Plus UNC-CH BoT chair John Preyer did the “end around” on Bubba Cunningham in hiring Belichick.
Sure, it certainly happens in rare occasions. I saw “have to be involved to make an offer” and was just offering some clarification that they don’t have to be involved. It’s very much the exception rather than the norm in most hiring situations
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I get that. Fair point.
Generally our AD has the financial parameters to make a hire and has the freedom to make the informal offers that then go to the BoT for formal approvals. The BoT has a rep that is the liaison with Athletics. That trusstee would be the voice of the BoT with hires. John Bailey is the current trustee assigned to athletics. The Albin hire though Dennis participated in the entire process. With Phil he was adamant on being very involved with all the high profile hires under his watch - both interviews and compensation packages. Phil actually delayed the Ron Sanchez hire because he was in China. I havent heard that about Sharon. I know Dennis was very involved with the entire Albin process.
I don’t think athletics is as important to the chancellor and the board and other university leaders as it is to us.
Let’s face it guys. We are fanatics.
That’s a good thing. Every team needs some fanatical fans.
And I’m sure the people listed above have a few fanatics in their ranks too. But it’s just not their priority.
Personally I love seeing the passion on display here.
I will also say this.
The academic process we have made and the service to charlotte that our U does. It’s way bigger than athletics and I have to remind myself of that at times.
The recent R1 announcement made me proud.
I got contacted by almost every member of my family and some friends about that. People that could care less about sports.
I guess I’m just trying to say don’t forget that we are doing good things. It may not be perfect. It may not be in the areas we want or prioritize but good things are happening at Charlotte.
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And in half the time they expected the process to take. Absolutely huge for the U and great leadership by Gaber.
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My assessment, I don’t know; He didn’t seem to have any trouble winning over recruits and families in living rooms, looking like and being him. I stand by my claim that we won’t see that level of talent here again for at least 5–7 years. Just look at the players who came to play for Biff—despite our limited NIL funds. Yeah the St Francis experiment was a disaster but he didn’t have time to pull together a team being hired mid Nov and some of those guys were good. Look at the P4 talent (non SF) that transferred in to play for him and those who left for P4 programs after Biff’s departure. He faced the perfect storm: no QB in year one, a failed bet on a QB in year two, no NIL money from an AD that was ineffective, and inconsistent performance from the DC and OC. Year one, OZ was solid, MM struggled. Year two, OZ fell off, while MM improved slightly with a QB who could at least throw. Got to have a QB to win, we never had one. Purdie showed flashes but he wasn’t ready. I don’t think his appearance is or was an issue, if it was, that’s just sad on MH. IMO this cut off sleeves gave more national pub to our program than our Mkting program ever has. Any pub if good pub
No excuses, he said that in his last presser, but at the end of the day it doesn’t matter, Obladi Oblada Life Goes On …
Albin was hired in December, so 3+ fewer weeks to pull together a team than Poggi had. Guess we might have to just forfeit the entire 2025 season.
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So what I’m reading biff pissed off possible corporate/business donors because he wanted more support and called them out. Our AD got their panties in a wad, since they had to “smooth” things out. Have we seen anybody willing to support our program in Charlotte? Anybody? I get it’s the chicken or the egg. We need money to win, we need to win to get money, but it sounds like we have incompetent folks in our AD.
We should have moved the needle enough to fund a tower and 30k seats by now. Not a tower and an extra 5k seats. Yes, the alumni base is not there and we don’t have mega donors footing the bill. But we can’t make enough inroads with local companies to raise the necessary funds? In Charlotte? A sports town with loyal fanbases?
Mike Hill has screwed up football and basketball was already a mess and now look at what we have. I’ve seen zero progress in those two sports and that’s not all on biff.
Biff thought he could be a motivational speaker, not a coach. I’m glad he’s gone, but I’m hearing more and more about Hill that has me questioning his abilities or lack thereof.
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Okay. First, we didn’t have limited nil funds. We had 1.5 or 1.6 million, which is good for g5. Second, outside of NHG and okie, who did we really land under biff that was on paper, so good, or so much better than what albin landed. Biff just took more p4 transfers
I agree lack of NIL funds are a big issue. Just want to make sure it is clear by NCAA rules up until recently the AD was not supposed to be involved with adding NIL funds or being a part of the contracts.
We need to hold our AD accountable on the two sports that really matter, football and mens basketball, and quit allowing them to smokescreen the fan base with “success” stories in track and field, soccer, softball, and golf
If hills bonuses are given out on an evenly weighted format regardless of the sport, then that is a structural issue that should be rectified by Gaber, regardless if it was in place before she arrived
Performance in Football and mens basketball is the determining factor for an AD at any big time power conference school
If we were dominate in football nobody would care if we sucked in soccer, golf, track, softball etc, our ADs promote the sucess in these sports to cover up their failures in the two sports that really matter
Gaber extended Hill based upon what? Sucess in track? Softball? Soccer? We need leadership that understands that this is a two sport show, and your evaluation as an AD should refect your success or failure rate in these two sports
Im not saying we dont need to keep increasing our nil, we always do but where are we getting this info about lack of nil?
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We do have some heavy donors that personally want soft ball or baseball to succeed. Honestly at this point I’m probably more invested in soccer than men’s basketball and football. I’ve sent the bulk of my donations to women’s and men’s soccer.
That isn’t to say I disagree that football and men’s bball need to be the priority, just to remember that for some big individual donors their priorities are different.
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This, 100%
Yes, it’s unfortunate that an AD can hide what’s going on with basketball and football. If there were only some way to actually know what’s going on with those programs. Maybe something that would track actual wins and losses etc. And be readily available 24/7.
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I’m not sure this should be labeled as Hill’s Performance. I’m completely convinced Hill’s peeformance reviews are going great. He is meeting or exceeding the goals and objectives he has been given.
I think this should be changed to Hill’s goals and objectives, what is being requested of him? We can’t complain about someone who is doing their job as described. Metrics drive behaviors, and behaviors drive results.
I’m convinced the defined goals and objectives for our AD are out of alignment with those of the majority of our fan base. Does anyone know if they are published anywhere?
I still think Mike is capable if given appropriate expectations. I’ll bet his current performance reviews indicate he is exceeding expectations.
Out of alignment with fanbase or donors? I think that is an important distinction.
Regardless of that distinction, out of alignment with what should be expected of a university with 30k students with an R1 Carnegie designation, and the only major U in a Top 20 city. Way out of alignment.
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I mention that only because to put downward pressure to change priorities it matters where that voice comes from. Donors vs fans. What got Judy fired wasn’t fans complaining. It was donors and specifically a handful of big donors flipping.
Mike knows how I feel about football. I don’t really give a crap about basketball anymore. He knows I value soccer greatly and continued winning there goes a LONG way in keeping me engaged. I know for the greater landscape basketball still maters some, but it does nothing for me at this point win or lose - therefore I am not complaining about basketball anymore and dont really personally care if he views it as a priority or not.
If he had retained Biff for another season. I probably would have been vocal about how terrible an idea that was and questioning if winning in football mattered or were we just looking for a cheap coach.
Not all good academic big city schools prioritize athletics.
Our leadership may be the same.
They may want a competent level of athletics, with no scandals and if we hit gold occasionally that may be enough.
In other words our viewpoints may not aline with our leaderships viewpoints.
If that’s the case I don’t hate it.
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