Goodbye, Louisville.

[bobestes]

First, read this:

http://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/post/how-louisville-went-little-brother-powerhouse

Look back twenty years. Both of our programs were independent in football, Great American in basketball. We were in the same place.

Since then, we've watched Louisville invest in their athletic department. They built a football stadium. They built an NBA-caliber basketball arena. Their women's bb is in the final four. Their other sports do really well, too.

They just won a national championship in MBB and have some of the highest basketball revenues in the sport. They have a hall of fame basketball coach.

We have one of the lowest BCS budgets for football AND basketball. We play in a dump of an arena. Our football stadium is a glorified high school stadium. We have "plans" with no action. They don't lose coaches to SEC schools.

They are a school of what, 15,000? We double that. Our metro area is 2x bigger.

They are going to the ACC. We are not.

I am tired of excuses. NFL town, etc.

Steger, Zimpher, Williams, Wyler, Board of Regents, Thomas have failed this university. They thought they could "get by" by doing nothing in an arms race, and the prestige of the university is suffered.

It's a crime, and supporters of this school should be mad as ****.

[cmm27]

All that aside, UofL gets more state support in addition to having a university and athletic department with long term vision.

[True Bearcat]

You're absolutely right. There is no excuse for what has happened to the University of Cincinnati.

[bobestes]

All that aside, UofL gets more state support in addition to having a university and athletic department with long term vision.

Exactly. It's an urban commuter school in KENTUCKY. And they set out to be a big time school. And they are.

That could have been us! We made a video.

[Brian H.]

I think it was covered before, but the Basketball arena does not belong to the university and is not on campus.

Cincinnati (the city) built a NFL football and MLB stadium. For comparison then UC should be using PBS, and GABP and take the money spent on Schott and Nippert and instead spend it on a new BBall arena.

[cmm27]

I think it was covered before, but the Basketball arena does not belong to the university and is not on campus.

Cincinnati (the city) built a NFL football and MLB stadium. For comparison then UC should be using PBS, and GABP and take the money spent on Schott and Nippert and instead spend it on a new BBall arena.

It comes down to a lack of relationship between city, state, donors and the university. Louisville has all those things. Remember, in order to remove the perception that UK is the superior state school their legislature made it a state law that the two schools have to play against one another. Imagine the perception boost if UC and Ohio State had to play in all sports.

[bobestes]

I think it was covered before, but the Basketball arena does not belong to the university and is not on campus.

Cincinnati (the city) built a NFL football and MLB stadium. For comparison then UC should be using PBS, and GABP and take the money spent on Schott and Nippert and instead spend it on a new BBall arena.

Progressive schools don't make excuses, they find a way to get things done. I am sure that if Louisville were in our situation, they wouldn't be playing at fifth third arena or Nippert. Same for Pitt.

[Brian H.]

Progressive schools don't make excuses, they find a way to get things done. I am sure that if Louisville were in our situation, they wouldn't be playing at fifth third arena or Nippert. Same for Pitt.

Merely stating facts about the basketball arena situation. If you can go ahead and get the city to build one for UC that would be great. Of course then a bunch of people would complain when it was not an on campus facility like they do for everything else.

[RedRocker]

Another take on UL's successful sports year:

http://espn.go.com/blog/bigeast/post/_/id/43451/louisville-in-middle-of-banner-sports-year

[RedRocker]

Merely stating facts about the basketball arena situation. If you can go ahead and get the city to build one for UC that would be great. Of course then a bunch of people would complain when it was not an on campus facility like they do for everything else.

Nah, let's just avoid facts when trying to support our opinions. I think UC should demand that Hamilton County and the City of Cincinnati build us a new basketball arena and help fund a Nippert overhaul or we're going to move! That tactic worked for ole Mike Brown.

[kennh]

First, read this:

http://www.boisestatepublicradio.org/post/how-louisville-went-little-brother-powerhouse

Look back twenty years. Both of our programs were independent in football, Great American in basketball. We were in the same place.

Since then, we've watched Louisville invest in their athletic department. They built a football stadium. They built an NBA-caliber basketball arena. Their women's bb is in the final four. Their other sports do really well, too.

They just won a national championship in MBB and have some of the highest basketball revenues in the sport. They have a hall of fame basketball coach.

We have one of the lowest BCS budgets for football AND basketball. We play in a dump of an arena. Our football stadium is a glorified high school stadium. We have "plans" with no action. They don't lose coaches to SEC schools.

They are a school of what, 15,000? We double that. Our metro area is 2x bigger.

They are going to the ACC. We are not.

I am tired of excuses. NFL town, etc.

Steger, Zimpher, Williams, Wyler, Board of Regents, Thomas have failed this university. They thought they could "get by" by doing nothing in an arms race, and the prestige of the university is suffered.

It's a crime, and supporters of this school should be mad as ****.

You know you are right. And if people like you would just donate a billion $ or two things would be better.

[applegbt]

This thread is one giant facepalm.

[coach]

i think you can thank your local pro sports teams for their priority. it's one of the reasons very few, if any, pro sports towns also have heavily supported ncaa programs.

[Rational Cat]

Yep, UL is the only game in town, so much so that the city bent over backwards to please and is now losing its shirt on the fabulous Yum! Center. Non-sports fans in Louisville are not happy.

http://insiderlouisville.com/news/2012/09/11/louisville-debt-debate-which-is-the-bigger-disaster-kfc-yum-center-or-metropolitan-sewer-district-the-answer-will-surprise-you/

And surprise, 80% of all revenue (even non UL events), goes to the UL Athletic Dept. ya think Mallory will give UC a deal like that?

UC competes with XU, Bengals and Reds for the $. It's simple to see the difference. Those things are not "excuses", they are "reasons."

UL has done a great job, no question, especially Jurich. But they have many built in advantages over UC.

[08bearcat]

Leadership isn't the problem

Turns out that all of those leaders who you hold culpable for failing UC only fill one seat at games. We had 1 sellout season under Huggins. We had 1 sort of sell out season under Brian Kelly.

Our leadership has done a great job with limited resources brought on by lack of investment by the community. But I'm pretty tired of hearing people on here complain about a lack of leadership. Our presidents particularly have taken us from a commuter school still recovering from a transition to state control to a top 130 school, top 25 research institution and a world class destination university. Athletics has overachieved for a long time.

I'm proud of UC and it's leadership. The worst thing that could happen is selling out the tremendous leaps forward we've made for athletics, and I'm glad our leadership hasn't done that.

70 people give more than 1k a year to basketball at UC. 7.0. That's insane.