Now that the season approaches, it's time to look forward to the task at hand.
A quote attributed to Michael Jordan reads: "If you accept the expectations of others, especially negative ones, then you never will change the outcome." As far as the Patriot League's pre-season poll goes, expectations for Georgetown's 2009 season are not only negative, they're practically nonexistent.
The Hoyas received a last place vote from every one of the 12 voters among the other six schools, which is a de facto prediction for another 0-6 or 1-5 league record, which, frankly will be unacceptable this year. Not only would an 0-fer extend Kevin Kelly's coaching mark to an astounding 1-23 record in PL play, but it would come at the expense of perhaps the deepest returning offensive corps seen at Georgetown in nearly a decade. Put another way, this team is much better than 0-6. Now, can they deliver?
The cynic can rightly say that Georgetown could easily lose every game this year. An optimist would look at the same schedule and make an argument that eight of the 11 games on the schedule are winnable, but with the right mix of talent, teaching, and execution. For the first time in four years, the experience level is there--the Hoyas return eight starters on offense, all taught in the Kelly system. With this in mind, here are five questions on the offense as the season draws closer:
1. Is this the year for stability at quarterback? Looking back at the Georgetown teams of the 1990's, one finds a run of stability and success at quarterback--the Hoyas basically ran just four starters (Aley Demarest, Bill Ring, Bill Ward, and J.J. Mont) over a 10 year run from 1991 through 2000, averaging 20 or more points per game in nine of those seasons.
In the last eight years, there has been a revolving door in the QB position. Since 2001, fans have variously seen starts by Sean Peterson, David Paulus, Morgan Booth, Andrew Crawford, Alondzo Turner, Keith Allan, Nick Cangelosi, Ben Hostetler, Matt Bassuener, Robert Lane, Keerome Lawrence, James Brady, and Scott Darby. Among these 13 quarterbacks over eight seasons, the Hoyas have topped 20 points per game in just one season.
The seven man QB list of 2008 has been trimmed to four entering 2009, with Brady and sophomore Tucker Stafford being the likely two-deep after Keerome Lawrence was moved to slotback (more on him later). Brady was more skilled as a passer than a runner in his debut season, as Georgetown quarterbacks have increasingly become runners versus throwers in the face of a withering line. Stafford, perhaps the best pure quarterback prospect for a Georgetown team since Aley Demarest, saw just three plays against Yale last season before being lost for the season with a hand injury. If Georgetown is to get out of the cellar, it needs consistency from the QB post. Even if someone doesn't go all 11 games, there needs to be a clear leader on the field, and one willing to throw the ball downfield.
2. Is this Charlie Houghton's year at running back? Since being named the Patriot League Rookie of the Year in 2006 on the strength of an end of season flurry, Houghton's impact on the Hoyas has declined heading into his senior season. Averaging 82.3 yards a game in the last four games of 2006, he averaged just half that in 2007, and gained only 32 yards in 2008 before injuries took him out of the lineup.
Houghton is especially valuable as a downfield option--if he can get past the line of scrimmage, as a runner or receiver, his size and speed provide a legitimate option for downfield yardage, something the Hoyas have not proven to be very proficient over the last few years.
With options in the slot, Houghton doesn't have to get the ball for 30 carries a game, but he's capable of it. It's a bit surprising to discover that only one Georgetown runner this decade has carried more than 30 times in one game (Kim Sarin's 31 against VMI in 2004) but then, no surprise that this was the only year Georgetown has ever posted a 1,000 yard rusher.
To borrow an image from the Redskins' teams of the 1980's, the Hoyas need a diesel in the backfield when a quarterback keeper won't do. With a veteran line, this may be the opportunity to finally put Houghton's talents to work.
3. Can we "hold that line"? If one can point to any one group of positions where Georgetown has been considerably deficient relative to their opponents, it's the offensive. Too often, the Hoya lines have been too small, too light, too slow and inexperienced against the defensive sets of other PL schools. There have been games where the defensive lines of some schools were heavier than the Georgetown front line, and that spells trouble.
Of these concerns, inexperience was a common issue. There were always upperclassmen in the starting lineup, but injuries and substitutions always seemed to turn the offensive line into a hug question mark by October. This season's previews report that all five lineman are back for the Hoyas for the first time in a number of years. Are they the 300-pound hogs common in other teams? No, none more than 285. But experience is vital in line work, both for how the game is played and how their teammates react. Georgetown's got a group of five men that know how to play the game. Let's keep them in there right through November.
4. Whither the passing game? Eight starters return for the Hoyas in 2009, not one of them a receiver. Of the top five receivers from 2008, none are back in 2009, accounting for 72 percent of the passing yards from last season. Brent Tomlinson, Colin Meador and Kenny Mitchell (one of the more under-utilized receivers of the last decade relative to talent) graduated, while Mychal Harrison and Keion Wade are no longer on the roster. The Hoyas could really have used the speed off the ball from Harrison and Wade, so what's left?
The leading returning receiver, Rick Cosgrove, caught all of seven passes in 2008, and no other returning receiver had more than two. Ugh. If the Hoyas can't develop a serious threat on the passing game, opponents will drop eight or nine in the box and overwhelm the offense.
The freshman class doesn't contain a lot of big-name stars, but two that might be able to get into the lineup are receivers Kenneth Furlough and Brandon Floyd. Both are 6-2 or taller, both can pick up speed down the field, and one or both may be able to give Georgetown a downfield option it hasn't had since Luke McArdle in 2003, which seems like a generation ago. Seniors Cosgrove, Matt Kinnan, and Zack Barbiasz are all reasonable options at receiver, but none had enough experience to be considered threats at the position. It will be interesting to see if a newcomer can break through and wake up the echoes of when the long ball was a realsitic option for opponents to prepare for against Georgetown.
4. Can Keerome Lawrence be a game changer? Moving a quarterback to the slot is a risky move, but in this situation I think it could be a real given Lawrence's skill set and the ability to introduce something Georgetown hasn't had in the backfield in six years: unpredictability.
In 2003, Bob Benson introduced a lineup that, for the first half of the season, thoroughly confused opponents and led Georgetown to three straight wins by late October, by adding to a freshman quarterback named Alondzo Turner into the lineup. Announced as 6-0, but just barely, the 180 lb. Turner could run, pass, and when in a slot, add some interesting options to the backfield and was named the league's rookie of the week in two consecutive weeks. For 2003, his only season with Georgetown, Turner was third on the team in rushing and threw three touchdowns.
While the experiment with Turner didn't develop, the ability of Lawrence to develop in the backfield is in intriguing one. Lawrence led the team in rushing last season, albeit as a quarterback, and while he wouldn't be expected to do so in 2009, he's capable of big things. His passing game was erratic in 2008, but the simple fact that he could put the ball in the air can open up options to what remains a predictable offense. Absent a huge surprise in the receiver corps, a backfield trip of Houghton, Lawrence and Robert Lane will be the Hoyas' best chance for yardage all season. With his ability, Lawrence could be a great addition to the backfield that enters 2009 ranked among the bottom of I-AA in yardage per game.
And to end this segment, another quote, this one from Thomas Edison: "If we did the things we are capable of, we would astound ourselves." Such is the hope for the 2009 Hoyas and an offense capable not only meeting expectations, but rolling right past them.
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Men Of Harbin?
This has been a fairly serious summer of posts on the blog, but as the season arrives there's always time to take a step back. Football is more than dollars and cents, but about camaraderie: among players, among fans, among schools.
Camaraderie came to mind this week upon a review of some of the posts on the HoyaTalk message boards. For the most part, the folks get along, and the comments often elevate from mere fandom to some pretty high-minded conversation. I'm still scratching my head over the quote which read, in part:
"I cited the problems of removal jurisdiction and a state court being able to fashion a post-hoc remedy that does not impinge on the Article II powers that are already committed to the electors, the legislature, and Congress. You cite the fact that State Secretary's of State make a ministerial decision regarding candidate eligibility. Challenging this approximately a year later through the use of an extraordinary writ is specious and unlikely to succeed. A court will not fashion relief that goes beyond the bounds of what it may do constitutionally, where the Plaintiff has slept on his or her rights, and the court cannot workably enforce the remedy. I already stated this. You still refuse to deal with it. Of course, your argument also ignores the fact that courts have already dealt with this and dismissed state suits for the exact reasons I explained here."
