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Topic: Jeff Boals: Year 7
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FearLeon
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Posted: 11/19/2025 9:30 PM
November home loss to Bethune-Cookman.

Where does it go from here?
#BleedGreen #TrentIsGOAT #NoMissesAllowed #NoOtherTeamInAmericaFlexesLikeOhio #11Months
Buckeye to Bobcat
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Posted: 11/19/2025 9:54 PM
As I said in the Game Thread......

Whoever is our head coach, until we give them the proper resources, we ain't changing jack and these results will run rampant until we do so.

It's tough to have development happening when we have one court for our men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball, wrestling, cheer, dance, and whatever other teams can't get in over at Walter Fieldhouse. Whatever our next move is has to have a commitment of us building a practice facility for men's and women's basketball that campus rec DOES NOT control. In addition, we cannot get kicked out every March for the OHSAA Tournament......

Our NIL strategy can't be collect a bunch of money, and hope we hit on guys. We need to be building long-term and self-sustaining NIL funds for when schools can't pay their players. We already know as a school our donor base doesn't have it in them to pony up as needed. The fact we throw money at whoever with zero rhyme and reason is bad enough if you have money. When we're chasing other schools in the league in this regard on a smaller budget, you better be evaluating right and not getting into pissing matches with other schools just because you can. With that, either we gotta get smarter with NIL, or build the facilities that allow for development. And if this question involves Boals being the guy or not, we better ask ourselves if any other coach would have better chances......

For those of you who say we have the best arena and everything else.....baloney. Our arena is what is holding us back financially. We don't have suites, we don't have premium loges like other schools, and every year we house another university department in the Convo is another year of potential revenues gone. Getting the department into a new building where they all work would be a huge upgrade in terms of allowing us to build different spaces in the Convo. The fact that the Rohr Room was our "donor" room for many years is absurd. If we're going to build an Ohio for the future, it needs to start now in evaluating every facet, because we can't rely on "our arena being the best" or our fanbase "being passionate." It's time to build the resources necessary to win, and unfortunately it's going to have to come as a master plan, not a nickel and dime special that milks us every six months for the next "capital project".....
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:02 PM
Boals the coach and Boals the recruiter really don't compliment each other well.

His system requires a ton of raw talent, strong individual shot creation, and really strong decision making.

But Boals the recruiter can't fill out a 5 man lineup with those sorts of guys.
colobobcat66
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:11 PM
Buckeye to Bobcat wrote:expand_more
As I said in the Game Thread......

Whoever is our head coach, until we give them the proper resources, we ain't changing jack and these results will run rampant until we do so.

It's tough to have development happening when we have one court for our men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball, wrestling, cheer, dance, and whatever other teams can't get in over at Walter Fieldhouse. Whatever our next move is has to have a commitment of us building a practice facility for men's and women's basketball that campus rec DOES NOT control. In addition, we cannot get kicked out every March for the OHSAA Tournament......

Our NIL strategy can't be collect a bunch of money, and hope we hit on guys. We need to be building long-term and self-sustaining NIL funds for when schools can't pay their players. We already know as a school our donor base doesn't have it in them to pony up as needed. The fact we throw money at whoever with zero rhyme and reason is bad enough if you have money. When we're chasing other schools in the league in this regard on a smaller budget, you better be evaluating right and not getting into pissing matches with other schools just because you can. With that, either we gotta get smarter with NIL, or build the facilities that allow for development. And if this question involves Boals being the guy or not, we better ask ourselves if any other coach would have better chances......

For those of you who say we have the best arena and everything else.....baloney. Our arena is what is holding us back financially. We don't have suites, we don't have premium loges like other schools, and every year we house another university department in the Convo is another year of potential revenues gone. Getting the department into a new building where they all work would be a huge upgrade in terms of allowing us to build different spaces in the Convo. The fact that the Rohr Room was our "donor" room for many years is absurd. If we're going to build an Ohio for the future, it needs to start now in evaluating every facet, because we can't rely on "our arena being the best" or our fanbase "being passionate." It's time to build the resources necessary to win, and unfortunately it's going to have to come as a master plan, not a nickel and dime special that milks us every six months for the next "capital project".....

