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Have they fired him yet?

If we’re going on what Austin tweeted last September (2022), and the base is still $821K, that means after getting an additional year after last season, he’s now signed through December 2029, and the full buyout would be $4.926M.

No chance he gets fired then. The university will never admit that we can't afford to fire him, but that's the truth.

They will try to spin this as a disappointing season after consecutive bowl appearances + wins, despite 5 consecutive losses to our rival, no conference titles, the inability to recruit good players, geriatric fossilized assistants, getting embarrassed any time we play a team with pulse, etc.

The $5 million buyout is a sobering reality. We will never be able to buy him out unless we win 5 or less for 4 or more seasons. We certainly won't be able to buy him out any time soon.

Insane.

Truly insane.

We have a big problem with our men's b-ball team too. A terrible and pathetic time to be a Blue Raider fan. And it's really sad, because now is probably a defining moment in terms of how the future goes. Trying to win that new fan and new generation is hugely important right now with fewer and fewer people attending live sports, plus the conference realignment factors.

Bad, bad, and more bad. I've been slowly checking out more and more over the last 5 years. This year, I only watched 4-5 football games and I've caught maybe 2 basketball games. With each passing year my interest and viewership is decreasing. It won't be long before I simply don't watch or care at all anymore. And it really doesn't matter, because nobody cares.

Move along, nothing to see here.
 
No chance he gets fired then. The university will never admit that we can't afford to fire him, but that's the truth.

They will try to spin this as a disappointing season after consecutive bowl appearances + wins, despite 5 consecutive losses to our rival, no conference titles, the inability to recruit good players, geriatric fossilized assistants, getting embarrassed any time we play a team with pulse, etc.

The $5 million buyout is a sobering reality. We will never be able to buy him out unless we win 5 or less for 4 or more seasons. We certainly won't be able to buy him out any time soon.

Insane.

Truly insane.

We have a big problem with our men's b-ball team too. A terrible and pathetic time to be a Blue Raider fan. And it's really sad, because now is probably a defining moment in terms of how the future goes. Trying to win that new fan and new generation is hugely important right now with fewer and fewer people attending live sports, plus the conference realignment factors.

Bad, bad, and more bad. I've been slowly checking out more and more over the last 5 years. This year, I only watched 4-5 football games and I've caught maybe 2 basketball games. With each passing year my interest and viewership is decreasing. It won't be long before I simply don't watch or care at all anymore. And it really doesn't matter, because nobody cares.

Move along, nothing to see here.
Sadly you are probably right. I'm of the mindset to talk with the donors and move some $ around, but in reality that is easier said than done.

But the saving grace with BBall is McD's contract expires after this year. That is IF our admin didn't secretly extend him. Which really would not surprise me at all. Not at all.
 
I believe MidTennMtneer shared another tweet about the same thing at another school. I recognize it wouldn't be this level, but still.

I still believe this could happen to us. We won't raise the $5m right off, but I'd guarantee a few million would come in with the rest depending on how the season went, and if others in the administration left as well.
 
Why are we even bothering to spend money on construction of facilities if this is the product we are satisfied with.

Ultimately this admin bases football success on only one criteria - bowl games. If you go, it’s a huge success. Stock has delivered on enough of those for them to ignore everything else.
 
Why are we even bothering to spend money on construction of facilities if this is the product we are satisfied with.

Ultimately this admin bases football success on only one criteria - bowl games. If you go, it’s a huge success. Stock has delivered on enough of those for them to ignore everything else.
Here’s why Build Blue Now is a big deal :

The next guy.

The SAPC isn’t going to make Stock a championship-level coach. Facilities don’t improve coaching. People are who they are. But it COULD improve recruiting enough to make a difference.

Plus, a completed SAPC will help recruit the next “coach.”
 
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Here’s why Build Blue Now is a big deal :

The next guy.

The SAPC isn’t going to make Stock a championship-level coach. Facilities don’t improve coaching. People are who they are. But it COULD improve recruiting enough to make a difference.