I'm guessing he wasn't talking about Tucker Stafford's passing attack.
But across the pages at the football board, there was a discussion about having the football team build up some excitement at the start of the game, something popular at I-A schools but largely ignored at the bottom of the Patriot League. One post suggested an entrance like they do at the College of Wooster, where a pipe band leads the Scots onto the field. Another poster suggested the scene from the 1964 movie "Zulu", where the outmanned British garrison, about to face a slaughter from 20,000 proud warriors, suddenly breaks out in singing the Welsh battle song, Men of Harlech. (Was someone making an inference between the Hoyas' chances and that of the garrison? Perhaps, but don't forget that it was the Empire that won the battle.)
OK, so many Hoyas may not get the clever sub-reference. Here's another video where the fans of Cardiff's soccer team sing following Cardiff's FA Cup semifinal win in 2008. You may not know the words, but the tune ought to be familiar:
Camaraderie came to mind this week upon a review of some of the posts on the HoyaTalk message boards. For the most part, the folks get along, and the comments often elevate from mere fandom to some pretty high-minded conversation. I'm still scratching my head over the quote which read, in part:
"I cited the problems of removal jurisdiction and a state court being able to fashion a post-hoc remedy that does not impinge on the Article II powers that are already committed to the electors, the legislature, and Congress. You cite the fact that State Secretary's of State make a ministerial decision regarding candidate eligibility. Challenging this approximately a year later through the use of an extraordinary writ is specious and unlikely to succeed. A court will not fashion relief that goes beyond the bounds of what it may do constitutionally, where the Plaintiff has slept on his or her rights, and the court cannot workably enforce the remedy. I already stated this. You still refuse to deal with it. Of course, your argument also ignores the fact that courts have already dealt with this and dismissed state suits for the exact reasons I explained here."
I'm guessing he wasn't talking about Tucker Stafford's passing attack.
But across the pages at the football board, there was a discussion about having the football team build up some excitement at the start of the game, something popular at I-A schools but largely ignored at the bottom of the Patriot League. One post suggested an entrance like they do at the College of Wooster, where a pipe band leads the Scots onto the field. Another poster suggested the scene from the 1964 movie "Zulu", where the outmanned British garrison, about to face a slaughter from 20,000 proud warriors, suddenly breaks out in singing the Welsh battle song, Men of Harlech. (Was someone making an inference between the Hoyas' chances and that of the garrison? Perhaps, but don't forget that it was the Empire that won the battle.)
OK, so many Hoyas may not get the clever sub-reference. Here's another video where the fans of Cardiff's soccer team sing following Cardiff's FA Cup semifinal win in 2008. You may not know the words, but the tune ought to be familiar:
The song, commemorating the mighty siege of Harlech Castle from 1461 to 1468, was the musical backdrop to Robert Collier's Sons of Georgetown (1894). Most students of the era knew the musical tie-in, most today would surely not. If the team marched onto the field singing this song a capella, I would guess at least one Georegetown fan would ask if they were referring to "Men of Harbin."
The song is one of courage and camaraderie. In sports, that's an unseen and often misunderstood benefit of the athletics experience. In sports, as in life, we learn more from one another than simply from a playbook or a chalk-talk; it is the elements of character and leadership that athletics, the "battlefields of friendly strife", teach. For a Georgetown team where players don't go on to the NFL, where winning is still a goal and not an expectation, and where the four year experience of football is a significant personal commitment most students and/or fans will not soon realize, the need to dedicate oneself to the task at hand is not to be underemphasized.
So, yes, maybe the team does need a better entrance onto the unnamed Multi-Sport Field every game. Maybe they should gather at the hill above the new Hariri Hall, the crown jewel of the MSB, and run down the hill with great abandon (assuming the fencing is taken care of, of course.) Maybe the Georgetown band, not prone to simple marching, should otherwise greet them on the field with the fight song as they run down the field. Or maybe it's as simple as playing the old Georgetown alma mater, it's own Men of Harlech, before the start of play and encourage the crowd to sing it loudly as a call to action, not a post-game dirge of defeat. Use the beginning of the game to set a course of unity, of Georgetown, of victory, and have fun doing so. With a month until the home opener against Lafayette, let's get this on the to-do list, even if it means handing out lyrics to fans as they walk in the gate.
Collier put it best:
"Where Potomac's tide is streaming
From her spires and steeples beaming.
See the grand old banner gleaming
Georgetown's Blue and Gray..."
(And then beat the #$%^%$ out of Lafayette.)
Saturday, August 1, 2009
Stepping Up
As I write this, August awaits, a month where football is just around the corner and every team, in theory at least, is ready to make a run for the title.
Theory, however, is not reality.
So it is with a little indigestion that I pass along this story from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, where eager fans await the revival of football at Old Dominion University on September 5, with a home date against Georgetown in a little under three months. The school has already sold over 14,000 season tickets, turned another 1,000 away, renovated a 1930's era stadium, and is installing a new scoreboard and sound system.
"When Old Dominion kicks off its football season Sept. 5 against Chowan, the renovated Foreman Field will be as wired as the 20,000 people on hand" writes the paper. "The old lady - the stadium was built in 1936 - has 56 miles of new fiber optic cable running through and beneath her, part of a grand plan to give fans a video and audio show to remember. ODU has invested $1.5 million into the stadium's audio and video production systems - not counting the approximately $1 million for the 30-foot-wide jumbo video board."
$1.5 million. Ugh. Old Dominion is spending as much on A/V equipment as Georgetown is spending on its football program.
And that's been the rub across the worst decade in the 120+ years of Georgetown football--a day late and a fistful of lot of dollars short. When the Hoyas rode across the MAAC's landscape, they did so with the largest budget in the conference--no great statement there, but Georgetown was never in a game where they couldn't compete. Nine seasons later, Georgetown is over $1.6 million behind that of the sixth largest budget, Bucknell, and nearly $3 million behind that of Fordham. Football is the great unfinished legacy of Bernard Muir's tenure as athletic director: he sought to fix the win loss record (4-7 in Bob Benson's last season, 2005), and the Hoyas won only five games since. He sought to fix the funding, but football spending is about where it was in 2005. He looked forward to getting the MSF project out of the bureaucratic swamp and it's still there. The oft-derided Georgetown scoreboard, good for at least one or two malfunctions every season, is still there.
You can't raise money without a plan: Muir knew that, and so do we all. And I don't doubt there are plans, veritable boxes of plans, floating around McDonough Gym for football, for basketball, and for 27 other sports. But if no one (or very few) knows the plan, is it a plan, or just an clever idea? In an earlier post, I spoke of a paradox in Georgetown's strategic planning that sees the status quo go on for far too long, and it's not just athletics. He who hesitates is lost. Q.E.D.
For Georgetown to complete, it must be on a level playing field. Funding provides a foundation from which to compete, however, and in Georgetown's next capital campaign there must be a means from which Georgetown can call upon resources to build that foundation. I'm not arguing for 63 scholarships (which, for a school carrying less than $375,000 in endowed scholarship revenue, would be untenable), but five steps towards providing the coaching staff a means to attract and retain the best and brightest. Maybe these are in the plan; if not, well, here's some food for thought.
1. Work to endow 12 men's basketball scholarships. What does this mean for football? Well, aside from the uncomfortable idea that a nationally prominent program like Georgetown has secured all of one endowed scholarship in men's basketball, provides an opportunity for football which I'll explain below.
Twelve full scholarships amounts to over $600,000 in athletic department costs. Endowing the scholarships ($1 million each) would open up the equivalent spend of 12 scholarships which the new athletic director could use across all men's sports (with the understanding that a similar campaign for endowing women's basketball scholarships could do the same for these programs.) With 12 scholarships (e.g., three full grants a year), the AD could use these as wild cards, where the various men's coaches could recommend recruits whereby a full scholarship offer would be a page-turner for that sport. For example, football might get one in a year, one for baseball, one for soccer--no guarantees that any sport would get one, but the idea that there are additional resources available to lock in a legitimate "star", the results on the field could be noticeable. Imagine if someone had been able to offer a Mike McLeod (Yale) or a Chris Marinelli (Stanford) a full ride to Georgetown, much less local kids like a Brian Westbrook (DeMatha, Villanova) or a Arman Shields (Gonzaga, Richmond). So imagine if there were more...
