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The Lunacy of Wisconsin Not Paying Coaches

I mean, it's hard to when you're bringing in more money than Purdue and Rutgers combined plus 20 million more...

By Thomas Speth
Mary Langenfeld-USA TODAY Sports

So the esteemed, celebrated, and nationally acclaimed/vilified (thanks #volnation!) "writers" on OTE have regular discussions of a great many things, occasionally even about Big Ten sports in relation to this fine blog. So a certain comment from a certain athletic director naturally caught our attention...

Which led to the following exchange (pardon our French)...

bendawson [2:07 PM]
God damn it, Barry. Shut the fuck up now before you embarrass us any more than you already have.

jessecollins [2:09 PM]
Wisconsin offers five sports LSU does not... Hockey (M&W), Rowing (M&W/Lightweight W), and Wrestling. LSU offers Baseball and Beach Volleyball. Beach Volleyball has to at least offset costs of rowing, and have you seen the fucking money sunk into LSU baseball? Their HC is making like 750k.

​[2:10]
AND WE'RE FUCKING FLUSH WITH CASH BECAUSE BTN!

bendawson [2:11 PM]

Sports sponsored: SEC has 9 Men's and 12 Women's, B1G has 14 Men's and 14 Women's. Total teams: SEC has 118, B1G has 149 (+ Johns Hopkins in that one sport).

jessecollins [2:13 PM]
The SEC sponsors equestrian...

​[2:18]
@bendawson: I think your numbers are just men's sports. Big Ten schools sponsor - in B1G channels alone - 326 M/W teams. The SEC is a paltry 266 in comparison. There are an additional 25 non-B1G sponsored B1G teams and an additional 14 non-SEC sponsored SEC teams. So yeah, I get where he's coming from... except no... no I don't. It's a choice to pay salaries. You can argue the merit of doing so, but that does not mean you're forced to not compete.

bendawson [2:20 PM]
Yeah, just men's. Women's sports are 148 SEC sponsored and 176 B1G.

​[2:22]
That being said, Barry still needs to shut the fuck up.

tspeth5 [2:22 PM]
Men's hockey is a revenue sport when it isn't pay for the new women's arena/sucks ass so no one wants to go to games. Barry's full of shit

jessecollins [2:22 PM]
Yup.

​[2:23]
It obviously doesn't help that people are just going to keep saying, "Yes Barry, your investment in 'all of your expensive other sports' are why you can't pay assistants."

​[2:24]
And then they start talking baseball...

tspeth5 [2:24 PM]
Men's hockey when it's good pays for the other extra sports. Our AD brings in 9 fucking figures. We can afford assistants

bendawson [2:25 PM]
wisconsin baseball hasn't lost a single game since 1991.

tspeth5 [2:25 PM]
We spent almost 3 million dollars on a hockey practice facility/rink for the women's team. Any "we can't afford coaches" bullshit is bullshit

bendawson [2:28 PM]
Oh Jesus, we're about to step into my favorite argument ever.

​[2:28]
"But if you don't build that facility for the women, they're not provided equal opportunities. TITLE IX! TITLE IX!"

jessecollins [2:30 PM]
I love facility arguments in general. It's the biggest false flag ever. Like, "Oh fuck, we're a poor poor athletic department." NO FUCKERS! YOU'RE POOR BECAUSE YOU SPENT ALL OF YOUR FUCKING MONEY! THIS WASN'T SOME COVERT FUCKING OPS SHIT. YOU BOUGHT THE DAMN FUCKING FACILITY!

​[2:31]
The fact that these departments say they don't make money makes me stabby.

tspeth5 [2:31 PM]
As opposed to playing at the Kohl Center like the men's team and leading the nation in women's hockey attendance like they were?... BULLSHIT BULLSHIT AND MORE BULLSHIT...We could've been paying Aranda what lsu is next year changed nothing about last year's budget besides that, and still been in the black based on last year's numbers.

So in conclusion, anyone with at least a casual knowledge of Google can tell you that Wisconsin is a top 5 program (depending on the year) in revenue. Ohio State sponsors more sports than any school in the nation and last I knew Gene Smith wasn't complaining he couldn't afford coaches. Go glaze lovingly at your three Rose Bowl trophies Barry, or better yet, fire your waste of space men's hockey coach that's cratering one of your revenue sports. He's costing you more money than matching Aranda would've.