Fred Glass Retiring

[southernindianahoosier2 902]

https://www.indystar.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indystar.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Findiana%2F2019%2F08%2F20%2Findiana-basketball-spends-most-recruiting-any-school-country-iu-hoosiers-archie-miller-fred-glass%2F2001326001%2F

Parallels between Yahoo’s purchase of Tumbler for $1.1bn in 2013 and then selling for under $3m in 2019. A destruction in value of 99.7%. Similar ROI for IUBB as Yahoo with Tumblr. Only difference is CEO of large companies are held accountable.

Alternative headline: "IU spends more money than anyone else for 4 NCAA appearances and 2 tournament wins over the last 8 years; Athletic Director uses it as a selling point of why he's great at his job"

 

 

[Brass Cannon 24,801]

2 minutes ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

https://www.indystar.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indystar.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Findiana%2F2019%2F08%2F20%2Findiana-basketball-spends-most-recruiting-any-school-country-iu-hoosiers-archie-miller-fred-glass%2F2001326001%2F

Parallels between Yahoo’s purchase of Tumbler for $1.1bn in 2013 and then selling for under $3m in 2019. A destruction in value of 99.7%. Similar ROI for IUBB as Yahoo with Tumblr. Only difference is CEO of large companies are held accountable.

Alternative headline: "IU spends more money than anyone else for 4 NCAA appearances and 2 tournament wins over the last 8 years; Athletic Director uses it as a selling point of why he's great at his job"

 

 

Why in God’s name would I have a subscription to the Indy star? 

[JSHoosier 20,211]

8 minutes ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

https://www.indystar.com/restricted/?return=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indystar.com%2Fstory%2Fsports%2Fcollege%2Findiana%2F2019%2F08%2F20%2Findiana-basketball-spends-most-recruiting-any-school-country-iu-hoosiers-archie-miller-fred-glass%2F2001326001%2F

Parallels between Yahoo’s purchase of Tumbler for $1.1bn in 2013 and then selling for under $3m in 2019. A destruction in value of 99.7%. Similar ROI for IUBB as Yahoo with Tumblr. Only difference is CEO of large companies are held accountable.

Alternative headline: "IU spends more money than anyone else for 4 NCAA appearances and 2 tournament wins over the last 8 years; Athletic Director uses it as a selling point of why he's great at his job"

 

 

Who's supposed to hold Glass accountable though?  The people above him are fine with status quo.

[mdn82 25,510]

Who's supposed to hold Glass accountable though?  The people above him are fine with status quo.

And we are making money. Doesn’t exactly make sense in correlation at all. So while they lost 99.7% of their value we are still making money.

 

 

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[mdn82 25,510]

The fans and the boosters. McRobbie listens to money.

The Boosters obviously have a lot more say, but your point is valid. He listens to money. That’s why he is happy now with Glass.

 

Edit: This one area we will agree on.

 

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[southernindianahoosier2 902]

2 hours ago, mdn82 said:

And we are making money. Doesn’t exactly make sense in correlation at all. So while they lost 99.7% of their value we are still making money.

 

 

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The IU athletic department is, in a sense, a business that operates in such an environment that the demand and price elasticity remain relatively constant year over year (YOY). No matter the quality of product produced by the Athletic Department, consumers (fans and Donor's alike) will spend their money on a relatively consistent basis YOY. Fans are willing to absorb pricing increases as well as willing to pay the same for a lesser product. The Athletic Department, regardless of what happens in a specific year, will always generate cash within a small standard deviation. With that being said:

 

1. Financials for the Athletic Department are easily obtainable and measurable.

2. Fred showcases these easily obtainable and understandable metrics as a proxy for both the Athletic Departments "Health" as well as "how good of a job he is doing". 

 

McRobbie, the BOT, reporters and fans are presented with these easily consumed financial metrics that say the Athletic Department is making more money this year than last, donations are up, we're spending money on capital projects to upgrade our facilities, etc. All of these are positive financial metrics. 

 

These vacuum-esque financial snapshots provided by Fred Glass make IUBB looks amazing. But when taking a step back and analyzing both the direction and the possibilities. You realize how poorly managed the Department is as a whole.

