Should Rick Dickson continue as Tulane AD

[RWR]

Unfortunately the board is in his pocket. Sader I agree w/ your approach and the time is now or never b/c it won't be D-3 we're looking at. Next year will be another long year for tulane athletically. There will be another review next June b/c of it and athletics will be gone. There was supposed to be another review 5 years after the first one. Katrina changed that. Act now people.

[Bigschtick]

I send emails to Dickson weekly and they are not quite as diplomatic as above. Bottom line, neither Dickson nor Coward could care less. We have to find a way to rid the university of these two because if we do not, athletics and academics will continue to decline.

[Bigschtick]

Golfnut: Anyone have a list of board members and their contact info?

[sader24]

Whether it happens or not, at least they have the sense to throw their name out there and announce their desire to be a serious program. This was a team that wasn't fit to be included in the original CUSA which WE (TULANE) were and was behind us as recently as 2008. Where's the vision Rick? Where's the leadership Cowen?

http://espn.go.com/dallas/ncf/story/_/i ... ing-big-12

[TURVS71]

I hear you. This has become a "Catch 22" situation. We, Tulane fans express our displeasure. We refuse to support the university based on its past performance. We refuse to buy tickets. etc. Now, I am not saying that these actions are wrong but they do not show support and to be attractive for conference affiliation, other than CUSA, we need to be attractive.

It is a puzzlement and is one that has to be solved before we can expect to move on.

[RWR]

It's not complicated. Their model has failed miserably for 60 years. The fans have every right to withdraw support till they give us what we deserve and many have. The ball is squarely in the administrations court to get it right. No ifs,ands or buts about it.

[IM42lane]

When Toledo posts his 3-10 record for 2011 and is shown the door, D!ckson should be invited to leave as well.

It's not complicated. Their model has failed miserably for 60 years. The fans have every right to withdraw support till they give us what we deserve and many have. The ball is squarely in the administrations court to get it right. No ifs,ands or buts about it.

[IM42lane]

Any other university worth its salt would be planning to move to a better conference just like SMU has here. It is called being PROACTIVE, a concept which escapes Cowen & Dickson.

C*USA membership has been a good run for Tulane over these past 15 years, but Tulane must find a better league to join and very soon. C*USA membership has been MUCH BETTER than being independent, but there comes a time when you must grow your product and expand to a better situation.

Oh, I'm sorry, we are counting on Cowen & Dickson to get that done, which means that NOTHING WILL be DONE at all. Excuse me for my ignorance, . . I thought there was hope on the horizon for a second.

[sader24]

I don't feel its a Catch 22 at all. They decided they wanted to win, lowered their admission reqs to the same level as everyone else and went after a good coach by elevating the coaching salary. I don't expect Tulane to give somebody 2.1 mill, but I do expect us to at least bring our coaches salary in line with the top half of CUSA which would be just over $1 million. If Dickson came out and said we are going to double our coaches salary from 600K to 1.2 mill, we are going to let our coaches recruit on a level playing field, and we are going to build this facility (OCS or IPF) and here are the plans for said facility and here's what it's going to look like. Just stating those 3 specifics would instantly raise giving levels. The Catch 22 comes from the fact that they refuse to get serious and announce specifics which is opposite of what SMU has done.

[TURVS71]

I'm not going to get into a pissing match with you all but if you want all or nothing, then be prepared for nothing. If you are satisfied with that , than that is your right. IF and WHEN Cowen and Dickson either leave or are replaced then things will change.
Until that time, it isn't going to change. Now don't come back blasting me saying that I have the "yogwf" mentality. I DON'T. It's just that we need for this program to survive UNTIL they are gone. I don't want to "throw the baby out with the bath water." It is not an "all or nothing" with me.

[JTLiuzza]

Heck I agree with you Turv. As long as those two are in charge nothing will change. And if their replacements are the same ol' same ol', I'm done.

[RWR]

First off it doesn't have to be all or nothing. Our demands are reasonable and they have said they will comply. We'll see soon. Secondly there's no guarantee when they are replaced so I'd rather get changes and success now so the replacement won't be inclined to kill it. Lastly neither one is going anywhere anytime soon as no one else will have them . They have both tried to leave and been rejected.

