Between rumors surrounding Carla Williams and Jim Ryan to the current state of Football and Basketball (more tbd on the later), and the looming conference realignment and bastardization of college athletics, UVA finds itself in a very interesting spot right now. 2019, for both programs, is in the rear view mirror.
Opinion on Carla Williams
Positive
Neutral
Negative
0voters
UVA should dip into itās endowment to reset itās revenue athletics programs ahead of conference realignment (or if they are already, moreso than they are currently doing)
Yes
No
0voters
Being mindful of contracts and other factors, should UVA part ways with Tony Elliot after this season?
Yes
No
0voters
During this interesting transition period, should UVA stick with Ron Sanchez for another year if he makes an NIT final 4 or makes the tournament and loses in the first game?
I am fearful donors might find athletics at UVA not worthwhile when there is a strong correlation between sports success and brand development = more money and advancements for the school. Especially at a point where UVA academically seems pretty stagnant if not declining in certain regards.
For those smarter than me, is a school like UVA allowed to borrow against their endowment and can they frame UVA athletics as an appropriate investment with a return in the long term?
Because my exhausted mind keeps defaulting to āWe need like $40 million to just reset both programsā and finding a way to either use the endowment or get Paul Tudor Jones to save us.
From what Iāve been told, most of the endowment money is tied to specific things so not much could be moved. I donāt know the specifics beyond that.
I want UVA athletics to succeed as much as anyone. And I do understand the value of athletic success in establishing brand recognition which in turn helps with applications and rankings and so on.
That said, I canāt see how spending the endowment on sports is justifiable (although I also donāt know a ton about how the endowment money is restricted so who knows if this is all a moot convo anyway). UVA is an academic intuition. Thats the whole reason it exists. Can it be credibly argued that those tens of millions of dollars couldnāt be better spent on academic programs, attracting academic talent, research, etc? Maybe somebody can make that argument and that the academic ROI would be higher than for any other investment type - Iām open to hearing it. But I think itād be hard to make and at the end of the day this isnāt a sports franchise. Itās a university with a universityās mission that has sports team affiliated with it.
Anyway, I dearly hope we figure it out and that we have some big boosters willing to spend. We need it.
Selling the your AD is a bad idea and if message boarders are in the know illegal in VA.
Such a bad idea to sell your asset/infrastructure like that. If you have some time google Chicago parking. They sold that to a 3rd party and in my understanding things are going GREAT.
Iām just fearful once the mega conferences emerge that UVA is going to be left behind BADLY financial wise and a lot of academic rivals like UCLA and Michigan and whatnot are going to have a lot of energy and enthusiasm around them (growing community culture from thriving sports/ becoming even more elevated academically through talent pool of applicants, etc. etc.). Iām fearful that UVA becomes irrelevant culturally.
UVA, not just athletically but as a whole, needs a jolt of energy.
Yeah, I agree with your latter point. And I do think being left out of the mega conferences could be pretty damaging. So I want us to find a way. I just donāt think itās going to be taking funding from elsewhere.
Somehow our AD, whoever that is over the next few years, is either going to have to knock it out of the park on hires, amazingly convince some big money folks to drop a boatload of cash, or probably bothā¦. So yeah, letās all cross our fingers I guess.
I voted no on the fire Elliott immediately poll only because I need something more than fansā anger and disappointment as a reason to fire him. Show me what the plan is. Otherwise it will be a total repeat of what occurred 3 years ago, not to mention burning up $13+ million donor dollars for what?
The Athletics Department needs to get its shyte together in terms of moving the mens hoops program in the right direction first, which may be coming up faster than we think if things head off the rails very soon. Letās put that fire out first. Then determine if Carla is staying or being replaced. At that point, Iām ready to think about getting the football program on more solid ground. We canāt afford to screw it up again.
Until UVA develops a realistic approach to football, the coach is irrelevant and the āright coachā isnāt going to be interested. So why fire Elliott?
Sanchez isnāt going to take UVA basketball anywhere. The Golden Age of UVA menās hoops is over. I hope people appreciated it while it was happening. It isnāt coming again anytime soon.
Look, the ACC is/has been dying when it comes to revenue sports. The thought that we all hang together or we hang separately has killed the conference. Itās not Elliott, itās not CTB or Sanchez, itās the conference. UVa should do everything in its power to bust the GoR and git while the getting is good (my strong preference is the B1G). To prepare for it, we need to spend like no oneās business (the SMU approach) and adopt a model that can translate and shows that we will bring eyeballs when the final realignment occurs.
The AD role has to go - itās for non-rev sports and remains important for those purposes only. Basketball and football get GMs, reporting to the BoV, just like the President. They hire the coaches and give them more than competitive budgets for NIL, salaries, etc. Admissions needs to be re-thought with respect to rev sports to focus on making our academic programs work for the student, not the other way around.
Lastly, Scott Stadium needs to go - move it to the rest of the sports complex or tear it down in place and play for a year or two at rotating sites until a state of the art 48,000 seat replacement can be completed. Iām in favor of moving it as the logistics for a great game day experience are less than optimal in its current location.
Total price tag - maybe north of $1.2 - $1.5 billion?? (Just a swag).
I donāt particularly like the future, but itās coming.
My thing with Carla is she just truly looks to be abysmal at hiring and I donāt think she does enough else to overcome that. Sheās had 2 stabs at womenās basketball now and we just lost to Wyoming!
I donāt echo the fatalism around not being able to find a better coach. We just had one! There are plenty of guys who could win here and shrugging our shoulders and saying this is probably the best we can do is extreme loser behavior. Elliott sucks and keeping him for another year is giving up. I canāt imagine myself making time for games next year if heās still the coach.
Iām with @Hooandtrue on this. The current state of our athletics department represents a major threat to the continued success of the academic side of the university. Sadly, I donāt think the decision makers at the university see it that way
The way UVA approaches revenue sports today with the current rules and environment is akin to playing football based on the strategies employed before the forward pass was invented.
UVA is not going to be successful. Itās that simple. Itās no longer a game for students who are also athletes. Itās a game for professional athletes who are students as a side effort. I hate it. I hate it so much. It has ruined college sports for me.
Yep ā the AD made two good hires, one on an up-and-comer who used Duke as a stepping stone, and the other one a retread ex-Miami coach who happened to be a very good DC at a high-major.
That last part is why Iām all-in on Al Golden. The blueprint is there.
