Brad Penrith

**Cyrocks** · 04-08-2010, 12:31 PM

Originally Posted by RustyClone

As it has been stated earlier, I don't think they can drop wrestling without impacting their status with the NCAA. What I think this is is the spineless AD had to do something to appease some of the locals who seem to think that a high school wrestling room will get it done at this level. With the state of their facilities I don't think they can do better than Brad at this time.

Let it be known that I know Brad, my kids and his played together daily, so I'm a little biased on this one. I know for a fact that he wasn't paid all that well considering and could make more as an assistant at many schools. My hope is that he lands on his feet.

I did not see any post related to the NCAA and the possibility of UNI dropping wrestling, but I overlook things time to time. Could you elaborate a little for me on this?

Dannen did drop baseball, so I can see wrestling being on the chopping block.

**Frak** · 04-08-2010, 12:51 PM

Originally Posted by Cyrocks

I did not see any post related to the NCAA and the possibility of UNI dropping wrestling, but I overlook things time to time. Could you elaborate a little for me on this?

Dannen did drop baseball, so I can see wrestling being on the chopping block.

No, it really can't be on the chopping block. To be an NCAA D1 participant, you need to have a minimum of 6 men's sports (actually, it's either 7M/7F or 6M/8F). UNI has 6 right now. I guess that they could REPLACE wrestling with another men's sport, but what other sport uses less than 9.9 scholarships?

The major problem here is that the BOR wants UNI to stop taking $4+M from the general fund eventually and that's 40% of their budget. If they can't cut any sports, then the obvious answer is to drop football to nonscholarship. And that would kill revenues. If UNI is going to avoid joining Drake in the Horizon League, they are going to have to not only raise revenue (double FB season ticket prices?), but also cut expenses (cut salaries, eliminate some coaching and support positions). This could be a case of Dannen firing a fairly high-paid coach to bring in someone he can get for $50k.

**Cyrocks** · 04-08-2010, 12:56 PM

Originally Posted by Frak

No, it really can't be on the chopping block. To be an NCAA D1 participant, you need to have a minimum of 6 men's sports (actually, it's either 7M/7F or 6M/8F). UNI has 6 right now. I guess that they could REPLACE wrestling with another men's sport, but what other sport uses less than 9.9 scholarships?

The major problem here is that the BOR wants UNI to stop taking $4+M from the general fund eventually and that's 40% of their budget. If they can't cut any sports, then the obvious answer is to drop football to nonscholarship. And that would kill revenues. If UNI is going to avoid joining Drake in the Horizon League, they are going to have to not only raise revenue (double FB season ticket prices?), but also cut expenses (cut salaries, eliminate some coaching and support positions). This could be a case of Dannen firing a fairly high-paid coach to bring in someone he can get for $50k.

That's why I like coming to CF. I learn something new every day. Thanks for the excellent explanation, Frak.

And I wholeheartedly agree with your last paragraph -- with the last sentence being the kicker.

**RustyClone** · 04-08-2010, 01:49 PM

Thanks Frak, the folks at UNI want to sit at the $50 blackjack table when they can barely afford the $10 tables and should probably just stay at the $5.

**tec71** · 04-08-2010, 02:35 PM

Seriously this is not about cutting wrestling. Whether any of us agree or not I think it's clearly about UNI (the President, the AD, the boosters) thinking that they ought to be able to compete at a higher level than they are. The problem wrestling has is one of a perception of the program versus the success of fb and bb over the past couple years. It's too bad though if he redshirted guys that may have made them more successful this year (at the expense of long term program success) only to get canned. Wrestling is one of the few sports where a coach can literally red shirt an entire successfully and have it really impact things the next year.

**RustyClone** · 04-08-2010, 04:41 PM

True 71, if it even got to the discussion point there would be a sudden influx of money. Why those people with the money (not to mention the power) haven't ponied up yet is beyond me.

**SPOONER** · 04-10-2010, 09:43 AM

Originally Posted by tec71

Seriously this is not about cutting wrestling. Whether any of us agree or not I think it's clearly about UNI (the President, the AD, the boosters) thinking that they ought to be able to compete at a higher level than they are. The problem wrestling has is one of a perception of the program versus the success of fb and bb over the past couple years. It's too bad though if he redshirted guys that may have made them more successful this year (at the expense of long term program success) only to get canned. Wrestling is one of the few sports where a coach can literally red shirt an entire successfully and have it really impact things the next year.

The problem with this theory is that though some of the redshirts were as good or better than the starters, not a one of them would have qualified for the NCAA tourney. It's a weak and silly argument.

**tec71** · 04-10-2010, 09:56 AM

Originally Posted by SPOONER

The problem with this theory is that though some of the redshirts were as good or better than the starters, not a one of them would have qualified for the NCAA tourney. It's a weak and silly argument.

I don't disagree. Honestly I don't have enough knowledge of the recruits to weigh in one way or the other. The problem I think from Penrith's perspective is that it wasn't just the NCAA tourney finish that went into the decision to fire him. It was also the loss of the regional title and the dual record, including the total distruction they took at the hands of several teams (granted very good teams). It's at least arguable that those would have been improved (even if they would have still lost but not lost as dramatically) had he not redshirted those kids. Again I don't know enough to agree or disagree but I think that's his point. But then again he mentioned it but really didn't advocate it hard so it makes me wonder how much he really thinks those redshirts would have changed the season's results.

**SPOONER** · 04-11-2010, 06:36 PM

Originally Posted by tec71

I don't disagree. Honestly I don't have enough knowledge of the recruits to weigh in one way or the other. The problem I think from Penrith's perspective is that it wasn't just the NCAA tourney finish that went into the decision to fire him. It was also the loss of the regional title and the dual record, including the total distruction they took at the hands of several teams (granted very good teams). It's at least arguable that those would have been improved (even if they would have still lost but not lost as dramatically) had he not redshirted those kids. Again I don't know enough to agree or disagree but I think that's his point. But then again he mentioned it but really didn't advocate it hard so it makes me wonder how much he really thinks those redshirts would have changed the season's results.

Whether the kids wrestled or not, the program has taken a clean step back under Penrith's watch. It's underachieving. Thus, after 10 years on the job, Dannen made a change. That's the bottom line.

**RustyClone** · 04-11-2010, 07:25 PM

The fact of the matter is that the car dealers and the ad men in town don't like BP. His record sucks for sure but when you look at the facilities he's trying to recruit to, is it all that bad?