Quote:
Originally Posted by WVRed
The only two sports that matter are college football and men's basketball, with the latter being priority number one in Lexington.
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Barnhart was hired in large part because the university wanted to change that parochial mindset. Other sports matter. Women's basketball went from cash drain to cash cow (relatively speaking). Baseball is almost cash nuetral at this point. Volleyball attendance went up more than 300%.
Does he need a new football coach?
Maybe. Brooks did well. Does he not get credit for being patient with him?
If you're tearing him apart becayse of Gillespie, does he not also get credit for jettisoning the coach quickly enough for it to effect their place very little in the overall scheme of things? I mean, IU held onto three coaches (it can be argued) too long. North Carolina, two. UCLA, too many to count. A two-year hiccup isn't all that bothersome to me, when compared to the monster returns he's gotten from other sports. Which, again, are part and parcel of his job.
(FTR, I disagree about Barnhart having basketball taken away from him, having a tiff with Calipari, or being somehow demoted. That's never been reported, nor has it been verified by anyone anywhere close to the university. It's a rumor only-- and most of those, I hope I don't have to tell anyone-- are patently false. If you have a link to someone reporting the story as fact, I'm all ears. I will absolutely be willing to change my opinion. But I'll need to see the report first. If there's no report, I don't understand how anyone can say they know how it's happened. Unless, of course, they have insider info. Which they may have. But which is also dubious, especially on a message board.)