The athletic department has to have some objective means by which it can be judged to be succeeding or failing.
Generally, in most sane organizations, there are a group of key metrics by which management assesses your division/business unit/department.
What are those for Tulane athletics?
Wins/losses? Obviously not.
Graduation rates? Last I checked we're not setting the world on fire there either, particularly for football. We're certainly not in any top X lists.
Scandal free (not easily objectively measured)? Nope.
From a financial POV, profitable or at least self-sustaining? Again, nope.
Boon to the university's brand, community relations, and recruitment? Just the opposite.
What the heck are they doing over there besides putting on a clinic in failure? With a board composed of mostly successful business people, why isn't this a bigger issue for such a public facet of the school's operation? Why are the local media not posing these questions? Why are the alumni asleep?
Is the answer simply that not enough people give a hoot, including those drafting a paycheck from Tulane?
jonathanjoseph, what about we craft a nice letter posing some of these question about mission and purpose? We could seek through your network and elsewhere signatories of note from amongst the fans, alums, local leaders, etc. We send a copy to Cowen and the board and copy the Picayune, post it on the interwebs, you know the drill. In the wake of the "playbook" which I think was generally received as being not serious, it might be a good time to force the debate.
Worth doing or a waste of time? Don't worry about telling me if you think I'm all wet. I won't get my feelings hurt.
What do we measure ourselves by?
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Fred Dowler
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The answer is that in fact no one gives a hoot.
The only real remedy is for football or basketball to somehow catch fire and make a gigantic push by winning and winning and winning some more -- and by beating well-known and well-regarded opposition along the way -- to move up as in propel Tulane into position to actually be desirable for some bigger and better conference to invite.
The only real remedy is for football or basketball to somehow catch fire and make a gigantic push by winning and winning and winning some more -- and by beating well-known and well-regarded opposition along the way -- to move up as in propel Tulane into position to actually be desirable for some bigger and better conference to invite.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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Fred Dowler
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Things are in a vicious cycle of sorts right now.
The teams in the two major sports are not winning and thus people both on the inside and out have no interest in them.
People are not interested in the sports teams and consequently the Board has nothing to which to respond to compel them to any action, and, if anything, continued lack of interest would propel the Board to re-consider having Tulane stay in Div. 1 (Cowen's and their whole stated contention back in 2003 was that they NEEDED to see evidence of fan support).
At many schools, lack of winning would engender a definitive response from both the alumni and the school administration but Tulane of course tends to go its own way and especially with so many of the alumni living out of the state it's easy for them to tune out on Tulane sports and tune in with whatever else, the NFL, major league baseball, and so on, is going on in their own area.
The teams in the two major sports are not winning and thus people both on the inside and out have no interest in them.
People are not interested in the sports teams and consequently the Board has nothing to which to respond to compel them to any action, and, if anything, continued lack of interest would propel the Board to re-consider having Tulane stay in Div. 1 (Cowen's and their whole stated contention back in 2003 was that they NEEDED to see evidence of fan support).
At many schools, lack of winning would engender a definitive response from both the alumni and the school administration but Tulane of course tends to go its own way and especially with so many of the alumni living out of the state it's easy for them to tune out on Tulane sports and tune in with whatever else, the NFL, major league baseball, and so on, is going on in their own area.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
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HoustonWave
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Tulane missed the chance to harness fan enthusiasm and support. By now, the fan base is just withered away, and that is starting to impact support for the university, more broadly. At this juncture, Tulane cannot wait to leverage off of some wave of fan support. Tulane has to make the financial and policy commitment to win, with or without immediate fan support. The fans have waited too long, and Tulane has no credibility with the fans. Tulane has to show its cards first this time.
Tulane is the University of Louisiana
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rollinggreen
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The only thing they can measure themselves by is utter failure. There is no other answer based on results.
Personally I think they run the athletic program like any extra-curricular in the sense that they really aren't trying to succeed. It's just an activity to them and not a business or a way to build support or make money. I feel like if they didn't feel like they had to have a sports program they wouldn't. So I would say they don't both to measure themselves by anything because they don't care.
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jonathanjoseph
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I wish we could. In fact, I've already done as much with the blog and Facebook page and people simply will not support it. 55 Facebook fans at last check and that is a pathetic number. If there were 500 or 5000 followers we'd already have the outcome you desire.1ndabag wrote:The athletic department has to have some objective means by which it can be judged to be succeeding or failing.
Generally, in most sane organizations, there are a group of key metrics by which management assesses your division/business unit/department.
What are those for Tulane athletics?
Wins/losses? Obviously not.
Graduation rates? Last I checked we're not setting the world on fire there either, particularly for football. We're certainly not in any top X lists.
Scandal free (not easily objectively measured)? Nope.
From a financial POV, profitable or at least self-sustaining? Again, nope.
Boon to the university's brand, community relations, and recruitment? Just the opposite.
What the heck are they doing over there besides putting on a clinic in failure? With a board composed of mostly successful business people, why isn't this a bigger issue for such a public facet of the school's operation? Why are the local media not posing these questions? Why are the alumni asleep?
