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Doherty is probably doing the right thing for him and his family. He is a coach with a name but with no proven track record for building and sustaining a team. FAU does not have the resources SMU or other possible suitors have. After being here a year Doherty can obviously see that the athletic department is in alot of financial trouble.

Unfortunately Craig Angelos has failed, in a financial since, as the FAU athletic director. He has been unable to raise money or generate any measurable increase interest in any FAU sports. Recently in the Sun-Sentinel Angelos was quoted, prior to a memorabilia auction, as saying FAU has raised only $360,000 from private sources/donation this year. Private high schools in South Florida raise more than that.

The only reason FAU athletics in not legally bankrupt is because the FAU foundation excused the debt that the athletic department had run up. This combined with the fact that FAU charges some of the highest per hour student athletic fees in America is the only reason the athletic department is in existence.

The job of the athletic director is to promote, support and fund all of the teams. What has Angelos done in this regard? The FAU baseball programs has preformed miraculouslyover the years and certainly over achieved. What has Angelos ever done for the betterment of the baseball team?

Howard Schellenberger is one of the most beloved sports figures in South Florida sports history. What is Angelos doing for the football team? Where is any promotion of Howard and his hard working staff and players? All this talk about domes or other stadiums is fine but what is he going to do to pay for it? These buildings cost millions and he cant raise thousands.

Today in the Sun-Sentinel Angelos was quoted as saying attendance and gate revenue improved under Doherty. This is true but unfortunately FAU lost more money last year than they had been losing when Green was coach. This is because Green's teams played a lot of guarantee games in which they got squashed by teams like Florida and UNLV but picked up big paydays. In addition FAU added more support staff for Doherty (an extra coach, a full time secretary and more money for Doherty and his assistants,) which added over $100,000 to the cost of the program. So even though attendance improved the financial aspect continues to deteriorate.

After being here a year, plus his extensive experience at Kansas and North Carolina, Doherty sees what is going on. When he looks to the future the picture may not be so pretty. Therefore, realistically speaking what is he going to do, stick with Angelos who is all talk and no show, or take his chances somewhere where they can actually raise a dollar, pay a dollar and have some chance at success?
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Realistically speaking

Realistically speaking

I see no one jumped on this. A bit of new information. I'm up here in farm land USA. I don't know Angelos. Does anyone have a rebuttle? If Doherty saw the writing on the wall, then I can see why he took his first opportunity out.

BUT, most of this is news to me. I don't know if most of this is B.S or the painfull truth.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Realistically speaking

Welcome to the board fau2008. Wow. You covered a lot with your first post.. :)



IllinoisOwl..I left this one alone intentionally. Sometimes there are some underlying issues in these type of internet message board posts and I've found that it's better if the the posters speak out and express themselves rather than me trying to figure out why or how. It is also hard to try and re butt things which I'm not informed of.
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This is a tough one. I don't know what to say.

Let's go forward and try not to look back.

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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Realistically speaking

Got to disagree a little with you Illinois Owl. Sometimes in order to move forward you have to take a few steps backwards.

My point is that the fans and supporters of FAU need to examine the entire athletic department. Right now FAU athletics is hemoraging $$$. What is Angelos doing about it? Name one sports program at FAU that Angelos is significantly improving?

Look at the different programs, and if you are fans, speak to the people involved, and you will find none of the athletic programs are being properly supported by the athletic department.

For example take football, they are being forced to go on the road and play four hard games against superior competition in which they will most likely get beat but will be paid a lot of money to play. (the guarantee games I was speaking about in the previous post) They will likely start 0-4 and get beat up along the way. That will kill any chance at attendance and building a proper foundation for the program.

Look at baseball, Cooney has worked minor miracles in the past, (unfortunately struggling this year) what has Angelos done to help Cooney build on his success?

Look at the other minor sports and all of the women's sports. What, if anything, is Angelos doing for them? He has been here three years now. What is his plan for financial success? If he can't even help the baseball team in a small way then how in the world is he going to build a dome? It's all talk , done with smoke and mirrors, nothing ever actually happens but Angelos gets to keep his job.

No to the topic of the day, Matt Doherty. Do you think he or his friends read the paper? Do you think he sees that none of the programs are properly funded? That their is no mechanism for success? Why do you think he is taking the first train out of town? Maybe he figures that he better get when the getting is good.

In other threads posters mentioned that SMU is not that much better than FAU and that Doherty could have build an equivalent or even better program at FAU. The post are accurate and on point but do you really expect Doherty to do all of this by himself? Whose around to help him? Boca Raton is a good community and a fine place to raise a family, yet he is still leaving. Why?

Following sports for many years it is funny to me that people always want to fire the coach when a team accumulates to many loses but never the general manager in professional sports or the athletic director in college sports. Angelos has been at FAU for three years and has not done anything worth mentioning. Because he is the AD he doesn't have a win-loss record but if you were to grade him you would be hard pressed to give him anything but an "F". A complete and total failure at every conceivable level.

The next Coach will probably be Rex Walters. Whose going to help him? This will be his first head coaching job. He is familiar with the team and even helped assemble it. Lets just hope for the best and that he stays more than a year or two.

** Note to O.G. Owl, a lot of people read and talk about your message board but don't post on it for certain reasons. You do a nice job, keep up the good work.

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fau2008,

Great two posts. I agree with pretty much all of your points. At some point, if the school is going to have a major sports program, it will have to start acting like one. This means that facilities have to be upgraded or new one built. Until that happens, we can never reach our potential. Plain and simple. Angelos cannot do this himself, but from what I have seen, he hasn't done a whole lot to get it done either.
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If one of the problems is funding and the usual source is donations, are we not past the Corvette scandle? I don't get it. ? Whats the problem?

FAU - THE REAL SLEEPING GIANT
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fau2008..thank you for the support of the board. We try to provide a venue for FAU talk. Stay in touch with us.

Your posts seem very insightful and to the point. Please keep visiting and participating in the discussions.

I hope that the Corvette gate is not lingering after these years and affecting fund raising. Someone made a remark about Marketing in another thread. Like most schools, we can improve in that area as well.
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According to the Orlando Sentinel, FAU Athletics is making some headway financially. Decreasing the budget deficit from $1.7mil to $300K. Not exactly hemoraging money.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/local/sfl-pfausports09feb09,0,2783985.story?coll=sfla-education-highere d

I think that it is unrealistic to expect the athletic programs to advance while trying to balance the budget at the same time. I feel like the athletic department is doing a decent job correcting the most important problems (ie budget), so that a strong foundation is present to grow the department.
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Well isnt the only reason the athletic deficit was lowered is because of the raised "athletic fee" add on to tution? Doesnt FAU have the highest athletic fee of the Florida public schools?

AEA
Go play Intramural Sports! www.fau.edu/campusrec/imsports/
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