2. Work to endow 10 football scholarships. This ought to be up-front in the campaign: identify ten individuals willing to make a game-changing commitment and endow a fully funded scholarship for football. Scholarships at Georgetown aren't cheap and the cost of fully funding a year at Georgetown into perpetuity is $1 million. This task won't be easy, but the tallest hills rarely are. Imagine the opportunities that would open up where a full ride to Georgetown University is available to the top scholar-athletes in the nation.
3. Work to raise annual funds for 15 annual use half-scholarships. Endowed scholarships take time, and we could all be sitting here in ten years waiting for those gifts to come in. The Gridiron Club, which is tasked with annual use giving, should be on the front lines identifying a need (should the Patriot League approve scholarship support) to raise the $25,000 per student each year for a "half scholarship" when combined with available financial aid, would draw a larger pool of recruits into committing to Georgetown. These awards could be named in honor of former coaches (Jack Hagerty, Lou Little), former All-Americans (Al Blozis, John Dwyer, Bob Morris), or the donors themselves. The average gift of a Georgetown endowed scholarship at this time is less than $8,000 per athlete. A $25,000 gift would open up doors...and yardage.
4. Work to raise annual funds for 20 additional buyouts. Absent an athletic scholarship, the Patriot League provides preferential aid in what is called a buyout package--it can convert the loan and work-study components of financial aid to grant for those with need. It cannot offer this to those without need (pending the league's scholarship vote, of course), but for middle and lower income recruits the amount could be valuable in making a decision to attend a school. Georgetown is able to offer many, but not all, recruits such buyouts, which is otherwise standard course at PL schools, and annual buyouts should be a public and visible fundraising priority for the Gridiron Club.
If a recruit has an offer from Lehigh which reads: $30,000 grant, $20,000 parent contribution, or Georgetown ($20,000 grant, $5,000 loan, $5,000 work study, $20,000 parent contribution), where do you think he goes? Where would you go?
These are ambitious goals, every one of them. Let's review the costs:
Work to endow 10 football scholarships ($10 million)
Work to raise annual funds for 15 annual use half-scholarships ($400,000 a year)
Work to raise annual funds for 20 additional buyouts ($200,000 a year)
The last three would add the equivalent of 22.5 scholarships to Georgetown's program, which is estimated in the blogosphere to provide the equivalent of less than 20 in its current model, compared to Fordham (over 60), Colgate (over 55) Lehigh, Lafayette, and Holy Cross (over 50) and Bucknell (over 45). And that's before these schools turn the financial aid mortar into scholarship bricks, which they will presumably use to clobber schools like Georgetown over the head if GU maintains (by absence or design) the financial aid formulas it has used since joining the league.
These goals won't get Georgetown to become Boston College. Or Villanova. Or Holy Cross. It won't put one dollar into the unnamed and unfinished Multi-Sport Facility and won't solve the riddle of the Academic Index. But for the long term stability of the program, it is a visible step forward, a step towards balancing competitive stability and financial security.
$1.5 million buys a great video presentation. But it doesn't always buy a great program.
Theory, however, is not reality.
So it is with a little indigestion that I pass along this story from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, where eager fans await the revival of football at Old Dominion University on September 5, with a home date against Georgetown in a little under three months. The school has already sold over 14,000 season tickets, turned another 1,000 away, renovated a 1930's era stadium, and is installing a new scoreboard and sound system.
"When Old Dominion kicks off its football season Sept. 5 against Chowan, the renovated Foreman Field will be as wired as the 20,000 people on hand" writes the paper. "The old lady - the stadium was built in 1936 - has 56 miles of new fiber optic cable running through and beneath her, part of a grand plan to give fans a video and audio show to remember. ODU has invested $1.5 million into the stadium's audio and video production systems - not counting the approximately $1 million for the 30-foot-wide jumbo video board."
$1.5 million. Ugh. Old Dominion is spending as much on A/V equipment as Georgetown is spending on its football program.
And that's been the rub across the worst decade in the 120+ years of Georgetown football--a day late and a fistful of lot of dollars short. When the Hoyas rode across the MAAC's landscape, they did so with the largest budget in the conference--no great statement there, but Georgetown was never in a game where they couldn't compete. Nine seasons later, Georgetown is over $1.6 million behind that of the sixth largest budget, Bucknell, and nearly $3 million behind that of Fordham. Football is the great unfinished legacy of Bernard Muir's tenure as athletic director: he sought to fix the win loss record (4-7 in Bob Benson's last season, 2005), and the Hoyas won only five games since. He sought to fix the funding, but football spending is about where it was in 2005. He looked forward to getting the MSF project out of the bureaucratic swamp and it's still there. The oft-derided Georgetown scoreboard, good for at least one or two malfunctions every season, is still there.
You can't raise money without a plan: Muir knew that, and so do we all. And I don't doubt there are plans, veritable boxes of plans, floating around McDonough Gym for football, for basketball, and for 27 other sports. But if no one (or very few) knows the plan, is it a plan, or just an clever idea? In an earlier post, I spoke of a paradox in Georgetown's strategic planning that sees the status quo go on for far too long, and it's not just athletics. He who hesitates is lost. Q.E.D.
For Georgetown to complete, it must be on a level playing field. Funding provides a foundation from which to compete, however, and in Georgetown's next capital campaign there must be a means from which Georgetown can call upon resources to build that foundation. I'm not arguing for 63 scholarships (which, for a school carrying less than $375,000 in endowed scholarship revenue, would be untenable), but five steps towards providing the coaching staff a means to attract and retain the best and brightest. Maybe these are in the plan; if not, well, here's some food for thought.
1. Work to endow 12 men's basketball scholarships. What does this mean for football? Well, aside from the uncomfortable idea that a nationally prominent program like Georgetown has secured all of one endowed scholarship in men's basketball, provides an opportunity for football which I'll explain below.
Twelve full scholarships amounts to over $600,000 in athletic department costs. Endowing the scholarships ($1 million each) would open up the equivalent spend of 12 scholarships which the new athletic director could use across all men's sports (with the understanding that a similar campaign for endowing women's basketball scholarships could do the same for these programs.) With 12 scholarships (e.g., three full grants a year), the AD could use these as wild cards, where the various men's coaches could recommend recruits whereby a full scholarship offer would be a page-turner for that sport. For example, football might get one in a year, one for baseball, one for soccer--no guarantees that any sport would get one, but the idea that there are additional resources available to lock in a legitimate "star", the results on the field could be noticeable. Imagine if someone had been able to offer a Mike McLeod (Yale) or a Chris Marinelli (Stanford) a full ride to Georgetown, much less local kids like a Brian Westbrook (DeMatha, Villanova) or a Arman Shields (Gonzaga, Richmond). So imagine if there were more...
2. Work to endow 10 football scholarships. This ought to be up-front in the campaign: identify ten individuals willing to make a game-changing commitment and endow a fully funded scholarship for football. Scholarships at Georgetown aren't cheap and the cost of fully funding a year at Georgetown into perpetuity is $1 million. This task won't be easy, but the tallest hills rarely are. Imagine the opportunities that would open up where a full ride to Georgetown University is available to the top scholar-athletes in the nation.
3. Work to raise annual funds for 15 annual use half-scholarships. Endowed scholarships take time, and we could all be sitting here in ten years waiting for those gifts to come in. The Gridiron Club, which is tasked with annual use giving, should be on the front lines identifying a need (should the Patriot League approve scholarship support) to raise the $25,000 per student each year for a "half scholarship" when combined with available financial aid, would draw a larger pool of recruits into committing to Georgetown. These awards could be named in honor of former coaches (Jack Hagerty, Lou Little), former All-Americans (Al Blozis, John Dwyer, Bob Morris), or the donors themselves. The average gift of a Georgetown endowed scholarship at this time is less than $8,000 per athlete. A $25,000 gift would open up doors...and yardage.
4. Work to raise annual funds for 20 additional buyouts. Absent an athletic scholarship, the Patriot League provides preferential aid in what is called a buyout package--it can convert the loan and work-study components of financial aid to grant for those with need. It cannot offer this to those without need (pending the league's scholarship vote, of course), but for middle and lower income recruits the amount could be valuable in making a decision to attend a school. Georgetown is able to offer many, but not all, recruits such buyouts, which is otherwise standard course at PL schools, and annual buyouts should be a public and visible fundraising priority for the Gridiron Club.
