{"id":5145,"date":"2013-03-15T00:22:10","date_gmt":"2013-03-15T04:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5145"},"modified":"2013-03-15T07:34:34","modified_gmt":"2013-03-15T11:34:34","slug":"our-list-of-demands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jmusportsblog.com\/?p=5145","title":{"rendered":"Our List of Demands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rob and I have spent three plus years somehow trying to get up three posts a week, having a great time becoming better fans, meeting a lot of fellow Dukes, and often being mocked by our wives and close friends for this little hobby. \u00a0We’re not pros by any stretch and this is absolutely a pure labor of love. \u00a0So it goes without saying that this week, with the Dukes breaching the perimeter of relevance on the national college sports landscape, is one of the happiest, and to some extent, validating, periods since we started JMUSB. \u00a0We could easily spend the whole week writing sanctimonious stories and thanking those that have helped us along. \u00a0But we’d be remiss if we didn’t use a little bit of this window of opportunity, when we may have the attention of a few in the JMU community, to highlight a few concerns. \u00a0No frills, no links, no pictures, just a few thoughts we hope some of our newer or casual readers will join us in pondering, maybe even advocating, about. \u00a0While this seems certain to provoke a few of our regulars into rising to the defense of the bigwigs they get to\u00a0hobnob\u00a0with, we have no such relationships and someone has to hold the administration accountable for some of the failings of leadership in the Athletics Department. \u00a0We’ll get back to all the fun of constant Agent Steinzz coverage in the Washington Post, having the ability to spark memes in minutes like #lasttimeJMUwentdancing<\/a>, and smugly making jokes at the expense of other CAA schools.<\/p>\n

But when we’re all purpling out, and especially as we inaugurate President Alger today, keep in mind the following items:<\/p>\n

1) Our basketball coach, Matt Brady, who is now the darling of the dance, is currently working without a contract beyond April 8 (the title game of course) because the administration is too friggin’ tight to risk any kind of a decision. \u00a0If Brady bolts for the open job at his alma mater Siena, we wouldn’t blame him and this one would be entirely on Athletic Director Jeff Bourne, and probably even more on his overlord, VP\/CFO Charlie King. \u00a0They refused to fire him last summer when they would have had to pay a buyout, but they also refused to extend him and left him in lame duck status out of fear of having to buy him out this spring. \u00a0Now they’ve presumably hamstrung his recruiting and left him with a bittersweet taste in his mouth during what should be a glorious time. \u00a0And while fans may have been calling for Brady’s head, it’s now clear his recruiting class was top quality and the man can really coach. \u00a0Those two pay too much attention to popular opinion and dollars and cents and not enough to what coaches are doing to recruit and develop their programs. \u00a0(Also, to the Professor who sent the Dart in the Breeze re: Brady’s bonus for winning the CAA, we’d just like to quote Jim Calhoun: “what was the take tonight?!” \u00a0Or in other words, how much notoriety and massively increased morale did your course bring to JMU this week? It’s a market economy and we’re cheap enough already without also trimming standard clauses from coach’s contracts).<\/p>\n

2) On that note, as long as Athletics reports up through Finance and has an affable, but seemingly powerless figurehead like the AD, your’re going to get nonsense like this. \u00a0And…<\/p>\n

3) Road playoff games at Easter f’in Kentucky when you just spent $68 million on a new stadium and shouldn’t have been outbid for a home game by any school not coached by Nick Saban.<\/p>\n

4) Rumors the JMU Pep Band won’t join the team if they end up in Dayton’s play-in games. \u00a0Class time doesn’t seem to be an issue for the teams and cheerleaders, but suddenly these guys and gals, the best fans and representatives of JMU we have, can’t handle it?! Or could it be the old penny-wise-pound-foolish ways again where an administration is missing the point that THIS is what those kids will remember from their four years and THIS is an opportunity to showcase our world-class university in a manner we hardly ever get to avail ourselves of?<\/p>\n

5) The UTTER lack of vision and expression regarding the future of JMU athletics. \u00a0Specifically the future of the football program. \u00a0We long thought $68 million spoke for itself but here we sit in a crumbling CAA and FCS, while ODU has rolled right past us and App. St. and Ga. Southern seem destined to do the same, further weakening FCS into D2. \u00a0Rob and I differ slightly in our opinions of the costs and benefits of moving up or staying put, but we never disagree that the failure to lead by taking a position is becoming a concern. \u00a0And not just for athletics, but the university as a whole. \u00a0If you don’t believe the money, the risks, and future of football as a sustainable college sport are worth making the jump, then say so. \u00a0If you think it will hurt our academic mission and\/or piss off the ivory tower too much, we get it. \u00a0But have the balls to say so. \u00a0Don’t feed us a bunch of bullshit about “monitoring the situation” or “peer institutions” when there is hardly a thing resembling a “peer” in terms of our new and remaining CAA brethren.<\/p>\n

6) On the flip side, you spent all that money on a stadium (partially under the guise of needing it for graduation of the now-enormous student body even though you’ve bait n’ switched the student body and their families on that now too), yet you seem to allow the football program to continue largely adrift and unaccountable. \u00a0Maybe we’re naive, but it sure looks like we have all the trappings of a big-time program (arrests, coach-hiring craziness, recruiting wars, a tailgating scene, and a slew of boosters who think they’re more important than they are) without the rewards (television contracts, bowl games), the relevance, or most importantly the success (getting to be a long time since ’08 and even longer since ’04). \u00a0The sands are still shifting, but it sure feels like things are settling down again and JMU will be one of the last ones left without a chair. \u00a0Like most HUGE decisions in life that come with high risks and rewards, there’s probably never going to be a “perfect time” or a “perfect situation” and you need to make a move if that’s what you think is best. \u00a0If that means a less prestigious conference than some of the big boys, a difficult logistical challenge for other sports, and blowback from academia, have the balls to deal with it and be confident in your decisions.<\/p>\n

In any case, as we formally welcome Mr. Alger into office, we humbly ask the administration for better. \u00a0Because we’re just dorky, middle-aged sports bloggers, we’ll let Goethe say it best: Boldness has genius, power, and magic in it. \u00a0(That’s for Dr. Cash and Dr. Facknitz)<\/p>\n