 

McRobbie and the BOT are weak leaders and poor decision makers in my opinion because they don't question the metrics. A smart leader would ask: How do these metrics compare against a peer group? Are we receiving larger donations than places like Michigan or Ohio State? Can you show that fan base engagement is up? Do fans or media view our Athletic Department in a favorable light? How do our Capital Improvement projects compare to our peer group? Absolutely no where have I seen or heard Fred compare the amount of donations received or money spent on capital projects and how they compare to the peer group. The article I originally posted stated that we've spent more money on recruiting than anyone but UK and have won only 2 tournament games in the last 6 years. Why isn't the person in charge of Fred Glass questioning what is going on in his department? Maybe we spend more on recruiting, but less on capital improvement projects for basketball each year and capital improvement is the single biggest indicator of future bball success, but yet FG is focused and bragging about recruiting budget. That would be something you evaluate your AD on. McRobbie has no interest in that because he sees a positive Net Income... My point is that there is literally no accountability in regards to Fred because he provides positive financial metrics YOY... 

 

What about the opportunity costs IU has missed out on? What if, for example, that the positive net income last year could have been 2X that? Again, these financial snap shots are short sighted. Glass knows that the BOT and McRobbie will buy them, so he's going to keep focusing on the financials so he keeps his job. That means that the Athletic department takes short term gains for long term losses. One example IMO would be not firing Crean in 2014-2015 because of his absurd buyout. Short term financial gain by not firing him and spending ~$10M, but long term loss because now we've missed out on the hard to measure media exposure from being left out of tournament over the last three years, the loss of acquisition of new fans, the loss of fair weather fans, the tarnishing of IUBB's brand, fan base sentiment going south, unfavorable view of our fanbase because we're venting on twitter and these boards, etc. All of these things are all hard to measure, so they are not made priorities in the Department's regime.

 

I'd rather take a $10M loss upfront on Archie, to get Chris Beard in the long term. But unfortunately, that will never happen. 

 

 

 

 

 

[ElectricBoogaloo 4,307]

4 minutes ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

The IU athletic department is, in a sense, a business that operates in such an environment that the demand and price elasticity remain relatively constant year over year (YOY). No matter the quality of product produced by the Athletic Department, consumers (fans and Doner's alike) will spend their money on a relatively consistent basis YOY. Fans are willing to absorb pricing increases as well as willing to pay the same for a lesser product. The Athletic Department, regardless of what happens in a specific year, will always generate cash within a small standard deviation. With that being said:

 

Someone has kebabs on the mind.

[southernindianahoosier2 902]

1 minute ago, ElectricBoogaloo said:

Someone has kebabs on the mind.

lol Love Kebabs. 

[mdn82 25,510]

The IU athletic department is, in a sense, a business that operates in such an environment that the demand and price elasticity remain relatively constant year over year (YOY). No matter the quality of product produced by the Athletic Department, consumers (fans and Donor's alike) will spend their money on a relatively consistent basis YOY. Fans are willing to absorb pricing increases as well as willing to pay the same for a lesser product. The Athletic Department, regardless of what happens in a specific year, will always generate cash within a small standard deviation. With that being said:

 

1. Financials for the Athletic Department are easily obtainable and measurable.

2. Fred showcases these easily obtainable and understandable metrics as a proxy for both the Athletic Departments "Health" as well as "how good of a job he is doing". 

 

McRobbie, the BOT, reporters and fans are presented with these easily consumed financial metrics that say the Athletic Department is making more money this year than last, donations are up, we're spending money on capital projects to upgrade our facilities, etc. All of these are positive financial metrics. 

 

These vacuum-esque financial snapshots provided by Fred Glass make IUBB looks amazing. But when taking a step back and analyzing both the direction and the possibilities. You realize how poorly managed the Department is as a whole.

 

McRobbie and the BOT are weak leaders and poor decision makers in my opinion because they don't question the metrics. A smart leader would ask: How do these metrics compare against a peer group? Are we receiving larger donations than places like Michigan or Ohio State? Can you show that fan base engagement is up? Do fans or media view our Athletic Department in a favorable light? How do our Capital Improvement projects compare to our peer group? Absolutely no where have I seen or heard Fred compare the amount of donations received or money spent on capital projects and how they compare to the peer group. The article I originally posted stated that we've spent more money on recruiting than anyone but UK and have won only 2 tournament games in the last 6 years. Why isn't the person in charge of Fred Glass questioning what is going on in his department? Maybe we spend more on recruiting, but less on capital improvement projects for basketball each year and capital improvement is the single biggest indicator of future bball success, but yet FG is focused and bragging about recruiting budget. That would be something you evaluate your AD on. McRobbie has no interest in that because he sees a positive Net Income... My point is that there is literally no accountability in regards to Fred because he provides positive financial metrics YOY... 

