• Welcome to BradleyFans.com! Visitors are welcome, but we encourage you to sign up and register as a member. It's free and takes only a few seconds. Just click on the link to Register at the top right of the page, and follow instructions. If you have any problems or questions, click on the link at the bottom right of the page to Contact Us.

Executive Leadership Change on the Hilltop

Mikovio said:
I've said this before but I'd consider adding a non-scholarship football team like they have at Drake, Valpo and Butler. It's an easy way to add 120 or so students paying tuition plus having a football team -- even a glorified D3 one -- can help attract students. Peoria Stadium is getting an $8 million facelift to make it at least presentable. Standifird is from Butler so I'm sure he has thoughts on this.

It would mean adding a women's soccer team too to comply with Title IX. A lot more students there too although some scholarships would be necessitated to compete in the Valley.
Click to expand...

Adding two major money losing sports to close a budget deficit? Interesting approach.
 
Old Coach said:
I've heard that there are new trustees that are very concerned with the current administration's recruitment strategy.
Click to expand...

They should be. BU marketing and admissions has spent the better part of a decade ignoring the largest demographics around. Janie Smith (and her parents) from Benet Academy doesn't want to go to BU because their marketing and recruiting materials make it look like its weirdo fat camp on the hilltop.

There aren't a lot of folks outside of Chris Reynolds in the president cabinets that deserve to be spared in a purge. Start fresh. Back to the basics.

Recruit the hell out of suburban Chicago schools. Parents that don't worry about filling out FAFSA forms because their K1 was 100k over what they thought it would be. Students that know what a ball is and how to throw it. Launch majors that produce few full paying students and broke alumni.
 
If Bradley were to add football for the men, they would have to add more than soccer for the women.The number of teams for women and men is not the important issue, but rather the number of positions available. So if adding football increased number of athletic positions available for men by 100, Bradley would need to add at least 100 athletic team positions for the women. In reality the number might be more than 100 for women since the number of athletic positions has to be approximately the same as the ratio of men to women in the student body and Bradley has more female students than male students. Coaching salaries alone for the added sports would be a budget buster.
The better place to look for places to reduce the budget is in the administrative/non-teaching areas. Compare the percentage of the annual budget that goes for administrative costs currently with what it was under Abegg or Brazil to see where costs need to be reduced.
 
JMM28 said:
Adding two major money losing sports to close a budget deficit? Interesting approach.
Click to expand...

I have no doubt the athletic department would drown in red ink given it would likely struggle to draw a couple thousand for games but adding 120 students-athletes paying up to what today looks like $50k in tuition + room/board can't hurt overall. With today's out of control tuition you need to focus more on boosting enrollment than you would 20+ years ago. Granted I haven't seen any studies on the subject and it's complete conjecture on my part.

Drake's football program had 106 players and $1,043,780 in expenses vs $246,158 in total revenue. That's a $750K red anchor in the athletic dept budget but if all those players pay $50K that's $5.3 million in revenue to the school. Granted some/most of them earn academic scholarships and there are of course academic costs but it seems to me you could make it work at least without drowning in red ink.
 
JMM28 said:
They should be. BU marketing and admissions has spent the better part of a decade ignoring the largest demographics around. Janie Smith (and her parents) from Benet Academy doesn't want to go to BU because their marketing and recruiting materials make it look like its weirdo fat camp on the hilltop.

There aren't a lot of folks outside of Chris Reynolds in the president cabinets that deserve to be spared in a purge. Start fresh. Back to the basics.

Recruit the hell out of suburban Chicago schools. Parents that don't worry about filling out FAFSA forms because their K1 was 100k over what they thought it would be. Students that know what a ball is and how to throw it. Launch majors that produce few full paying students and broke alumni.
Click to expand...

I made it to the most games this year in a long time. This isn't politically correct of course, but you can tell cheer leading at BU is not the cool thing like it was 15 yrs ago when I was in school. Practically none of the cheerleaders are attractive, and several of them will never be able be lifted. I almost thought some of them would be doing the lifting...And there aren't really any guys on the squad at all. When I was in school some of the coolest, strongest dudes on campus were on the cheer squad. I think it is a visual tell on the culture on campus.

