The Sock 'Em, Bust 'Em Board Because that's our custom

The unintended victim?

June 3, 2014 by Mike Casazza

I think by now that we can agree, or at the very least see, that student-athletes are about to get paid. In some way, shape for form, the transaction seems imminent. It could be a stipend — the sort of thing West Virginia has been exploring for more than two years — or it could be a payout from broadcast rights revenue that now goes to the NCAA and its membership.

Or it could be both.

I’ve been watching and worrying about this for a while because, as explained in the link above, there is a risk to the reward if the reward is compensation. Everyone would be getting paid, but the group of “everyone” could shrink, either severely or gradually, but almost inevitably.

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Don’t forget: This is still happening

June 2, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Out of sight and out of mind, the West Virginia Radio Corporation v. WVU conflict continues and there’s a big date this week.

I can’t find many who think it’ll happen, but we must acknowledge the possibility exists: A judge could void WVU’s Tier 3 contract with IMG College.

A pattern? ‘There probably is to a certain degree’

by Mike Casazza

Last week we asked if a pattern could be spotted or established with regard to the eight people Oliver Luck has hired to coach at WVU. You gave some responses there and I tried to fill in the blanks a little more at the end of the week.

In between, though, I remembered that my boss was working on the same question and, ideally, similar answers for a column. But different answers would be acceptable, too, for though they weren’t ours, they’d still add a little more light to the topic.

The big and ultimately critical difference? It wasn’t going to source me or us, but Luck himself. Well, it’s out and I think we were onto something. Luck said there’s a bit of an archetype, but one that’s born out of necessity.

“A lot of the Olympic sports, like volleyball or baseball, didn’t really have a whole lot of success over the years … there were very few highlights,” Luck said. “As I looked at those programs I knew there wasn’t much of a legacy to build on, so we need somebody who is going to be energetic, going to have to spend a lot of time and energy recruiting.

“West Virginia University is better served with a coach who has incredible energy and wants to put his or her fingerprints on a program,” he added.

Friday Feedback

May 30, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Welcome to the Friday Feedback, still working without a buyout after all these years and suitors. Hey, liquidated damages are common, but they’re not for everyone. Yet for some reason, they seem perfectly suited for West Virginia University.

We spent a bit of time in this abbreviated week looking at and talking about Rich Rodriguez’s notable contract extension at Arizona. It has a buyout that doubles if he leaves the Wildcats for WVU.

And Doc Holliday has pretty much the same thing in his contract at Marshall, except his exit fee is a flat, cool $3 million.

I really have to wonder — and I’m looking into it — how many schools are mentioned in multiple buyouts for head coaches? But that’s just one of many thought-provoking items that come from this … I don’t know, is it an ordeal? Is it a saga? Is it a blip?

It is May.

I think we can agree it’s a thing and it’s a thing you really have to actively think about now because clearly there’s potential for something somewhere in this. You have to recognize that. The industry tells more secrets than it keeps, and this is the beauty of open records. (Also: This.)

But this is also a little awkward, too. I’m not advocating a coaching change. I’m not even operating under the assumption one is coming, and that that particular action will trigger a specific reaction. I’m just looking at what’s in front of me and doing what a lot of other people are doing.

Well, isn’t this something?

What I want to get to, though, is probably different. I know why it’s included. I have a feeling Arizona has a feeling, too. I know what it means. I figure there might one day be a legal battle about how the contract is designed to punish Rodriguez for picking WVU.

But I’m not interested in that. I instead wonder if WVU fans are ready to open their minds and treat Rodriguez in a way that might make a reunion possible. And mostly I wonder if hiring Rodriguez, if it ever becomes a possibility, is a good idea. Those are the questions that ought to matter most.

Onto the Feedback. As always, comments appear as posted. In other words, know your surroundings.

I love you, Doug! said:

Great, Mike goes away and Logan Moore gets a scholarship, implicitly making him the favorite to start going into fall camp.

Right?!

(Just trying to manufacture *something* here.)

True story: I, um, succumbed to the rigors of the Vegas trip Monday night into Tuesday morning and had a very vivid dream. I woke up ready to call Dana to do a story about Paul Millard transferring to LSU. Then I had some coffee.

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He’ll fix it

May 29, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Here’s what’s truly weird about the WVU basketball offseason. The Mountaineers were a team this past season with no seniors … and ended up with five scholarships. Five!

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Hmm.

by Mike Casazza
oh2

You are looking live at the buyout liquidated damages provisions proposed for University of Arizona football coach Rich Rodriguez’s soon-to-be extended contract.

The Wildcats are trying to extend Rodriguez, men’s basketball coach Sean Miller and athletic director Greg Byrne, and, to be frank, they’ve come up with a whale of a way to do it. (Aside: Somewhere, coal people who support WVU had to start spinning a similar idea in their heads, right?) The plan became public yesterday within state board of regents documents and should be approved next week. Until then, no comment from anyone in blue and red — believe me, I tried.

Why did I try? Are you new here? This is like the Holy Trinity of WVU fan fears and interests: The Product, coaching contracts and hot seats!

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Do we spot a trend?

May 28, 2014 by Mike Casazza

Startlingly, just as I left for a few days off last week, West Virginia announced the hiring of its new golf coach. This follows not long after the Mountaineers named a wrestling coach. Sean Covich, who has kinda sorta done this before, is Oliver Luck’s eight head coaching hire in seven of the school’s 17 sports:

–Randy Mazey in baseball
–Tina Samara in women’s tennis
–Miha Lisac in women’s tennis
–Sammie Henson in wrestling
–Dana Holgorsen in football
-Mr. Covich
–Jason Butts in gymnastics
–Jill Kramer in volleyball

I don’t know, but I think that’s a lot of activity — firings and hirings — for a guy who still hasn’t been here for four years, but it’s nevertheless a list and that list offers a broad sampling from which ideas can be formed.

And so I’m curious about two things:

1) Whether or not the jury is out on a particular coach or particular coaches, what’s your opinion of the hires? I mean that in a broad sense, be it the pick or the subsequent results or anything in between or on the outside.

2) Is there, or can you form, a pattern in people Luck has picked? I ask that because there are some overlapping elements to this, but, as is often the case, I wonder if maybe it’s just me.

‘She is Maimonides to the Mountaineers…’

by Mike Casazza

Hi. It’s me.

I think I’d been gone just long enough to forget that before I left last week I’d typed what serves as the headline here as part of the text for my column that ran in Tuesday’s edition. “She” is Nettie Freshour and Maimonides … well, I don’t want to spoil it, but it makes sense. Trust me. I’m a writer.

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Out.

May 22, 2014 by Mike Casazza

As much as I’d like to hang around and talk baseball and evaluate managerial decisions — it’s like Wagyu beef … we’ve never have it before, but we seem to really like it now that we do — I’m going to walk around the block for a few days during the long weekend. I’ll be back here Wednesday. (What? I said long weekend.)

Nothing will happen between then and now. Nothing. Nothing ever does. So good luck with that, in which “that” is actually “static.” Right?

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Hmm…

May 21, 2014 by Mike Casazza