Mitch Daniels weighs in on athletics and money (link)

[TC4THREE]

http://www.purdue.edu/president/messages/1601-med-openletter.html

Seems like they plan on using increased television revenues from athletics to further subsidize academics. It's a very noble cause but I think it's hard for them to push for additional JPC contributions if they go this route. I know it rings hollow with me when they ship the revenue earned from athletics to fund projects on the academic side and then hold out their hand and ask for more from the JPC members for athletics.

I'm not saying that this is the wrong thing to do here. It's probably absolutely the right thing. At the same time, they had better make sure they are budgeting enough to field a competitive football team in that process because if we are not, and we haven't been of late, people will always point to the money whether it is a big issue or not.

 

[uelnesm]

I read the letter and analysis over at Hammer and Rails.

I think he's setting expectations that we should lower expectations.

I'm disgusted that an athletic department that "self funds itself" is then going to be "encouraged" to fund academics??? Maybe I am reading this wrong....

Really? Jim Delaney negotiates a contract based on athletics and Purude is going to advocate putting portions of that money into the general fund.

If thats the case I certainly won't be donating to their grand plan to raise billions of dollars.

So disappointing

 

[PalmCoastFl]

I read the letter and analysis over at Hammer and Rails.

I think he's setting expectations that we should lower expectations.

I'm disgusted that an athletic department that "self funds itself" is then going to be "encouraged" to fund academics??? Maybe I am reading this wrong....

Really? Jim Delaney negotiates a contract based on athletics and Purude is going to advocate putting portions of that money into the general fund.

If thats the case I certainly won't be donating to their grand plan to raise billions of dollars.

So disappointing

I agree 110%...........many will feel the same. Donations will dry up! Just amazed we aren't striving for excellence on the field anymore! Is it just me or do they realize how much REVS we are losing every year on the grid iron???? Are we being run by a bunch of brain dead idiots? 25k empty seats at 40.00 a ticket equals a million dollars a game! Times that by seven games! What in the hell am I missing here! We should be all in when it comes to the football program! So we are going to continue to RUN a KMART program and become the laughing stock of the BIG TEN forever. I thought things might change with MITCH coming here............boy was I wrong! Glad to be moving this summer to Palm Coast FL on a permanent basis(only 45 minutes to Gainesville) so I can actually enjoy watching some real football this fall!

 

[ghostoffatjack]

I agree 110%...........many will feel the same. Donations will dry up! Just amazed we aren't striving to for excellence on the field anymore! Is it just me or do they realize how much REVS we are losing every year on the grid iron???? Are we being run by a bunch of brain dead idiots? 25k empty seats at 40.00 a ticket equals a million dollars a game! Times that by seven games! What in the hell am I missing here! We should be all in when it comes to the football program! So we are going to continue to RUN a KMART program and become the laughing stock of the BIG TEN forever. I thought things might change with MITCH coming here............boy was I wrong! Glad to be moving this summer to Palm Coast FL on a permanent basis(only 45 minutes to Gainesville) so I can actually enjoy watching some real football this fall!

Consider the source of the quote and after what and how he ran Indiana why would you think anything else! He is always robbing something to promote or fix something else so Purdue's next President will have to fix Athletics!

 

[AZboiler]

Consider the source of the quote and after what and how he ran Indiana why would you think anything else! He is always robbing something to promote or fix something else so Purdue's next President will have to fix Athletics!

So maybe the obstacle in refusing to Fire Hazell is not Burke. Perhaps it is the Politician Mitch Daniels? More likely it is both but Daniels is still crying for money.

 

[BoilerBonz]

It appears Daniels is advocating an approach in which all B1G schools would agree to transfer part of the BTN money to "academic" causes. So at least it's not unilateral disarmament, as we did under Cordova. Still, I would prefer to see Purdue use some of the BTN windfall to add non-revenue sports in men's soccer and hockey, rather than get into the business of subsidizing academics -- since once that starts, it will eventually be abused by a future administration.

What's lost in this "holier-than-thou" nonsense about self-supporting athletics is the amount of donations raised by the academic side that would never have been given if not for the connection winning athletics maintains with a lot of alums. And athletics gets no credit for this when Daniels and others start their blather about "self-supporting" athletics. This is precisely why a lot of schools "subsidize" athletics. Because they know it's good business in the long run. They're not stupid!

Athletics is well more than self-supporting at Purdue. The question is will Daniels make it so much so that it ends up costing him more in ticket revenue and academic donations than he's transferring away from athletics.

 

[FirstDownB]

I have no problem with putting academics first. However, the tone of this letter further confirms that Daniels just doesn't get how success on the field benefits the university at large. In his ideal vision, there would be a full Ross Ade stadium every Saturday with hundreds of thousands more tuned into BTN regardless of the product on the field. Well, that isn't reality. People will take their money elsewhere.
He is misled by the fact that Purdue individually can be terrible and still be buoyed financially by the success of the big boys in the conference. Well, guess, what? If everyone in the conference were like Purdue there would be no huge revenues to siphon off to academics! These "arms race" things the other schools are doing are because they see the big picture and they live in the real world. They know many fans will leave and find somewhere else to give their money and something else to watch on TV if their teams become irrelevant. In the meantime, he is perfectly happy to accept his share of the conference money, the revenue generated by the big boys whose priorities are all out of whack. Hypocrisy much?? Have your cake and eat it too, Mitch!

 

[FirstDownB]

So, this got me thinking.. Does Mitch have the power to pull Purdue out of the Big Ten? Not that I think he is quite THAT stupid, but really, if your ideal vision is for athletics to be this low money club level thing, and you believe that de-emphasis of athletics and the money that goes with it will not hurt the academic side, then why the hell wouldn't you? Go back and read some of the things the University of Chicago president said and did back in the day and the chain of events that led to discontinuing their football program.

 

[SIBoiler2]

So, this got me thinking.. Does Mitch have the power to pull Purdue out of the Big Ten? Not that I think he is quite THAT stupid, but really, if your ideal vision is for athletics to be this low money club level thing, and you believe that de-emphasis of athletics and the money that goes with it will not hurt the academic side, then why the hell wouldn't you? Go back and read some of the things the University of Chicago president said and did back in the day and the chain of events that led to discontinuing their football program.

Mitch is in a different situation than the U of C. They didn't have BTN $$$ to lose when they sold their move.

 

[FirstDownB]

Mitch is in a different situation than the U of C. They didn't have BTN $$$ to lose when they sold their move.

But that's exactly the point. Mitch wants to reap the benefits while shaking a finger at the whole process. It's like wearing a fur coat and complaining about unethical treatment of the animals. Taking the conference money shows he is all talk, because if he really believed what he is preaching there are plenty of other options outside the Big Ten. And I'm sorry, does anyone really think he has influence over the OSU, UM, PSU of the world?

 

[New Pal Boiler]

http://www.purdue.edu/president/messages/1601-med-openletter.html

Seems like they plan on using increased television revenues from athletics to further subsidize academics. It's a very noble cause but I think it's hard for them to push for additional JPC contributions if they go this route. I know it rings hollow with me when they ship the revenue earned from athletics to fund projects on the academic side and then hold out their hand and ask for more from the JPC members for athletics.

I'm not saying that this is the wrong thing to do here. It's probably absolutely the right thing. At the same time, they had better make sure they are budgeting enough to field a competitive football team in that process because if we are not, and we haven't been of late, people will always point to the money whether it is a big issue or not.

"2015- A Year Of Records" LOL. We're going to set a record this fall also, but I bet Mitch doesn't mention that in next years letter.