Frack money

[American Falcon]

I’m so disgusted with BG basketball. Both the Men’s & women’s programs. My age is in the 70’s and I can still remember the 1968 Men’s team coached by Bill Fitch. Unbelievably this was the last BG Men’s team to make it to the NCAA post season tournament. 58 years! It is almost hard to believe that I have remained a dedicated fan of BG and been a season ticket holder most of my adult life. Because I’m reflecting on my decisions supporting BG basketball I did a little review of the time Bill Frack gave a sizeable amount of money to the Men’s program. I believe the year was 2014 and I believe the amount of money was $20 million dollars. I do remember a quote from Bill Frack saying “If Butler and Gonzaga can do it Bowling Green can do it. I want to provide the resources to take Falcon basketball to the next level.” I had high hopes!

What happened? Has the money been misappropriated? Would we have been any worst had we not received his gift? Gotta believe Bill Frack would be terribly disappointed as are other fans. In my opinion we have made no progress at all improving our Men’s program and believe Mr Fracks nice gift has made little difference in the program. I can only hope for better results in future years, but I am not optimistic and my years are running out.

[mbenecke]

If I had a gazillion dollars, I’d put it towards BG athletics so fans like you had a chance to see this program back in March Madness. You deserve it. I’m only 28 and it drives me nuts. Can’t even imagine what it’s been like for you.

[Roll Along!]

This is my understanding of the situation only. I don't have insider information beyond conversations I've had with many members of the athletics department.

I don't believe the Bill Frack money has been misappropriated, but my understanding is that the program's hands are a bit tied in using the money. Bill wanted to make sure that the money was used to make BG men's basketball better and not for anything else. For better or worse, there were limitations put on what the money could be used for, things that have limited to no impact today in this era of college sports as nobody looked ahead and saw NIL being the driving force (and maybe the only factor) between good and bad teams. Bill wanted to make sure that the men's basketball program ONLY benefited from his donation and that the department didn't "manufacture" need in other places to twist the use of the Frack money. Which is also why the Findlay Foundation oversees the distribution. They must sign off on every dollar of Bill Frack money spent.

So yes, the program can buy home games, but as we've seen with Miami this year, ain't no amount of money enough to get a high major team to the Stroh Center. And yes, they can supplement men's basketball staff salaries. Can they use the money to pay players? I don't know. It wasn't even imagined back then. But really, that's the only thing that moves the needle in this era of college basketball.

[Tricky_Falcon]

I have no idea how much money is left and what the money can officially be used for but let's say there's still $20 million and it can go to anything to improve the program and have it be a mid major that consistently goes to the ncaa tournament.

Create a permanent NIL fund endow it so it generates enough to retain a top player and replace others through the portal. We all know NIL is the biggest difference maker. Spend NIL on experienced transfers rather than relying mostly on freshmen and go for international players.

Facilities aren't the end all be all anymore. If most of that money becomes NIL + recruiting infrastructure, BG could become a consistent MAC contender and finally make tournament.

[guest44]

It’s football brain. The same football brain that has produced one winning season in a decade. It’s what happens when leadership is living in the past, and leaders allow what it cares about to be what the AD is most passionate about. Trying to be the .1% version of Ohio State.

For those not living on social media, the ACTUAL results are now becoming worse than the Moose years.

[hammb]

I have no idea how much money is left and what the money can officially be used for but let's say there's still $20 million and it can go to anything to improve the program and have it be a mid major that consistently goes to the ncaa tournament.

Create a permanent NIL fund endow it so it generates enough to retain a top player and replace others through the portal. We all know NIL is the biggest difference maker. Spend NIL on experienced transfers rather than relying mostly on freshmen and go for international players.

Facilities aren't the end all be all anymore. If most of that money becomes NIL + recruiting infrastructure, BG could become a consistent MAC contender and finally make tournament.

It was an endowment, so they shouldn't have been able to touch the principle at all.

Unfortunately you're right. NIL is the only thing that really matters to moving the needle. I don't know if any of Bill's descendants even care about BG hoops enough to work with the trust and get that allowed in the payout.

I'd like to see us use it to improve scheduling, but that's purely for selfish reasons of somebody who goes to the games. I know there's no amount of money that is bringing Big10, BIg12, whatever teams into the Stroh, but they should at least be able to bring in some Horizon or similar league OOC games more often.