Plus, a completed SAPC will help recruit the next “coach.”
Chicken / egg, Austin. The folks like me are getting too old to have to be the first ones to commit. This Administration from the BOT on down have done NOTHING to convince me they are committed to excellence in Football and Basketball, win titles or, prepared our school for any chance of a decent conference when realignments have taken place or continue shake out. I have ZERO faith anymore in any of the leadership of Middle Tennessee State University and its Athletics Dept. We have all been eyewitnesses to this downward spiral of regression in Blue Raider Football for the past 15 years. The last five in Men’s Basketball.

They have year over year rewarded this Head Football Coach for hitting a .500 regular season goal. His overall record as a Head Coach is indicative of this insane performance objective. He’s had zero incentive to win championships and take his program to the next level like Liberty, James Madison and Jacksonville State and he’s lost to all of them in their first year since moving in. Then you have that debacle Saturday in Huntsville, TX.
Like I said yesterday, I’ve given until I made the decision that it was a hopeless case with this bunch after they gave him 3 additional years back on June 4, 2015 and the way they tried to spin and sell it. They lie and withhold information until even you had to go file a FOIA to expose his last contract rollover.

I simply do not care anymore. I’m done.
 
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I get that this is way more complicated than giving a guy a gold watch and a pink slip, and wishing him good luck in future endeavors. If M&M are worried about looking like hypocrites then that ship has sailed. They get told everyday that things are
not going well and they are bad at their job. Everyone in their line of work should be able to make the hard decisions and move forward for the better of the university. This is what makes it even more criminal in my mind.
Because of the above, we have been left behind in a bad conference with no money, no fans and no donors that want to give while we are in this mess. The future is very dim money wise if we stay in CUSA, and no one returns. The hidden money you mentioned is hidden in the top drawer of Sidney McPhees desk. 4 mil of the total we received from the conf exit fee is tucked away and earmarked for the buyout of Stock. He needs to use it, or just shut this thing down altogether. We ain’t getting any more money or donors in this state of disarray. I’ll just go and find me a P5 team to root for and call it a day.
Massaro stated in the last BRAA meeting that there would be changes, he also said there would not be massive firings, but things will change. He needs to address those pretty quickly . I don’t think he has the courage to do that himself. He is already so hated by so many in this community I don’t think will face the masses on his own. Maybe Lee or Hans will have to do His dirty work.
Firings are a fact of life and happen everyday. People get old ( trust me I’m one) and move on to other things. There is a lot of travel and volunteering to do for these guys if they want to make a difference and stay committed to their cause.
I appreciate what Stock has done here, and hope this can be handled with grace. We all deserve that.
But someone needs to handle it. Soon
I had a face to face sit down with Massaro at a Murfreesboro restaurant 4 years ago almost to the day and he said changes were forthcoming.

Nothing’s changed.
 
I had a face to face sit down with Massaro at a Murfreesboro restaurant 4 years ago almost to the day and he said changes were forthcoming.

Nothing’s changed.
Their version of change is moving Polly from Special Teams to OL but keeling him over thr run game, and moving Mallory to OL too.

Shuffling chairs on the Titanic isn't making changes.
 
Their version of change is moving Polly from Special Teams to OL but keeling him over thr run game, and moving Mallory to OL too.

Shuffling chairs on the Titanic isn't making changes.
Calling it now. The only change in the staff will be Mitch Stewart moving on and Brent will be inserted as OC and all will be good with the world.
We seem to have a revolving door at OC ( wonder Why that is?) but it’s Ground Hog day with everything else
 
Here’s why Build Blue Now is a big deal :

The next guy.

The SAPC isn’t going to make Stock a championship-level coach. Facilities don’t improve coaching. People are who they are. But it COULD improve recruiting enough to make a difference.

Plus, a completed SAPC will help recruit the next “coach.”
If this were a normal institution that would be true. Every assumption one makes about things like that here might be true in just about any other situation, But here you just can’t say it. For starters, we have no hope that the next coach is even on the horizon. And by the time the need gets here this program may be so eviscerated not even the Cowboys facilities could save it - much less the scaled down version we’ll eventually end up with on SAPC. It may already be the case much less another, year, two or five.

