Would Brandon leave???

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:08 am

I been thinking about this now for a day after I heard how much Florida pays its Offensive and Defensive coordinators. Did you hear they pay their 2 Coordinators a combined $750,000. Thats $375,000 a piece. That is almost 3 times what Brandon's base salary is. If Meyer asked him to become the Offensive Coordinator at a major Top 5 school, do you think he would accept. More money, not putting in as much hours, not as much headaches in recruiting, warmer weather. I know being a HC is nice, but if I was in the postion I would take it. Then in Meyer moves on in 5 to 10 years then Brandon could move up. Just a thought? What you all think

Anonymous · Post by **Anonymous** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:31 am

Whats Brandon making next year, around 140,000???? right

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:32 am

Would Brandon leave? Yes, of course.

Will Brandon leave? Yes, of course.

The real question is when and for what position.

Flipper · Post by **Flipper** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:58 am

Gregg Brandon is not going to be anyone's OC. The man spent 20 year sworking to get a head coaching job. He is not going to take a demotion when he is this close to moving onto the next level.

Money is a factor, but so is the pleasure of being captain of your ship...

Dayons_Den · Post by **Dayons_Den** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 10:59 am

I really don't see a current head coach leaving that post, on good terms, to become a coordinator. Coaches are very egotistical, for one. And also, if you aspire to land a "big time" HC job, why not prove you can get it done as a HC.

The money is nice and alluring but in NW Ohio Brandon's money goes pretty far.

Also, as I alluded to in GermainE's thread, I think there is a personality confilct/rift between Brandon and Meyer.

Falcon52 · Post by **Falcon52** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:26 am

$140,000 is not that much. Can't we pay our coach more? For the amount of time, effort and responsibility, I would think he should be in the $250,000 range. Those guys really work. For those who love to research:

What is the average salary for a D-1A head coach? Where do we fit in? If I recall Blackney was making over a $100,000 when he was at BG over 10 years ago.

$140,000 seems low to me. Should it?

UK Peregrine · Post by **UK Peregrine** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 11:40 am

Figures from 1999. I'll look for something more current. But as you can see Brandon's salary is below the average from 5 years ago. He's at the 1996 average, not good.

Among average head coaches salaries, the average salary for football coaches in Division I-A was $195,057, compared to $141,624 in 1996. For head basketball coaches in Division I-A, the average salary for coaching a woman's team was $100,235 and for a men's team, $164,927.

The average salary for a head football coach in Division I-AA was $71,311; for a head men's basketball coach, $88,439; and for a head woman's basketball coach, $56,377.

http://www.ncaa.org/releases/research/1999102501re.htm

bgmike29 · Post by **bgmike29** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 8:46 pm

Brandon will eventually leave, there is no doubt about it. He will not make a lateral move, but he will move up to a program with a higher prestige. Lets hope this doesn't happen for a while though.

orangeandbrown · Post by **orangeandbrown** » Wed Dec 08, 2004 9:14 pm

Falcon52 wrote:$140,000 is not that much. Can't we pay our coach more? For the amount of time, effort and responsibility, I would think he should be in the $250,000 range. Those guys really work. For those who love to research:

What is the average salary for a D-1A head coach? Where do we fit in? If I recall Blackney was making over a $100,000 when he was at BG over 10 years ago.

$140,000 seems low to me. Should it?

Where do you suggest the money come from?

Falcon52 · Post by **Falcon52** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 8:43 am

BG parking tickets? They at least make that much every year. Just kidding. I don't have the answer to that question. I haven't seen or analized their budget. Donations I guess? We need a marketing genius to raise revenue. We assume the money isn't there to pay him, but what do we know. Maybe it is and we choose not to spend it?

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 10:02 am

Falcon52 wrote:BG parking tickets? They at least make that much every year. Just kidding. I don't have the answer to that question. I haven't seen or analized their budget. Donations I guess? We need a marketing genius to raise revenue. We assume the money isn't there to pay him, but what do we know. Maybe it is and we choose not to spend it?