[RWR]

Says it all. Even 40,000 isn't big enough :

http://www.dallasnews.com/sports/colleg ... erence.ece

[sader24]

I'm pretty sure we can all agree our leadership is abysmal, my concern comes from the lack of a guarantee that it will get better when they are gone and the assumption that neither one of them is in any hurry to leave. It's very frustrating to watch Rick Dickson fumble around and be totally clueless and ignorant of the surrounding climate. He was stupid enough to actually believe we're tied to the hip of SMU, is he not aware that we are the only school who isn't trying to move up?

[Jaxwave]

Sader, You and I agree for the most part but quite frankly I think what we're getting from Rick Dickson is simply what is needed to keep his job. Cowan runs things and Dickson just toes the company line or he would be gone. At his age he's just trying to get to retirement.

[tpstulane]

The thing that bugs me is that all in charge (RD, SC and the board) are not from here and weren't around when we did things to allow us to succeed. The late 70's we drew 40K in the dome because we played an attractive schedule and won. It doesn't take a genius to figure this stuff out. Yet all decisions or lack thereof are currently based on the 3K fans that show up on Saturdays. I'm with Turv, I too don't see things changing either. An OCS won't make us a winner.

[sader24]

I don't see things changing, but if I can't at least trick myself into believing they might what's the point of sticking around?

[golfnut69]

I love the "SMU putting it's name out to be a member the BIG 12 or any other BCS conference that will have them".. First I do not think for one second that as long as Univ of Texas is a member SMU has about as much chance of being invited as Ron Meyer will be the next SMU coach..hell Texas does not want Baylor, Iowa State and in some regard Texas Tech much less SMU, which does not even have a basball program, stamping itself as small time the same as Iowa State. U-T would love to be an 8 team Conference, with great OOC games for the big $$$$, that is why I see U-T as an independent when A-M bolts for the SEC ....U-H and then TCU are admitted into the "Big 12" as replacements...U-H for the obvious reasons and TCU for geographical ones...with TCU, you get a team just as good as A-M..with U-H, well ya get, what ya get. and I still believe that June Jones will be the next coach at Ole Miss, and SMU will once again become SMU

[golfnut69]

and before I ever added SMU...I would invite Memphis, with it's FedEx bucks and TV market..Memphis is Cincinnatti without the BSC money..Cincy was just Cincy before getting it's basketball invite to the Big East..I do not have their CUSA football record, but I think it was close to .500..and if memory serves, even Buddy Teveens beat them on a regular basis ...memphis also gives Mizzou another rivalry to go with Kansas. For those saying the Big 12 needs SMU for the DFW TV Market...that is not true there are more than enought Oklahoma, Texas Tech, Kansas and Kansas St alums to carry that market

[JTLiuzza]

What I hold onto is the hope that the next leadership will be more sensible. But deep down I doubt it will happen.

I used to go to everything. A few years ago I stopped going to anything except football and if it weren't for the pre-game food and beer I would have stopped going to football as well. The fun stops when it's time to go in and watch the game. You can't even get a beer unless you want to drop trou and grab ankles. I refuse to spend $8 on a lousy beer on principle. So you sit there for three hours, beerless, in an empty dome, watching your crappy football team get mauled. It's hell on earth.

Real easy to fix, though.

[sader24]

I didn't say the Big 12 needed or wanted SMU. What I did say was that at least SMU is being proactive and getting their name out their and trying to do things to improve their stature in college football.

[jonathanjoseph]

"At the end of four seasons, we are now in a position to achieve our original goals of contending in our division and attaining bowl berths, while continuing to excel in the classroom and in community service, and I expect these to occur next year."

Rick Dickson, 12/01/10 on extending Bob Toledo's contract

http://www.nola.com/tulane/index.ssf/20 ... footb.html

[sader24]

If he has any respect for Tulane fans he'll resign this month. If not we should forcibly remove him.

[jonathanjoseph]

If he has any respect for Tulane fans he'll resign this month. If not we should forcibly remove him.

Yes, one way or another we CANNOT allow this to continue.

[waveclem]

There is no side-stepping those words. They were pretty straight-forward. He was wrong. There needs to be a consequence for his wrong decision. Pink slip.