Yeah I’m definitely in that group (minus the powerful part haha). Though I still am able to give Boren credit for all the good he did, even if I feel like he was way too powerful and made some questionable decisions and expenditures toward the end. Hate the guy’s guts for sure, but he is still responsible for making the university nationally relevant academically and for that I am very appreciative. He also had a lot to do with revamping the athletic department and transforming the campus which has obviously paid off in a big way. I do think he mishandled the realignment situation but with our ties to Texas and OSU, I’m not really sure how much more he could’ve done.
That being said, I’m very happy with Gallogly so far. He could’ve (really should’ve) softened his tone and given Boren more credit for his accomplishments but I remain optimistic about the postive impact he can have on the university.
This is funny because I know many people, both recent graduates and longtime donors, who have done just the opposite and withheld donations until Boren retired, me included. People who are withholding over his handling of the SAE incident are only a small fraction of that group though it was likely just one more item in a list of grievances for many of them. Your social sphere likely has a positive opinion of David Boren, while mine has an overwhelmingly negative opinion of him. Off the top of my head, i can only think of a few people who truly have a positive opinion of him as the president of OU, and even most of those are like Pete in that they appreciate what he did but thought it was time for a change. No hire was going to make everyone happy. My social sphere is mostly excited for Gallogly, likes most of what he’s done so far, and is more excited about OU than they have been in years. It’s all a matter of preference, time will tell whether it was the right hire or not.
Theres nothing unethical about what he’s done. It’s a matter of opinion, Boren’s opinion is apparently different than that of Gallogly and the BOR. You can argue that he should’ve expressed his opinion with more tact and handled the transition more gracefully and I think you would be completely right, but calling him or his actions unethical is a major overreach.
For sports, being in the Big 10 would be an awful decision. OU has a huge alumni base in Oklahoma and DFW and currently plays most of their games within a 5 hour drive of these metros. If OU was in the Big 10, not only will the schedule be boring, but so many aumni won't go or feel connected to the university in the same ways. I go to almost every OU game in Fort Worth. It's great. The Sooner Club of Fort Worth is really active at all these events. Anyone ready for OU-Minnesota in November? My two cents is that I actually think OU made the right decison to stay with the Big 12. It's, by far, the best move for OKC, which would never again host a major conference event if OU moves conferences.
I agree, the Big 10 would be cool in a lot of ways and great academically, but practically it’s an awful idea. Just off the top of my head we probably lose either the red river showdown, bedlam or both. I don’t know how much losing rivalries has actually hurt Nebraska, Missouri, and Texas A&M, but it sucks for the fans.
Your comments about the fan base are spot on but you can take it a step further and look at how negatively it would effect recruiting not to play all those games in Texas. Look at what losing access to the Texas recruiting base has done to Nebraska. There are certainly other factors involved but they’ve been considerably worse in the Big 10 as far as football goes. We get a huge percentage of our recruits from Texas and only having at most one game in Texas every year would be devistating to our ability to recruit against the Texas schools down there.
Aside from the game time issues, I really liked the Pac 12 idea. Also liked the thought of going to the SEC but the best option would’ve been to make Texas shove it a long time ago and create a conference network. Their insistence on the longhorn network is what inevitability causes everything to fall apart.
I disagree with you but there’s not really any point in arguing about it. Based on some of the statements you’ve made, I know we’re not ever going to agree. He and Boren are both framing it differently to fit their narrative. The truth per usual is somewhere in the middle.
I did not mean to imply that any schools have any legal tie to each other athletically. Rather I feel geographic proximity and mutually beneficial commitment has made the relationship between UT, OU and OSU better together than any could achieve apart. Public sentiment drives the leadership at the state and school levels to keep them together.
The TV rights mentioned here represent a 2014 point of view, IMO. Media delivery will change so much within the next 5-10 years that any ideas about packaging and alliances are just guesses.
OU has the state of the art facilities, attractive uniforms and colors, style of play and youthful coaching to draw the eyeballs and bodies of America to Norman for the next 20-30 years. long after the baby boomers like me are dead and gone.
And the next conference move is going to be west, IMO.
It’s not 2014 thinking….it’s looking at the changing market conditions including the delivery methods and deciphering where the largest total benefits will come from for the entire university and its future goals. Right now that sure looks like the Big Ten and if it’s all about the money it is the Big Ten 100%
The west coast has such low interest in college sports that OU would be better off staying in the Big 12 when the time zone travel issues are considered…
OU’s best football days have occurred when OU was predominately only playing UT among the universities in Texas. This was before the days of modern communications and when travel was often slower. Both of these now create a better situation in Texas for OU….
By playing more Texas universities it has elevated their programs. One OU BOR member spoke about this a few years ago in regard to TCU.
As long as OU is doing everything else that it should, recruiting is the least of my concerns.
It’s been pretty well understood that UT hates A&M and the SEC. UT has several B1G teams on its future schedule. OU has Michigan.
