Judge approves House settlement - Schools to pay

[PonyBoy]

Agree with this. Stay with the programs that can make money and give your school some clout. As much as I love all Husker sports, winning a baseball or wrestling title doesn't move the needle much nationally. Football and basketball are prominent, the others are a few steps down. Football, Basketball and Volleyball to me should continue to be the focus.

Volleyball didn't make money till they moved to the Devaney Center, which was redesigned ($20M?) specifically for them. Before that, and we were still a top/destination program, they were in the red.

Interesting, lose money till more resources are put towards it to flip the financial script. Such a novel concept! 🙄

When did baseball make money? Oh, that's right - 3 times, when they had a state of the art, new facility. Hosting the post-season where it kicks revenue in overdrive mode. Weird how that works! (And no, I don't think baseball could ever maintain the elite success as volleyball has)

 

[ZJSARENOTFREE]

Volleyball didn't make money till they moved to the Devaney Center, which was redesigned ($20M?) specifically for them. Before that, and we were still a top/destination program, they were in the red.

Interesting, lose money till more resources are put towards it to flip the financial script. Such a novel concept! 🙄

When did baseball make money? Oh, that's right - 3 times, when they had a state of the art, new facility. Hosting the post-season where it kicks revenue in overdrive mode. Weird how that works! (And no, I don't think baseball could ever maintain the elite success as volleyball has)

You don't have to agree, but take Volleyball and Football out of it. I guarantee Dannen would love to have our basketball team at a high level over the baseball team. Taking your emotion for the baseball team out of it and you were the AD, would you rather have a national title in baseball or basketball? Any AD with a brain will tell you basketball.. It's not a knock on Wrestling or Baseball as I love both. It's just overall national exposure and potential dollars.

 

[PonyBoy]

You don't have to agree, but take Volleyball and Football out of it. I guarantee Dannen would love to have our basketball team at a high level over the baseball team. Taking your emotion for the baseball team out of it and you were the AD, would you rather have a national title in baseball or basketball? Any AD with a brain will tell you basketball.. It's not a knock on Wrestling or Baseball as I love both. It's just overall national exposure and potential dollars.

It doesn't have to be one, or the other. Or 2 of 3, or 3 of 4, etc. Emotion isn't involved. It's common sense there is 1 additional program that has, and can again, contribute to the bottom line at a much higher rate. And they're neglected.

I know who butters (FB, MBB & to a much lesser extent VB) the bread (all other teams). If you're going to drop programs because of loses - then every single program not named mentioned above, including baseball, goes first. They all are in the red more than the baseball program. WBB, gone. T&F, gone. Wrestling, gone. Swimming, gone. Golf, gone. Gymnastics, gone. Bowling, gone. Softball, post Jordy, gone. Cross Country, tennis, rifle, soccer - adios!

In the 86 years the NCAA has recognized/sponsored a tournament, Nebraska basketball has never won a game. 9 (NINE) appearances, 0 wins. Congrats on the Dollar Store tournament appearances & wins though, something baseball and all other sports don't have. Also congrats on the regular season titles, all before 1950. But hey, we got that 1 conference tournament title! Sweet.

In the 78 years the NCAA has recognized/sponsored a tournament, Nebraska baseball has won 39 NCAA post-season games (conference tournaments not included). 19 appearances, 39 wins (21 appearances actually, but I don't know the NCAA tournament W's from the 1940's). 8 regular season titles, 6 conference tournament titles, 4 regional championships, 3 super regional championships which have resulted in 3 CWS appearances (hoops equivalent to the F4, but one can argue much harder for baseball to get to).

I won't even touch the draft picks, conference awards, All Americans, winning seasons, T25 rankings, etc, etc. Basketball is a pipe dream, but they're $4M plus in the black so I get it.

Nebraska is either a serious Athletic Department, or they're not. And right now, they're not. Increasing the budget $1M isn't going to hurt football, volleyball or men's basketball. Getting the locker-rooms and science up to snuff isn't going to hurt the exact same programs previously mentioned. Going to former baseball players, and those currently in the minors or majors, and asking for their financial support to build a new indoor facility isn't going to hurt, or negatively impact, any other sport in Lincoln. This isn't limited to those who played in the MLB either. We have former players that are worth millions of dollars from their personal & business successes as well as former MLB/<MiLB dudes who invested very well. 99% of the guys aren't giving money for the other sports, and never will, but they're interested in giving money for baseball - specifically facility improvements.

