Sure, and they all turned the PAC down because its the rejects of the west coast. I’m sure we could find a lesser league to throw us a bone as well.
IMO
An AD has to first and foremost stay out of scandals, Second is to read the overall college athletics landscape and AD strategy third to maintain fiscal responsibility and fourth to be successful with revenue sports and finally success of overall AD. Here is my ratings on a 5 point scale.
We have not had any scandals to speak if, but I think Biff was one waiting to happen. I honestly think if he stays he could have gotten Mike fired. 5
Overall landscape and our strategy has been OK. We have been working on bringing NIL in house for awhile now, we were prepared when the AAC opening came around. The new logo is significantly improved. Marketing is better, not where it should be, but better. We do events all over town now. We are on regular TV or easy to access streaming. Overall I think we are fine there, but room for improvement. 4
Fiscal stability is where IMO things start getting wonky. Yes we are are fine and havent had to pull ECU like maneuvers to stay solvent but its an over reliance on student fees and the same donors, and now with even more need in NIL, the failure of the administration to find new sources of funds is a glaring issues and this is a continued issue from previous admin. We arent close to even an average AAC budget. Hard to expect to win consistently with less than our conference peers. I know people say winning helps with money. The truth though is that is far from a guarantee. Winning SHOULD help, but this fanbase has never shown up that way. In addition, most folks that are in an AD will tell you first you have to find a way to raise money in a losing environment, then you win and then additional money helps you sustain it. I can tell you what got Judy ushered out was strategy and funds. 1
Revenue sports winning is next - it’s what the fans see mostly, but its a byproduct of the second and third things. That isn’t to say you can’t win with less money, but it is way easier to win when you have it. From the winter of 2020 to now is a total 180. Ron had his best team playing best ball going into the canceled CUSA tournament and Will was coming off a bowl game. Part was bad luck, part was NC state rules around covid, part was we had leaders in those sports that didnt handle covid the right way, part was we had an AD that was prioritizing every little rule vs the SEC ignoring them. We faltered and it snowballed to where we are now. Theoretically the good seasons should have increased revenue and witha normal recruiting window better talent AND more tickets and excitement. Instead, Ron’s extension was ridiculous and Will gets fired and then Biff’s hire even more insane than Ron’s extension. Albin is the exact hire we needed to make last cycle. He might flop, but it won’t be because we tried to do something stupid. The only reason this isnt a 1 is Albin potential, if he wins this goes up. 2
All the other sports: soccer and baseball I know are seen as sports that COULD become revenue neutral. With new scholarship limits and NIL impacting them as well we shall see. Softball certainly took a huge step up. Womens basketball is on fire as a product, but I think Mike hired a poor coach to replace Cara. 3
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They turned them down because of the aac exit fee, which will decline with more notice. The pac needs 8 teams for next season. After they have that 8th team they can invite Memphis and Tulane/usf with a longer runway which would significantly reduce that exit fee,
Memphis AD definitely indicated they’d be willing to make the move with a more affordable exit fee.
Nicely stated. Thanks and I completely agree. Now, where do you think these directives are originating?
I think it dates back to our founding. We aren’t a traditional university. We’ve always had different priorities.
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The difference between us and Tulane is this, they gave their $3m/year Head football coach a pay raise to keep him. Paying him now closer to $4m/year. Ok they are a Private School with access to very large donors so not apples to apples to our situation but Tulane is in a different tier.
clt says the only duck boots are from ll bean. everything else is crap
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How much are we paying biff, Tim, and are we still paying will?
We are terrible with our money. Just awful awful wasters. We never have any money to pay coaches because we are always paying for multiples.
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We havent had to pay multiple basketball coaches in years.
With Will we owed him nearly 1.7 million when fired in 2022, but his contract had an offset. He made 100k at GSU and not sure how much at UCF but Id guess 100K there. He just signed ETSU at 280k. So we will end up paying him around 1 mill from firing thru 2026.
Biff was owed 1.3 through 2027 when fired. I assume he won’t be taking another HC role with his wealth and no one in the right mind would hire him for that role, but Michigan might put him back on paid staff. I would imagine a salary of 100-200k based on analyst salaries. Best case I guess would be he makes 200k each year next 3. We would owe between 1.3 mil and 700k.