Just wondering which schools in the MAC have second practice facility. With the NIL reality and open transferring , can you expect to develop players over many years? If we know our donors don’t donate enough now, how are we going to get the resources? It’s an arms race, can we keep up in such a small market with little local big donors?
Last Edited: 11/19/2025 10:15:26 PM by colobobcat66
SBH
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:19 PM
They all do...except us. A huge issue. When Boals agreed to an extension after the NCAA Tourney win, he was promised a standalone practice facility. Problem is the university planning team wants to integrate a facility into a major addition to the front of the Convo that would include Schoonover School digital media labs. That will take years.

I say build a new hockey arena and revamp Bird to serve as a basketball practice facility until the big Convo project happens.
Last Edited: 11/19/2025 10:30:10 PM by SBH
Bobcat Tattoo
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:28 PM
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:31 PM
Bobcat Tattoo wrote:expand_more
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
OU_Country
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:32 PM
colobobcat66 wrote:expand_more
Just wondering which schools in the MAC have second practice facility. With the NIL reality and open transferring , can you expect to develop players over many years? If we know our donors don’t donate enough now, how are we going to get the resources? It’s an arms race, can we keep up in such a small market with little local big donors?
SBH wrote:expand_more
They all do...except us. A huge issue. When Boals agreed to an extension after the NCAA Tourney win, he was promised a standalone practice facility.
I don't pretend to know the in's and out's of the practice facility, or even the way Ohio is running NIL/portal games compared to Toledo, Akron and Kent. What I do know is that those two schools very obviously have something figured out that Ohio does not because since NIL, they've managed to assemble conference winning caliber teams - on supposedly smaller budgets, if I'm not mistaken.

In my opinion, opportunities have been missed leading up to NIL with how money has been spent. The scoreboard for example one: While an upgrade was needed, maybe scaling it down a bit would have been fine, leading to some of that money leftover being invested into a fund for a practice facility.

The new seats as example two: Even when those seats were installed, everyone paying attention knew that The Convo was way too big for current and future needs. Perhaps doing something to reduce capacity at that time, while allowing for "luxury" areas would have been an option? I'm not talking massive expenditure ideas either. I'm talking about using the current footprint creatively, and using that skybox as a revenue generation tool. Other areas that are wasted space: the area behind the baskets, or the current "press" areas that could possible be relocated courtside -- same idea, find a creative use of those spaces for revenue generation.
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:38 PM
Buckeye to Bobcat wrote:expand_more
As I said in the Game Thread......

Whoever is our head coach, until we give them the proper resources, we ain't changing jack and these results will run rampant until we do so.

It's tough to have development happening when we have one court for our men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball, wrestling, cheer, dance, and whatever other teams can't get in over at Walter Fieldhouse. Whatever our next move is has to have a commitment of us building a practice facility for men's and women's basketball that campus rec DOES NOT control. In addition, we cannot get kicked out every March for the OHSAA Tournament......

Our NIL strategy can't be collect a bunch of money, and hope we hit on guys. We need to be building long-term and self-sustaining NIL funds for when schools can't pay their players. We already know as a school our donor base doesn't have it in them to pony up as needed. The fact we throw money at whoever with zero rhyme and reason is bad enough if you have money. When we're chasing other schools in the league in this regard on a smaller budget, you better be evaluating right and not getting into pissing matches with other schools just because you can. With that, either we gotta get smarter with NIL, or build the facilities that allow for development. And if this question involves Boals being the guy or not, we better ask ourselves if any other coach would have better chances......

For those of you who say we have the best arena and everything else.....baloney. Our arena is what is holding us back financially. We don't have suites, we don't have premium loges like other schools, and every year we house another university department in the Convo is another year of potential revenues gone. Getting the department into a new building where they all work would be a huge upgrade in terms of allowing us to build different spaces in the Convo. The fact that the Rohr Room was our "donor" room for many years is absurd. If we're going to build an Ohio for the future, it needs to start now in evaluating every facet, because we can't rely on "our arena being the best" or our fanbase "being passionate." It's time to build the resources necessary to win, and unfortunately it's going to have to come as a master plan, not a nickel and dime special that milks us every six months for the next "capital project".....

