2nd fiddle at a football school? Sign me up
Posted: Tuesday, September 15, 2009 7:14 PM
Filed Under:
Coaches, Mid-majors
What do Thad Matta, Rick Barnes, John Beilein and Bruce Pearl have in common? Is it:
A) They all won at least 20 games last season.
B) They all make more than $1.3 million per year.
C) They all work at football schools.
D) All of the above.
The observant reader and college hoops fan undoubtedly chose D. Yet oddly enough, C plays a big reason why the answer is all of the above.
Ah, college football. The monster revenue machine in college sports. Check out this list of D-I school listed by athletic revenue. It’s loaded with football schools from BCS conferences. And it’s that BCS revenue that helps hoops coaches build their programs.
Some coaches may find it difficult to play second fiddle at a football school, but Dana O’Neil informs us it depends on that coach’s attitude.
Take a guy like Rick Barnes. He’s been at Texas since 1998, hasn’t missed an NCAA tournament since ’99, went to a Final Four in 2003 and had the national player of the year in 2007. Yet no one would argue that regardless of his program’s success, football always takes precedence in Austin. Always.
But it’s not a bad thing.
"Football is a major help,” he told O’Neil. “You bring kids in for visits on home weekends, the exposure your school gets, you can't match that.”
Billy Donovan says it wasn’t easy building Florida into a contender, but all it took was a few good recruiting classes and some NCAA tourney success. Because until you convince basketball players that people will care about them at a hoops school, it’s hard to get them to come.
Still, being one of the haves is better than being one of the have-nots. Even if coaches like Oklahoma’s Jeff Capel complain about recruiters “sending negative mailouts or will just tell kids, ‘You don’t want to go there. That’s a football school,’” surely it’s better to be at a high-profile spot than struggling somewhere that doesn’t have the football factor.
After all, these guys all came from mid-major schools, eager to leave that challenge for more money and possibly a run in the Big Dance.
Who wouldn’t play second fiddle for that?