 

What about the opportunity costs IU has missed out on? What if, for example, that the positive net income last year could have been 2X that? Again, these financial snap shots are short sighted. Glass knows that the BOT and McRobbie will buy them, so he's going to keep focusing on the financials so he keeps his job. That means that the Athletic department takes short term gains for long term losses. One example IMO would be not firing Crean in 2014-2015 because of his absurd buyout. Short term financial gain by not firing him and spending ~$10M, but long term loss because now we've missed out on the hard to measure media exposure from being left out of tournament over the last three years, the loss of acquisition of new fans, the loss of fair weather fans, the tarnishing of IUBB's brand, fan base sentiment going south, unfavorable view of our fanbase because we're venting on twitter and these boards, etc. All of these things are all hard to measure, so they are not made priorities in the Department's regime.

 

I'd rather take a $10M loss upfront on Archie, to get Chris Beard in the long term. But unfortunately, that will never happen. 

 

 

 

 

 

If you really think any leader let alone a leader of IU doesn’t question the metrics when they are picked apart in public I don’t know what to say to you. I am also well versed in these types of things and this is common practice. For most every public company. Plus if you think the university couldn’t get $10 million if they truly wanted to fire Crean I also don’t know what to tell you. They could make a couple of calls and have that done within an hour. That buyout was not absurd, it’s standard practice for all of College sports in money making sports. He was making them money. It really is that simple. That doesn’t make me an apologist or some deep resentment towards them firing Crean. Quite the contrary. I am looking at the situation and have seen the various coaches up close when they come to town for fundraisers and you could see how popular Crean was until the spring the year before he was fired.

 

Plus your hypothesis is a little off on “opportunity costs”. Ticket sales just aren’t worth that much compared to licensing, tv deals, and shared revenue. If there were incentive to shake the tree it would have been done. IU is a basketball school and most IU basketball fans are reversible jacket fans with ND Football. For basketball we are basically tapped out. In spite of that I don’t believe we have hit $20 million for all sports combined in ticket sales. Say we go nuts in football, we add less than $5 million. I am glad you learned a lot at IU. But there are real world applications and a reason why they say you will only use 5% of what you learned. Trust me, I have worked around enough leaders (I currently work for Lincoln Financial) that if something happened and is bragged about in public it is measured somewhere even if you don’t feel it is.

 

I will agree with one thing though, he is providing YOY positives and that’s what McRobbie is worried about. That’s why he has his job. But I implore you to look at the Athletic Department budget the year you went to school and summarize why the man still has a job. I am guessing you are late 20s so I am guessing we have more than doubled the budget from when you started school. That’s the foundations of strong reporting whether you believe they are doctored or not in any area of business. That’s why the man has a job. Now that we have the budget where it should be I would be very happy to start replacing at the top to have any chance of getting back to where we were.

 

Edit: I appreciated your quote honestly. I have no doubts you are as big of fan of IU as me. We both obviously graduated there. Stay passionate man cause this mediocrity blows. Good discussion.

 

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[southernindianahoosier2 902]

4 minutes ago, mdn82 said:

If you really think any leader let alone a leader of IU doesn’t question the metrics when they are picked apart in public I don’t know what to say to you. I am also well versed in these types of things and this is common practice. For most every public company. Plus if you think the university couldn’t get $10 million if they truly wanted to fire Crean I also don’t know what to tell you. They could make a couple of calls and have that done within an hour. That buyout was not absurd, it’s standard practice for all of College sports in money making sports. He was making them money. It really is that simple. That doesn’t make me an apologist or some deep resentment towards them firing Crean. Quite the contrary. I am looking at the situation and have seen the various coaches up close when they come to town for fundraisers and you could see how popular Crean was until the spring the year before he was fired.

Plus your hypothesis is a little off on “opportunity costs”. Ticket sales just aren’t worth that much compared to licensing, tv deals, and shared revenue. If there were incentive to shake the tree it would have been done. IU is a basketball school and most IU basketball fans are reversible jacket fans with ND Football. For basketball we are basically tapped out. In spite of that I don’t believe we have hit $20 million for all sports combined in ticket sales. Say we go nuts in football, we add less than $5 million. I am glad you learned a lot at IU.  But there are real world applications and a reason why they say you will only use 5% of what you learned. Trust me, I have worked around enough leaders (I currently work for Lincoln Financial) that if something happened and is bragged about in public it is measured somewhere even if you don’t feel it is. 

I will agree with one thing though, he is providing YOY positives and that’s what McRobbie is worried about. That’s why he has his job. But I implore you to look at the Athletic Department budget the year you went to school and summarize why the man still has a job. I am guessing you are late 20s so I am guessing we have more than doubled the budget from when you started school. That’s the foundations of strong reporting whether you believe they are doctored or not in any area of business. That’s why the man has a job. Now that we have the budget where it should be I would be very happy to start replacing at the top to have any chance of getting back to where we were. 