+1 there's nothing else to add.
Last Edited: 11/19/2025 10:38:46 PM by Brannigan
OU_Country
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Posted: 11/19/2025 10:44 PM
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:expand_more
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
I'm sure there's a lot of data out there (quick search) to support my notion, but I think you're both well underestimating what the going rate for a good mid-major basketball coach is. Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.

This link shows some salaries from the NCAA tournament that are public.
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basket...
Bobcat Tattoo
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Posted: 11/19/2025 11:00 PM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
I'm sure there's a lot of data out there (quick search) to support my notion, but I think you're both well underestimating what the going rate for a good mid-major basketball coach is. Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.

This link shows some salaries from the NCAA tournament that are public.
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basket...
You may well be right about the $400K figure being too low. Maybe 500/200 is a better breakdown? Point is, don’t put all the money towards the coaching budget when NIL is so important.

One other thought I’ll throw out there: would an up-and-coming coach be willing to take a lower salary if it meant a more robust NIL budget and a better chance at getting to March/getting recognized?
OU_Country
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Posted: 11/19/2025 11:09 PM
Buckeye to Bobcat wrote:expand_more
As I said in the Game Thread......

Whoever is our head coach, until we give them the proper resources, we ain't changing jack and these results will run rampant until we do so.

It's tough to have development happening when we have one court for our men's and women's basketball teams, volleyball, wrestling, cheer, dance, and whatever other teams can't get in over at Walter Fieldhouse. Whatever our next move is has to have a commitment of us building a practice facility for men's and women's basketball that campus rec DOES NOT control. In addition, we cannot get kicked out every March for the OHSAA Tournament......

Our NIL strategy can't be collect a bunch of money, and hope we hit on guys. We need to be building long-term and self-sustaining NIL funds for when schools can't pay their players. We already know as a school our donor base doesn't have it in them to pony up as needed. The fact we throw money at whoever with zero rhyme and reason is bad enough if you have money. When we're chasing other schools in the league in this regard on a smaller budget, you better be evaluating right and not getting into pissing matches with other schools just because you can. With that, either we gotta get smarter with NIL, or build the facilities that allow for development. And if this question involves Boals being the guy or not, we better ask ourselves if any other coach would have better chances......

For those of you who say we have the best arena and everything else.....baloney. Our arena is what is holding us back financially. We don't have suites, we don't have premium loges like other schools, and every year we house another university department in the Convo is another year of potential revenues gone. Getting the department into a new building where they all work would be a huge upgrade in terms of allowing us to build different spaces in the Convo. The fact that the Rohr Room was our "donor" room for many years is absurd. If we're going to build an Ohio for the future, it needs to start now in evaluating every facet, because we can't rely on "our arena being the best" or our fanbase "being passionate." It's time to build the resources necessary to win, and unfortunately it's going to have to come as a master plan, not a nickel and dime special that milks us every six months for the next "capital project".....
Supporting this concept:

Since Ohio last won/shared the regular season MAC Championship in 2012-13, this is how our peer schools have done. This is more indicative of how the whole athletic department and university are operating the program more than just the three specific coaches during that time.

Akron 4
Toledo 5
Kent 1 shared
UB 1 shared, two outright.

In that time, Ohio has finished second four times in 15-16, 16-17, and then again in 21-22 and 23-24. I didn't go to the effort to count how many times the peers have also finished second.

While I know that being great in March is unfortunately all that matters, I always think the full season is a better picture of where things really stand. Food for thought anyway.
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 11/19/2025 11:12 PM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
I'm sure there's a lot of data out there (quick search) to support my notion, but I think you're both well underestimating what the going rate for a good mid-major basketball coach is. Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.

This link shows some salaries from the NCAA tournament that are public.
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basket...
Right now, Jeff Boals' salary is basically 25% of basketball revenue. That number was negotiated before athletes became eligible for up to 22% of revenue. Very hard for me to understand the logic behind an entity with ~2.8m on top line revenue, that now has 15 new employees, with a single employee making $700k.

The pie needs to be divided up for more people now. It feels completely illogical that head coaching salaries aren't gonna budge as a result.

