The Villanova Football Problem...

[stever20]

Of course it's no problem. It's all in NovaBall's mind.

[NovaBall]

A developing situation as Nova's AD might go to Pitt.

Nova's AD seems like a good guy, but he doesn't really move the needle one way or another among the nova community. He actually got a lot of criticism as being a glorified ticket sales and schedule coordinator and not really having much of a voice. I'm fine with him for the most part though.

Where some are seeing this as an issue is that Villanova is at a serious crossroads in allocation of athletic resources. Vince has been complacent with overspending on a football product that is viewed with negativity among the Villanova community while neglecting sports where we have potential to compete at a national level such as lacrosse and soccer. Would a new AD go along with the football faction and continue to irresponsibly spend on a bad football product, or would they make sure that nova's basketball revenue stayed with basketball and that football did not overshadow other sports that we should be fully funding?

Interesting development to say the least.



Hey stever, post as either stever or hoyas. Don't pretend to be a georgetown fan trumpeting the Conference of Americans cause under two fake handles. One is enough.

[NovaBall]

So some recent developments.

Not sure if Vince is going to go to Pitt. Sort of mixed feelings on whether he leaves. Some people like the stability, but nobody is really losing sleep about whether he leaves or not. As you all know, there is a stark divide between the pro-football and pro-hoops camp at nova. As nova football doesn't help big east at all, I would think most of you are with me and want nova to continue to invest in hoops instead of shifting to football to try to build a "big east escape plan" (as many nova football tough guys call the investment in football)...

Anyway, some of the footballers are thinking that andy Talley, our 72 year old football coach, should be named our new athletic director!! They see this as assuring that football will remain the top priority at the school (it currently has a similar operating budget as hoops, despite no revenue, and steals 40% of basketball's revenue for its funding). The footballers think that naming Talley AD for the next half decade would give football a safety blanket and will preserve the program.

There are members of the basketball community who think that vince has been part of the problem of poor allocation of athletic resources (not giving hoops everything it needs, and neglecting soccer and lacrosse). Vince leaving would allow for a new AD who will not tolerate "sacrificing" basketball, soccer and lax for the football team.

Anyway, uncleed, the biggest fb insider, is now pushing the idea of Talley as new AD. He's one of those who tries to push the football money problems under the rug (he demands censorship of any financial talk on vusports.com). But that he is pushing for Andy Talley shows that there are some footballers who are looking at this as an opportunity for football to continue to take priority and continue talks of the "escape plan"

[walijones]

Allow me to echo what others have said about Ball.......he never lets the facts get in the way of his opinions.

One point of many that Ball completely misses (or would rather not disclose), is that a disproportionate number of the football alums are extremely generous in giving back to the university, and that extends far beyond Howie Long.

I'm a big hoops fan, but there's something to be said about walking around the beautiful Villanova campus on a Saturday afternoon in the Fall, heading to a football game.

[gtmoBlue]

If Football takes monies away from Jay Wright's hoops program, by all means - build 2 football facilities. How about renovating the stadium as well. . If that premise is incorrect, by all means please begin such a process/practice immediately.

The notion of dumping tons of monies into building up football to P5 levels and joining the ACC sounds great also.

[NovaBall]

It looks like Vince is sticking around. Mixed emotions from both camps on this one. The football tough guys though this was their chance to insert a real pro-football guy who would continue to make villanova football the #1 sports priority at the school. Most people thought this would be a chance to put in a guy who would have a better appreciation of the need to fully fund basketball and try to get soccer and lax and the track program back on to the national level.

With Vince staying, it will probably be more of the same. 40% of the revenue that villanova basketball earns (much thanks to this gr8 conference) will be used to fund football as the "big east escape plan" as dcfranklin and box+1 and eillor like to call it. I personally think it sucks that villanova is trying to stab the conference in the back, and much prefer being in the big east over trying to be a fish out of water in another conference, but the football tough guys are continuing to demand that we do what we have to do to get out of the conference.

[NovaBall]

Wallijones, while I agree that walking around the beautiful villanova campus on a saturday in the fall is a nice thing, I think I speak for 99% of the villanova community when I say that a division 2 football game against stony brook or towson or unh or delaware or whoever is not an enjoyable event. That's why nobody goes. The product sucks.