A serious Athletic Department jumps all over it. A serious Athletic Director can walk & chew gum at the same time.

No other sport, outside FB/MBB/VB in Lincoln, deserves the increase more than the baseball program.

 

[herbsinator]

I'll be real with you, you're not a serious person.

Another ponyboy crash out right on cue.

 

[PonyBoy]

Another ponyboy crash out right on cue.

Calling a spade a spade /= crashing out.

Your feelings being hurt is noted though.

 

[nja13]

The good thing about volleyball is that we won’t have to spend much on it to keep it at a high level becuase no one else is going to spend much rev share on VB either. We’ll probably have to spend more on basketball just to have it not be an embarrassment than we will on a national championship volleyball contender. Plus the VB girls will have some legit NIL deals in terms of endorsements that they wouldn’t get elsewhere.

 

[Stan Raymond]

No other sport, outside FB/MBB/VB in Lincoln, deserves the increase more than the baseball program.

100% agree with that. Baseball could make money, or more accurately break even, besides the 3 that currently make a profit, I don't think that can be said about any other sport in the department. Women's Basketball loses the most, Softball has gained a lot of attendance but has a long ways to go to break even monetarily. Really no other sport is close to Baseball to be a 4th sport turning a profit. Really really hard for any Women's sport to make money as the "equality" push has really driven up the expenses without driving up the revenue. Hard for them to grow organically like the Volleyball team has generating fans willing to spend money as the expenses have grown.

 

[ZJSARENOTFREE]

It doesn't have to be one, or the other. Or 2 of 3, or 3 of 4, etc. Emotion isn't involved. It's common sense there is 1 additional program that has, and can again, contribute to the bottom line at a much higher rate. And they're neglected.

I know who butters (FB, MBB & to a much lesser extent VB) the bread (all other teams). If you're going to drop programs because of loses - then every single program not named mentioned above, including baseball, goes first. They all are in the red more than the baseball program. WBB, gone. T&F, gone. Wrestling, gone. Swimming, gone. Golf, gone. Gymnastics, gone. Bowling, gone. Softball, post Jordy, gone. Cross Country, tennis, rifle, soccer - adios!

In the 86 years the NCAA has recognized/sponsored a tournament, Nebraska basketball has never won a game. 9 (NINE) appearances, 0 wins. Congrats on the Dollar Store tournament appearances & wins though, something baseball and all other sports don't have. Also congrats on the regular season titles, all before 1950. But hey, we got that 1 conference tournament title! Sweet.

In the 78 years the NCAA has recognized/sponsored a tournament, Nebraska baseball has won 39 NCAA post-season games (conference tournaments not included). 19 appearances, 39 wins (21 appearances actually, but I don't know the NCAA tournament W's from the 1940's). 8 regular season titles, 6 conference tournament titles, 4 regional championships, 3 super regional championships which have resulted in 3 CWS appearances (hoops equivalent to the F4, but one can argue much harder for baseball to get to).

I won't even touch the draft picks, conference awards, All Americans, winning seasons, T25 rankings, etc, etc. Basketball is a pipe dream, but they're $4M plus in the black so I get it.

Nebraska is either a serious Athletic Department, or they're not. And right now, they're not. Increasing the budget $1M isn't going to hurt football, volleyball or men's basketball. Getting the locker-rooms and science up to snuff isn't going to hurt the exact same programs previously mentioned. Going to former baseball players, and those currently in the minors or majors, and asking for their financial support to build a new indoor facility isn't going to hurt, or negatively impact, any other sport in Lincoln. This isn't limited to those who played in the MLB either. We have former players that are worth millions of dollars from their personal & business successes as well as former MLB/<MiLB dudes who invested very well. 99% of the guys aren't giving money for the other sports, and never will, but they're interested in giving money for baseball - specifically facility improvements.

A serious Athletic Department jumps all over it. A serious Athletic Director can walk & chew gum at the same time.

No other sport, outside FB/MBB/VB in Lincoln, deserves the increase more than the baseball program.