If a recruit has an offer from Lehigh which reads: $30,000 grant, $20,000 parent contribution, or Georgetown ($20,000 grant, $5,000 loan, $5,000 work study, $20,000 parent contribution), where do you think he goes? Where would you go?
These are ambitious goals, every one of them. Let's review the costs:
Work to endow 10 football scholarships ($10 million)
Work to raise annual funds for 15 annual use half-scholarships ($400,000 a year)
Work to raise annual funds for 20 additional buyouts ($200,000 a year)
The last three would add the equivalent of 22.5 scholarships to Georgetown's program, which is estimated in the blogosphere to provide the equivalent of less than 20 in its current model, compared to Fordham (over 60), Colgate (over 55) Lehigh, Lafayette, and Holy Cross (over 50) and Bucknell (over 45). And that's before these schools turn the financial aid mortar into scholarship bricks, which they will presumably use to clobber schools like Georgetown over the head if GU maintains (by absence or design) the financial aid formulas it has used since joining the league.
These goals won't get Georgetown to become Boston College. Or Villanova. Or Holy Cross. It won't put one dollar into the unnamed and unfinished Multi-Sport Facility and won't solve the riddle of the Academic Index. But for the long term stability of the program, it is a visible step forward, a step towards balancing competitive stability and financial security.
$1.5 million buys a great video presentation. But it doesn't always buy a great program.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
A Truck Or A Prius
It's been a quiet summer at Georgetown, but for the rest of the Patriot League, it's a calm before the storm.
The upcoming debate on athletic scholarships for Patriot League football was the big story across six PL campuses this summer. Fordham knows what they plan to do, so what does Lehigh do? Does Lafayette automatically follow suit? What about Colgate? Does Bucknell have the financing to match other PL schools? Will Holy Cross stand resolute in opposing the plan, and what will happen if they do?
And some fans of these schools look southward at Georgetown and are only a little nonplussed--sadly, they've come to expect the general yawn from Georgetown to matters with the Patriot League. Where's the debate, they ask. What will Georgetown do? Don't they know what this means?
They know, but there's so much on the plate (from an athletic director search to lagging facilities issues to building pressures on fundraising) that a scholarship vote for the class of 2012 is somewhere farther down the list. Besides, when you're spending a third of what some teams spend on football, what does converting to scholarships mean if you're still 40 players short?
In part one of this series, we discussed that Georgetown is not a I-A program like Holy Cross and, institutionally, shows no sign that it chooses to be. If the Big East commissioner walked up to Georgetown and said, "either get a I-A program or leave the league next year", there's no guarantee it would jump to comply.
Ok, then, does Georgetown want to spend $4 million a year like Villanova (and Fordham, and presumably, two or three more PL schools if a scholarship vote takes place) so it can play Army or Temple once a year? This too, seems to ring hollow in administrative circles.
But herein lies the three questions awaiting the new athletic director come 2010, who should be in place when the PL presidents will presumably vote on this (though, given the league's glacial moves, a quick vote is no guarantee). How much is it obligated to spend in the Patriot League? What will Georgetown actually spend on football? What is the source of funding that will allow it to sustain the first two questions?
The first question, at the least, is favorable for Georgetown, albeit to the chagrin of the other six. The PL has never set a minimum spend for the league and while the Hoyas' three year PL record of 1-16 reflects that the gap may be widening, the league is not looking to pursue an "up or opt" policy. In a recent discussion on the ramifications of a scholarship vote, PL executive director Carolyn Femovich provided a window into how the league - and Georgetown - might react:
"I think if we went that direction, some might work to get up to 58 or 60 equivalencies, and others might say we’ll do scholarships for key athletes and other individuals that might not have the need, but we’ll do a combination, a hybrid model."
And maybe that's the strategy. With a 1-16 league record in Kevin Kelly's three years, Georgetown's high-index, low-dollar funding model just isn't working against the rest of the league. It needs a model which provides good mileage for the dollar but a little more horsepower on the field.
It bears repeating to display these numbers, what I call the Competitive Funding Index (CFI) for Patriot schools. It's the net of the overall expenses less operating or game-day expenses, with the league average indexed to 100 (and that's not even including coaching salaries, which may or may not be within an individual school's football budget). Take a look at these numbers and see what kind of hill Georgetown is climbing:
Of course, there's also Title IX. Chuck Burton writes at the Lehigh Football Nation blog on the quandary:
"But if the rest of the Patriot League offers scholarships, this math changes for some schools that haven't already offered full scholarships in other sports. First of all, the amount needed in both male and female athletic pots grows immensely right off the bat - student-athletes who used to have a only part of a their scholarship "count" (work-study and need-based aid don't count in their accounting) are now having the entire amount count towards scholarship spending. Overall expenses for both sexes could skyrocket, especially at schools where nearly all the athletes are need-based aid in one form or another.
"At a bare minimum it will increase their amount of athletics spending immensely. It could also mean that Patriot League schools may need to abandon this type of accounting for Title IX - meaning that schools will now have to actually spend millions more on top of everything in order just to get in compliance. It could literally mean that spending one million dollars more on football could mean the school has to spend (in addition) two million dollars or more for women's sports."
So how much will Georgetown spend on football? Pragmatically speaking, only what it has to, but with Big East requirements exerting a greater pull in financial commitments that it ever has before, football supporters not only have to stand up for the team, but against those who whisper that football is no longer relevant, a waste of money. Instead of football, they whisper, that budget could fund a more competitive (select one: field hockey, swimming, golf, softball, tennis, volleyball, et al.) program."
Heed well the words from Frank Rienzo nearly two decades ago: "the sports which will survive at Georgetown are those with a constituency of support." The Gridiron Club must be more visible, more involved, and frankly, work the membership lists to a much greater extent than they have ever done before.
And what is the source...um, sources of funding to make this work? This is the hybrid approach discussed above. It will take a mix of endowed funds, of full grants, of partial grants, of annual use buyouts, and lots of need-based aid to make it work. But in 2009, there is far too little of the former and far too much of the latter to keep Georgetown competitive, even in a league that has been on the decline since 2003--much less to compare it to other conferences.
Ask yourself: if an underfudned Georgetown team is a combined 5-38 since 2001 to PL opponents when these schools cannot offer athletic scholarships, what is the record likely to be when they can?
The upcoming debate on athletic scholarships for Patriot League football was the big story across six PL campuses this summer. Fordham knows what they plan to do, so what does Lehigh do? Does Lafayette automatically follow suit? What about Colgate? Does Bucknell have the financing to match other PL schools? Will Holy Cross stand resolute in opposing the plan, and what will happen if they do?
And some fans of these schools look southward at Georgetown and are only a little nonplussed--sadly, they've come to expect the general yawn from Georgetown to matters with the Patriot League. Where's the debate, they ask. What will Georgetown do? Don't they know what this means?
They know, but there's so much on the plate (from an athletic director search to lagging facilities issues to building pressures on fundraising) that a scholarship vote for the class of 2012 is somewhere farther down the list. Besides, when you're spending a third of what some teams spend on football, what does converting to scholarships mean if you're still 40 players short?
In part one of this series, we discussed that Georgetown is not a I-A program like Holy Cross and, institutionally, shows no sign that it chooses to be. If the Big East commissioner walked up to Georgetown and said, "either get a I-A program or leave the league next year", there's no guarantee it would jump to comply.
Ok, then, does Georgetown want to spend $4 million a year like Villanova (and Fordham, and presumably, two or three more PL schools if a scholarship vote takes place) so it can play Army or Temple once a year? This too, seems to ring hollow in administrative circles.
But herein lies the three questions awaiting the new athletic director come 2010, who should be in place when the PL presidents will presumably vote on this (though, given the league's glacial moves, a quick vote is no guarantee). How much is it obligated to spend in the Patriot League? What will Georgetown actually spend on football? What is the source of funding that will allow it to sustain the first two questions?
