Khalil Mack

[BrooklynBull]

It seems like former UB Bulls just cannot wait to meet Zach Wilson.  Malcom Koonce got in on the fun last night.

 

[Blue03]

Khalil Mack will be inducted into the UB hall of fame in 2024

[UBinMD]

5 hours ago, Blue03 said:

Khalil Mack will be inducted into the UB hall of fame in 2024

Perfect 

[Blue03]

10 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Perfect 

Could’ve waited for the 52nd class, match his number

[UBinMD]

4 minutes ago, Blue03 said:

Could’ve waited for the 52nd class, match his number

Couldn’t have waited for 46th class for his college number 

[rma]

When we retire his #46 officially, will it be painted on the track or.....

[121Merrimac]

… will a banner cover the zenith?

[Blue03]

43 minutes ago, UBinMD said:

Couldn’t have waited for 46th class for his college number 

Ah yes I had them backwards, my mistake

[Blue03]

36 minutes ago, rma said:

When we retire his #46 officially, will it be painted on the track or.....

Would like the track to not be there for long 

[UBinMD]

3 hours ago, Blue03 said:

Would like the track to not be there for long 

I think we need a better product on the field before we talk about tracks and scoreboards. Let’s actually win something. 

[SGBull]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:16 PM, UBinMD said:

I think we need a better product on the field before we talk about tracks and scoreboards. Let’s actually win something. 

I disagree, I think the track is a big deal. Part of recruiting is facilities. High school recruits want to play in a nice stadium, there are high school stadiums that are nice than ours

[DaBulls99]

UB has more than enough money to make us a strong G5 team. They just choose not to. They’re building a $100 million engineering facility. I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but athletics can’t even get a damn scoreboard, and the return on athletics investment is better. Oh well

[BrooklynBull]

6 hours ago, DaBulls99 said:

UB has more than enough money to make us a strong G5 team. They just choose not to. They’re building a $100 million engineering facility. I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but athletics can’t even get a damn scoreboard, and the return on athletics investment is better. Oh well

With $20,000,000.00 from one donor towards the construction.  It should be 100% funded by the state, since it is for academics.  Everything takes private money.

[UBinMD]

1 hour ago, BrooklynBull said:

With $20,000,000.00 from one donor towards the construction.  It should be 100% funded by the state, since it is for academics.  Everything takes private money.

Yeah, what are they thinking building academic facilities at a university.

[rma]

On 12/9/2023 at 2:16 PM, UBinMD said:

I think we need a better product on the field before we talk about tracks and scoreboards. Let’s actually win something. 

Since the stadium was built we went from FCS to FBS. Since the scoreboard was installed we won a conference championship, multiple division championships, had a first round NFL pick, had a running back nearly break the single game yards record, and a top 25 finish. We shouldn’t be punting on improving the stadium to at least a low level FBS experience because Mo Linguist can’t hire a competent offensive coordinator.

ETA: Waiting for success to improve facilities is one of the reasons Nate Oats isn’t still here (outside of the whole multi-millions of dollars). Oats says I want a dedicated practice facility. Great! We have the triple gym which is much better than any other MAC facility. But you need a rec center for the students. Between university and/or SUNY bureaucracy it is 4 years later and last I checked there’s no student rec center being built. In fact, UB health services just opened up an office off north campus recently which makes me think this is not a priority for anybody right now. 

Edited December 11, 2023 by rma

[SGBull]

27 minutes ago, rma said:

Since the stadium was built we went from FCS to FBS. Since the scoreboard was installed we won a conference championship, multiple division championships, had a first round NFL pick, had a running back nearly break the single game yards record, and a top 25 finish. We shouldn’t be punting on improving the stadium to at least a low level FBS experience because Mo Linguist can’t hire a competent offensive coordinator.

