UNO Maverick Athletics

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:49 pm

Could this be enough presure on UNO to make the change up to D1?

Hellenistic Kshatriya · Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:00 pm

I hope so. I'd love to go to a school with D1 athletics

.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Fri Jun 30, 2006 7:19 pm

Sounds like some pretty thick politics going on. I would love to know what is going on on the inside. But so far it makes me sick to my stomach.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:03 pm

MTO wrote:Sounds like some pretty thick politics going on. I would love to know what is going on on the inside. But so far it makes me sick to my stomach.

Lots of politics, but UNO has a lot of big name Donors and Some big money Alumni, they can twist the UNO arm fairly hard.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Mon Jul 03, 2006 12:11 pm

twist the UNO arm fairly hard

heck I can do that...

Linkin5 · Post by **Linkin5** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 3:51 pm

I'm an athlete for University of South Dakota, and we recently recieved an email from the AD telling us that USD is taking progressive steps to becoming a Division 1 school. This really came as no suprise considering what a joke the NCC will be with UND out of the picture.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 4:07 pm

Correct me if I'm wrong, but if both UND and USD leave the NCC, it will need to add a member or disband? Does the 6-school requirement apply at the D2 level?

-Big E

UNMCStudent · Post by **UNMCStudent** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 5:27 pm

As was on KETVs 6 pm broadcast....

http://www.ketv.com/sports/9478574/detail.html

Hassebrook renewed his campaign to cut the football program in a letter to the editor published on Thursday in the Omaha World-Herald. He told The Associated Press that cutting football should be one of the options discussed in the wake of recent publicity about the athletic budget having a $440,000 shortfall.

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 6:11 pm

At this point there should be some people with power from around here getting upset and vocal about this. WOW

Post by **Brad** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:27 pm

Cut UNO football

Budget cuts in the University of Nebraska at Omaha's athletic department demonstrate the point I made in vain 10 years ago to university administrators and the University of Nebraska Board of Regents: We cannot afford football at UNO.

Football is the most expensive of sports. Football cannot hope to pay its way at UNO with the Huskers playing 50 miles down the Interstate. Football has forced taxpayers and students to subsidize UNO athletics by $2 million annually, taking money better spent on education.

UNO athletic department booster David Sokol's opposition to both past efforts to cut football and recent athletic department cuts is in striking contrast to his silence when 170 UNO academic-related positions were eliminated in the wake of state budget cuts. And it is profoundly inconsistent with Mr. Sokol's past advocacy of state spending lids.

There are few easy ways to reduce spending. There are just higher and lower priorities. Education should be a higher priority than football. Eliminating that one sport could put UNO athletics solidly in the black.
Chuck Hassebrook, Lyons, Neb.
University of Nebraska regent

Voters vote no for this Guy, Chuck Hassebrook

MTO · Post by **MTO** » Thu Jul 06, 2006 10:37 pm

Someone should send something into the pulse about this guy.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 9:47 am

Today at 11:30 AM the Presidents of the boosters association will meet with the UNO Chancelor to discuss UNO Athletics!

One of the Booster Presidents will be on the Big Show with Matt P today at 2:00 and David Sokol will be on Travis's Show on Monday at 9:00 am.

Its getting interesting.

Post by **Brad** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 12:54 pm

The guest will be in studio at 5:15 to talk about today's 3 hour meeting at UNO.

UNMCStudent · Post by **UNMCStudent** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:32 pm

I only caught some of it....but it sounds there is some gross mismanagement within the athletic department at UNO....the pres. of the Beef Club said that UNO sells twice as many tickets at twice the price as UNK but somehow UNK manages around twice the profit.

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 4:57 pm

I listened to most of it too, it sounds like UNO has to figure out this mismangement before they can even think about moving to D1-AA. That Hassebrook guy just wants to cut and run, if you ask me thats not the right way to deal with this at all. The guy even said if something wasn't done soon, than they may have to cut athletics all together. That would be a huge shame. I hope they can get this figured out.