I know it’s hard but everyone really has to get respective heads out of this mindset we’re dealing with ordinary collegiate athletic business rules. This is a one of a kind. Not the same as what happened to UAB but unique nonetheless. What happened to UAB helped them with external factors forcing them to shut down. There’s no white knight coming to save us. This also isn't comparable to the I-A programs that dropped football in California several decades ago. Those were decisions largely thrust upon them because of Title IX and inability to meet those new requirements in a place of the country college football wasn't viewed as important.

You can't even compare us to ULM anymore. ULM is in a better position than we are now, because they have something we've never had and that's a stable conference. Once the worst run athletics program in the nation has been overtaken by our own. About the best comp we have is Idaho, but even that is not comparable because Idaho wasn't poorly run. It was just in a situation where it had no viable conference options in a region of the country independence is untenable. What's happening here is unique, because it isn't external factors weighing us down. It is literally - 100% - all self inflicted. Even with "facilities" being built the odds we have to drop down or drop football altogether are higher than us winning a conference championship in the next 10 years.
 
This is not necessarily pointed directly at MT, but is an apt question for all smaller budget schools. Is attendance no longer a factor in maintaining an fbs football program? How can a university maintain an effective fbs program when your cumulative attendance averages about 5,000 fans per game? This part is directed at MT administration. Why invest tens of millions of $$ in upgrades when you refuse to make the essential in house changes to increase lost fan support.
Even a $200 million upgraded facility will not put fans in the seats when the administration is content with a failed product. Am I missing something somewhere?
 
This is not necessarily pointed directly at MT, but is an apt question for all smaller budget schools. Is attendance no longer a factor in maintaining an fbs football program? How can a university maintain an effective fbs program when your cumulative attendance averages about 5,000 fans per game? This part is directed at MT administration. Why invest tens of millions of $$ in upgrades when you refuse to make the essential in house changes to increase lost fan support.
Even a $200 million upgraded facility will not put fans in the seats when the administration is content with a failed product. Am I missing something somewhere?

Answer your last question first. No. You're not. It defies any sense of logic, normalcy, business acumen, etc.

There is a modicum of reality that lower resourced schools may have to accept. For example, most of the schools in the MAC have to compete with large state schools in areas where the weather turns bad sooner and football may not be the top sport in the area. Realistically, a lot of those schools are never going to avg 25K a game. It's just reality. MT only shares the competition problem.

We've already proven the fanbase can consistently bring 20+ thousand a game (even though it was a long time ago). And yes TV effects things, but I bought my first 65 inch flat screen in 2006 - the same year Stock arrived. Even during the first five to seven years of the TV revolution we were doing ok in attendance. Not great but good enough, because it was growing. Slowly but growing. The destruction in the fan base is just phenominal (in a bad way).

Does anyone want to know the real reason people aren't coming to games here?
 
This is not necessarily pointed directly at MT, but is an apt question for all smaller budget schools. Is attendance no longer a factor in maintaining an fbs football program? How can a university maintain an effective fbs program when your cumulative attendance averages about 5,000 fans per game? This part is directed at MT administration. Why invest tens of millions of $$ in upgrades when you refuse to make the essential in house changes to increase lost fan support.
Even a $200 million upgraded facility will not put fans in the seats when the administration is content with a failed product. Am I missing something somewhere?
I suspect they will get a large crowd upon unveiling of the completed building to see what it looks like.

However, once the same old product hits the field and we lose, probably to a FCS school, then things will revert back to normal. It's just what Stock does...
 
I suspect they will get a large crowd upon unveiling of the completed building to see what it looks like.

However, once the same old product hits the field and we lose, probably to a FCS school, then things will revert back to normal. It's just what Stock does...
Oh 100%. Our crowds are always better first part of season. Then the power loss comes, the losing of first G5 home game, loss to WKU. And boom. By the time we do start winning against the bad teams, everyone has checked out.

I'm not giving another dime till changes are made, but I will be there for the opening even if they aren't. My name is on the donor list and I want to see that thing in person.
 
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