Sports is entertainment. Journalism and sports writing shouldn't even be mentioned in the same breath most of the time. Selling newspapers is his job - and maybe his BS pumped up FAU fans and they will buy more, who knows.

good writeup amigo.

a perfect storm for asu.

i work for a large organization. to get to executive level there is a huge tradeoff on family.

i moved up in my organization to a level i was comfortable with balancing the extra salary out with what was expected of me. i'm sure many would doubt it, but i'm every bit as smart as the folks that made executive level. i might not be as cutthroat an @$$hole as many of them but i'm sure that's debatable on this board.

i could have.....but i didn't want to. and our executives think everyone is like them and trying to grasp that next ring. some of us are content 'with enough'. i was able to raise 2 fine young men and be very involved in their lives.

and i don't make anywhere near the 800k range. and it's enough in bowling ball kentucky. i don't think i'll ever look back and think i made the wrong decision by staying here and not chasing the extra money.

maybe if willie keeps improving 800k would keep him here. i don't know him personally even tho' we've chatted. we have several fans that were mad when horn and felton left for s.c. and uga.

the most western would have offered was 500k and they both got over 1m at those places guaranteed for 4 years. i totally understand their moves and never held it against them.

but your new guy made mad bank in auburn. i'm sure he's comfortable. i'm sure 800k will go very far in j'boro.

like i said ....perfect storm to 'possibly' keep him for awhile. congrats to the red woofs.

(12-15-2011 12:02 AM)arkstfan Wrote:  A few thoughts.

Writers aren't supposed to be the marketing department unless the school is paying their salary. But my journalism professors insisted that we treat our subjects with some degree of respect lest there be doubt about our role.

The meat of the argument is that a form of high level ball can be played in a cost containment framework. In my opinion the NCAA wrongly resolved this issue 30 some odd years ago by splitting Division I into I-A and I-AA for football. That ship has sailed.

The market is alive and well. A year and about two weeks ago ArkSt had the chance to hire a guy who had coached high school, spent 2 years as an SEC position coach, 2 years as NAIA head coach, and one year as a Sun Belt coordinator. There were 3 Sun Belt openings and 2 wouldn't have hired him and may not have interviewed him. He was offered a salary in line with that. He was offered a salary this year consistent with his Sun Belt peers.

Gus called ASU, we didn't pursue him. He blew up record books at Arkansas, Tulsa and Auburn and was the highest paid assistant in the country. He received an offer consistent to below his resume. That's the market at work.

It is rather haughty to suggest that if supporters are willing to provide 85% of his salary that they keep their money.

Gus has no rent or mortgage. He has no car payment. He has a five year guarantee vs no guarantee past this season. He is a four hour drive from home. He has old friends within minutes of his new home. His boss taught one of his college classes. He already knew his boss's boss the system president. Those who are surprised and think something is fishy are those believe that money is the only thing of consequence. I feel sorry those people.

There is a danger in a beat writer bashing a team and a conference. Pretty soon, people make a joke out of it.

Good hire for ASU. Never let people make a joke out of you or something you are proud of.

NEVER.

Beed just over three years ago I walked from my dream job as far as money and prestige goes and took a job with greater flexibility. Two years later that step down led more than twice the money in another job that was just as flexible. Things work out.

>>Selling newspapers is his job<<

That's not true. Writers cover stories and give their opinions (in the proper place). The circulation and marketing people handle sales. The editorial department pays little if any attention to sales of newspapers when making its editorial decisions. The subject does not even come up.

I would be furious if our beat writer wrote that, for what it's worth, and he's a friend of mine.

I completely disagree with him, and I think the guy is a total turd when it comes to being an objective writer in the SBC, but in my opinion, he is neither trying to help the SBC, sell papers, or even enamor his own fan base. The more I've read from this guy, the more I'm convinced that he is taking the Skip Bayliss/Colin Cowherd school of thought where you have some inkling of an opinion, blow it up to offensive proportions and let the online communities banter it around. Realize, if this guy had wrote a blog that said "Impressive hire by a quickly improving SBC conference", then I doubt we would be talking about it today. In that way, he is not promoting the school, paper, fans, or conference, he is promoting himself and getting himself as much exposure as he can attain.

(12-15-2011 01:03 PM)Tuffguy21 Wrote:  I completely disagree with him, and I think the guy is a total turd when it comes to being an objective writer in the SBC, but in my opinion, he is neither trying to help the SBC, sell papers, or even enamor his own fan base. The more I've read from this guy, the more I'm convinced that he is taking the Skip Bayliss/Colin Cowherd school of thought where you have some inkling of an opinion, blow it up to offensive proportions and let the online communities banter it around.

But the biggest issue is why wasn't there a picture of a cheerleader on his blog?