We've had a series of really big donors over the more recent history of athletics. Ukrop, Zable, Kaplan, Plumeri, Mackesy, Boehly. I'm sure I missed some others. We just need to keep pushing for big donors and cultivate those relationships. Broadening the donor base will only help with this. It's also a marathon and not a sprint, but given the mess that Huge left behind we have some things we need to do now rather than later. I just hope some folks with more money than they know what to do with step up and make some long term pledges.

I really don't want to go backwards with our sports programs. I'm old enough to remember when we played more nationally known teams across all sports, and I'd much rather get back to that then the other direction. Moving down in competition will eventually just result in less revenue and probably less interest by the local fan base. This is why I still think it's important to play our regional rivals every year.

(03-27-2021 08:33 AM)billymac Wrote:  

(03-26-2021 08:49 PM)Tank55 Wrote:  We tried to step up our investment in men's basketball and football and everyone revolted. It might be time to give up and stop being frustrated.

We are decidedly at cross-purposes when it comes to our Collegiate Sports. There is not a shred of doubt that, if we want a higher athletic profile, basketball is the way for W&M to go, but we always stumble over the "how different should we be" thing, with the number of sports kept on board.

I, too, am frustrated. Not quite ready to give up, but definitely frustrated...

Good points - but there is another side to the coin. Maybe, as proven by what happened with the Tribe 7, not every student-athlete/alum/fan/supporter wants a "higher athletic profile". Maybe all they want is a chance to compete in sports at the college level. Just based on simple math alone (since most men and all women don't qualify for the size requirements of football), that means that most of them need to compete in those "lower athletic profile" sports. Do we play sports as part of the overall college experience to benefit the students -- or -- do we play sports to satisfy the egos of us alums/raise the national profile? After the Tribe7 fiasco, the College administration did finally admit to the importance of the former (while obviously still coveting the latter part of the latter).

From Hoop Dirt:

“ It sounds like Pat Kelsey is bringing his entire staff with him from Winthrop to College of Charleston and that Mark Prosser will bring his whole crew with him from Western Carolina to Winthrop.”

https://hoopdirt.com/daily-dirt-4-6-21/

Hofstra picks Speedy Claxton as new HC.

https://mobile.twitter.com/HoopDirt/stat...7712841730