I was always irritated by the use of the money when Huger was here. The endowment allowed us to have one of the higher coaching payrolls in the league. We always had a higher than normal equipment budget, a higher than normal recruiting budget, etc. Obviously none of that did anything to move the needle towards wins, and that was before NIL.

Now that Akron, Miami, and others seem to find the private dollars to put into NIL, the Frack money (if unable to be used towards NIL), does more to help our coaches get a cool car than it will help us win.

[hammb]

It’s football brain. The same football brain that has produced one winning season in a decade. It’s what happens when leadership is living in the past, and leaders allow what it cares about to be what the AD is most passionate about. Trying to be the .1% version of Ohio State.

For those not living on social media, the ACTUAL results are now becoming worse than the Moose years.

It's kinda funny, my buddy and I were chatting last week. For all the bluster about social media follows/likes/etc the current dept sure does struggle to get butts into seats. Even worse at winning games.

[mbenecke]

They're good at getting people to football and hockey games. Both saw historic increases this year.

Basketball attendance has remained... mediocre. That's fascinating to me.

[Matty B]

They're good at getting people to football and hockey games. Both saw historic increases this year.

Basketball attendance has remained... mediocre. That's fascinating to me.

Simply put, there's only 3 things that will get butts in the seats:

1) Wins
2) A Nationally relevant opponent
3) A sideshow attraction that makes your team relevant, such as:
- a female that can dunk,
- a guy averaging 40 a game (like Marcus Keene on a bad CMU team a few years back)
- a scrunchy-faced cat.

The Frack gift was intended to cover 2 of those 3.

[guest44]

It’s football brain. The same football brain that has produced one winning season in a decade. It’s what happens when leadership is living in the past, and leaders allow what it cares about to be what the AD is most passionate about. Trying to be the .1% version of Ohio State.

For those not living on social media, the ACTUAL results are now becoming worse than the Moose years.

It's kinda funny, my buddy and I were chatting last week. For all the bluster about social media follows/likes/etc the current dept sure does struggle to get butts into seats. Even worse at winning games.

The winning games part is the real problem. It's all the current AD's hires, and the trajectory in most, is going the wrong direction.

[BillyLP]

It’s football brain. The same football brain that has produced one winning season in a decade. It’s what happens when leadership is living in the past, and leaders allow what it cares about to be what the AD is most passionate about. Trying to be the .1% version of Ohio State.

For those not living on social media, the ACTUAL results are now becoming worse than the Moose years.

It's kinda funny, my buddy and I were chatting last week. For all the bluster about social media follows/likes/etc the current dept sure does struggle to get butts into seats. Even worse at winning games.

The winning games part is the real problem. It's all the current AD's hires, and the trajectory in most, is going the wrong direction.

I'm not willing to go to Moose years comparison just yet. To me, the only hire we can say is bad at this point is WBB. I still think Simon is a good coach, but he has to take the next step this next year or it's time to reassess. Williams is recruiting better than any hockey coach since York and has a chance to be very good next year. We'll see what the deal is with Eddie George this season. While there were things I wasn't impressed with in his first year, I won't judge based on his first season after a March hire.

Where I am not impressed with DVDM is that for all of the impressions and attendance increases, I don't really see that the fundraising numbers or NIL funding have gone up all that much. These days, fundraising is just as important as hiring. You can't set up coaches for success if they don't have donor money.

[guest44]

It’s football brain. The same football brain that has produced one winning season in a decade. It’s what happens when leadership is living in the past, and leaders allow what it cares about to be what the AD is most passionate about. Trying to be the .1% version of Ohio State.

For those not living on social media, the ACTUAL results are now becoming worse than the Moose years.

It's kinda funny, my buddy and I were chatting last week. For all the bluster about social media follows/likes/etc the current dept sure does struggle to get butts into seats. Even worse at winning games.

The winning games part is the real problem. It's all the current AD's hires, and the trajectory in most, is going the wrong direction.

I'm not willing to go to Moose years comparison just yet. To me, the only hire we can say is bad at this point is WBB. I still think Simon is a good coach, but he has to take the next step this next year or it's time to reassess. Williams is recruiting better than any hockey coach since York and has a chance to be very good next year. We'll see what the deal is with Eddie George this season. While there were things I wasn't impressed with in his first year, I won't judge based on his first season after a March hire.