In the early 90’s UT tried to move to the Big Ten with A&M and would have except A&M said no. The Big 12 without OU is not sustainable for UT for long and they know it. The LNH contract will not be rolled over.
The OU-Texas series is a huge donation driver/ revenue producer for both universities. Both universities receive untold exposure from this game… even in different conferences neither university can afford to stop playing this game. Both universities are going to know the best way to secure this game is to be in the same conference together. From all indications the Big Ten is the most palatable choice for both.
With the new B1G contracts it appears even UT would make significantly more money and this is without their LHN.
According to Steve Berkowitz back in May the FY17 payouts for schools were
Power 5 conference per-school distributions for FY17:
--SEC: $42.M to $39.9M
--Big Ten: $37.2M to $37M
--Big 12: Roughly $34.3M per school except Baylor
--Pac-12: $30.9M per school
--ACC: $30.7M to $25.3M except Notre Dame
so PAC isn't that low below the Big 12. and if you had in a powerhouse team like OU that will still draw in Texas and now be shown regularly in Southern Cal, i would expect those numbers to go up a lot.
Gallogly as promised has been extremely transparent…This is what the OU BOR hired him for…among other things.
Sometimes the truth hurts when a person is not fully invested in improving OU and has other stronger motivations and for some it’s very apparent that it has hurt, bad…
Sometimes it takes time to grow and appreciate the value of more honest management such as we now have at OU.
As much disdain the fans and new coaching staff has for 11am home games, the move will not be to go west.
I think Boren liked 11am games, meant there would be less booing the opposing team and less tailgating before the game as well.
I doubt OU would do it but i think OU and UT should go independent in football just like Notre Dame.
OU could find plenty of texas teams (A&M, Houston, Rice, SMU, UTSA, UTEP, ) to play if the old big12 members don't want to play them anymore.
^This will be changing… very dramatically with the new contracts that are coming.
According to reports from back then the networks have been paying the Big 12 artificially high amounts just to hold the conference together. I do not want OU exposed to that long term risk.
This link may have been provided above, and if so, sorry in advance.
https://nondoc.com/2018/10/19/fast-t...not-a-business
Just curious as to why?
go independent with UT and stay in the big12 for all the other sports just like Notre Dame has with the ACC.
You do realize NBC wanted OU before they signed the deal with Notre Dame in the 1980's right?
OU is taking less money right now to help prop up the little 8 in the big12
The PAC realignment deal falling through had absolutely nothing to do with Boren wanting to stay with OSU. The PAC deal included OSU and Texas. Texas backed out at the last minute to preserve the Longhorn network and the deal fell through.
first, because the big 12 is going to die once the current tv deal expires... so OU is going to have to figure out what they are going to do with regards to other sports anyways. and secondly, it's a huge gamble, and after the ESPN Fiasco with the Longhorn Network and them losing lots of money on it to UT, so most networks will be very cautious of this going forward. as well as the fact that NBC is currently able to write off it's expense on taxes to Notre Dame because the money specifically goes to fund financial aid for non-athlete students. So NBC would probably offer something similar, which means the money could not be used on athletics, because then it wouldn't be a tax write off for NBC. Lets also not forget that OU currently gets roughly 30 million a year from the Big 12... Notre Dame, according to NBC, only gets about 15 million per year from their deal.
so going independent on a Notre Dame style deal means less money and not used for athletics (Notre Dame is a private university and makes most of it's money for those programs because of that), and would only make more money if they got an ESPN Longhorn Network style deal, which ESPN isn't going to offer, and Fox Sports is going to get sold to who knows whom.
Take seriously whoever you want. You are like the kid who picks a fight and then complains when they get punched. But make no mistake, the appointment of Regents is political. Much of the disdain for Boren was political. Much of what is happening across the country with public universities leadership affected by anti-intellectualism is political driven by dogma.
I had not seen that, so I don't think so.
This Tulsa World article linked in that one was interesting too.
Unethical might have been too strong since I had been proceeding with the assumption that incompetent wasn't on the table. Maybe I was too generous.“Here there’s this silo and that silo and another silo ... It’s all extremely convoluted and frankly unacceptable and that’s one of the reasons we have a new CFO,” Gallogly said. “It’s extremely confusing. I personally think I had to explain to the former CFO that we were losing money. I’m not sure he was aware of it. That’s a sad statement isn’t it?”
Chris Kuwitzky, the OU CFO who was let go when Gallogly took office, said “As reported in the University’s audited and publicly available financial statements, for the first time in over sixteen years OU realized a net loss during fiscal years 2016 and 2017. The losses were attributable primarily to state funding cuts, related instructional funding deficits, and non-cash pension/benefit accruals.”
^That is not completely true from an OU point of view … After Texas backed out Boren tried very hard to work a deal that would have sent OU to the PAC with OSU.... but the PAC did not want OSU because it was a duplication of the same small TV market and there were complains about OSU's low academic profile…They did want OU... but when Boren would not move OU alone then Utah took OU’s spot.
This was when Texas people said Boren was the…. emperor who had no clothes.
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