Villanova looking for new athletic director

[NovaBall]

As I mentioned in the nova football problem thread, there has been serious displeasure within the nova community about the waste of money on nova football. Nova currently takes $4 mill of its basketball revenue and gives it to their division 2 football team which loses $6 mill per yr. most are tired of this nonsense.

Anyway, the athletic director who has been allowing this to happen just got demoted. Hopefully thi is a sign that the overspending on football at villanova is going to end.

I know stever called me out about making this story up when I posted it a couple of months ago, but hopefully that dayton troll learns to respect my inside info in the future.


This could be good news for the big east. Villanova is underfunding basketball right now because of football aspirations (some still want nova to upgrade football to join the acc). Firing vince might show that they are going to re-commit to basketball and de-emphasize football (my strong preference).

[Jet915]

Hopefully this is true and the Pavilion can get a nice update.

[Xudash]

Exactly.

I watched this closely when Xavier was on the outside looking in at the Big East, wondering what Nova would do at the point when the Big East had extended it an invitation to join in football.

I always thought it admirable that Nova was even in position to be considered for such a move, believing at that time that the train had absolutely left the station for Catholic universities having aspirations for fielding Div 1A football programs. ND had been on that train forever, BC made it on a sustainable basis thanks to a pass completion by Doug Flutie in the mid-80's.

Nova? It was A Bridge Too Far by the mid-2000's. Too much separation then by the power BCS players, and with no viable stadium solution available anywhere. Nova's leadership was smart not to go for it then. Just ask a newcomer like UCONN or a Johnny-come-lately performer like UC how it all worked out for them. Hell, WVU almost didn't make the lifeboat, and the boat it finally made isn't optimal for it. UL is the only true winner of what had been a group of longstanding also rans (I don't put Pitt, and 'cuse in that group).

Frankly, it's been game, set match on Villanova D1A football for a while now. It has to understand that it's true strategic sports asset is basketball. Keep football and enjoy those fall afternoons the way college football used to be enjoyed decades ago (i.e. less commercially) but don't dilute basketball along the way.

[mtkc12]

I agree de-emphasizing would be a smart move. The easiest path is to go D1 FCS Non-Scholarship, assuming the Patriot League would take them. I went to a Georgetown game a couple of years back and found it to be a fun Saturday afternoon. My alma mater, Dayton (Pioneer), has saved millions since dropping down in the late "70's (first to D3, then to D1 non-scholarship when required (like Georgetown)). Butler's taken the same approach and is a fellow member of the PFL.

Villanova dropped football entirely in the early "80's--then brought it back a few years later. Those were different times, however. I occasionally attend Richmond games (CAA like Villanova) here in Virginia with alums--and find myself asking, "what's the point?". It doesn't feel that different than D1 non-scholarship and is whole lot cheaper to the school (costs of the program combined with the additional female scholarships required due to Title IX).

[ChestRockwell85]

Howie Long just donated $1,000,000.00 to the Villanova Football Program.

[NovaBall]

Howi's generous donation only represents 18% of the annual operating losses for villanova football. Will where the other 82% of villanova football's operating losses come from? You guessed it, they will steal it from basketball and continue to neglect other sports that compete in big east play.

[paulxu]

How is it that Villanova loses so much money on their football program.
Admittedly I haven't looked at the numbers, but Wofford fields a team in the SoCon, has about 1600 students, and I'm pretty sure they don't eat that much to stay competitive in FCS.
Something seems amiss.

[NovaBall]

Wofford is at $4.1 mill

Nova is at $6.2 mill

When you think about how much nova spends on football in comparison to the other fcs schools, the results are really underwhelming. They are the big boy spenders of fcs but only have one title to show for it and lose to some really bad programs.

[walijones]

Ball....we've been down this road before, but for the non-Nova people on this board, please understand that Nova football alums and fans contribute a ton of money to the general fund on an annual basis. A ton of money. The 5 mil that we "lose" on football is largely mitigated by the generosity of the footballers. So we get to have on-campus football games during the fall, compete for an NCAA national championship and regularly put guys into the NFL. Not many small/private schools have this same opportunity.

If and when we beat UCONN on the opening weekend, how much fun will that be? And don't tell me you weren't all over the Rutgers board when we beat them during the Brian Westbrook years.

[NovaBall]

Villanova football loses $6 mill per year.

Villanova football donations are not even close to that.

We would be better off returning those donations and dropping football. The donations don't come close to covering the annual losses.

Nova football sucks and is a complete waste of money. 99% of the alumni agree. Can't even draw 2,000 fans for an on campus fcs playoff game. That says it all right there.