I think both are very important to an AD in order to have a successful career. In terms of on field success its up to the AD to be able to identify what a good coaching candidate is suppose to be so that they can deliver in building a strong on field product for people to want to watch and cheer for.
Fundraising and selling the program are also very important for the AD to be able to deliver on as well. especially since its the one part of the operations that they have more of a say in influence in being able to get right. they have to be able to to sell the product to donors and potential fans so that the school actually has the funds to pay and retain the coaches that the school actually wants to keep around. not to mention sell the program to have the funds to build he facilities that the players will actually want to play in. and he needs to be able to sell the brand so that people in the state and nation donāt think we are just some mickey mouse athletics program.
Now so far what weāve seen he hasnāt been able to deliver on the part of hiring the right coaches to get the program started well. and the sanchez extension has pissed off fans because so far sanchez still hasnāt delivered on the court. but we can still write that off for now as rookie mistakes that he might be able to learn from with the next hires.
In terms of selling and fundraising I think heās done a good job there. I think the re-branding with the uniform changes and the C logo was great as well us just going by charlotte. I think the facilities upgrade announcement seems to be going well so far. and I do like that the staff was been able to sell us as a good addition to the aac so we can get out of cusa.
If Iām being honest Hill wasnāt my top choice when the announcement for the hire came. Quite frankly I wanted the penn state guy when I heard who the two people were that were up for the AD job. But so far I think hill has done a pretty good job in selling the program. but I do think its going to be critical how he navigates the healy and sanchez situations. if he blunders those situations I could see that as a situation where Garber might start looking more critically at the athletics stuff down the road. After all Hill wasnāt Garbers hire and I think as the new Chancellor she is going to want a major say in how the university is seen and shaped under her going forward.
Of course both duties of an AD are important. However, winning absolutely comes first. If there was a way to measure fan interest, it would be something like 90%- wins and losses, and 10% - funding, marketing, etc.
The argument for how to keep someone like Atkins is true. But at the same time we make fun of Appās budget, yet they are leaps and bounds better than us in football. Same is true for Davidson and UNCG in bball. Presumably we are on a similar playing field/budget as our conference mates. Whenās the last time we were top 3 in our conference in football or bball?
When comparing us to those schools our challenge is we are trying to win in everything (poorly I might add) vs putting all our eggs in a single sports basket (app=football, Davidson=basketball). Itās a tough job and I suspect a major reason Judy didnt want to mess with football.
Thatās where Iām at. MH has got us to some lofty places rather quickly and that should be commended. If he doesnāt nail the next FB coach and possibly MBB coach, then we bring in someone who can. But the table is set and we can thank Hill for that. Everything Judy Rose did was too little too late. She didnāt have a clue.
Pretty much agree with everything you said hootie.
It was time for a change at AD, but some people are hating on Judy a little to much
and not giving credit where credit is due. She had 0 support from faculty/admin when the football push started. Not a good situation. She was pretty much told to fire Lutz.
Sorry NWA, but If we donāt start winning some games pretty quick with the top 2, none of the other crap matters. I know quite a few long term supportive fans that have pulled back and are barely hanging on and Iām one of them. We really suck right now, and I donāt even understand how we can be this badā¦
Biggest concern for me is weāve lost an entire generation of fans due to the suckitude in major sports. The fact students show up to football games amazes me.
If I remember correctly initially it was Judy that wanted to let Bobby go, but Dubois felt they owed it to Bobby to have a chance to turn it around. Dubois admitted it was his decision to give Bobby a 5 year extension and then later fired him after one year into the extension. I donāt think it was so much as Dubois told Judy to let him go, but more that Dubois felt it was his responsibility since he was the one that made the decision on the extension.
There was a study recently showing that if your college wins a championship or is very successful in sports your junior year you are highly likely to be a university supporter the rest of your life. So much lost potential by our revenue sports sucking for so long.
That may be somewhat true for the 2 schools you mentioned (although Title IX affects what youāre describing). But I canāt imagine Appās football budget or Dav bball budget being that much different than what ourās are. Plus, I also mentionened our conference mates, CUSA and A10, whose budgets in theory should be somewhat comparable to ourās.
Why dont we abandon the win at every sport concept and put all of our eggs in one basket, I would much rather be App St in football, or Davidson in basketball, instead of who we are in all sports, nationally does any really care if we are good in soccer, track and field, or even baseball, no they dont, all that really matters is basketball and football, we are not going to market our brand by winning in any sports but football and basketball, this concept of being a well balanced program has obviously not worked out for us, forget about national or even regional recognition, we are an after thought in our own state, Its time to abandon our balanced athletic program philosophy and dominate in the sports that matter, there are no potential conference commissioners watching our program a to see if we are getting better at soccer, baseball, or track and field, they are watching us to see if we can get back to our glory days in basketball and competitive against power five competition in football, this is reality
Because thatās a shitty way to treat athletes in other sports.
We clearly invest enough in the money sports to win. We have just done a crappy job of it. As stated above it is true part of what got us into the AAC is our total budget and commitment to growing it.