David Harris Leaving for Tulane

[SteinPizza]

WGNO is already airing an editorial about this …

https://wgno.com/sports/tulane-to-fr...-up-and-coach/

Thanks. If Harris is hired, sounds like the powers that be, high level administration types and boosters, are giving the successful football coach a big eff you. Harris is walking into a nasty situation, but nothing several on this board haven’t experienced, just not as public or noteworthy.

[nadf]

I am sorry that many of us are in a position where we are happy about this. I think if you go back and find the original thread when he was hired, most on this board were excited and wanted nothing more than for him to succeed here. I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is anything less than a great person who did his best for UNI. I'm happy for from that he has this opportunity at Tulane and wish him the best.

That said things have gotten pretty rough around here. I think yesterday may have been the actual rock-bottom point for me. Our teams we care most about have been mediocre and are facilities have crumbled, and we get less in-state media coverage than we ever have. Meanwhile, our peers have succeed on the field/court and built all kinds of exciting new projects. This news came out of left field today, it could not have been more of a surprise to me. There is so much work to be done at UNI, it will take years to get this program to a place where we want it to be. This barely counts as a first step but at least we know that things have a chance to change and we are no longer stuck under that contract.

As a side note I've been thinking a lot about the recent court decision where Oregon State and Washington State were granted control of the Pac-12 and its assets. I haven't seen those contracts but I would imagine they would have to use that $400 million to further the conference as opposed to just pocketing it. In which case I imagine they'd use that money to buy out a number of those Mountain West schools to join the PAC. In which case, the Mountain West would need to backfill. And there's not a lot of obvious options outside of Montana and Montana State and I would think that a healthy UNI would be considered in such a hypothetical scenario. But right now we sure as hell do not have a healthy UNI and if that opportunity were to come up, UNI would be passed up in favor of other MVFC schools and that would be a tough pill to swallow.

[QCPanther05]

I am sorry that many of us are in a position where we are happy about this. I think if you go back and find the original thread when he was hired, most on this board were excited and wanted nothing more than for him to succeed here. I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is anything less than a great person who did his best for UNI. I'm happy for from that he has this opportunity at Tulane and wish him the best.

That said things have gotten pretty rough around here. I think yesterday may have been the actual rock-bottom point for me. Our teams we care most about have been mediocre and are facilities have crumbled, and we get less in-state media coverage than we ever have. Meanwhile, our peers have succeed on the field/court and built all kinds of exciting new projects. This news came out of left field today, it could not have been more of a surprise to me. There is so much work to be done at UNI, it will take years to get this program to a place where we want it to be. This barely counts as a first step but at least we know that things have a chance to change and we are no longer stuck under that contract.

As a side note I've been thinking a lot about the recent court decision where Oregon State and Washington State were granted control of the Pac-12 and its assets. I haven't seen those contracts but I would imagine they would have to use that $400 million to further the conference as opposed to just pocketing it. In which case I imagine they'd use that money to buy out a number of those Mountain West schools to join the PAC. In which case, the Mountain West would need to backfill. And there's not a lot of obvious options outside of Montana and Montana State and I would think that a healthy UNI would be considered in such a hypothetical scenario. But right now we sure as hell do not have a healthy UNI and if that opportunity were to come up, UNI would be passed up in favor of other MVFC schools and that would be a tough pill to swallow.

The PAC12 is more likely to just eat up the whole MW and retain the PAC12 brand. There won’t be any backfilling. The MW will just be gone. I’m perfectly happy with the MVFC and MVC. Competitive, respectable mid-major conferences. We just need to keep up with our peers in our conference. That, we have failed at. I’m not expecting a new AD to launch us into a new conference but I want him or her to keep us at the top of where we already are.

[Moose39]

Moose or Farley I'm ok with

Ten characters.

[UNI MadCat]

When I revived the Farley thread this weekend it was with the idea in mind that an AD Farley would know it was time for coach Farley to move on.

To me this is a no brainer. I’ve never questioned this guy’s love for our school. Let him use that passion in a position to elevate the brand while also pumping new blood into the football program.

If he wants one year in a dual role to transition out and find his predecessor I’m fine with that too. Worked for Barry Alvarez. It can work on a smaller scale for UNI.

[vbfan19]

I’m perfectly happy with the MVFC and MVC. Competitive, respectable mid-major conferences. We just need to keep up with our peers in our conference. That, we have failed at.

The I-AA football subdivision was created to provide a way for smaller (budget) programs to be able to compete with other smaller (budget) programs without having to dump the massive amounts of funding that the bigger programs were putting into their football programs.

But then certain I-AA (now called FCS) programs started dumping more and more funding into their programs, which forced other programs to try to come up with more funding just to keep pace, even though they don't really have that sort of funding available.
Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the subdivision.

Sucks that it is all about money.

