In reply to: Great, so would love your opinion on Aoki & the program posted by ndgotrobbedin97
This would reduce the time and they could be partially vetted as well.
Also, I have posted about salaries in the CWS - a pretty good indicator of what it takes - I believe if we were offering competitive money it would improve the list of candidates and speed of hire.
Obviously paying the big bucks for a coach would impact the budget - but a winning team might generate more dollars.
Finally, they have found donors who have sponsored (and defrayed costs) of football and basketball coaches, why not find that donor or group of donors?
Again, all these things point to the real problem - it's in my subject - a good AD. I think this is where the problem lies.
We will potentially have a LOT of coaching hires/coaching turnover because of the age of many of our coaches - Kelly, McGraw, Brey, Jackson, Corrigan aren't youngsters. Who do we want making these hires?
I agree with some of your thoughts, but I also echo CJC's comments below.
Baseball, as you note, will always rank below football and basketball (and probably hockey) on the pecking order, although I believe that more can and should be done by the administration to support the program. Notre Dame has (or at least used to have) a commitment to excellence in all endeavors and if we aren't going to try to compete with the rest of the ACC, then I'd rather have baseball become a club sport.
I'm wondering whether you might be confusing frustration with the athletic department (in many respects, but in particular with respect to baseball) with lack of support.
In my view, the University (not you) has consistently allowed its personal piques to obscure the fact that complaints (even unreasonable ones) reflect passion, and that apathy is far worse than frustration that reflects passion.
My regular reading of this board has revealed very little ire directed at players. The people who are posting here are the people who care most about the program -- aside from the players and their families.
And for what it's worth, the installation of the artificial turf was completely financed by donations from a small group of benefactors solicited not by University athletic department or advancement employees, but by the father of a Notre Dame player.
First, thank you for your perspective as a former player. That is quite welcome around here.
Regarding the money ND spends or doesn't spend on baseball, it is incorrect that there are "lots of other Power 5 baseball programs" that are making money, thus able to spend more on the program.
I just looked at a bunch of different articles about college baseball and budgets and it is difficult to find definitive up to date numbers, but there are probably less than 6 baseball programs in the NCAA that turn even a modest profit. In the SEC, only LSU consistently makes money. A&M and MSU break even. The other programs, including Florida, lose 1-2 million each year.
UVA, which is a good baseball school in a warm weather state loses money every year.
ND has plenty of money and the fact that baseball is a non-revenue sport shouldn't mean we cannot invest where we need to and compete.
Could you post the articles that are specific to baseball? Not disagreeing with you, but I would love to see where that came from. If we are talking total athletic department bottom line, then yes, the majority of schools are in the red. But I did think that baseball programs at these big time schools were one of the sports finishing in the black. Would love to see the financials though.
I found one that I cannot find again that said that none of the ACC baseball teams are profitable. This article is about the SEC and how LSU makes money where other programs don't.
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College baseball is a losing sport, even in the part of the country where it thrives. In fact, just four Southeastern Conference baseball teams turned a profit last season, according to documents obtained by The Advocate from league schools.
The figures are much gloomier beyond the Southeast.
The NCAA estimates that less than 10 percent of baseball programs nationally turn a profit, said Ron Prettyman, managing director of championships and alliances who oversees baseball. The number is probably closer to 5 percent, Prettyman said.