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To clarify my stance on Crean. I wasn't saying the school was incapable of getting $10M. I'm just saying they chose not to spend $10M and it ended up costing us a "Total Rebuild". Short term financial gain for a long term loss. 

 

I don't find it hard to believe Crean was well liked as a person and provided IU with the ability to solicit donations. I do find it hard to believe that those with Basketball knowledge and/or those who were close to the program thought he was the right fit. 

 

Opportunity costs I was referring too include but are not limited to additional apparel sales, better attendance, better TV spots, higher advertising revenues, as well as non-financial measures like wins, fanbase engagement, positive view of brand image by journalists and fans, etc. My point is that without a holistic picture we cannot properly say Fred Glass has done anything well. Maybe net income from the athletic department could have been double, maybe donations could be double, we don't know because its hard to measure. Additionally, we'd need to remove the BTN revenues from the sum of the athletic department to get a better view of how he's actually performing. 

 

I'm not sure about your last comment regarding only retaining 5% of my education and where you work. My background is Leveraged Finance/Investment banking, which is why i'm so critical of the financials. They are not telling the full story. 

[mdn82 25,510]

To clarify my stance on Crean. I wasn't saying the school was incapable of getting $10M. I'm just saying they chose not to spend $10M and it ended up costing us a "Total Rebuild". Short term financial gain for a long term loss. 
 
I don't find it hard to believe Crean was well liked as a person and provided IU with the ability to solicit donations. I do find it hard to believe that those with Basketball knowledge and/or those who were close to the program thought he was the right fit. 
 
Opportunity costs I was referring too include but are not limited to additional apparel sales, better attendance, better TV spots, higher advertising revenues, as well as non-financial measures like wins, fanbase engagement, positive view of brand image by journalists and fans, etc. My point is that without a holistic picture we cannot properly say Fred Glass has done anything well. Maybe net income from the athletic department could have been double, maybe donations could be double, we don't know because its hard to measure. Additionally, we'd need to remove the BTN revenues from the sum of the athletic department to get a better view of how he's actually performing. 
 
I'm not sure about your last comment regarding only retaining 5% of my education and where you work. My background is Leveraged Finance/Investment banking, which is why i'm so critical of the financials. They are not telling the full story. 

Yep and if you do that you know why they won’t ever tell you than what they have. Even with access to different aspects of my company I have I would never have a full clue of everything. I doubt even Dennis Glass truly knows everything at Lincoln. That’s why and you know this you are given KPI’s. Fred Glass has hit those. About the 5% you are just throwing terms out. Typically that’s something someone fresh out of school does. Then you get into the real world and realize they are great for Jeopardy but have no bearing on the real world.

Your last actual paragraph is already covered in our various contracts we have signed. We are annually maxed out on games played on platforms outside of the BTN. Been that way since the network launched. Apparel is same with licensing. Pre-existing contract which may go up but on an annual scale we are at most talking $5 million. Your main issues are with wins and losses. You know this. If you do what you say you do you already know we are sitting pretty compared to even 10 years ago (budget in 2009 was around $60 million and about $130 million in 2019). The Big Ten Network has the best revenue share. I personally wouldn’t mind a better apparel deal but we seem stuck on Adidas. When that contract was up a couple of years ago that was discussed at length.

Again, all things I am saying here are public. As a Project Manager for Lincoln, I don’t have the financial background you do, but I understand the process, timelines, and cost of projects. I can also look at a budget from one year to the next and realize how strong it is. We have a strong one. Ten years ago it was based mainly on ticket sales, regional tv, and apparel. Here we are. Fred Glass did the heavy lifting on most outside of the BTN. I think he could have done better on the apparel deal. Ticket costs are such more people can come. You will be hard pressed to find a single person upset with that end and why you hear McRobbie doing backflips when he speaks on Glass. It’s going to come down to the boosters turning on Glass. I think we are 2-3 years of this level of play for that to happen.

I just looked cause I was curious. For the 2018-19 year there was close to $54 million in revenue sharing on the network. I know our budget hovered $130 million. Think of that. Ten years ago on ESPN and CBS pretty regularly (Most years is over 10 games on these platforms) we were $60 million in revenue. Even if you take the network away he has raised revenues around 25%. That’s stable growth over a ten year period. He used other avenues to grow more for capital projects. He is solid financially. What McRobbie is looking for. I just don’t agree with the priorities of the Athletic office. Most of the things I don’t like come from higher places. I am not a fan of a lot that Glass does too. But overall he is doing a good job at what’s important to McRobbie. That’s what I have an issue with.