This is a copy of the 2004-05 general fee budget, which includes the athletic department operating budget:

http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/finance/bud ... gf2005.pdf

Here is a breakout of revenues, from page 14:

General fee (grants-in-aid) - $4,095,481
General fee (non grants-in-aid) - $4,180,659
General fee (ICA rent) - $191,655
Gate receipts/concessions/parking, guarantees--opponents, TV/radio: $1,611,000
NCAA/MAC/CCHA revenue: $677,000
Falcon Club and other fundraising: $500,000
Stadium Suite/Club: $265,000
Miscellaneous: $1,134,537
Total: $12,655,332

I'm not sure I fully grasp the distinction between graints-in-aid (presumably, athletic scholarships), non grants-in-aid (personnel and the like, maybe?), and ICA rent (whatever that is).

But it is clear that about two-thirds of the athletic department's operating budget comes from the general fee.

So... the easiest path toward giving Brandon a raise would be to hike the student fee, which is now $594 per semester A 1.5 percent hike would be enough to generate about $300,000 more, which would make our head coaches'salary competetive with Nevada-Las Vegas.

But, politically speaking, this is a terrible idea, for two reasons:

1. Other coaches would flip out, and I'm not just talking about Brandon's assistants. Coaches of nonrevenue sports already tend to look upon the football program with some envy. The football program already gets quite a few perks that can be tough to accept, like spending the night before a HOME game in a hotel. And Brandon's salary blows away that of most of the rest of the Falcon head coaches.

2. Students would flip out. Tuition has been increasing by 10 percent a year (thanks to the geniuses in Columbus). There are already occasional rumblings among students (and, presumably, faculty) that too much of the student fee is devoted to athletics. How do you think the community would react if the fee were hiked to give our coaches big fat raises? They would be incensed, and I couldn't blame them -- and I'm on Brandon's side. I want our football coach to be paid a competitive salary.

In the short term, the easiest way to pay our football coaches more is to find a few sugar daddies to bankroll it. I imagine that's how Nevada-Las Vegas is getting it done.

If I owned a casino, I'd step up to the plate and make sure our coaches all got a big fat raise. But I don't own a casino.

In the medium term, we need to increase gate receipts. As we all know, there is plenty of room for growth there.

Falcon52 · Post by **Falcon52** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:10 pm

OK - good work.

I agree with you on not increase what current students have to pay. I'm not for that. Clearly the alumni needs to be much more involved and we are the one who need to pony-up to a certain extent. Not just in donations, but by being involved and participating in the events.

Increased ticket sales would help. Just 2,000 more seats X $15 per seat would be an extra $30,000 per game. Marketing. Were going to have to spend money to make money here. Unless, we can come up with some type of consistent grass roots marketing program amongst ourselves here at AZZ.com. Not an impossible idea! We should probably have an annual AZZ.com meeting to discuss stuff like this.

I think our advertising dollars lack. How much is SKY Bank donating a year or spending on advertising with BG? Somehow if we could partner up with a corp from a bigger city like Cleveland we could raise more dollars create additional fan base. Easier said than done, I know.

As far as how the other coaches from other sports may feel, let the door hit them in the ass on the way out! I could care less. And before people get their panties all in a bunch, this mentality or structure is no different at any other school. Do you think the coach of the girls basketball team at osu is pointing at Tressel and bitching? Unless you have an elite basketabll program, which we don't, the only sport that really matters in raising revenue, support and fan base is football. It's just the way it is. It's part of life in a way, the other coaches would have to deal with it.

Schadenfreude · Post by **Schadenfreude** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 12:49 pm

Falcon52 wrote:Marketing. Were going to have to spend money to make money here.

I worry some of us talk about marketing as if it is a magic bullet. It becomes the fall back solution when we can't think of anything else.

Kent State fans talk about that too -- marketing -- as if marketing is the main reason football fans won't pay good money to watch a program that has one exactly one conference title in more than 50 years.

I'm not convinced many of us know a whole lot about marketing. I also trust the athletic department puts an incredible amount of thought into this every year.

