Victory for a Mid-major

windycityfalcon · Post by **windycityfalcon** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:53 pm

CARBONDALE, Ill. (AP) -- The Salukis' head basketball coach will stay put at his alma mater.
Southern Illinois University announced today that Chris Lowery has agreed to a seven-year contract extension that will pay him 750-thousand dollars a season.
That's triple the amount that Lowery made this past season, when he guided the Salukis to a school-record 29 wins and a fourth seed in the N-C-A-A tournament.
Lowery says he is flattered by the university's offer and its desire to keep him as head coach.
The 34-year-old is the reigning Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year and was the youngest head coach in the N-C-A-A tournament field.
Mario Moccia (MOH'-chuh) is the athletics director for the Carbondale school.
Moccia says Lowery's track record as a head coach made it essential to retain him.

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 8:56 pm

Come on , I highly doubt that. If there truly giving him that kind of dough then we Mac schools are truly pathetic now in basketball. I'd like to know where SIU is getting their money to pay their coach that.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:01 pm

Well, there have been about 10 threads on this over time. Remember that the MVC schools do not have D-IA football, so basketball is their top priority.

Here is an excellent article that details why the MVC has rocketed past the MAC. In fact, to use "mid major" to describe the MVC and MAC in the same sentence probably doesn't make sense right now.

http://tinyurl.com/28js29

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Sun Apr 01, 2007 9:01 pm

The Missouri Valley's basketball programs are rolling in dough. The league is getting a lot more units from the NCAA tournament and attendance is stronger in league arenas.

On the football side, it's possible those schools fielding I-AA programs are losing more money than ours, but I'm guessing the league, overall, is in a better financial position.

Missouri Valley basketball coaches generally make way more than MAC coaches.

greg1 · Post by **greg1** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 5:42 pm

It's all a wash because Creighton lost Dana Altman (the same Dana Altman who had become the poster child for mid major coaches remaining at their schools for the long run) to Arkansas.

All this contract really means is that when Lowry does leave, and he will leave long before this contract expires, the buyout will be higher.

greg1 · Post by **greg1** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:16 pm

falconboy wrote:Come on , I highly doubt that. If there truly giving him that kind of dough then we Mac schools are truly pathetic now in basketball. I'd like to know where SIU is getting their money to pay their coach that.

they get that dough from selling out their arena every time they play a game and from souveneir sales associated with their men's basketball program.....among other ways they produce revenue (corporate advertising and such.)

There isn't really anything pathetic about MAC salaries when you consider how many slices of pie have to be accounted for. SIU, for example, is Div. 1 AA in football (which has already been mentioned so apologies for repeating) so their budget for coach salaries is probably 1/4 what BG or any other MAC school has for that sport but their basketball program probably generates double (maybe more) the revenue that any MAC school does so it does add up. I'm not into teaching Math 101....but it really does add up.

Falconboy · Post by **Falconboy** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 3:58 pm

greg1 wrote:
falconboy wrote:Come on , I highly doubt that. If there truly giving him that kind of dough then we Mac schools are truly pathetic now in basketball. I'd like to know where SIU is getting their money to pay their coach that.
they get that dough from selling out their arena every time they play a game and from souveneir sales associated with their men's basketball program.....among other ways they produce revenue (corporate advertising and such.)

There isn't really anything pathetic about MAC salaries when you consider how many slices of pie have to be accounted for. SIU, for example, is Div. 1 AA in football (which has already been mentioned so apologies for repeating) so their budget for coach salaries is probably 1/4 what BG or any other MAC school has for that sport but their basketball program probably generates double (maybe more) the revenue that any MAC school does so it does add up. I'm not into teaching Math 101....but it really does add up.

Hmmm....so are you saying we should drop a sport to Div.1-AA and free up more money to put towards a program that might succeed? I realize that is probably the big factor in them having more money than us. SIU and other MVC schools are completly dedicated to top notch basketball. We are on the other hand are trying to have it many ways with Div.1 Hockey , Mens/Women's B-ball, Football. I have this eerie feeling that the Mac will never be real good at any one sport or the other unless they choose one or two to be real good at and drop one major sport to div.1AA. Thats just the way I see it. I dont' like it one bit , but thats my take.

greg1 · Post by **greg1** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:19 pm

falconboy wrote:
greg1 wrote:
falconboy wrote:Come on , I highly doubt that. If there truly giving him that kind of dough then we Mac schools are truly pathetic now in basketball. I'd like to know where SIU is getting their money to pay their coach that.
they get that dough from selling out their arena every time they play a game and from souveneir sales associated with their men's basketball program.....among other ways they produce revenue (corporate advertising and such.)

There isn't really anything pathetic about MAC salaries when you consider how many slices of pie have to be accounted for. SIU, for example, is Div. 1 AA in football (which has already been mentioned so apologies for repeating) so their budget for coach salaries is probably 1/4 what BG or any other MAC school has for that sport but their basketball program probably generates double (maybe more) the revenue that any MAC school does so it does add up. I'm not into teaching Math 101....but it really does add up.

Hmmm....so are you saying we should drop a sport to Div.1-AA and free up more money to put towards a program that might succeed? I realize that is probably the big factor in them having more money than us. SIU and other MVC schools are completly dedicated to top notch basketball. We are on the other hand are trying to have it many ways with Div.1 Hockey , Mens/Women's B-ball, Football. I have this eerie feeling that the Mac will never be real good at any one sport or the other unless they choose one or two to be real good at and drop one major sport to div.1AA. Thats just the way I see it. I dont' like it one bit , but thats my take.

I'm stating that part of the reason SIU can afford a contract like the one they gave Lowry is because they have a "major sport" with an overall budget that doesn't come close to matching what the budget for a MAC school is....therefore, they have more dollars for their basketball coach. Nothing more, nothing less.

Another thing to remember is that SIU makes the big dance darned near every year and they get dollars for that each time. Big dollars. Far beyond anything a women's program, for example, gets. And where do you think those dollars go? Straight into the basketball budget to pay for things like, oh, coaches???

Anything you want to read into it beyond that....feel free but I have no opinion one way or another as to what MAC institutions need to do in order to increase cash flow to support larger budgets. They (AD's and University presidents) should be able to figure that one out themselves. Would I like to see it happen? Sure. Is it the most pressing issue or concern in my life? Not even close.

BGDrew · Post by **BGDrew** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:39 pm

Until you get a commissioner of the MAC who cares more about the financial well-being of the members over making ESPN happy, you won't see a lot more income coming to the school.

There's no reason Ball State shouldn't have made the women's tournament other than Chryst didn't lobby enough to get us multiple bids this year.

greg1 · Post by **greg1** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 4:49 pm

BGDrew wrote:Until you get a commissioner of the MAC who cares more about the financial well-being of the members over making ESPN happy, you won't see a lot more income coming to the school.

There's no reason Ball State shouldn't have made the women's tournament other than Chryst didn't lobby enough to get us multiple bids this year.

Good call

Chryst screwed the pooch with Akron as well. Not for the NCAA's....but it was inexcusable for Akron to be left out of the NIT and he just sat back and allowed it to happen without a care in the world. Every coach in the conference should have been furious about that. Well, all except Reggie Witherspoon. He's still sporting the same confused look on his face from 3 years ago when he froze up and watched his team blow a 20 something point lead in the MAC championship game.

Victory for a Mid-major

Victory for a Mid-major

750k???

Re: 750k???

Re: 750k???

Re: 750k???