P.S. Boals just got beat at home by a combo head coach/athletic director who is reportedly making $400k and lost game 1 to a coach making $400k. And Todd K eats his lunch year-in, year-our for half the cost.
Last Edited: 11/20/2025 9:34:42 AM by Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
OhioCatFan
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Posted: 11/20/2025 12:11 AM
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:expand_more
Boals the coach and Boals the recruiter really don't compliment each other well.

His system requires a ton of raw talent, strong individual shot creation, and really strong decision making.

But Boals the recruiter can't fill out a 5 man lineup with those sorts of guys.
+1 Best summary I've seen of the current situation facing OHIO baskeball.
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IceCat76
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Posted: 11/20/2025 9:35 AM
Quote:expand_more
I say build a new hockey arena and revamp Bird to serve as a basketball practice facility until the big Convo project happens.
I love the idea, but they're putting a couple million bucks into Bird this spring so a new arena is a loooong way off.
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Posted: 11/20/2025 9:47 AM
I don't know if they changed the name, but seems to me that "punch card park"
would be a good location for a practice facility.
FJC31
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Posted: 11/20/2025 10:22 AM
OU_Country wrote:expand_more
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
I'm sure there's a lot of data out there (quick search) to support my notion, but I think you're both well underestimating what the going rate for a good mid-major basketball coach is. Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.

This link shows some salaries from the NCAA tournament that are public.
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basket...
We'd likely be looking at a first time HC in this scenario or a bounce back candidate.

As much as we'd like say "Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.", there's still only so many D1 head coaching jobs that exist.

I think you'd really have to allocate the budget the way Bobcat Tattoo suggests. From my understanding, Chad Estis was the main cog in jumpstarting the 1804 Collective for Boals. I imagine he's a big donor because of his friendship with Boals. If we move on, we're at risk of losing Estis and anyone else close to Boals who had been donating.

We'd either have to structure a lower offer with an NIL budget or find a coach with financial connections at a higher rate.
Last Edited: 11/20/2025 10:23:26 AM by FJC31
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
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Posted: 11/20/2025 10:59 AM
rpbobcat wrote:expand_more
I don't know if they changed the name, but seems to me that "punch card park"
would be a good location for a practice facility.
Personally, I think it's pretty cool that we have a park designed by one of the most influential artists of the last 100 years, who also happens to me from Athens. Tear down Scott Quad, and folks here pretend it's on par with quads at Oxford. A custom designed park from an Athens resident who designed the Vietnam Memorial, Civil Rights Memorial, and is widely regarded as a generational talent? Tear it down for a practice court.

Getting rid of that for a practice court would be very dumb in my mind. There are plenty of other sites you can put a practice court. It's not like Athens is pressed for space.
Last Edited: 11/20/2025 11:27:24 AM by Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame
GoCats105
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Posted: 11/20/2025 11:08 AM
SBH wrote:expand_more
They all do...except us. A huge issue. When Boals agreed to an extension after the NCAA Tourney win, he was promised a standalone practice facility. Problem is the university planning team wants to integrate a facility into a major addition to the front of the Convo that would include Schoonover School digital media labs. That will take years.

I say build a new hockey arena and revamp Bird to serve as a basketball practice facility until the big Convo project happens.
I don't hate this idea. Anything to open up more space is essential.

To me, I think the Convo is a fine facility, but it's from the stone age at this point. If money weren't the issue, I'd love to see it completely retrofitted the way UD Arena or 5th Third Arena have been for Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. There's gotta be a way to use the bones that are currently there and make it work for a modern arena.
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Posted: 11/20/2025 11:09 AM
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:expand_more
I don't know if they changed the name, but seems to me that "punch card park"
would be a good location for a practice facility.
Presumably, I think it's pretty cool that we have a park designed by one of the most influential artists of the last 100 years, who also happens to me from Athens. Tear down Scott Quad, and folks here pretend it's on par with quads at Oxford. A custom designed park from AC Athens resident who designed the Vietnam Memorial, Civil Rights Memorial, and is widely regarded as a generational talent? Tear it down for a practice court.

