re: Fans are really overestimating how attractive the LSU baseball job is

Passionate fan base??????

Sure until you don’t do well and the fan base wants you fired right now because you are not doing what Skip did.

In Hold the Rope, Jim Wells was talking about how Skip used to send him into the stands to ask fans if the hot chocolate was hot enough.

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I could see a guy from a non-SEC school jumping at the chance to come to LSU, but to get a good SEC head coach Woody is going to have to outbid the other school by at least $1 million/year. The BS you have to put up with day in day out would not be worth anything less than that.

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I don't know about $1 million more per year but in general I agree with what you are saying.

A guy like Vitello can stay at UT, get a big pay bump thanks to LSU flirting with him and have much more job security while building HIS program and not one forever in Skip's long shadow.

Someone like Godwin has more reason to see what the SEC and LSU can do for his career. Vitello is already in the SEC. He has seen what has happened at Vandy and South Carolina. LSU isn't as special as it once was. Building an Omaha caliber program in the SEC isn't uncommon at all.

People wanting to watch games live and enjoying that experience is that backbone of LSU baseball. Every coach cares about the fan experience. That comment was rworded.

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The BS you have to put up with day in day out would not be worth anything less than that.

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That's why you will never reach your earning potential. It's about much more than the money.

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Passionate fan base??????

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LSU has led the nation in attendance for like 23 straight years. They continually are one of the top fanbases represented on in conference road games, in Hoover and in Omaha.

Yes...it has one of, if not THE most passionate fanbases in all of college baseball

So, $1Mln per year is the "put up w/BS" market premium in your mind?

At many baseball programs, they lose $1mln or more per year (and are not BS-free).

I think that so called "BS" is mostly love and passion for their baseball team. If the coach is worth their salt, they are moth to light for it.

If anything, put that premium in incentives that create win-win for long term.

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Facilities
LSU has top notch practice facilities/offices, but Alex Box Stadium is nothing special. So overall facilities wise its on par with the rest of the SEC. No coach is coming here just based on facilities.

Pressure
Fan expectations are outrageous at LSU. They’ll treat you like a king for a while, but you better win multiple national championships or they’ll want you fired. Its just like Kentucky basketball. Both have only won 1 national championship in the past 20 years, but fans get pissed off if you don’t win one every year. No other college baseball team is like that.

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In terms of fan experience, the Box has been surpassed by several SEC schools. We will agree on that. But in terms of player experience and facilities, its still one of the best. That matters more when trying to lure a top notch coach and recruit players.

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I could see a guy from a non-SEC school jumping at the chance to come to LSU, but to get a good SEC head coach Woody is going to have to outbid the other school by at least $1 million/year. The BS you have to put up with day in day out would not be worth anything less than that.

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Yeah...no. It all depends on how much his current school is willing to pay to keep him.

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Fans are really overestimating how attractive the LSU baseball job is

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no, its one of the best baseball jobs in the country.

What fans don't understand is that being an attractive job or the "best job" doesn't mean you simply can hire whatever coach the fanbase wants. There are other good programs and which is the "best" or "top 5" vs top 10 are marginal differences. Any P5 school in the Sunbelt can win at a high level. There is more incentive to leave Northern teams like PM leaving ND or VanHorn leaving Nebraska than for someone to leave Tennessee or Vanderbilt

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to get a good SEC head coach Woody is going to have to outbid the other school by at least $1 million/year.

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And LSU is one of the few schools, maybe the only school, willing to do just that, which makes this a HIGHLY attractive job. In football most (maybe all) power conference HCs are making over $1,000,000 per year. In baseball though that is a rarity. Even in the SEC. Offering a guy who is making $400k or $500k $1.7 million is a BIG raise in college baseball. Not many schools have enough support in baseball to do that. LSU does.

Plus, LSU has very clearly shown they are willing to pay big money for a HC based upon the fact they just agreed to pay $2.5 million to the HC in a sport that will ALWAYS operate in the red. If they are willing to do that in WBB, then they are certainly willing to pay a big salary in a sport that has 20x the local interest of WBB and has proven it can turn a profit.

Yes, the LSU job comes with VERY high (maybe unrealistic) expectations. But in the world of CBB where the sport is largely irrelevant to both fans and schools LSU is one of the few BIG FISH in that pond simply because they are one of the few that cares greatly about the sport.