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Ohio Basketball Topic
Topic: Should Ohio Hire a GM?
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Bobcat Tattoo
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Posted: 3/14/2025 2:17 PM
We’ve been lamenting the current NIL landscape ad nauseum, but we all know it isn’t going to change. So why not go the way of St. Bonaventure and hire a dedicated GM for the men’s basketball program? Maybe I’m being naive, but hear me out:

- Jeff Boals makes nearly $700K/year, well above the median salary for the MAC. If his salary was reduced to, say, $500K, that’s $200K extra each season we could allocate amongst the program.

- Woj at St. Bonaventure is making a paltry $75K. Now, I know that he could make far more in the open market and this a special case of him helping out his alma mater, but I have to believe that $200K would be reasonable. Hell, make one of the current assistants the GM and bump their salary a bit!

- Alternately, pay the GM 100K and allocate the other 100K to the NIL pool (or some other breakdown, like 150/50 or 125/75). From the numbers quoted in a different thread, that catches us up to our mid-major peers and would likely go a long way towards landing that coveted big man we’ve all been clamoring for.

Now, obviously asking Jeff to take a $200K pay cut is a bit dicey, but if he looks at it as $500K for personal use + $200K for building up the program at his “dream job”, would he go for it? I really don’t know. But IMO at this point the results don’t really justify investing 700K per year in him as a coach.

Another angle to look at would be hiring a GM in all sports (primarily working in the revenue sports of football + men’s basketball), and paying him/her a bit more, say $250K. Might attract better talent, and you could compensate by lopping off dollars from the coaches in a way proportional to the NIL their programs expend.

Recruiting is 100% the lifeblood of college athletics, so why not put more financial resources into it? Thoughts? Am I crazy?
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 3/14/2025 2:42 PM
I see it’s Happy Hour early today.
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 3/14/2025 3:09 PM
I think the answer is yes, and that asking Jeff Boals to suddenly have a skill set that's very different than the one we hired him for doesn't make sense.

We hired one for football, right?
Alan Swank
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Posted: 3/14/2025 3:31 PM
BillyTheCat wrote:expand_more
I see it’s Happy Hour early today.
Or an early St. Patrick's Day. :)
Pete Chouteau
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Posted: 3/14/2025 3:39 PM
Not happening. The pay cut is a non-starter. A GM to manage NIL is putting the Brinks truck before the horse.
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 3/14/2025 3:45 PM
Pete Chouteau wrote:expand_more
Not happening. The pay cut is a non-starter. A GM to manage NIL is putting the Brinks truck before the horse.
Same seems to be true about paying a coach $700k who seems out of his depth in the new recruiting landscape of college basketball.
M.D.W.S.T
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Posted: 3/14/2025 3:48 PM
Pete Chouteau wrote:expand_more
A GM to manage NIL is putting the Brinks truck before the horse.
Logan is the GM for football. I presume basketball will be getting one soon. Though 12 guys is far easier to manage than 100. I'm sure Jake Ness assumes most of those responsibilities.
Last Edited: 3/14/2025 3:49:09 PM by M.D.W.S.T
Bobcat Tattoo
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Posted: 3/14/2025 3:50 PM
Alan Swank wrote:expand_more
I see it’s Happy Hour early today.
Or an early St. Patrick's Day. :)
I am in Ireland now, so that is more like it!
Kevin Finnegan
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Posted: 3/14/2025 4:26 PM
Jason Preston? I saw that Davidson just named Steph Curry its Assistant GM. Might as well market one of our own who seems to be dedicated to the university.
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 3/14/2025 5:13 PM
I'm not wild about the idea of giving the job to Preston just because he's a (relatively) high profile basketball alum, and I'm definitely not in favor of giving the job to one of our current assistants.

If we create a new job, we can't be lazy about it. We need to make sure the goals are clear, the hire has relevant experience (i.e. knows how to evaluate talent, negotiate contracts, manage a 'salary cap', connect with players, set expectations super clearly), and interview aggressively.

Those skills are table stakes for this role and just because Preston was a good point guard for us does not necessarily mean he'd be good at this. We should be tapping into our sports management alumni and looking hard at who is working in pro front offices (or on staffs at P5 Football/basketball powers). We can't afford him, but we have an alum who is an assistant GM and ran analytics for the Magic.
cc-cat
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Posted: 3/14/2025 5:35 PM
yes. someone needs to have that roll (though not likely for just men’s basketball). Glad to hear the football program is responding to the real world. hopefully our graduate sports ad program is preparing graduates for the role, though knowing them they are still focusing on turning out SIDs