The first question, at the least, is favorable for Georgetown, albeit to the chagrin of the other six. The PL has never set a minimum spend for the league and while the Hoyas' three year PL record of 1-16 reflects that the gap may be widening, the league is not looking to pursue an "up or opt" policy. In a recent discussion on the ramifications of a scholarship vote, PL executive director Carolyn Femovich provided a window into how the league - and Georgetown - might react:
"I think if we went that direction, some might work to get up to 58 or 60 equivalencies, and others might say we’ll do scholarships for key athletes and other individuals that might not have the need, but we’ll do a combination, a hybrid model."
And maybe that's the strategy. With a 1-16 league record in Kevin Kelly's three years, Georgetown's high-index, low-dollar funding model just isn't working against the rest of the league. It needs a model which provides good mileage for the dollar but a little more horsepower on the field.
It bears repeating to display these numbers, what I call the Competitive Funding Index (CFI) for Patriot schools. It's the net of the overall expenses less operating or game-day expenses, with the league average indexed to 100 (and that's not even including coaching salaries, which may or may not be within an individual school's football budget). Take a look at these numbers and see what kind of hill Georgetown is climbing:
Of course, there's also Title IX. Chuck Burton writes at the Lehigh Football Nation blog on the quandary:
"But if the rest of the Patriot League offers scholarships, this math changes for some schools that haven't already offered full scholarships in other sports. First of all, the amount needed in both male and female athletic pots grows immensely right off the bat - student-athletes who used to have a only part of a their scholarship "count" (work-study and need-based aid don't count in their accounting) are now having the entire amount count towards scholarship spending. Overall expenses for both sexes could skyrocket, especially at schools where nearly all the athletes are need-based aid in one form or another.
"At a bare minimum it will increase their amount of athletics spending immensely. It could also mean that Patriot League schools may need to abandon this type of accounting for Title IX - meaning that schools will now have to actually spend millions more on top of everything in order just to get in compliance. It could literally mean that spending one million dollars more on football could mean the school has to spend (in addition) two million dollars or more for women's sports."
So how much will Georgetown spend on football? Pragmatically speaking, only what it has to, but with Big East requirements exerting a greater pull in financial commitments that it ever has before, football supporters not only have to stand up for the team, but against those who whisper that football is no longer relevant, a waste of money. Instead of football, they whisper, that budget could fund a more competitive (select one: field hockey, swimming, golf, softball, tennis, volleyball, et al.) program."
Heed well the words from Frank Rienzo nearly two decades ago: "the sports which will survive at Georgetown are those with a constituency of support." The Gridiron Club must be more visible, more involved, and frankly, work the membership lists to a much greater extent than they have ever done before.
And what is the source...um, sources of funding to make this work? This is the hybrid approach discussed above. It will take a mix of endowed funds, of full grants, of partial grants, of annual use buyouts, and lots of need-based aid to make it work. But in 2009, there is far too little of the former and far too much of the latter to keep Georgetown competitive, even in a league that has been on the decline since 2003--much less to compare it to other conferences.
Ask yourself: if an underfudned Georgetown team is a combined 5-38 since 2001 to PL opponents when these schools cannot offer athletic scholarships, what is the record likely to be when they can?
Thankfully, some tools are around the corner. (In part three, the tools for the rebuilding effort.)
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
The Cost Of Competition
July marks the official pre-season to Georgetown's 104th varsity season and its 45th since the return of football to campus in 1964. It rightfully claims a rich football tradition that is all but obscured amidst the recent efforts of the program. For a variety of reasons, Georgetown enters 2009 with nine straight losing seasons, the most by far in its history, and sees a horizon ahead where changes to the Patriot League cast a shadow on its ability to compete under its present resources.
In 1964, a HOYA column noted that Georgetown did not seek a program such as those at Boston College, Villanova, Holy Cross, or George Washington. Unbenownst to the writer, he suggested various program scenarios which now apply two generations later: the big time, major college football power, the team competing at the highest levels of a lesser subdivision, the former power who follows an Ivy-like commitment to academics and athletics, and finally, a school who packed in football to focus all its energies on basketball, to very mixed results.
Does Georgetown want to be any of these programs, or something entirely different? If the last 45 years of Georgetown football was built on low costs and high hopes, is that enough in the next generation? Are the losing ways of the Patriot League a case of what went wrong, or the seeds to what to do right?
Boston College
For 30 years, Georgetown and Boston College enjoyed a healthy football rivalry, and while a game with the Hoyas was nowhere as important as the annual cross-state game with Holy Cross, the modern comparison between the schools shows just how far football has taken the BC athletic program from its days long ago.
The two schools share a common athletic structure and each offers a large number of sports appealing to both a Jesuit as well as an Ivy-like sensibility. (BC offers 31 sports, Georgetown 29, compared to the NCAA minimum of 14.) In building a on-campus field in 1957, BC shed itself of the high rents at Fenway Park that were mortal wounds to Catholic colleges nationwide. In 1940, nearly 20 Jesuit schools played major college football, by 1970 only three (BC, Holy Cross, Xavier), all of which were on-campus.
Like the conference they were a part of, BC football took off in the 1980's and distinguished itself as Boston's I-A program. Long gone were the days where BU or Harvard could muster huge crowds at games, but BC began to leverage its moment in the sun during the Doug Flutie years. The move to the ACC remains controversial, but it has provided a firm financial footing for the program.
Boston College runs on a $18 million football budget, covered by ACC television contracts, bowl revenues, and ticket sales (home games average 41,037 in 45,000 seat Alumni Stadium). Its men's athletic budget, roughly twice that of Georgetown, is $18 million football, $6 million basketball, and $6 million everything else. Football enjoys a 14 station, five state radio network and a steady base of season ticket holders in New England which ensure steady revenues.
Where BC has really set itself apart is fundraising. In 1998, fundraising covered approximately $3.6 million, or 90 of the school's scholarships. (Read another way, it covered 85 football grants and not much else.) In 2008, BC raised $21 million from an alumni base only slightly larger than Georgetown, or the ability to fully fund as many as 227 scholarships and still have $7 million left over. According to Georgetown's own web site, it has just five (repeat, five) endowed scholarships in the entire athletic program.
What would Georgetown Athletics look like with 227 scholarship athletes? No way to tell, but it wouldn't surprise anyone seeing a fully funded Georgetown program better than #84 in the NACDA Director's Cup totals, which is where GU ended this year.
Villanova
As the saying goes, no sadder words exist than these four: "what might have been".
In 1981, as arguably the most successful of Philadelphia's major college football programs, the Villanova University football program was terminated for what was its president referred to as a "rededication to its academic mission." A senior lineman named Howie Long had other words for it. In a 1981 article, he called it an "overnight shafting."
But instead of bidding a fond farewell, alumni undertook a vocal and visible approach to bringing the program back, holding fundraisers, getting the word out, and, in some ways, shaming the Augustinian leadership for making the decision in the first place. Villanova returned to the gridiron as a 63 scholarship Division I-AA school in 1985, and has enjoyed a fair amount of success since. Had it stayed in I-A, there is little doubt it would be playing Big East football today.
The closest peer to Georgetown as a I-AA football/major college basketball hybrid, the Villanova men's budget is actually less than Georgetown, roughly $4 million for football, $5 million for basketball, and $4 million for the remainder. Without the benefit of television contracts enjoyed by major conferences such as the Big East, Villanova is extremely dependent on ticket sales and institutional fundraising. Villanova averaged only 6,691 at 12,000 seat Villanova Stadium and raised $5.4 million in 2006 for athletics, much of it for men's basketball.
With a single I-A game each year for school pride and a paycheck Villanova football is the proverbial big cat in the smaller yard--CAA football can take them only so far and the school won't make the leap to the Big East. By some accounting standards is could be losing $3 million a year on football. But the collateral damage of not playing is something the school does not want to see repeated.
Holy Cross
Like Villanova, Holy Cross was a proud I-A program at the edge of what is known today as major college athletics when the Big East conference began to form. Unlike Villanova, Holy Cross passed on joining the league, and its programs have never been the same.
In the mid-1980's, Holy Cross was one of the founders of what was then the Colonial League, a group of former Division I-A teams like Colgate and Davidson, plus three former College Division schools in Bucknell, Lafayette, and Lehigh. The new league, soon retitled the Patriot League, would adopt the Ivy League model to recruit and compete in Division I, with the expectation that other selective schools like Richmond, William & Mary, and Villanova would join. None did. Davidson bailed after three seasons, Fordham spent a decade in PL purgatory, and the league even added Towson to make ends meet before finding a willing party in Georgetown in 2001, ostensibly taking Fordham's place in the cellar. Talk of adding new schools to a league famously referred to as the "last amateurs" remains talk.
