? Have never seen him since he replaced Dan McDonald. Does he really exist? Will Farmer hire a REAL one? _

There were two Sports Information/Media Relations Directors after Dan and before the current director. I'll let you get his name from someone else or from the Staff Directory. And you don't need to see him or his staff; they don't make the news, they just report it.

[rbilleaud]

_ There were two Sports Information/Media Relations Directors after Dan and before the current director. I'll let you get his name from someone else or from the Staff Directory. And you don't need to see him or his staff; they don't make the news, they just report it. _

Yeah, would be nice if they actually did report the news. As far as I know, there is no "official" publication of Ragin Cajun athletics. If you go to Rivals.com and look at the teams, if the team has an official publication, there is a link beside the team name referencing that publication. Of course, all of the teams from the big six have official publications. Of the teams in the Sun Belt, besides UL, only Troy and Arkanasas State have no official publication. Troy is understandable because despite the fact that they have a higher total system enrollment than Auburn, they are still a distant 3rd (and maybe 4th) in the state in terms of prominence of their program. I don't know what the deal is with ASU. But for pete's sake, even the lowly ULM with half the students UL has, has the Warhawk Report. To get any news at all, I have to go to RaginCajuns.com (which is one of the poorest excuses for a website I've seen in a long time) or the Daily Advertiser online - which only provides snippets -or here. I know the university would be better off if they hired the staff of RaginPagin to be their official source of news. It's not even that hard to put something like that together. I do it at work all the time - just collect the news and publish it - it's not like you have to be genius these days - all you need is a word processing program and someone who can write coherent sentences.

[CajunFan89]

_ Yeah, would be nice if they actually did report the news. As far as I know, there is no "official" publication of Ragin Cajun athletics. If you go to Rivals.com and look at the teams, if the team has an official publication, there is a link beside the team name referencing that publication. Of course, all of the teams from the big six have official publications. Of the teams in the Sun Belt, besides UL, only Troy and Arkanasas State have no official publication. Troy is understandable because despite the fact that they have a higher total system enrollment than Auburn, they are still a distant 3rd (and maybe 4th) in the state in terms of prominence of their program. I don't know what the deal is with ASU. But for pete's sake, even the lowly ULM with half the students UL has, has the Warhawk Report. To get any news at all, I have to go to RaginCajuns.com (which is one of the poorest excuses for a website I've seen in a long time) or the Daily Advertiser online - which only provides snippets -or here. I know the university would be better off if they hired the staff of RaginPagin to be their official source of news. It's not even that hard to put something like that together. I do it at work all the time - just collect the news and publish it - it's not like you have to be genius these days - all you need is a word processing program and someone who can write coherent sentences. _

cajunredzone.com is UL's sports news page on scout.com run by CajunT. He does a pretty fine job I might add.

[Clutch0364]

_ Yeah, would be nice if they actually did report the news. As far as I know, there is no "official" publication of Ragin Cajun athletics. If you go to Rivals.com and look at the teams, if the team has an official publication, there is a link beside the team name referencing that publication. Of course, all of the teams from the big six have official publications. Of the teams in the Sun Belt, besides UL, only Troy and Arkanasas State have no official publication. Troy is understandable because despite the fact that they have a higher total system enrollment than Auburn, they are still a distant 3rd (and maybe 4th) in the state in terms of prominence of their program. I don't know what the deal is with ASU. But for pete's sake, even the lowly ULM with half the students UL has, has the Warhawk Report. To get any news at all, I have to go to RaginCajuns.com (which is one of the poorest excuses for a website I've seen in a long time) or the Daily Advertiser online - which only provides snippets -or here. I know the university would be better off if they hired the staff of RaginPagin to be their official source of news. It's not even that hard to put something like that together. I do it at work all the time - just collect the news and publish it - it's not like you have to be genius these days - all you need is a word processing program and someone who can write coherent sentences. _

www.cajunredzone.com

[anhil8tor]

we are doubling the football coaches salary and still aren't in range of some of the "big names"

[BStock]

_ we are doubling the football coaches salary and still aren't in range of some of the "big names" _

but it is a start. i think we are doing it correctly. we have the indoor facilities, improved other facilities. now lets get a coach that can recruit and improve the product on the field.

if people are worried about money, improving the team will increase attendance and concessions. get into a bowl game, which will increase our exposure. recruits from further out will notice us, which increases our chances at bigger, faster, and better recruits. then maybe our school enrollment may increase as well. if you watched 30 for 30 on ESPN about The U, they felt that having a good football team helped increase their enrollment by over 30%.

its the big circle of life at a university.....

[anhil8tor]

_ but it is a start. i think we are doing it correctly. we have the indoor facilities, improved other facilities. now lets get a coach that can recruit and improve the product on the field.

if people are worried about money, improving the team will increase attendance and concessions. get into a bowl game, which will increase our exposure. recruits from further out will notice us, which increases our chances at bigger, faster, and better recruits. then maybe our school enrollment may increase as well. if you watched 30 for 30 on ESPN about The U, they felt that having a good football team helped increase their enrollment by over 30%.

its the big circle of life at a university..... _

I agree completely. If this next coach takes the bowl game step... it will help the stadium renovations. Oh to use a bathroom in a stadium that does not have standing water... and doors... doors on the stalls.... I have a dream!

You have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run!