Everything I've seen / heard from MTSU (including comments from McPhee himself) tells me McPhee just doesn't get athletics.
He didn't understand the importance of facilities until they got left out during the last round of realignment.
There's only so much "pushing" you can do until those being pushed are willing to "give."
When I was publisher for GoMiddle & more involved with recruiting coverage, I remember recruits talking about seeing plans for facility upgrades. This was 10+ years ago. Those plans never came through.
And I have a hard time believing Massaro - with ALL his experience in college athletics - didn't realize he needed to upgrade facilities. He knew facilities were important.
But he can draw up plans. He can find a mechanism to raise the $$$. But ALL of that work is meaningless if the university president doesn't want to sign off.
Like Stock or hate Stock, McPhee's unwillingness to invest in football hamstrung football. It's probably affected recruiting players, recruiting coaches, and investing in the program in ways other peer schools have. This has hurt Stock.
That said, Stock has made some decisions that have hamstrung himself & held the program back. I'm not proclaiming his innocence. Just giving some background context.