Where I am not impressed with DVDM is that for all of the impressions and attendance increases, I don't really see that the fundraising numbers or NIL funding have gone up all that much. These days, fundraising is just as important as hiring. You can't set up coaches for success if they don't have donor money.

I'll go sport by sport

W Soccer - used to win MAC
M Soccer - same
Football - worse
Volleyball - worse
Women's Basketball - BAD
Men's Basketball - Slightly better, but that sport is totally different than the day Simon was hired.
Hockey - better
Baseball - same coach paid much more
Softball - couldn't be worse
Gymnastics - still awful
Swimming- dead last in the best year according to social media.

Simon is looking that part I feel confident in.

[hammb]

They're good at getting people to football and hockey games. Both saw historic increases this year.

Basketball attendance has remained... mediocre. That's fascinating to me.

Hockey will always be the "premier" program at BGSU. IF they recruit well and compete in the "new" CCHA they'll continue to pack the arena.

Time will tell, but I don't think the football attendance jump is remotely sustainable. I think it was a perfect storm of A) some real nice weather days, B) home UT game, C) Pudge, D) Big name new head coach.

I hope they continue to get people to the Doyt, but by end of the year attendance was back to typical dismal late season numbers. The Pudge thing was absolutely awesome, once in a decade (at best) phenomenon that will be incredibly difficult to replicate. And any efforts to try and replicate it will come off has lame attempts at publicity. Eddie needs wins to put some substance with the flash.

[hammb]

It’s football brain. The same football brain that has produced one winning season in a decade. It’s what happens when leadership is living in the past, and leaders allow what it cares about to be what the AD is most passionate about. Trying to be the .1% version of Ohio State.

For those not living on social media, the ACTUAL results are now becoming worse than the Moose years.

It's kinda funny, my buddy and I were chatting last week. For all the bluster about social media follows/likes/etc the current dept sure does struggle to get butts into seats. Even worse at winning games.

The winning games part is the real problem. It's all the current AD's hires, and the trajectory in most, is going the wrong direction.

I'm not willing to go to Moose years comparison just yet. To me, the only hire we can say is bad at this point is WBB. I still think Simon is a good coach, but he has to take the next step this next year or it's time to reassess. Williams is recruiting better than any hockey coach since York and has a chance to be very good next year. We'll see what the deal is with Eddie George this season. While there were things I wasn't impressed with in his first year, I won't judge based on his first season after a March hire.

Where I am not impressed with DVDM is that for all of the impressions and attendance increases, I don't really see that the fundraising numbers or NIL funding have gone up all that much. These days, fundraising is just as important as hiring. You can't set up coaches for success if they don't have donor money.

Where I remain unimpressed is in the continued bottom of the barrel concessions/atmosphere stuff. Basketball struggles to sell tickets and they do very little in the way of promos to get people to the games. When they did have a discount night we had a real nice crowd for a weekday game....do more of that. Football parking is needlessly confusing/segregated. Basketball parking is like a gated community to ensure 75% of the lot stays empty.

The concessions are a joke and when I told him as such I was simply told "the vendor is the vendor." In the past years I've been to a dozen sporting venues outside of BGSU including basketball games at Ball State, OU, and UT. Even among peers BG is a joke in this regard. Comparing to the Toledo market at things like the Walleye or Mud Hens makes us look even more pathetic. If they're going to be so inept, they should just go back to the Anderson days, admit they can't offer anything worthwhile, and let you bring your own food in.

[maskedopining]

My biggest problem with the Athletic Department, essentially since Paul Krebs left is that we seem to hire the same profile of person over and over.

What is the appreciable, professional difference between Christopher, Kingston, Moosebrugger & DVDM?

The overarching conversation in each search was exactly the same. “BG needs to raise funds, and the right candidate needs to be a fundraiser”. Meanwhile, college athletics was undergoing massive changes during this time and each of these candidates would fire a coach or two and then pay the new coach much more money to be between mediocre to the bottom of the MAC.

These changes were not unpredictable, unless you built your career in a profession…college athletic administration…that actively trying to fight them.

As a result, our athletic department has been rudderless for over 20 years. Over that time, the product on & off the field completely eroded.

Quite frankly, when DVDM leaves, and believe me, he will after he gives himself and other raises from the Sac St. pay day loan he is about to get, we would be better off hiring someone with less experience in college athletics who may be younger, less experienced and not afraid to ignore the administrative blob we’ve hired in the past.