[UNIAlum95]

The I-AA football subdivision was created to provide a way for smaller (budget) programs to be able to compete with other smaller (budget) programs without having to dump the massive amounts of funding that the bigger programs were putting into their football programs.

But then certain I-AA (now called FCS) programs started dumping more and more funding into their programs, which forced other programs to try to come up with more funding just to keep pace, even though they don't really have that sort of funding available.
Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the subdivision.

Sucks that it is all about money.

It's always been about the money. We have just flipped it on its head where we used to be at the top of the conference, others have increased and we've stayed flat and we find ourselves way behind the curve now. It's just which end of the lens you are looking through and UNI spent a lot of years at the top end of the spectrum and its hard to be at the other now.

[BCPanther]

The I-AA football subdivision was created to provide a way for smaller (budget) programs to be able to compete with other smaller (budget) programs without having to dump the massive amounts of funding that the bigger programs were putting into their football programs.

But then certain I-AA (now called FCS) programs started dumping more and more funding into their programs, which forced other programs to try to come up with more funding just to keep pace, even though they don't really have that sort of funding available.
Kind of defeats the whole purpose of the subdivision.

Sucks that it is all about money.

So, college sports from the 1930s onward?

There is no such thing as cost controlled. Those who spend, for the most part, are the ones that win.

[CincyPanther88]

I am sorry that many of us are in a position where we are happy about this. I think if you go back and find the original thread when he was hired, most on this board were excited and wanted nothing more than for him to succeed here. I haven't seen anything to suggest that he is anything less than a great person who did his best for UNI. I'm happy for from that he has this opportunity at Tulane and wish him the best.

That said things have gotten pretty rough around here. I think yesterday may have been the actual rock-bottom point for me. Our teams we care most about have been mediocre and are facilities have crumbled, and we get less in-state media coverage than we ever have. Meanwhile, our peers have succeed on the field/court and built all kinds of exciting new projects. This news came out of left field today, it could not have been more of a surprise to me. There is so much work to be done at UNI, it will take years to get this program to a place where we want it to be. This barely counts as a first step but at least we know that things have a chance to change and we are no longer stuck under that contract.

As a side note I've been thinking a lot about the recent court decision where Oregon State and Washington State were granted control of the Pac-12 and its assets. I haven't seen those contracts but I would imagine they would have to use that $400 million to further the conference as opposed to just pocketing it. In which case I imagine they'd use that money to buy out a number of those Mountain West schools to join the PAC. In which case, the Mountain West would need to backfill. And there's not a lot of obvious options outside of Montana and Montana State and I would think that a healthy UNI would be considered in such a hypothetical scenario. But right now we sure as hell do not have a healthy UNI and if that opportunity were to come up, UNI would be passed up in favor of other MVFC schools and that would be a tough pill to swallow.

I'm right there with you until your 3rd paragraph. This is not a FBS program. For one thing they just passes a rule that increases the transition fee from $5K to $5M. Plus you have to add scholarships and possibly more sports. Realignment doesn't mean much anymore with USC in the same conference as Rutgers but those schools are getting mountains of money from TV. If UNI went to the Mountain West, say goodbye to those relatively short road trips to Normal or Carbondale.

[clenz]

The cost to move FBS, based on rough math, is going to be roughly $12-15m in year one and then a minimum of 9-10m per year over what we are spending now and that is to be the smallest barely FBS of FBS programs.

We would truly need to, minimum, double out budget every single year just to be able to tread water.

[BCPanther]

The FBS window closed when Troy figured out he was never going to have the administrative support to get it done.

[95UNIGRAD]

This is spot on. This is exactly what our fan base needed in this moment in time.

Agreed. It doesn't solve everything, but I'm light as a feather with this news.

[QCPanther05]

The cost to move FBS, based on rough math, is going to be roughly $12-15m in year one and then a minimum of 9-10m per year over what we are spending now and that is to be the smallest barely FBS of FBS programs.

We would truly need to, minimum, double out budget every single year just to be able to tread water.

I’m a rare dual UNI/NIU fan. There isn’t that much difference between a low level G5 (NIU) and a high level FCS school (UNI). Being a low level G5 isn’t worth it, imo. NIU is much better suited to be FCS v FBS. The grass is NOT greener there. But they’ll never drop down because nobody does that (except Idaho).

[Wxcpanther]

I’m a rare dual UNI/NIU fan. There isn’t that much difference between a low level G5 (NIU) and a high level FCS school (UNI). Being a low level G5 isn’t worth it, imo. NIU is much better suited to be FCS v FBS. The grass is NOT greener there. But they’ll never drop down because nobody does that (except Idaho).

And Idaho only did because they were a relatively recent bump up. I'm in total agreement. Especially considering the potential geographic options for UNI to move up? Not worth it.

[BCPanther]

Yeah. Not interested in Tuesday night November football at this point.