Getting rid of that for a practice court would be very dumb in my mind. There are plenty of other sites you can put a practice court. It's not like Athens is pressed for space.
It should also be noted that the former McBee Company in Athens was one of the first U.S. companies to use Hollerith Cards (punch cards). They were part of its Keysort System developed around 1906. So, punch card park represents more than just an art object it's reminder of an important part of Athens history.
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greencat
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Posted: 11/20/2025 11:15 AM
GoCats105 wrote:expand_more
They all do...except us. A huge issue. When Boals agreed to an extension after the NCAA Tourney win, he was promised a standalone practice facility. Problem is the university planning team wants to integrate a facility into a major addition to the front of the Convo that would include Schoonover School digital media labs. That will take years.

I say build a new hockey arena and revamp Bird to serve as a basketball practice facility until the big Convo project happens.
I don't hate this idea. Anything to open up more space is essential.

To me, I think the Convo is a fine facility, but it's from the stone age at this point. If money weren't the issue, I'd love to see it completely retrofitted the way UD Arena or 5th Third Arena have been for Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. There's gotta be a way to use the bones that are currently there and make it work for a modern arena.
I like the way WKU shrunk down E.A. Diddle Arena and made it much nicer.
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Posted: 11/20/2025 11:21 AM
greencat wrote:expand_more
They all do...except us. A huge issue. When Boals agreed to an extension after the NCAA Tourney win, he was promised a standalone practice facility. Problem is the university planning team wants to integrate a facility into a major addition to the front of the Convo that would include Schoonover School digital media labs. That will take years.

I say build a new hockey arena and revamp Bird to serve as a basketball practice facility until the big Convo project happens.
I don't hate this idea. Anything to open up more space is essential.

To me, I think the Convo is a fine facility, but it's from the stone age at this point. If money weren't the issue, I'd love to see it completely retrofitted the way UD Arena or 5th Third Arena have been for Dayton and Cincinnati, respectively. There's gotta be a way to use the bones that are currently there and make it work for a modern arena.
I like the way WKU shrunk down E.A. Diddle Arena and made it much nicer.
This is an awesome facility. How do we start this?

https://wkusports.com/facilities/e-a-diddle-arena/1
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Posted: 11/20/2025 11:43 AM
The Convo's design, especially the roof, limits our options. There is a cool plan making the rounds but is probably 7-10 years away.
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Posted: 11/20/2025 12:27 PM
Bobcat Love's Sense of Shame wrote:expand_more
I don’t remember this being a particularly well-received take when I put it out there last year, but I’ll repeat it now as I still believe it has merit: if we move on from Boals (which I’m not necessarily advocating for), reallocate the resources. Instead of paying a new coach $700K, pay him $400K and put $300K toward some combination of NIL and a person to manage the NIL. Boals, and most coaches we would be going after if we were to replace him, aren’t innately good at fundraising/allocating money—this is not what they have spent their career doing and we shouldn’t expect them to suddenly develop that skill.
100% agree.
I'm sure there's a lot of data out there (quick search) to support my notion, but I think you're both well underestimating what the going rate for a good mid-major basketball coach is. Finding someone who is worth his salt as a coach that's interested in coming to Athens for $400k a year seems unlikely.

This link shows some salaries from the NCAA tournament that are public.
https://sportsdata.usatoday.com/ncaa/salaries/mens-basket...
Right now, Jeff Boals' salary is basically 25% of basketball revenue. That number was negotiated before athletes became eligible for up to 22% of revenue. Very hard for me to understand the logic behind an entity with ~2.8m on top line revenue, that now has 15 new employees, with a single employee making $700k.

The pie needs to be divided up for more people now. It feels completely illogical that head coaching salaries aren't gonna budge as a result.

P.S. Boals just got beat at home by a combo head coach/athletic director who is reportedly making $400k and lost game 1 to a coach making $400k. And Todd K eats his lunch year-in, year-our for half the cost.
Where are you getting your figures in what we are providing in revenue sharing? Just curious if you know what we are doling out.
JAF
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JAF
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JAF
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Posted: 11/20/2025 12:41 PM
This is what happens when you try to be everything to everybody. In the NIL environment, we cannot sustain high levels of Football and Basketball. Football is a fool's errand. There is no way any MAC team can compete with a P5 conference. Pool the resources, go down to an FCS football program and transition to a strong basketball-only DI conference. The twin headwinds of mid-major revenue and Athens' county demographics make this an easy decision.
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