The fans that say shit like this are idiots lol. Basketball is mostly worthless at the college level.
Name calling is the lowest form of intelligence and usually the product of being incapable to refute the point.
As a university, we are blessed to be one of the few that are the brand names of one of the 2 headline sports. I’d prefer not to lose that place on the Mount Rushmore of th secondary sport (in my op I directly said football was king).
“Mostly worthless” is inaccurate. Duke, UNC, Kansas, UConn are all national recognizable brands to average casual Americans purely based on Basketball success….the same applies to Kentucky. I’ve traveled the US and the World with my career. Without fail, regardless of where I am, people recognize the Kentucky brand and want to talk basketball. Overseas it’s usually KFC, Bourbon, Basketball, Horseracing. Basketball is also the bigger international sport and from Europe to Australia to Asia I’ve had people stop me to talk about my UK gear/basketball.
My point is, you don’t let that fade and take a backseat to other programs in the sport that you are widely recognized as the greatest program of all time when it’s as simple as shifting an additional 5-10% of non-earmarked (I.e. the budget that is flexible yearly and not the budget that is nonnegotiable and necessary to maintain current football operations) revenue allocation. The bulk of that should go to ensuring your flagship remains the pinnacle.
You can still be a top 25 football program and a top 5 basketball program. That 5-10% stretches further and has greater impact on the basketball program and is essentially a singular player in football.
95% of universities would KILL to be on the Mount Rushmore of either of the 2 major sports. We are lucky enough to be one of those blessed to be on one of those mount rushmores. Sure, we can prioritize trying to climb the uphill battle that is SEC/B10football in a small market state and become 20-35th in both sports but at that point you’re basically Mississippi State or Virginia Tech with no realistic shot for the program you cheer for to every win anything other than bowl games and s16s. 95% of fan bases hope and pray for a singular nationally relevant year out of 50 (essentially 1-2 in a lifetime) in either of the 2 major collegiate sports.
Don’t take for granted that you’re fortunate enough to cheer for a university that is nationally relevant in one of the 2 major sports every year….there are only 10-20 programs in the country that can say that.
And yes, the 2 major sports….Football takes half the year of national coverage….Basketball takes half the year of national coverage. The other sports are all played largely in the background of those 2.
I’d trade places with ND, Ohio State, Bama, Georgia, etc football programs that suck at basketball in a heart beat; especially as someone who has been inside the old Nutter practice facility playing a minimal grain of sand, practice only role. But that’s not how this works. I’m not willing to sacrifice our status as a Basketball elite to chase an uphill battle in the ultimate arms race of college football when we aren’t a big money market or donor base.
Again, you can be top 5 in basketball and top 30 in football at this university. Much harder to be top 5 in football here due to the financial obligations of football and our lack of instate talent while being surrounded regionally by ALL the traditional powerhouses. I’d prefer to not become one of the other 95% of college athletics that has no real shot at winning ANY national titles on a year to year bases and likely their, their kids, and their grandkids lifetimes.
If it makes someone an idiot for enjoying chasing titles and not being mid at both…then so be it.