I’ve been vocal about the UAA commitment to our program. This is … in part… what I reference: How much each SEC program spends on basketball, recruiting
Wish I could say I’m surprised. Sadly, about what I expected. I’m sure the Leadership in the UAA thinks they are doing their very best. Our rivals, who’ve placed a greater sense of urgency about their basketball program, just are doing it better. I believe It’s one of the reasons Kruger left. He’s a classy coach and didn’t say as much, but that was at least rumored to be a factor.
What did you expect? We gave Billy Napier almost unlimited resources and funding. Cuts elsewhere had to happen. It's all good, though. Billy and his army of assistants and state-of-the-art training center gave us a thrilling 6-7 season in return.
When these things come out, I wish the UAA would comment. IMO, these articles tend to paint a pretty inaccurate picture. UF reports almost half of its budget as unallocated expenses. Schools report to the national database differently. There are so many little things that get added up into different buckets, that it is really really difficult to compare schools like this.
I made this same point on the insider thread. Other schools are also paying for fired coaches. While we aren’t and never will be Kentucky in basketball as far as priorities, the odds of us being that low in reality are slim.
Eye popping!!! Kentucky is spending almost 4 times what we spend just in recruiting under Mike White. Honestly, with the overall second lowest spending school, our coaches actually outperformed what they should have done.
I've also alluded to this indirecty in other posts when fans follow the mob and complain about the coach not recruiting. The UAA bears a huge part of the responsibility here and it sets up program instability through lack of commitment.
unlikely as it ever seemed, this also somewhat explains and exonerates Mike White going to UGA - a move I still celebrate, but now makes more sense.
Yeah, we have one of the largest athletic budgets in the country and yet consistently rank in the bottom third of expense when broken out by sports. Obviously that money is being spent somewhere. Some schools like to win these PR battles, but it really doesn't amount to whole lot of anything.
Last summer, I flew back from Louisville along with a returning AAU team of high school kids. I talked to the coach and one of the parents during the entire flight. They loved Florida’s prior assistants, but they didn’t like Mike White. That might also have played into our recruiting outcomes.
I posted this in the "Why should I be excited about next year" thread a couple days ago. TampaJack brought up the point that we have our own plane and didn't have to buy out Coach White's contract.
Did we not break open the bank for the football program? I'm not saying it's wrong. Football is the revenue machine for all Gator sports. I'm not saying Napier won't succeed; I believe he will, and soon and wildly. I'm just saying that we threw enormous resources at football, and that likely cut resources for other sports. If that's wrong...enlighten me, scooter.
Yeah, I saw that and appreciate both you and Brent bringing this up. It's hard to know the extent to which we should take the numbers seriously, but it's alarming on the surface. I can see how the total budget is less concerning, given the new coach salary and no buyout. The recruiting budget is the biggest Q in my mind. Does the plane cost invalidate the numerical disparity, or are we really that limited in our recruiting budget? Two things are sure: 1) The UFAA has no excuse for a mediocre basketball recruiting budget and 2) The new coach deserves optimal resources for recruiting, as that should be one of the primary grounds upon which he was hired.