ETA: Waiting for success to improve facilities is one of the reasons Nate Oats isn’t still here (outside of the whole multi-millions of dollars). Oats says I want a dedicated practice facility. Great! We have the triple gym which is much better than any other MAC facility. But you need a rec center for the students. Between university and/or SUNY bureaucracy it is 4 years later and last I checked there’s no student rec center being built. In fact, UB health services just opened up an office off north campus recently which makes me think this is not a priority for anybody right now. 

Hit the nail on the head

[Blue03]

1 hour ago, rma said:

Since the stadium was built we went from FCS to FBS. Since the scoreboard was installed we won a conference championship, multiple division championships, had a first round NFL pick, had a running back nearly break the single game yards record, and a top 25 finish. We shouldn’t be punting on improving the stadium to at least a low level FBS experience because Mo Linguist can’t hire a competent offensive coordinator.

ETA: Waiting for success to improve facilities is one of the reasons Nate Oats isn’t still here (outside of the whole multi-millions of dollars). Oats says I want a dedicated practice facility. Great! We have the triple gym which is much better than any other MAC facility. But you need a rec center for the students. Between university and/or SUNY bureaucracy it is 4 years later and last I checked there’s no student rec center being built. In fact, UB health services just opened up an office off north campus recently which makes me think this is not a priority for anybody right now. 

Heard from an engineering friend they might be (in the distant future) turning the bookstore into health services. Not sure if it’s true but that’s what I’ve heard. 

[UB92]

18 hours ago, DaBulls99 said:

UB has more than enough money to make us a strong G5 team. They just choose not to. They’re building a $100 million engineering facility. I’m not saying they shouldn’t, but athletics can’t even get a damn scoreboard, and the return on athletics investment is better. Oh well

Wait.  The return on athletic investment is better?  I don’t know the exact numbers, but I’d assume UB must lose millions on athletics.  I suspect someone has a decent number on that.  
 

As others have said, private money will be the way to get athletics improvements.  But that seems sort of unlikely and less likely each year as the landscape changes.  

[RapidsFan]

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Edited February 18 by RapidsFan

[capencaper]

15 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

It's close to break-even, but I'm sure the $40 million/year could be better spent doing literally anything else

When done right, athletics raises the profile of an institution which obviously is harder to quantify than dollars and cents.

[DaBulls99]

11 hours ago, UBinMD said:

Yeah, what are they thinking building academic facilities at a university.

Like I said, it’s not one or the other. You can do both. 

[RapidsFan]

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Edited February 18 by RapidsFan

[capencaper]

43 minutes ago, RapidsFan said:

So why not just get rid of football and increase the basketball budget

Steve Lutz is Western Kentucky's new basketball coach, and they just beat UB handily the other day. His starting salary is $650,000. Halcovage only earns half that at UB.

Not a good comparison IMO...Western Kentucky also has a football program, so it's not like they dropped football to pay their basketball coach more money.

I get your point - if you're consistently good at any revenue sport then it raises the profile of an institution. But if I think of basketball focused schools (Gonzaga, Butler, VCU, etc.), maybe Gonzaga is the only school that is on par with the likes of UConn, Maryland, and Cincinnati ("2 sport" schools that UB could/should be similar to, for example) as far as name recognition and marketability, but only because of their history over the last 30 years.

[rma]

1 hour ago, RapidsFan said:

So why not just get rid of football and increase the basketball budget

In theory you could do that, but in reality you have to find a new conference and add/change sports to comply with that conference's membership requirements. Schools that axe football also don't just give that money over to the other programs. When UB cut four sports in 2016 the school just lowered the subsidy given to athletics, and did not allocate that money to the other sports. UAB, after shutting down football in 2014 in a political hit job, reversed course and reinstated the football program despite the school's large subsidy to athletics.

I went into detail here looking at other schools' decision to drop to FCS or drop football entirely. The end result is unless your team is bankrolled by Charles Koch your basketball program is not going to be more successful and will likely be less successful.

[RapidsFan]

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Edited February 18 by RapidsFan