Like Georgetown, Holy Cross does not offer athletic scholarships in football. That is not to say they don't provide more support, however. Nearly 45% of its men's athletic budget of $7.2 million goes to football, versus $1.6 million for basketball and $2.3 million for everyone else. Ironically, HC still offers more in men's athletic aid across all sports ($3.2 million) than Georgetown does ($2.8 million) because of football "equivalencies", or the aggregate amount of preferential financial aid it offers to football players. From its budget of $3.2 million, less operating (game day) expenses of $300,000 and an estimated $400,000 for salaries among its full and part-time coaches, HC has somewhere around $2.5 million available to financial aid, or 50 scholarship equivalencies. Some of that is paid from attendance revenue (8,431 a game) but that's not enough. Most comes from a university subsidy to remain competitive in PL football after a number of years in the late 1990's where HC football was treading water. (In 1999, Holy Cross lost at home to Georgetown 34-16, and someone up at Mt. St. James must had said "never again!". Since then, the Crusaders are 9-0 against the proto-Hoyas, and most games haven't been close.)
Maybe the glory days aren't coming back for the Cross--it hasn't sold out Fitton Field since 1986 and hasn't won the PL title in 18 years. But the Crusaders stand a pretty good chance of winning the title this year, and aren't afraid to invest in making that dream a reality for its student-athletes.
So what do these stories tell us?
Georgetown is not Boston College.
It is not Villanova.
It is not even Holy Cross.
What it is, and what it wants to be, remains open to question among other PL fans.
In a league where coaches are openly campaigning to go full scholarship in the wake of Fordham's shot across the PL bow, where does Georgetown stand? If Georgetown is 1-16 in the last three years of PL play against supposed "non-scholarship"opponents, what happens when everyone else in the league can offer 60+ full rides to recruits and Georgetown can't?
Georgetown doesn't have to spend 50% of its budget on football, but 5% won't cut it, either. Numbers like these point to a simple and glaring fact that anyone at BC, Villanova, Holy Cross, or any Division I program will tell you, without a systematic approach to fundraising, the competitive student athlete will almost always go elsewhere than Georgetown, leaving those behind at the Hilltop ill-equipped to meet the challenge ahead. Whatever fans say of Kevin Kelly this year, remember this--he's still bringing a knife to a gunfight. And the PL is about to about to start packing some heat.
(Coming in part two, a look at how to build a foundation from the only source that Georgetown Football can count on--its own.)
Sunday, June 14, 2009
The Fordham Flash
If conferences were corporations, the Patriot League would be Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company. It advertises itself as "the quiet company", all the while with more assets than anyone knows.
The League tends to like things, well, quiet. it does not overly promote itself--its football media day is not at ESPN Zone in New York, but a golf club outside Bethlehem, PA. It has no television package for football (indirectly, to protect the Lehigh and Lafayette networks in their local area), and when it comes to the off-season, it likes things quiet as well.
Not this year.
With all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop, Fordham University has turned up the equivalent of a car alarm in the midst of this peace and quiet. And it's not going away. The league famous for eschewing scholarships now has a Trojan Ram inside its walls.
Fordham announced...no, told the Patriot League that it is pursuing a full scholarship program beginning in 2010, come hell or high water. Rather than lose the Rams outright, the Patriot League engaged in a delicate balance of compromise that allows Fordham to remain in the league, except it is ineligible for championships, all-League honors and the like. I'm not sure Fordham cares at this point--they got what they wanted, and will be selling the benefits of a free ride to PL recruits up and down the list, games with Connecticut, Army and Navy, and the very real possibility that they will lay waste to the rest of the league standings while the PL leadership decides what to do about this scholarship mess. It's become the talk --and not too quietly--of the I-AA off season wires.
The symbolism of the Trojan Ram is not far off. For the better part of 25 years, dating back to the days when Rev. John Brooks, S.J. steered Holy Cross out of major college athletics and sought alliances with the Ivy League that would reposition his college as an academic colossus and not just another Boston College or Georgetown (two schools he had varying degrees of cynicism against). It was the insistence that what was then known as the "Colonial League" adopt and defend the policies of non-scholarship athletics that the Ivy Group had created 20 years earlier. "The Last Amateurs", or so we were told.
There were cracks in the wall before, of course, when the next generation of leaders at Holy Cross pulled a similar move and demanded they get basketball scholarships or they would walk. The PL instituted a slow and somewhat deliberative rollout in that sport, and other sports have followed. But not football.
But not anymore.
In a different time, in a different climate, the PL schools would have turned away from Fordham as they did to Towson, a school who opted for scholarships after the 2002 season. Back then, a PL team (or two) were regular entrants in the I-AA playoff process and in 2003, it was Colgate that "ran the table" to a 15-0 record and a berth in the national finals. The only team that came close to upsetting them was...uh, well...never mind.
Those days are in the rear view mirror. Since 2003, the league has experienced a noticeable step back in the I-AA football order, with a lack of national rankings and a perception that it is becoming less competitive in the playoffs. With tougher competition from the Ivies on one side and a 40-schoalrship Northeast Conference picking off players on the other, the good times aren't as good for the Seaboard Seven as they once were. And now comes Fordham, ready to pick off a Lehigh recruiting lock here, a Colgate catch there. "Hey, you running backs at Bergen Catholic or that linebacker at Delbarton--why pay $50,000 a year to go to Georgetown? How about a free ride to Fordham, all on us!"
All the more unsettling to PL leadership, then, to see this coach's quote appear on the Lehigh Athletics web site the day after Fordham's announcement:
"At this time, I view Fordham's move to scholarship football as a positive move. I am excited that the League Presidents are committed to discussions on awarding athletic merit aid for all league members. I am certainly a proponent of scholarship football in our league. I have no doubt that scholarships would enhance Patriot League football on the national level, which I believe would help every member institution."
But more telling, this quote from its athletic director:
"The athletic merit financial aid awards that Lehigh offers in sports other than football have contributed positively to yielding student-athletes of desirable academic quality, strong athletic quality and other qualities that Lehigh values. We understand the reasons for Fordham’s decision and hope that the ongoing discussions will enable them to remain a member of the Patriot League.”
Translated: "When the vote comes, we'd like football scholarships too."
Fordham's window runs through 2012, but all signs point to some sort of position by the league whether to pursue football scholarships by the end of the 2010 season. Internet chatter considers that Lehigh and Colgate are for scholarships, Holy Cross against, with Lafayette to side with whatever Lehigh does and Bucknell to follow the majority in either case. Georgetown, which has not expressed an opinion one way or the other, is a presumed "no" on scholarships inasmuch as it has comparatively little to offer for scholarship or financial aid money under any scenario.
The league could opt for any of four options:
1. "Status Quo": No scholarships, bid Fordham adieu and rededicate itself to the non-scholarship credo.
2. "Easy Does It": Allow schools to add a small number of merit scholarships each year, say, five or six per team per year. This would extend the window of full football scholarships out 6-8 years.
3. "Laissez-Faire": Open the door to scholarships (and a considerable competitive imbalance) by allowing each school to set limits as they see fit. If Lehigh and Colgate want 60 scholarships and Holy Cross and Georgetown none, well, good for them.
4. "Step Up Or Step Aside": Set a minimum count for scholarships and hold each member to meeting the minimum. Any plan to set a minimum number would be a cannon pointed squarely at the one and only member whose financial aid numbers are only half of the least funded PL program.
By forcing the league's hand, Fordham has no aspirations to be an Ivy league-esque program any more; in fact, you'll be seeing a lot more Stony Brooks and Hofstras on the Rams' calendar that Columbia and Cornell. The larger question is what it means for the six remaining PL schools, and the one school for whom non-scholarship football is more than just a philosophy, but a financial necessity.
In part 2, Georgetown's options in a scholarship football world. And it's no time to remain quiet about it very much longer.
The League tends to like things, well, quiet. it does not overly promote itself--its football media day is not at ESPN Zone in New York, but a golf club outside Bethlehem, PA. It has no television package for football (indirectly, to protect the Lehigh and Lafayette networks in their local area), and when it comes to the off-season, it likes things quiet as well.