Uffda · Post by **Uffda** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:08 pm

I thought i read something recently that it cost UNO $20,000 per night for hockey at the QWEST is that right? If so that is a hefty chunk that they have to cover. Anyone know what the cost was at the Civic?

If they were to move to another athletic conference which they might have to do whether it be a Div II or Div I --- the travel cost could be a lot more than they are now for the FB BB, VB. softball, wrestling teams.

The other thing I feel they need to look at is if UNO was to move up they are going to go from being a Div II power to a Div I doormat for several years and the boosters/crowds might not hang around for that either.

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:27 pm

Uffda wrote:I thought i read something recently that it cost UNO $20,000 per night for hockey at the QWEST is that right? If so that is a hefty chunk that they have to cover. Anyone know what the cost was at the Civic?

If they were to move to another athletic conference which they might have to do whether it be a Div II or Div I --- the travel cost could be a lot more than they are now for the FB BB, VB. softball, wrestling teams.

The other thing I feel they need to look at is if UNO was to move up they are going to go from being a Div II power to a Div I doormat for several years and the boosters/crowds might not hang around for that either.

They guy today (not antifootball guy), said that the problem with UNO's move to the Qwest was the leadership basically assumed that more people would show up, but they would never be able to fill it up. Creighton on the other hand had a vision of packing it every game, and worked hard to get it, and now look at them, averaging 13,900 a game. He did make a great point that UNO needs to stay at the Qwest. If they can figure out how to get more people in the stands, the entire athletic department would benefit in a HUGE way. So basically, stop dreaming that UNO will leave the Qwest opening if for NHL, it won't happen, UNO needs it to work out too much.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 5:36 pm

Forget the NHL... I just want UNO to vacate it for the AHL (although I realize I am in a tiny minority of people in this town who actually want to watch the highest quality of hockey played in the highest quality venue).

Uffda · Post by **Uffda** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 6:21 pm

stop dreaming that UNO will leave the Qwest opening if for NHL,

I am not dreaming as I am not a hockey fan at any level.

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 6:44 pm

jhuston wrote:Forget the NHL... I just want UNO to vacate it for the AHL (although I realize I am in a tiny minority of people in this town who actually want to watch the highest quality of hockey played in the highest quality venue).

I was just more refering to the other thread, but anyway, the way that guy made it sound, that UNO is such a mess, if it can't get hockey to produce money wise, the athletic department might not be able to even support itself anymore. I guess it is a management disaster. And UNO not having an athletic department would be terrible for Omaha.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 11:53 am

Did anyone propose a solution to the problems?

OmahaJaysCU · Post by **OmahaJaysCU** » Sat Jul 08, 2006 12:47 pm

He said basically the first step in solving the problems is to get the different boards ext that run the university to communicate with one another and the booster clubs. He said that this is probably the biggest problem with the way the athletic dept has been run. He said the good thing about yesterday's meeting was it got them ditalking with one another, which he said none of the problems can be solved without. So we'll have to wait and see. This situation could get very interesting.

Uffda · Post by **Uffda** » Sun Jul 09, 2006 8:43 pm

In this Sunday's Sioux Falls Argus Leader they had a couple of articles about USD and Augustana starting to look at what they might do with SDSU and NDSU already having left NCC and UND saying they are going to Div I and UNO forming a committee.

SDSU's D-I move gives Augie, USD blueprint for possible step up

Competitively, the SDSU women's basketball team has been the program's jewel, maintaining an extremely competitive profile while playing an independent Division I schedule. Men's basketball, however, has suffered in the transition both competitively and at the gate. Attendance for home games has dropped nearly 50 percent from averages that were annually attained while in the NCC.

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 002/SPORTS

Division I stats, figures

Budgets For 2004-05 school year:

Average Division II expenses: $2,875,707

Average Division I with Division IAA football: $7,913,441

SDSU expenses: $6,547,381

USD expenses: $4,265,076

Augustana expenses: $3,632,204

UND expenses, minus hockey: $4,700,873

http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dl ... 002/SPORTS

Post by **Brad** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:22 am

http://ope.ed.gov/athletics/InstDetail.asp?CRITERIA=3

Travis is really being critical of their math right now. He is calling for an external audit. He says the spreadsheet on the link I have above is totally wrong. Dana college had $1,000,000 Doan had $450,000, Hastings had $500,000 in Revenue... and UNO only had $291,000

Travis says footbal is just the scapegoat.

