Cornell football 2018

[TimV]

To put this another way, winning at football is going to be expensive. You want hockey and lax to foot that bill?

Well.  THAT certainly changed MY mind.  My answer is "Not only no - but HELL no."  

Can I still get a full size indoor facility for lacrosse?

[CAS]

I believe it's more expensive to run a losing football program in this manner, than to invest to win. Who now wants to write a check to Cornell football?  Who wants to attend a game?  Fielding a perennial loser hurts alumni engagement, which goes hand-in-hand with fundraising.  Facility upgrades would help other programs, including lacrosse.  Cornell football had a winning program from 1986-2000.  It can be done - look at the turnaround at Columbia.  If we accept losing,  we will.

[upprdeck]

if we were solid you could go from 1-2K to 5-7K at the games.  5k more at $10 a ticket over a 4-5 home schedule probably adds 1 million+ to the budget once you factor in parking and concessions. does that make a big enough difference to make it a worthy thing?

[CAS]

Yes.  Add in improved fundraising & school spirit.  Columbia homecoming this year had the fourth highest attendance ever.  Fix football, don't accept running a doormat program

[Ken711]

I do not have the luxury of retaining members of our coaching staff, both head coach and assistants, based on my personal affection for them or their effort. Massive effort is a baseline expectation. And, I do not make personnel decisions based on the demands of others, who while invested in our success, do not have the opportunity to gain full internal program detail.

I'm pretty sure that's what is called "sniveling."  Presumably some of the well-heeled donors are unhappy.  I wonder how they'll take being lectured in such a defensive tone?

Agreed. And all hear is the word "effort", but not a single mention of "results". And in the end, isn't that what coaches are hired to produce.

Then there's this telling sentence.

"The advocacy within President Pollack's cabinet from Vice-President Ryan Lombardi has been invaluable as our president navigates a huge list of university priorities that must be triaged."

"Triaged"? - I guess the football is at the bottom of that triage. The President could care less of spending any money such as on a new head coach or an indoor practice facility for varsity sports.

Placing "winning Ivy League football games" at the bottom of the university priority list seems entirely appropriate to me. There's no national competition, no "next level" as in hockey and no sense of reaching a pinnacle of the sport. It's a continuation game, where high school players can continue to compete at a reasonably high level while getting an Ivy education. If they're competing and they're happy it really doesn't matter much.

Worth noting - I can't recall an instance where Andy Noel fired a coach over won-loss record. The only mid-contract departures I can remember were either initiated by the coach or were vaguely tied to some failure to uphold the university code of conduct. I'm probably in the minority here but I don't think that's a bad policy for our AD to adopt. We're not Michigan or Stanford.

If Archer is still under contract he'll likely get to see it through regardless of on-field results. If the players were happy when the extension was granted that'd be reason enough to retain him. Honestly, I'm not sure another coach would succeed without major investment in other areas and it's quite likely that investment isn't going to happen.

To put this another way, winning at football is going to be expensive. You want hockey and lax to foot that bill?

Football coach Tim Pendergast was fired in November 2003, after only 3 years due to his won-loss record by Andy.

[Ken711]

Yes.  Add in improved fundraising & school spirit.  Columbia homecoming this year had the fourth highest attendance ever.  Fix football, don't accept running a doormat program

Brown is following the Columbia model by bringing in an outside consultant to do a top to bottom review of the football program, in addition to headhunting for their new head coach.

[Trotsky]

Worth noting - I can't recall an instance where Andy Noel fired a coach over won-loss record. The only mid-contract departures I can remember were either initiated by the coach or were vaguely tied to some failure to uphold the university code of conduct. I'm probably in the minority here but I don't think that's a bad policy for our AD to adopt. We're not Michigan or Stanford.

I'm fine with it for our football and, to a lesser extent, basketball legacy programs we use to prop up the pretense of Ivy exceptionalism, which we monetize in other ways.

I wouldn't be fine with it in the sports where we are trying: hockey, crew, lacrosse, polo, track, ... um, maybe that's it?

Ideally we'd drop football as obsolete as bear-baiting, but as long as HYP clutch onto their programs we have play along.  It'd be nice to figure out a way for them to pay us to lose to them, though, the way Vandy did.

[CAS]

So Brown fires a coach who won 3 Ivy titles & hires a consultant.  Brown has financial constraints similar to Cornell.  A big contrast to Andy's inaction with a program that has lost 75% of its game in 6 years under Dave Archer.  Wait, Andy did send an email out.

[Ken711]

So Brown fires a coach who won 3 Ivy titles & hires a consultant.  Brown has financial constraints similar to Cornell.  A big contrast to Andy's inaction with a program that has lost 75% of its game in 6 years under Dave Archer.  Wait, Andy did send an email out.

It will be interesting to see what happens a year from now when Cornell ends next season with another 2-5 Ivy record.

[underskill]

reads to me like they'll make him make some staffing changes for next year though.

[Ken711]

reads to me like they'll make him make some staffing changes for next year though.

Perhaps, but unless they suddenly announce some impactful transfers players, it's like re-arranging deck chairs on the Titanic.

[underskill]

so is a coaching change at this point I fear.

[Ken711]

so is a coaching change at this point I fear.

It can't get worse than Archer. ::cry::

[Trotsky]

so is a coaching change at this point I fear.

It can't get worse than Archer. ::cry::

Andy: "Hold my beer."

[ugarte]

my big fear is that dalton banks is much better than the guy replacing him and then we're really going to see what a bad team looks like