[NovaBall]

Billy Donovan to the nba, and florida to make a push at jay wright (5 yrs, $20 mill). Jay has a hometown discount at $2.8 mill (although the football tough guys think that's too much), but that Florida package will be tough to turn down.

Villanova basketball earns over $10 mill per year, but only has a budget of $6 mill per year. We shall see if the priorities are set straight this summer.

[NovaBall]

Some recent posts from the nova football fans:



Dcfranklin is one of the biggest haters of the big east out there (he doesn't like nova hoops much either, not a fan of jay):

I recommend leveraging our premier market position into a Power 5 conference looking to add a big time/ big city program. St. John's and Gtown should do the same. I would love us to re-join our former rivals Syracuse, UCONN, Pitt, ND & BC in a hypothetical ACC North to combat the incursion of the Big 10 into the Northeast. Leaving DC, Philly and NYC exposed places the ACC in the same position the old Big East was in 15 years ago. The Big 10's take no prisoners approach mandates some new thinking. So far the Big 10 has stolen Maryland, Rutgers and Johns Hopkins. Is the ACC willing to sit back passively and wait for the next shoe to drop?

Vuwc2003

I am telling you right now, the ACC would much rather take a Villanova over a Memphis. The ACC gets raided again, and trust me, a lot of those ACC football schools would make the jump into an SEC, Big10 or Big12 YESTERDAY, we become a realistic option. There are only so many targets out there. In the ACC academics matter. Will it happen? I give it a better shot than most because I do see conference expansion continuing down the road and the ACC is the target for the SEC, Big10 and Big12.

It just goes back to the stadium situation, something we CAN figure out. Expand PPL, play a couple of games at Citizens and a couple of games at The Linc, Hell, we can play a game or 2 at Franklin Field. Southern Boys can make a weekend out of it in Philly.

I just don't think all of this is as outrageous as some others on this board make it out to be. If we were located in the middle of nowhere and had to start from scratch because we didn't have a football team, OK, I get it, wishful thinking. But we have a VERY competitive FCS football team who already showed it can compete in the ACC (played very well AT BC and should have beat Syracuse AT The Dome) and we have an AMAZING basketball program not to mention Jay Wright.

Again, the ACC would rather take Villanova and Philadelphia over a school like Memphis. Trust me.



Nova525

This is the kind of thinking Villanova needs. Visionary. Not merely a hope for Villanova programs but a realistic view of how TV and institutional missions are going to continue to divide current conference alignments. Be ready, willing and imaginative enough to fill the holes created by the change.




Dcfranklin and his delusions again

Further to the point re: forward thinking, I don't think LA based Fox Sports is the optimum home for VU, Gtown & St. Johns. I realize they were there when the BE imploded, and we were lucky they were and grateful for the unprecedented coverage, BUT... they are 3,000 miles away from our east coast base. The BE is essentially an afternoon drive/Saturday morning thing for them. I think they would be better served to focus on the PAC 12 and let the BE go. Philly based Comcast or Stamford CT based NBC Sports would make a better home for our brand. NY based CBS Sports Network is another option. The BE is too midwest and too mid-major for my taste. We need to start lobbying behind the scenes for a Big City push into whichever Power 5 conference will listen. The options appear limited to the ACC and Big 12, both of which are somewhat betwixt and between what they once were and what they will be in the future (assuming they have a future as presently constituted).






Please note that I am not in any way in the same camp. Big east basketball is an amazing platform for villanova basketball. I wish we would dump our money pitt football program




Oh yeah, and when the florida coaching job was available and the 5 year, $20 mill package to jay wright was being floated around, many nova fans said time to cut back in football and give jay his raise. Let'sginova and others argued that they would rather lose jay than cut back a little bit in football spending. Just to show how f'ed some nova football fans' priorities are

[NovaBall]

Talks out of nova nation are confirmimg that the football problem was a big part of vince nicastro being demoted. Bob Seitz is branded as Machiavelli by the football insiders who realize that the charity hand outs for football are coming to an end

Then handful of nova football fans are upset, but the majority of villanova footbal fans are very pleased with this new direction. Time to drop football, again. Should have never been brought back as a division 2 sport.