Also another reason students don't show up to games...BU is probably filled with a lot of students that don't have positive opinions on sports to begin with, let alone any fandom for a team.
 
Mikovio said:
I have no doubt the athletic department would drown in red ink given it would likely struggle to draw a couple thousand for games but adding 120 students-athletes paying up to what today looks like $50k in tuition + room/board can't hurt overall. With today's out of control tuition you need to focus more on boosting enrollment than you would 20+ years ago. Granted I haven't seen any studies on the subject and it's complete conjecture on my part.

Drake's football program had 106 players and $1,043,780 in expenses vs $246,158 in total revenue. That's a $750K red anchor in the athletic dept budget but if all those players pay $50K that's $5.3 million in revenue to the school. Granted some/most of them earn academic scholarships and there are of course academic costs but it seems to me you could make it work at least without drowning in red ink.
Click to expand...

I like your thinking. Academic scholarships shouldn’t cost the university much, other than books and room/board. The professors, or their grad assistant, are already in the classroom. However, it will be much easier for the university to say it isn’t feasible.
 
molar50 said:
I like the idea of D3 football. A lot of high school football players know that they do not desire to play D1 for various good reasons, but would enjoy playing football at a D3 school. There isn’t any real pressure on the coach or the players to win as in D1.
Click to expand...

It would make a weekend visit from a potential future student, during a football homecoming game, much more attractive. I was at the PCC during an IHSA State Basketball Tournament game and speaking with a DI basketball coach. He was there recruiting. I asked him if bringing a potential recruit on campus during a homecoming football game is more advantageous than taking them to a soccer game. He laughed and said there is no comparison. He said the buzz around campus is much greater for a football game than a soccer game. The university he coached at did not play big time college football, yet still said it was beneficial.
 
Mikovio said:
I have no doubt the athletic department would drown in red ink given it would likely struggle to draw a couple thousand for games but adding 120 students-athletes paying up to what today looks like $50k in tuition + room/board can't hurt overall. With today's out of control tuition you need to focus more on boosting enrollment than you would 20+ years ago. Granted I haven't seen any studies on the subject and it's complete conjecture on my part.

Drake's football program had 106 players and $1,043,780 in expenses vs $246,158 in total revenue. That's a $750K red anchor in the athletic dept budget but if all those players pay $50K that's $5.3 million in revenue to the school. Granted some/most of them earn academic scholarships and there are of course academic costs but it seems to me you could make it work at least without drowning in red ink.
Click to expand...

BU doesn’t have the money to buy the equipment needed to start a football program.
 
Stryker said:
I made it to the most games this year in a long time. This isn't politically correct of course, but you can tell cheer leading at BU is not the cool thing like it was 15 yrs ago when I was in school. Practically none of the cheerleaders are attractive, and several of them will never be able be lifted. I almost thought some of them would be doing the lifting...And there aren't really any guys on the squad at all. When I was in school some of the coolest, strongest dudes on campus were on the cheer squad. I think it is a visual tell on the culture on campus.

Also another reason students don't show up to games...BU is probably filled with a lot of students that don't have positive opinions on sports to begin with, let alone any fandom for a team.
Click to expand...

Bingo...
 
When I was a freshman and Joe Stowell was the coach, a lot of students attended, but I didn’t care that much and rarely went to a game. I slowly developed an appreciation for the player’s talent and how much work it took for the team to improve. I still believe that if a core group of students will attend and there are incentives to attract others, student attendance can improve.
 
molar50 said:
When I was a freshman and Joe Stowell was the coach, a lot of students attended, but I didn’t care that much and rarely went to a game. I slowly developed an appreciation for the player’s talent and how much work it took for the team to improve. I still believe that if a core group of students will attend and there are incentives to attract others, student attendance can improve.
Click to expand...

The funny thing about the students attending issue is they all showed up for the championship game and then rushed the floor and celebrated with the team after their big win. Where were most of them during the season because there was probably only an ave of 50 a game. Whatever promotions they did to sell out the arena need to be done more for every game.
 