Not this year.
With all the subtlety of a bull in a china shop, Fordham University has turned up the equivalent of a car alarm in the midst of this peace and quiet. And it's not going away. The league famous for eschewing scholarships now has a Trojan Ram inside its walls.
Fordham announced...no, told the Patriot League that it is pursuing a full scholarship program beginning in 2010, come hell or high water. Rather than lose the Rams outright, the Patriot League engaged in a delicate balance of compromise that allows Fordham to remain in the league, except it is ineligible for championships, all-League honors and the like. I'm not sure Fordham cares at this point--they got what they wanted, and will be selling the benefits of a free ride to PL recruits up and down the list, games with Connecticut, Army and Navy, and the very real possibility that they will lay waste to the rest of the league standings while the PL leadership decides what to do about this scholarship mess. It's become the talk --and not too quietly--of the I-AA off season wires.
The symbolism of the Trojan Ram is not far off. For the better part of 25 years, dating back to the days when Rev. John Brooks, S.J. steered Holy Cross out of major college athletics and sought alliances with the Ivy League that would reposition his college as an academic colossus and not just another Boston College or Georgetown (two schools he had varying degrees of cynicism against). It was the insistence that what was then known as the "Colonial League" adopt and defend the policies of non-scholarship athletics that the Ivy Group had created 20 years earlier. "The Last Amateurs", or so we were told.
There were cracks in the wall before, of course, when the next generation of leaders at Holy Cross pulled a similar move and demanded they get basketball scholarships or they would walk. The PL instituted a slow and somewhat deliberative rollout in that sport, and other sports have followed. But not football.
But not anymore.
In a different time, in a different climate, the PL schools would have turned away from Fordham as they did to Towson, a school who opted for scholarships after the 2002 season. Back then, a PL team (or two) were regular entrants in the I-AA playoff process and in 2003, it was Colgate that "ran the table" to a 15-0 record and a berth in the national finals. The only team that came close to upsetting them was...uh, well...never mind.
Those days are in the rear view mirror. Since 2003, the league has experienced a noticeable step back in the I-AA football order, with a lack of national rankings and a perception that it is becoming less competitive in the playoffs. With tougher competition from the Ivies on one side and a 40-schoalrship Northeast Conference picking off players on the other, the good times aren't as good for the Seaboard Seven as they once were. And now comes Fordham, ready to pick off a Lehigh recruiting lock here, a Colgate catch there. "Hey, you running backs at Bergen Catholic or that linebacker at Delbarton--why pay $50,000 a year to go to Georgetown? How about a free ride to Fordham, all on us!"
All the more unsettling to PL leadership, then, to see this coach's quote appear on the Lehigh Athletics web site the day after Fordham's announcement:
"At this time, I view Fordham's move to scholarship football as a positive move. I am excited that the League Presidents are committed to discussions on awarding athletic merit aid for all league members. I am certainly a proponent of scholarship football in our league. I have no doubt that scholarships would enhance Patriot League football on the national level, which I believe would help every member institution."
But more telling, this quote from its athletic director:
"The athletic merit financial aid awards that Lehigh offers in sports other than football have contributed positively to yielding student-athletes of desirable academic quality, strong athletic quality and other qualities that Lehigh values. We understand the reasons for Fordham’s decision and hope that the ongoing discussions will enable them to remain a member of the Patriot League.”
Translated: "When the vote comes, we'd like football scholarships too."
Fordham's window runs through 2012, but all signs point to some sort of position by the league whether to pursue football scholarships by the end of the 2010 season. Internet chatter considers that Lehigh and Colgate are for scholarships, Holy Cross against, with Lafayette to side with whatever Lehigh does and Bucknell to follow the majority in either case. Georgetown, which has not expressed an opinion one way or the other, is a presumed "no" on scholarships inasmuch as it has comparatively little to offer for scholarship or financial aid money under any scenario.
The league could opt for any of four options:
1. "Status Quo": No scholarships, bid Fordham adieu and rededicate itself to the non-scholarship credo.
2. "Easy Does It": Allow schools to add a small number of merit scholarships each year, say, five or six per team per year. This would extend the window of full football scholarships out 6-8 years.
3. "Laissez-Faire": Open the door to scholarships (and a considerable competitive imbalance) by allowing each school to set limits as they see fit. If Lehigh and Colgate want 60 scholarships and Holy Cross and Georgetown none, well, good for them.
4. "Step Up Or Step Aside": Set a minimum count for scholarships and hold each member to meeting the minimum. Any plan to set a minimum number would be a cannon pointed squarely at the one and only member whose financial aid numbers are only half of the least funded PL program.
By forcing the league's hand, Fordham has no aspirations to be an Ivy league-esque program any more; in fact, you'll be seeing a lot more Stony Brooks and Hofstras on the Rams' calendar that Columbia and Cornell. The larger question is what it means for the six remaining PL schools, and the one school for whom non-scholarship football is more than just a philosophy, but a financial necessity.
In part 2, Georgetown's options in a scholarship football world. And it's no time to remain quiet about it very much longer.
Sunday, June 7, 2009
A Tree Falling In The Forest
"Scattershooting while wondering whatever happened to Bus Ham..."
As the printed newspaper marches towards its expected oblivion, a subtle but demonstrable change has preceded it: a staff reporter's regular coverage of events, the "beat", as they used to call it, has gone the way of the Smith-Corona typewriter. Two recent stories affecting Georgetown Football are evidence of this, and a cautionary tale about how sport and its program need to keep watch on the changing skies of information and while the trees that built the print revolution could be staying up a while longer.
Before I get into that, however, some explanation on the first sentence is in order.
It wasn't that long ago when the chief source of information on teams was the daily newspaper, where the beat writers were a window into the world of sports and the stars of tomorrow. Even as they graduated into columnists, one always got the feeling they had an inside look at the games, or as one newsroom wag once dubbed it, "the world of the perspiring arts."
Here in Dallas, columnists began and ended with Blackie Sherrod, the former Ft. Worth Press editor who ran with a crop of Texas sportswriters that are long remembered today--Dan Jenkins, Bud Shrake, Andy Anderson, Mickey Herskowitz, and Dan Cook. Sherrod's weekly column, which began with the "scattershooting" entre, proceeded to weave so many stories into the article that by the time it was all over, you were convinced he forgot more about sports than you'd know, but you enjoyed it all the same.
Every town had their run of great sportswriters. At the Washington Post, it was Shirley Povich and Bob Addie, Mark Asher and Bill Gildea, Dave Kindred and Ken Denlinger, Michael Wilbon and Thomas Boswell. And those that weren't at that level still wrote, a lot.
"These were my childhood heroes," wrote a recent blogger. "These were wordsmiths who made you want to head down to the newsstand on Sunday and buy every out-of-town paper they had — even if your team lost, because you knew they would tell you everything about the game you wanted to know, and would do so in a way that made the words jump off the pages."
But those days are gone. In 1964 , Post staff writer Bus Ham was at the tail end of a 18 year tenure as a sports editor of the paper. He took it upon himself to cover an unusual beat--the revival of Georgetown football in the fall of 1964. Seven stories by Ham covered the run-up to the game, with four stories on page 1 of the Post's sports page in the final ten days.
"Georgetown's student athletes and the game of football scored a smashing triumph yesterday in an exciting revival of the sport on the Hilltop," Ham wrote in an 800 word recap of Georgetown's 28-6 win over NYU.
What would a story like that garner in today's Post? 80 words? Eight?
Today's sports section content is all about subscriptions, little more. At the Post, Montgomery County high school football will get more space in the paper than Georgetown or Howard football, each of which went an entire season without any regular coverage outside its own game. A Virginia Tech game will get more coverage because someone figured out that Hokie alumni buy papers when Tech wins, but Hoya alumni... well, they'll subscribe anyway, so what's the point. And if it weren't for Barker Davis, the Washington Times sports page might ignore Georgetown altogether.
So when Bernard Muir announced his resignation on May 12, where did you hear about it? The Times? The Post? In fact, both were left to run a blurb in the "sports briefs" column when Muir's quiet negotiations were picked up by a Delaware blog. It got big news in the Wilmington News-Journal, but a passing glance in the local papers. They got beat on the story but what's worse, they didn't care.