If we have good, concrete ideas, let's talk about them. I thought the idea of pushing more alumni groups into organizing bus trips is an example of a solid idea.

But, to suggest if we only advertise more, more people will come... I don't think it is that simple. At all.

Fact is, Bowling Green football already gets an enormous amount of publicity for free. We have our radio network, we are getting games on ESPN, The Blade does a more than adequate job of letting people know what is going on with the program...and on and on.

People know we are here and playing football. The question becomes how to make them interested in coming to watch.

That's why I think improvements such as the video scoreboard, the tailgating atmosphere, the Falcon Club tent, etc. are more important than marketing.

As far as how the other coaches from other sports may feel, let the door hit them in the ass on the way out! I could care less.

I know one of the nonrevenue coaches a bit. It's him and an assistant. He isn't making a ton of money, he doesn't have much in terms of resources. He makes But he's fielding winning teams. He's a good coach, in the best sense of the word.

I worry we'll lose him eventually. He's good, and he can make more money elsewhere if he keeps this up. That will be unfortunate if it happens.

Do you think the coach of the girls basketball team at osu is pointing at Tressel and bitching?

Not as much, if at all... because the coach of the women's basketball team at Ohio State is paid much better and has an enormous amount of resources compared with our basketball coach.

Just as importantly, Ohio State football really is a cash cow for the rest of the athletic department. I doubt ours can be described that way. Again, two thirds of the revenue for the whole department is from the general fee,,, only 10-to-20 percent comes from attendance in ALL sports (including basketball and hockey).

Unless you have an elite basketabll program, which we don't, the only sport that really matters in raising revenue, support and fan base is football.

Again, if you look at the numbers, none of our sports are really profit centers.

One can argue basketball is more profitable than football, actually. Look at the NCAA/MAC revenue line of that budget. I imagine the bulk of that is NCAA basketball tournament revenue. We get a token amount of television revenue from the MAC, and I doubt the bowl revenue is much more than token.

The fact that Kent State made it to the Elite 8 a few years back was probably more important in terms of our revenue from the NCAA and/or MAC than all these bowl games will be.

1987alum · Post by **1987alum** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:01 pm

Schadenfreude:

I've been beating the marketing drum a lot on AZZ and I believe it is at the core of what will make our program more successful and drive additional revenue in the future.

That being said, let make make two points.

1) It is not the magic bullet.

2) "But, to suggest if we only advertise more, more people will come... I don't think it is that simple. At all." You are correct. That's why I emphasize marketing over simply advertising. There's a distinct and important difference.

I grit my teeth when folks say we should toss up some billboards or put in an ad in some publication. That's not the sort of thing I'm advocating.

What I'd like to see is a comprehensive marketing plan. One that allows the wide number of (what appear to be) disparate efforts - marketing & advertising - being made to promote BG football. Such a plan would address all levels of marketing and allow the department to discover and take advantage of synergies and efficiencies. Consistency and persistence are the keys to effective marketing and that's what BG needs to develop, because we can't just throw money at a problem to mitigate shortcomings in planning and strategy.

Falcon52 · Post by **Falcon52** » Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:34 pm

87 - I agree with your marketing ideas. There is a huge difference between marketing and advertising.

Schaden - Listen, my comments are not to take away from those who do a good job or any other coach at BG or anywhere. They are appreciated at many levels. Even though OSU was a bad example, my point is that reagardless of what they actually make, the spread between a girls basketball coach and a head football coach at any school is huge. That's the nature of the business. (Except maybe UCONN's Gino and Tenn. - Pat) Also, I agree with your points about our current situation. What I am suggesting is that for many successful schools around the country, football is the conduit for raising the bar for all the athletics. Football is our most valuable product in means of raising revenue. The fact that 2/3 of our revenue is from the general fee is exactly the problem. I think we all want the same end result here, it's just that I am suggesting that now might be a good time to invest in our football program. That's where I see our biggest return coming from. That is if we are all interested in seeing this program really go to the next level.