Is the answer simply that not enough people give a hoot, including those drafting a paycheck from Tulane?
jonathanjoseph, what about we craft a nice letter posing some of these question about mission and purpose? We could seek through your network and elsewhere signatories of note from amongst the fans, alums, local leaders, etc. We send a copy to Cowen and the board and copy the Picayune, post it on the interwebs, you know the drill. In the wake of the "playbook" which I think was generally received as being not serious, it might be a good time to force the debate.
Worth doing or a waste of time? Don't worry about telling me if you think I'm all wet. I won't get my feelings hurt.
I thought I did the hard part, taking the lead and putting my name on it. Like I've said, if you are unwilling to speak out against the demise of Tulane under Cowen then you are complicit. New Orleans needs a nationally recognized University to thrive and Cowen is single handedly ending that. Why the city of New Orleans isn't up in arms confuses me as well.
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Fred Dowler
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Yes, the volume of support is not there and especially not there through lean times.
But...part of the issue is the type of institution that Tulane is, the nature of the animal itself as a private school attracting large numbers of students not from state but from all across the country and then having most of the alumni population out of the state.
The volume is never going to be really strong.
Moreover, even though some people may talk about having a higher percentage of in-state students, again it's hard to see that phenomenon changing very much at least in the short to intermediate term.
Louisiana is just not that well populated and not that well off economically and then since the time when the student body was actually much more locally based there has been the growth of many other institutions serving the local population.
Plus, it's just not the culture of Tulane as an institution for large numbers of people to maintain interest in the athletic teams through lean times on the field like it is the culture of LSU or some state school.
Tulane would have to enjoy an extended period of very strong success on the field/court in one or both of the major revenue-making sports programs to make that volume number go up very much.
The sports teams would have to somehow, in a word, "overcome..." in order to jump-start interest and in turn provide something that the board would feel compelled to respond to (again it's the culture, the institutional mind-set in place, that the board and/or the school leadership does act without some stimulus and if they do not sense strong support they would probably only feel compelled to act to disengage Tulane from Division I).
A lot of it is also -- and I have understood that this was the case at TCU and probably is at SMU -- a certain core of alumni taking the lead, and right now at Tulane who is the person, who are the people to be the new Kent McWilliamses, the new Jim Wilsons?
If someone like Kent McWilliams used to, gets up and demands something and also places their money where their mouth is -- and also has, like Kent McWilliams the money to really make a difference if they do that -- then the school leadership would have to respond to that.
But instead the vicious cycle merely continues.
But...part of the issue is the type of institution that Tulane is, the nature of the animal itself as a private school attracting large numbers of students not from state but from all across the country and then having most of the alumni population out of the state.
The volume is never going to be really strong.
Moreover, even though some people may talk about having a higher percentage of in-state students, again it's hard to see that phenomenon changing very much at least in the short to intermediate term.
Louisiana is just not that well populated and not that well off economically and then since the time when the student body was actually much more locally based there has been the growth of many other institutions serving the local population.
Plus, it's just not the culture of Tulane as an institution for large numbers of people to maintain interest in the athletic teams through lean times on the field like it is the culture of LSU or some state school.
Tulane would have to enjoy an extended period of very strong success on the field/court in one or both of the major revenue-making sports programs to make that volume number go up very much.
The sports teams would have to somehow, in a word, "overcome..." in order to jump-start interest and in turn provide something that the board would feel compelled to respond to (again it's the culture, the institutional mind-set in place, that the board and/or the school leadership does act without some stimulus and if they do not sense strong support they would probably only feel compelled to act to disengage Tulane from Division I).
A lot of it is also -- and I have understood that this was the case at TCU and probably is at SMU -- a certain core of alumni taking the lead, and right now at Tulane who is the person, who are the people to be the new Kent McWilliamses, the new Jim Wilsons?
If someone like Kent McWilliams used to, gets up and demands something and also places their money where their mouth is -- and also has, like Kent McWilliams the money to really make a difference if they do that -- then the school leadership would have to respond to that.
But instead the vicious cycle merely continues.
Tulane sports: small football stadium, very small basketball arena, w̶i̶n̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶, h̶o̶n̶e̶s̶t̶y̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶a̶c̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶a̶b̶i̶l̶i̶t̶y̶ , but, hey, now there's tailgating.
Sadly there are no Kent Mcwilliams out there. But there is a Rich Rod out there including the actual Rich Rod. The right coach can jump start it. What the Tulane Model does is drive those coaches away as soon as they get another offer. RD is due for a good hire. All we can do is pray.
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jonathanjoseph
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Fred, this is exactly why a smart leader would have invested in the football program. How do you keep nationally dispersed alumni engaged on an ongoing basis? Football is the obvious answer.Fred Dowler wrote:Yes, the volume of support is not there and especially not there through lean times.
But...part of the issue is the type of institution that Tulane is, the nature of the animal itself as a private school attracting large numbers of students not from state but from all across the country and then having most of the alumni population out of the state.
Scott Cowen is not a smart leader.
You've identified the effect, not the cause. USC and Miami have national alumni bases and they do just fine.
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