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[coonhounds 8,938]

Everyone complaining about glass I thought we believed when archie goes so does glass. If archie turns this around glass dont look to bad. Guess we will see what football team does soon enough but I give him till archie fails then he should be out like sauerkraut

 

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[MikeRoberts 7,004]

It comes down to this for me. Glass and McRobbie woke up on 3rd and thought they hit a triple. They walked into a hundred years worth of basketball equity and no matter what, would take a long time to unravel. They have done their fair share to do just that but there is so much of it, particularly within the older generations the erosion isn’t being felt so hard yet. These past 25 years of crapdom is going to hit us in the next 25 years. I said it before but they are cashing checks they didn’t earn. The fandom they inherited is from previous administrations and it will not be that way for future ones. The damages will be felt in the years to come

 

 

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[southernindianahoosier2 902]

14 hours ago, coonhounds said:

Everyone complaining about glass I thought we believed when archie goes so does glass. If archie turns this around glass dont look to bad. Guess we will see what football team does soon enough but I give him till archie fails then he should be out like sauerkraut

 

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Archie will be successful by McRobbie's standard. 

 

After this year, as the AD you'll have 3 years of data on Archie. You also have data on Archie's peer group in 3 years in Holtmann and  2 years on Chris Mack, and 4 years on Chris Beard. As the AD you have really up close and personal data on three of these individuals (as we play them every year).

 

Questions to the board members: Do you think the end of this basketball year as an AD you'd have enough information to make a decision? and What decision would you make?

[BGleas 7,903]

2 hours ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

Archie will be successful by McRobbie's standard. 

 

After this year, as the AD you'll have 3 years of data on Archie. You also have data on Archie's peer group in 3 years in Holtmann and  2 years on Chris Mack, and 4 years on Chris Beard. As the AD you have really up close and personal data on three of these individuals (as we play them every year).

 

Questions to the board members: Do you think the end of this basketball year as an AD you'd have enough information to make a decision? and What decision would you make?

As the AD, I'm not concerned with Holtman, Mack or Beard, other than keeping tabs on Beard in the event that the current situation doesn't work out. But, I'm not judging or reviewing Archie based on those guys. They all took over very different situations. This idea that Holtman in particular, took over a similar situation and is killing Archie is false. It's narrative that isn't really there if you add context to the conversation. 

I'm judging Archie on his own merits. Is the program heading in the right direction? Is progress being made? Can I see his system being implemented and becoming successful and is year-to-year improvement there? Is he building the culture I/we want for IU basketball? And, of course how is recruiting going? 

[monskisprodigy 1,918]

Found out something recently that I was honestly very surprised by. Watched President Mcrobbie pull up in the passenger seat of a Cadillac to an east side shopping strip. A Police Officer in a suit and tie got out of the driver side, walked to his door, opened it, unfolded an umbrella and escorted him to the dry cleaners door. He then waited for Mcrobbie to come back out, met him with the umbrella and then walked him back to the passenger door, opened it and let him in. The gentlemen then got in the drivers side and drove off. True Presidential treatment. 

I had zero clue that President Mcrobbie had a full time police/security detail and driver. Is this honestly needed? Tuition dollars at work!

[southernindianahoosier2 902]

18 hours ago, Iugradman said:

He’s an out-of-touch elitist snob who lives in an ivory tower. He has no understanding of American and Hoosier cultural values. No wonder the university struggles under his leadership.

I wish we had Mitch Daniels. 

[mamasa 15,301]

7 minutes ago, southernindianahoosier2 said:

I wish we had Mitch Daniels. 

Mitch Daniels damaged Indiana's public schools more than any other person that I can think of.  Why in the hell would you want him here?  Not wanting a political debate, as that's not the issue, but ask most public educators that were teaching when he was governor what he did for education!  

[southernindianahoosier2 902]

18 minutes ago, mamasa said:

Mitch Daniels damaged Indiana's public schools more than any other person that I can think of.  Why in the hell would you want him here?  Not wanting a political debate, as that's not the issue, but ask most public educators that were teaching when he was governor what he did for education!  

What do you mean? I'm unfamiliar.

[mamasa 15,301]

He cut $150 million from the education budget, froze teacher wages, directed money toward the voucher system, took away collective bargaining for teachers, and more.  That's pretty much what I can think off the top of my head.  My family has been education since the '70s, and he was terrible.