And outside of the smaller towns, that seems to be the trend in the coverage of college athletics. Keith Groller does a fine job covering Lehigh sports at the Allentown Morning Call, but one gets the feeling that the PL football media pool could all fit into a Toyota Celica and have seats left over. When Fordham announced it was adding scholarships in 2010, it got an Associated Press story and an note in Dick Weiss' basketball blog, little more.
Fordham's move has potentially huge implications for PL football in general and Georgetown in particular. If a reporter had botehrerd to make a few calls, they would have found that Lehigh athletic officials made public statements to the efffect that they'd support a move too, and where Lehigh goes, Lafayette follows. Count Colgate in as well. All of a sudden, you've got a majority of PL schools looking to play at a 60 scholarship level. What does that mean to Georgetown, which has lost 27 of its last 32 as an unremarkable non-scholarship program? What does that mean to a new athletic director coming in the door?
For a hundred years or more, schools have relied on the print media to get the word out about teams, about big games, about its coaches. After all, it was Notre Dame sports information assistant George Strickler that got Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden into uniforms and on horseback, immortalizing Grantland Rice's account of the Four Horsemen. Print media drove college sports into its golden age, but what will drive it going forward?
Sure, it you're one of about 20 schools, there's ESPN. For everyone else, they've got to think ahead.
I was at a Georgetown conference last winter where Geof Rochester (B'81), an executive with World Wrestling Entertainment, summed it up. The three words Georgetown needs to be focusing on when it comes to communications is, "mobile, mobile, mobile". As smartphones continue their assault in market share (with as many as one third of all phones within five years featuring direct data transfer), the flow of information that is being sent by e-mail will make that medium about as useful as putting a stamp on an envelope. Ask anyone under 25 if they'd rather have an e-mail or a text message and see what they say.
Now, a bit of disclosure. I don't own a smartphone (I don't like Apple products and the cost of a data plan for a BlackBerry is still too high for me), but if I had one, would there not be value in getting scores and game highlights sent to me on a real time basis? What about post-game stories? What about coaches comments and video recaps? If I'm in Baton Rouge sitting at the LSU-Louisiana Tech game, why couldn't Georgetown send me the recap from the GU-Richmond game and tag it with a offer to give to the Gridiron Club via an easy link? Talk about connecting with your audience!
It's all part of a comprehensive communications strategy which the post-Muir era of Georgetown athletics must embrace. Georgetown was actually one of the first schools to utilize the web back in 1996, this is another opportunity. Georgetown football can't wait around for the Washington Post to discover I-AA football. By then it will be too late.
Author Stuart Brandwrote that: "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road."
As the printed newspaper marches towards its expected oblivion, a subtle but demonstrable change has preceded it: a staff reporter's regular coverage of events, the "beat", as they used to call it, has gone the way of the Smith-Corona typewriter. Two recent stories affecting Georgetown Football are evidence of this, and a cautionary tale about how sport and its program need to keep watch on the changing skies of information and while the trees that built the print revolution could be staying up a while longer.
Before I get into that, however, some explanation on the first sentence is in order.
It wasn't that long ago when the chief source of information on teams was the daily newspaper, where the beat writers were a window into the world of sports and the stars of tomorrow. Even as they graduated into columnists, one always got the feeling they had an inside look at the games, or as one newsroom wag once dubbed it, "the world of the perspiring arts."
Here in Dallas, columnists began and ended with Blackie Sherrod, the former Ft. Worth Press editor who ran with a crop of Texas sportswriters that are long remembered today--Dan Jenkins, Bud Shrake, Andy Anderson, Mickey Herskowitz, and Dan Cook. Sherrod's weekly column, which began with the "scattershooting" entre, proceeded to weave so many stories into the article that by the time it was all over, you were convinced he forgot more about sports than you'd know, but you enjoyed it all the same.
Every town had their run of great sportswriters. At the Washington Post, it was Shirley Povich and Bob Addie, Mark Asher and Bill Gildea, Dave Kindred and Ken Denlinger, Michael Wilbon and Thomas Boswell. And those that weren't at that level still wrote, a lot.
"These were my childhood heroes," wrote a recent blogger. "These were wordsmiths who made you want to head down to the newsstand on Sunday and buy every out-of-town paper they had — even if your team lost, because you knew they would tell you everything about the game you wanted to know, and would do so in a way that made the words jump off the pages."
But those days are gone. In 1964 , Post staff writer Bus Ham was at the tail end of a 18 year tenure as a sports editor of the paper. He took it upon himself to cover an unusual beat--the revival of Georgetown football in the fall of 1964. Seven stories by Ham covered the run-up to the game, with four stories on page 1 of the Post's sports page in the final ten days.
"Georgetown's student athletes and the game of football scored a smashing triumph yesterday in an exciting revival of the sport on the Hilltop," Ham wrote in an 800 word recap of Georgetown's 28-6 win over NYU.
What would a story like that garner in today's Post? 80 words? Eight?
Today's sports section content is all about subscriptions, little more. At the Post, Montgomery County high school football will get more space in the paper than Georgetown or Howard football, each of which went an entire season without any regular coverage outside its own game. A Virginia Tech game will get more coverage because someone figured out that Hokie alumni buy papers when Tech wins, but Hoya alumni... well, they'll subscribe anyway, so what's the point. And if it weren't for Barker Davis, the Washington Times sports page might ignore Georgetown altogether.
So when Bernard Muir announced his resignation on May 12, where did you hear about it? The Times? The Post? In fact, both were left to run a blurb in the "sports briefs" column when Muir's quiet negotiations were picked up by a Delaware blog. It got big news in the Wilmington News-Journal, but a passing glance in the local papers. They got beat on the story but what's worse, they didn't care.
And outside of the smaller towns, that seems to be the trend in the coverage of college athletics. Keith Groller does a fine job covering Lehigh sports at the Allentown Morning Call, but one gets the feeling that the PL football media pool could all fit into a Toyota Celica and have seats left over. When Fordham announced it was adding scholarships in 2010, it got an Associated Press story and an note in Dick Weiss' basketball blog, little more.
Fordham's move has potentially huge implications for PL football in general and Georgetown in particular. If a reporter had botehrerd to make a few calls, they would have found that Lehigh athletic officials made public statements to the efffect that they'd support a move too, and where Lehigh goes, Lafayette follows. Count Colgate in as well. All of a sudden, you've got a majority of PL schools looking to play at a 60 scholarship level. What does that mean to Georgetown, which has lost 27 of its last 32 as an unremarkable non-scholarship program? What does that mean to a new athletic director coming in the door?
For a hundred years or more, schools have relied on the print media to get the word out about teams, about big games, about its coaches. After all, it was Notre Dame sports information assistant George Strickler that got Harry Stuhldreher, Don Miller, Jim Crowley, and Elmer Layden into uniforms and on horseback, immortalizing Grantland Rice's account of the Four Horsemen. Print media drove college sports into its golden age, but what will drive it going forward?
Sure, it you're one of about 20 schools, there's ESPN. For everyone else, they've got to think ahead.
I was at a Georgetown conference last winter where Geof Rochester (B'81), an executive with World Wrestling Entertainment, summed it up. The three words Georgetown needs to be focusing on when it comes to communications is, "mobile, mobile, mobile". As smartphones continue their assault in market share (with as many as one third of all phones within five years featuring direct data transfer), the flow of information that is being sent by e-mail will make that medium about as useful as putting a stamp on an envelope. Ask anyone under 25 if they'd rather have an e-mail or a text message and see what they say.
Now, a bit of disclosure. I don't own a smartphone (I don't like Apple products and the cost of a data plan for a BlackBerry is still too high for me), but if I had one, would there not be value in getting scores and game highlights sent to me on a real time basis? What about post-game stories? What about coaches comments and video recaps? If I'm in Baton Rouge sitting at the LSU-Louisiana Tech game, why couldn't Georgetown send me the recap from the GU-Richmond game and tag it with a offer to give to the Gridiron Club via an easy link? Talk about connecting with your audience!
It's all part of a comprehensive communications strategy which the post-Muir era of Georgetown athletics must embrace. Georgetown was actually one of the first schools to utilize the web back in 1996, this is another opportunity. Georgetown football can't wait around for the Washington Post to discover I-AA football. By then it will be too late.
Author Stuart Brandwrote that: "Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road."
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