Max paid out will be 2.3 mil. Min is 1.7 is my best guess, Through 2027 when it all clears.
Albin pay is 900K this year goes up to 1 mil in 2027 and is runs until 2029. Like Will and Biff only base is owed which is $500K if he is let go.
Brad was owed $500k when we let him go and that got offset by $150k from Marshall.
Max total owed to the 3 fired coaches would be 2.6M. from 2019 until 2027.
For 2025 Albin 900K, Will 245K, Biff 433K - 1.6m total in 2025 assuming Biff doesn’t get paid.
On one side I am amazed that given our lack or resources we have fired coaches so easy, on the other hand the fact that we consistently pay below market makes it easier to move on. Even if you add up Albin and Biff and Will that doesn’t get us to the average AAC football coach. I think the idea is pay low so if you get it wrong you move on, if it looks like you got it right extend and increase buyout. That’s what he did with Will, just didn’t work out. Brad wasn’t his guy and he corrected the Biff mistake as quickly as possible.
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We’re only happy to spend money when firing, not hiring, yet you took the time to write a long post to somehow defend the waste of millions of dollars.
Rock on I guess my guy 
What part of that was defense? I even said we aren’t paying even average aac salary if you add them all up. That isnt acceptable. You asked if we still owe and how much. I answered.
We got incredibly lucky hiring Albin at the price point we did. At some point we have to step up and pay at least league average and if we don’t have the resources to make that happen we need a different leader who can generate those resources.
There is a saying never hire someone you cant afford to hire though.
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Asks a question. Somehow gets mad when the question is answered with exact data that was asked for lol
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I didn’t see it as a defense, just an explanation of what happened.
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People get better at their jobs. We have to hope that the Albin hire is a sign that Hill is improving.
Seems like we are at a fork in the road here.
Either future hires are also better and we hopefully improve in revenue sports or they aren’t better and we don’t improve at which point his seat may get hot.
I don’t think it’s hot now. I don’t even think it’s warm.
Seems to me as an interested bystander with no inside knowledge the following things will tell the tale for Hill.
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Managing all the coming changes in NIL and Rev share to put us in the best position possible from a fiscal stability standpoint. Notice I said fiscal stability NOT competitiveness. We don’t have the money of a P4 to focus on competitiveness first. We need to keep the ship afloat and keep making small improvements where we can. I personally hope we are NOT going down the rev share path but that’s just me.
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Managing facility projects so they come in on budget and on time. This goes back to fiscal stability. These are huge investments for us.
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Keeping us scandal free. That’s been a charlotte athletics feature (not a bug) and I hope it stays that way.
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Improving fundraising.
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Success of football team over next coming 2 years. If Albin appears to have us in a good place two years from now that’s big.
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Success of men’s hoops. I think he has to take a wait and see on this and see what Fearne can do with a full year under his belt and hopefully some roster stability and fewer injuries. No quick firings here. Run it out and if Fearne is not the guy make a change at the APPROPRIATE time and make an APPROPRIATE hire.
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No more gimmick hires in any sport. Period. Those days have to be over.
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I know we will not under any circumstances use funds from student fees to pay athletes while Mike is here. The plan is use money from AAC payout and tv revenue and I have less of an issue with that as those are funds that come directly from the presence of the athletes - primarily mens basketball and football.
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With incoming tariffs, I expect the football stadium to come in a double digit percentage over budget.
My suppliers are already increasing prices simply in anticipation.
A GC I’m working with on an upcoming project told me they have already had multiple projects planned for 2025 cancel after their clients got the cost to build numbers recently because contractors are already building in 15-20% price increases.
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Speaking of rev share, read Ivy League won’t be participating. No surprise there.
Looks like A-10 is allowing each individual league school to decide. VCU all in while cross-city rival Richmond in the process of deciding whether to or not.
Also read that Cleveland State is dropping some sports due to school-wide financial issues.
Anyway, agree no more gimmick hires. First time worked but last two were disasters.
Just curious, why are we adding lacrosse and associated expenses while other universities are dropping sports. Financially, we are far behind and struggle to improve.
So, why create another strain on our critically needed resources?
Title 9 requirement after adding football. There was a grace period, which is over.
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Was either add women’s sports or drop men’s sports.
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