Stop paying outrageous rent to Carver Arena and invest in Renaissance Coliseum for Men’s basketball. The dollar figure they pay for rent plus the money not received on concessions is ridiculous. Unless it’s changed and a stipend is now given, Bradley saves a ton of money with volunteer game management people. Clock, scoreboard, etc. Also, bringing back the Phys Ed major wouldn’t hurt things either.

The marketing aspect is huge though. To hear the stories of suburban kids not even mentioning BU in the college plans is inexcusable and directly attributed to the JG era.

Tuition cost is not competitive either. It’s too high for what’s offered. Also, the State of our State has a lot to do with it. Who wants to go to a high tuition college in Illinois when you’ll most likely be moving out of state to seek employment and have a higher cost of living?
 
Well said POB, though I disagree on your high tuition statement. I think Bradley has done a pretty good job of limiting tuition increases and offers a reasonable and competitive tuition rate. My son was able to attend Bradley for the same or less net tuition as our state schools (I'm not in Illinois) and at a lower net tuition compared to the other private schools he was accepted in to.
 
PhiAlphaBoy said:
My son was able to attend Bradley for the same or less net tuition as our state schools (I'm not in Illinois) and at a lower net tuition compared to the other private schools he was accepted in to.
Click to expand...

Agreed. Any prospective students with good grades and test scores will qualify for some very generous scholarships.
 
patrick_o'brian said:
Stop paying outrageous rent to Carver Arena and invest in Renaissance Coliseum for Men’s basketball. The dollar figure they pay for rent plus the money not received on concessions is ridiculous. Unless it’s changed and a stipend is now given, Bradley saves a ton of money with volunteer game management people. Clock, scoreboard, etc. Also, bringing back the Phys Ed major wouldn’t hurt things either.

The marketing aspect is huge though. To hear the stories of suburban kids not even mentioning BU in the college plans is inexcusable and directly attributed to the JG era.

Tuition cost is not competitive either. It’s too high for what’s offered. Also, the State of our State has a lot to do with it. Who wants to go to a high tuition college in Illinois when you’ll most likely be moving out of state to seek employment and have a higher cost of living?
Click to expand...

Glasser's desire to recruit so heavily on the east coast was definitely misguided. That said, she's been gone for 8 years and 3 presidents (an interim and 2 permanent) have had the chance to aggressively change direction and haven't. There's an overtly progressive agenda that has been strictly adhered to for at least 5 years.
 
As others have said Bradley's tuition is actually very comparable to other Illinois schools once you factor in scholarships (assuming you are a decent student).

The bigger problem is that college tuition as whole in the United States is way too high and has been increasing much higher than inflation for decades now. The old advice used to be that "go to college, doesn't matter the degree". I think the younger generations have found this not to be true and are now generally more reluctant to go to college. The cost just isn't worth it if college doesn't set you up for a well paying career.

I think higher education in general is in for a rough decade ahead. The costs are just so high and the outcomes so low for some programs that the demand has been dropping. I think Bradley and most other decent sized D1 schools will handle it with some budget cuts, but I wouldn't be surprised if some smaller schools are forced to shut down.
 
Why is Bradley’s VP of legal not living in Peoria, making $200k+++, and showing BU as one of 3 jobs she currently holds on LinkedIn?

Why is someone in a VP level job allowed to moonlight? She’s not the only one doing so and it’s not a secret whatsoever.

Why is anyone in a VP/Dean role not expected to work on campus 5 days a week and live in Peoria?
 
It seems like there could be a Bradley alum with a law degree, living in the Peoria area that could provide services as needed.
 
JMM28 said:
Why is Bradley’s VP of legal not living in Peoria, making $200k+++, and showing BU as one of 3 jobs she currently holds on LinkedIn?

Why is someone in a VP level job allowed to moonlight? She’s not the only one doing so and it’s not a secret whatsoever.

Why is anyone in a VP/Dean role not expected to work on campus 5 days a week and live in Peoria?
Click to expand...

I think this can be normal for legal representation. I think the real legal services are probably provided by a firm, not just an individual.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top