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Message: [QUOTE="Cusefan95, post: 5603267, member: 173"] I'll disagree with both of you...or conditionally agree. However you want to frame it. The BOT has a responsibility to the entire school. But they've also said that the athletic department needs to be self-funding - revenues generated by athletics needs to cover expenses. Syracuse isn't a Rutgers or UConn that will run a massive deficit every year. So they are in a tough situation of trying to balance minimizing expenses and maximizing revenues - and the actions needed for each of those two goals are often opposites. The tendency has been to minimize expenses and hope it doesn't have a significant negative impact on revenue - often while taking some money other schools spend on athletics and allocating it to the general fund. Considering how many colleges are closing and/or struggling financially - that may be the only viable option. I could even sort of defend hiring Red if it was viewed as a favor to JB for giving the school a hometown discount for many, many years. JB did his part to help minimize expenses for sure. Here's where I don't think we can lay blame at this BOT specifically - but the cultural history at the school isn't one which gives me much hope we'll attempt anything resembling a reasonable path forward. When the school tried this approach with football in the 90s and it started to impact on field success leading to fan dissatisfaction - the reaction WAS NOT to decide to change course. They could have opted to spend more, they could have opted to commit to accepting lower revenue...instead the option was to have Shaw tell fans to get a life and Jake tell people Syracuse was a one-horse town with no other options, so just suck up mediocrity and keep coming because we want your money. Yes, Shaw and Jake are long gone - but is the culture that led to that reaction any different today that it was in 2002? I 100% get that the BOT has a really hard task here - but history tells me the reaction to the current situation is more likely to be blaming the fans rather than living in reality and making decisions accordingly. If I had to make a prediction, it will be that we'll continue to spend less than peers on athletics, attendance for football and basketball will suffer, eventually Syracuse will be kicked to the curb as college football continues to consolidate and won't be a major college program anymore...and the Dome will be a big white elephant in prime real estate. And - what we'll hear from the school is that its the fans fault it all went to hell. I'm not sure anything but the very last part is anything the BOT can control. [/QUOTE]

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