re: Texas has fired AD Steve Patterson

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I don't understand the hatred either.

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People just don't look around and see prices are going up everywhere, even much higher than LSU, at schools that take state money no less.

I hate the trajectory collegiate athletics have taken too, but Alleva's job is to put LSU in the best position to win championships. Other than the trent johnson mistake and Caldwell's cush contract, everything else has been solid.

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Iowa fans talking shite about Nebraska fans and unrealistic expectations. Strange times we're living in...

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Really? We're talking about winning the West, making the CCG. Iowa fans are happy with contending for the conferecne, maybe sometimes having a chance to win it. If something bigger than that happens on the national level, awesome. I don't see that as unrealistic.

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I've heard they are going to try to bring in Chip Kelly and make him the highest paid football coach period after this AD

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They wish. Their AD lost money last year, and they just fired a man with a guaranteed $5 million contract. You add in Charlie's buyout, and they would have trouble affording the SMU coach let alone a NFL coach.

People buy too much into their money hype because their AD has a lot of revenues on paper. But counting against all that revenue is a huge payroll, and shrinking ticket sales. The days of throwing 10+ million a year at any old coach are gone for a while.

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Texas went in the red by $2 million (or was it $3 million) because they put all the big unexpected (buyouts) into a single fiscal year, instead of spreading the accounting pain.

The Texas athletics department has $40 million in cash reserves.

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It was $2.8 million to be exact, but that was BEFORE ticket sales took the big hit they have taken this season. Oh and that was before Texas paid Patterson $5 million just to not be there anymore.

If Texas fired Charlie after this season they would owe him $15 million. So firing Charlie and Patterson in the same year would wipe out half those reserves.

Add in the loss in ticket revenue year over year, and suddenly $40 million doesn't look like a ton of money. Certainly not enough to hire the kind of splash coach that would turn around that declining attendance year 1, which is what would be needed if the reserves were depleted so substantially.

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If Mack Brown is named AD (which I am uncomfortable with), Joe Jamail (he loves him some Mack Brown) would probably wipe out any red with a stroke of his pen.

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Sure, Mack could get Joe and Red to clean up the mess. But then Mack, Joe and Red get to pick the next coach. As an Aggie I can't think of a better case scenario than that.

Yall are stuck between a financial hard place, and a soft spot filled with cookies and orange slices.

Is Charlie Strong seriously in danger of being fired after just 2 seasons?

That is true. Apparently he was an equal opportunity bastard.

I guess he'll be the only full-time Texas AD I've never met going back to when DKR became AD in 1962. But that's a short list (Darrell Royal and DeLoss Dodds)*.

The thing that gets me is that some sorry, slimy alum convinced our increasingly slimier-looking former university president to hire his buddy Patterson, instead of the man (O. Luck) who the search firm recommended (which cost another several hundred thousand dollars).

Lots of money has been pissed away the past few years.

* Bill Ellington was merely a placeholder.

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Is Charlie Strong seriously in danger of being fired after just 2 seasons?

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Depending on who they bring in after the interim AD, they may want a clean slate and to bring in "their" guys. It'd be a mistake IMO, but you never really know what you're getting when you change Athletic Directors.

I know a lot of the big money donors didn't like the hiring of Strong. They didn't like that Patterson kept them out of the loop during the search.

IF they bring in a weak willed AD, they may be pressured to fire Strong by the big donors who will want a chance to be on the inside for a new hire.

But ultimately, Strong has had ONE recruiting class. And in the last game the freshmen that did play looked awesome. I just can't see letting Strong go after we know what kind of shape Mack left the program in.

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we know what kind of shape Mack left the program in.

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Yep full of 4 and 5 stars that Charlie ran off, y'all forget Mack won like 17 games his last 2 seasons. As for money here's a little breakdown by one of our posters

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He's not a likable guy but their AD job isn't that great right now. Patterson innocuously dropped the bomb that fiscal 2014, despite enormous revenue numbers, the Texas AD lost about $5m. He explained it away that they had $50m in reserve and it was related to the buyout of Mack Brown so no big deal. But, since then...

- they lost about 10k season ticket holders. The official tickets sold vs Rice was 86,458 (their lowest paid attendance in 2014 was 92,017 vs ISU)
- they fired Barnes and hired Shaka including a buyout for both. Not sure the numbers but they also increased their ongoing coaching salaries
- they have now fired Patterson to the tune of $6m

So let's say they average 6k below last year's attendance (which is probably generous as UNT was their opener last year and it outdrew ISU plus this season may get ugly) with price of ticket $500 and an average donation of $500 that's $6m. Add in the $6m for Patterson and let's say $5m for the Shaka/Barnes buyouts. That's about $17m. Plus whatever ongoing increase for Shaka and his staff. Suddenly that $50m reserve is $25m with an ongoing operating loss around $5-10m annually.

Strong's contract is guaranteed. If they have a subpar season like it appears they will, it will still be very difficult to fire him. But season tickets aren't exactly going to fly off the shelves if Strong returns. All the while, fan expectations remain that they can money whip anyone they want. That's what the next AD is walking into.

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Agree. Mack is an old redneck coach. Putting him in charge of a 100MM business would be a terrible move.