I agree with some of this, as I think baseball should be last to go, but you aren’t cutting women’s sports. Not happening with title 9. Also, past performance means nothing. You can post all of the stats you want, but at the end of the day college sports is about the money potential. Baseball just isn’t moving the needle anywhere. I highly doubt anything happens to any sport, but I’d definitely cut wrestling and baseball if we needed it to be more competitive in MBB. Hell even Track could go and I wouldn’t blink. We have great track athletes, but who cares. That's a big non-starter.

 

[PonyBoy]

I agree with some of this, as I think baseball should be last to go, but you aren’t cutting women’s sports. Not happening with title 9. Also, past performance means nothing. You can post all of the stats you want, but at the end of the day college sports is about the money potential. Baseball just isn’t moving the needle anywhere. I highly doubt anything happens to any sport, but I’d definitely cut wrestling and baseball if we needed it to be more competitive in MBB. Hell even Track could go and I wouldn’t blink. We have great track athletes, but who cares. That's a big non-starter.

From a profitable standpoint
- Football, rightfully so, has everything it needs
- MBB, rightfully so, has everything it needs
- Volleyball, rightfully so, has everything it needs

You've missed the point, and I know T9 has a large hand in all of this where F sports won't get cut. No matter what we spend on MBB, they're going to suck but be in the black second highest of any sport we have regardless. It was the case under Nee, Collier, Sadler, Miles & now Hoiberg. PBA has solidified this, mostly due to affordable tickets. If you're going to argue spending more on MBB will increase their profits even more then you'll need to break it down as to how. Additional season ticket sales? Individual games? Donations? They're averaging somewhere around 93-95% attendance capacity, and have received some of the highest ever dedicated donations in the programs history the last 2 seasons, so I really need to understand how they will improve their bottom line. ($1 for $1+, or $1 for $1 even, $1 for .75?)

Yes, college sports is about the money potential. So, why not put additional money in to a sport that gives us the potential!? Our attendance is T15 nationally, with room to grow. This is the exact argument I'm making, without impacting football, mbb & volleyball - that sport is baseball (and likely wrestling too, if we're being honest). So, let's increase the budget for a few years and see what happens. We have absolutely nothing to lose, no pun intended.

It's almost like some are acting like I'm asking for a ridiculous budget raise, or taking away from the 3 profitable sports. I'm not. $1M is just fine, give it a 5-year investment and see what the return is. We have room to grow with attendance & donation revenue with baseball. A serious athletic department looks at the whole. With everything looking on the up & up with football, and volleyball at the peak of the sport, and basketball with b2b good seasons - what have we neglected the longest, at what expense to our bottom line, and is there an opportunity to flip the script? If that's been looked at and the answer is no, then so be it. I'd love to read the data and move on.

 

[ZJSARENOTFREE]

We can just agree to disagree. I haven't missed any point. Baseball is pretty irrelevant outside of the CWS. Back to the original point. As an NU AD they would much rather have a MBB Natty or Final Four than a Baseball CWS appearance or Natty.

 

[PonyBoy]

As an NU AD they would much rather have a MBB Natty or Final Four than a Baseball CWS appearance or Natty.

As an AD, you've failed.

One has never happened, and never will, in Lincoln.

One has happened, multiple times, and could happen again.

 

[ZJSARENOTFREE]

As an AD, you've failed.

One has never happened, and never will, in Lincoln.

One has happened, multiple times, and could happen again.

K...

 

[vailhusker]

 

[Stan Raymond]

Yes, college sports is about the money potential. So, why not put additional money in to a sport that gives us the potential!? Our attendance is T15 nationally, with room to grow. This is the exact argument I'm making, without impacting football, mbb & volleyball - that sport is baseball (and likely wrestling too, if we're being honest). So, let's increase the budget for a few years and see what happens. We have absolutely nothing to lose, no pun intended.

I am a wrestling fan, but just don't see it ever being profitable at Nebraska. Baseball has 140k attendance for the year and wrestling 23k. That's just a huge difference, especially when you consider ticket price difference. Maybe if Wrestling turns into a national power like Penn State for a couple of decades, but even then it would maybe cover it's own expenses. The limited number of home matches hurts the chance of profitability and the fact that the South and the Coasts don't want to watch it on tv.

Baseball is the clear candidate for a fourth sport to actually turn a profit. After that I actually think that Softball has more potential than any other sport, but it would take 10+ years and some luck for that to happen, if it would even be possible, which I doubt. Really after baseball I'm not sure that any sport has profit potential at Nebraska.