Post by **Brad** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 9:36 am

Sandy Buda long time UNO head football coach. Is on the air spilling the beans right now about how UNO cooks the books to make athletics look very bad.

Last year they averaged 6400 people, so you round it off to 5000 and just say 1400 people got in free or had cupons or something, 5000 people times $10 a ticket is $300,000 plus the rules say that Concessions and Advertisements have to be included in that number so their math is way off.

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:03 am

Wow, so are they implying official wrongdoing to make the U look bad or is someone skimming off the top? If someone isn't stealing, what's the incentive to make it look bad? Pressure from Lincoln to avoid competition?

This could potentially uncover some serious criminal fraud.

-Big E

(I also assume you meant 5000 people x $10 ticket x 6 home games?)

Post by **Brad** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 10:06 am

Not sure, thats why Travis was calling for an External Audit on his program this morning.

Post by **Brad** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:32 am

Travis is compairing UNO's Financial records to the Enron Corruption....

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:40 am

I've got to say, I'm glad at least BigSports590 is tag-teaming UNO with Travis and Matt P applying some hard hits..As opposed to the softer and gentler approach of Kugler and Severe over on 1620 The Zone..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

OPlaya · Post by **OPlaya** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 12:34 pm

Man this is very insane with what's going on with UNO. I hope they get to the bottom of this considering UNO football game are pretty well attended from my understanding.

Post by **Brad** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 1:04 pm

OPlaya wrote:Man this is very insane with what's going on with UNO. I hope they get to the bottom of this considering UNO football game are pretty well attended from my understanding.

Averaged 6400 last year.

DTO Luv · Post by **DTO Luv** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:42 pm

Good greif. This is crazy. I say start over as OU. Omaha University.

eomaha · Post by **eomaha** » Tue Jul 11, 2006 9:48 pm

It was known for years as 'Omaha University'... or more simply Omaha U.

Swift · Post by **Swift** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 2:39 am

Omaha State?

People would be a lot more excited to get the bill. "Hey honey, we got something from Omaha Stakes! Oh wait..."

But seriously, is anyone investigating this situation other than us eomahans?

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 5:59 am

http://www.omaha.com/index.php?u_pg=38&u_sid=2204718

Behrns said the amount of support the football program receives from the university is nowhere near what Hassebrook has indicated. Behrns said football's portion of institutional aid is $218,296 and its total expenses are just more than $1.1 million, which includes $500,000 for scholarships, $331,843 for salaries and $270,000 for operations.

"I have no animosity towards Chuck Hassebrook, but I do wish he'd get his facts straight before he does things like that to hurt our program," Behrns said. "It has a tremendous impact on what we're doing."

-Big E

Post by **Brad** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:40 am

Swift wrote: But seriously, is anyone investigating this situation other than us eomahans?

Sports radio is talking about it for at least anhour every day.

Post by **Omaha Cowboy** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 7:56 am

Brad wrote:
Swift wrote: But seriously, is anyone investigating this situation other than us eomahans?
Sports radio is talking about it for at least anhour every day.

This is more than just a 'forum thing'..More specifically, 2 radio stations and the W-H have done numerous reports on the state of athletic affairs at UNO..Editorials on this matter have recently appeared in the W-H OP-ED page..Boosters have threatened to pull back funding..This is very much a community-wide issue that has garnered much exposure from the Omaha print/radio/TV media..And it's just beginning to heat up..

..Ciao..LiO....Peace

Big E · Post by **Big E** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:17 am

"Just beginning to heaten up"?

Is that like "a noble spirit embiggens the smallest man"?

;)

-Big E

Post by **Brad** » Wed Jul 12, 2006 8:19 am

Pat Burns, UNO Head football Coach, will be on travis's show about 9:35(about 2 min from now) Big Sports 590 AM