fyi. steph at Davidson is for soliciting and public profile not management. also helps that the co-gm is a billionaire finance guy.
Last Edited: 3/14/2025 5:40:16 PM by cc-cat
GoCats105
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Posted: 3/14/2025 5:51 PM
Someone else mentioned in another thread that all NIL dollars for the program are distributed at the discretion of Boals, i.e. there aren't single player NIL deals for the basketball team. Is that correct? I wonder how many other schools are doing something like that. I actually don't hate this to a certain degree, but I'm wondering how it works. Is it a pooled salary type thing and everyone gets a fair share or is Boals legitimately the final word on how much a particular player gets and/or it's performance based?
Last Edited: 3/14/2025 5:51:50 PM by GoCats105
FearLeon
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Posted: 3/14/2025 6:49 PM
My GM vote goes to FJC31. He would be fantastic.
#BleedGreen #TrentIsGOAT #NoMissesAllowed #NoOtherTeamInAmericaFlexesLikeOhio #11Months
Alan Swank
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Posted: 3/14/2025 7:03 PM
Raising any money for OU right now considering the beating the university is taking for "pausing" two high profile events is like looking for a needle in a hay stack. It's a career killer for a new person coming in looking to move up the ladder.
JSF
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Posted: 3/14/2025 7:23 PM
Yes, we should, but we don't have the necessary resources.
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Bobcat Tattoo
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Posted: 3/14/2025 8:07 PM
Pete Chouteau wrote:expand_more
Not happening. The pay cut is a non-starter. A GM to manage NIL is putting the Brinks truck before the horse.
It may very well be a non-starter. But let’s say hypothetically that Boals struggles next year and is let go. Would we be in favor of paying the new coach say, $400K, hiring a GM at $200K, and adding $100K to the NIL pot? I certainly would. This wouldn’t raise the total expenditures but would, in my opinion, be a better way to manage the budget.
Last Edited: 3/14/2025 8:13:15 PM by Bobcat Tattoo
Bobcat1996
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Posted: 3/14/2025 8:50 PM
First of all good luck finding any information on Boals recent renewal contract information last spring, but he is making closer to 850 K, not 700 K. Also, like someone mentioned good luck getting the head coach to take a huge cut in pay to grab a GM. However in the last six seasons Ohio has 64 regular season conference wins trailing Akron by 19, Toledo by 16 and Kent by 7. Nice move by the administration making him the highest paid coach in the league.
Felix
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Posted: 3/14/2025 10:15 PM
Miami hired a real winner, who will make $300,000 this year. The contract is easily found online.
Last Edited: 3/14/2025 10:28:31 PM by Felix
giacomo
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Posted: 3/14/2025 10:17 PM
Hiring a GM assumes that we have a pool of money to pay players in the NIL world. Better get out your checkbooks.
Athens
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Posted: 3/14/2025 10:51 PM
Bobcat1996 wrote:expand_more
First of all good luck finding any information on Boals recent renewal contract information last spring, but he is making closer to 850 K, not 700 K. Also, like someone mentioned good luck getting the head coach to take a huge cut in pay to grab a GM. However in the last six seasons Ohio has 64 regular season conference wins trailing Akron by 19, Toledo by 16 and Kent by 7. Nice move by the administration making him the highest paid coach in the league.
He's the highest paid coach because Ohio is the number 1 program in the MAC (as said by Jim Schaus). If that is true then hire a GM at the #1 salary in the MAC. Still cheaper than buying out Boals contract.
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OhioCatFan
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Posted: 3/14/2025 10:57 PM
Bobcat1996 wrote:expand_more
First of all good luck finding any information on Boals recent renewal contract information last spring, but he is making closer to 850 K, not 700 K. Also, like someone mentioned good luck getting the head coach to take a huge cut in pay to grab a GM. However in the last six seasons Ohio has 64 regular season conference wins trailing Akron by 19, Toledo by 16 and Kent by 7. Nice move by the administration making him the highest paid coach in the league.
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Bobcat1996
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Posted: 3/15/2025 3:01 PM
If Ohio is the number one program in the conference, then Schaus and some of the people who think that way are living on another planet. Akron by far is the top hoops program in this conference. And Toledo and Kent have more conference wins in the last six seasons than Boals. Ohio is not the top program, however the administration doesn’t mind paying like it is the top program. Keep congratulating this administration on these contract blunders.
GraffZ06
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Posted: 3/15/2025 5:39 PM
Should we? In an ideal world - yes.

Will we? No.

Not sure we have enough $$ to a) hire one or b) have enough $$ to spread around that it needs a position to manage it.
BillyTheCat
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Posted: 3/15/2025 8:38 PM
We could have a fundraiser during Black Alumni Weekend when many of our former athletes come home. Oh wait!
JSF
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Posted: 3/15/2025 11:25 PM
Bobcat1996 wrote:expand_more
If Ohio is the number one program in the conference, then Schaus and some of the people who think that way are living on another planet. Akron by far is the top hoops program in this conference. And Toledo and Kent have more conference wins in the last six seasons than Boals. Ohio is not the top program, however the administration doesn’t mind paying like it is the top program. Keep congratulating this administration on these contract blunders.
Dude is so angry at "the administration," he doesn't even know who's in it.
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