Social Issue/Political Discussion Relating to Iowa Football

[uihawk82]

Just read the press release. Only conference games. No football schedule was listed in the news story. To limit travel I expect 6 west division games, but not sure of which east opponents.

SIAP but I am would think a 6 game schedule against your division rivals and maybe one or two more close-by travel trips might take out some worry of long trips.

It could be just 6 games against just your division rivals then the winners off to the conf championship game. Some short flights might be better than 4 to 5 hours in buses.

 

[uihawk82]

Oh I would love to jump on

Rob, can I please have one reply that would mention this tweet is about the first thing we have heard from good old Chuck in over 3 years?

 

[okeefe4prez]

The cost of scholarships is much broader than that though. The overhead is a good sum.
Owning a rental house that you have to mow, move snow, keep maintained, keep the electricity on and heat on, pay taxes on, all while it's not rented and bringing in any $ is going to hurt.
Now imagine having a staff of 30 and a stadium and facilities like a college does.
I've been in much smaller facilities budget meetings and you would be surprised at what it takes.

Yes, a college has fixed costs. The fixed costs have zero bearing on marginal cost, though, and the relevant metric for the true cost of a scholarship is marginal cost. How much does it cost to add one more student? For a college to add 1 more or 100 more students costs virtually nothing. Iowa has like 30,000 students. Adding 300 kids on scholarship adds almost no marginal cost to the core educational product. They might add a handful of profs to keep student to teacher ratios in some range, but that's the only actual core marginal cost. It is certainly not the 8 figure cost that the athletic department reports.

 

[Hawkfnntn]

This conference only games crap sucks. Just cancel it all now. I'm not about half assing football. To make this decision now in early July is nuts.

This turns it into just a a money grab. That will cripple many of the FCS lower level ones. It's easy to see why the BIG is doing it. All these athletic departments are hemorrhaging money. Paying almost 2 million bucks to have a couple cupcakes play you doesn't seem worth it. It's more about that to these schools then it is anything health related although that's all they'll ever mention it being.

Well the bowl season will be different if it ever gets to that point. Let alone a playoff/championship. Just a huge fat asterisk next to it all. I'm not getting my hopes up for much of a season now. This blows goats.

 

[Grady]

And still I wait...as I have for the past 2 months, for a solid, rational reason why the Power 5 have not gotten together and simply moved the fall football season to the spring. Very possibly a vaccine will be available by then, more fans in the stands, revenue into university coffers in the same fiscal year -- it's a no-brainer, really. But the SEC's definitive statement they were going to play this fall no matter what spooked the other conferences and they mindlessly fell into line, despite all reason. Shockingly dumb on their part. Why risk losing an entire season of revenue just to play in the fall instead of the spring? Just dumb.

 

[okeefe4prez]

I'm not getting my hopes up for much of a season now.

 

[uihawk82]

This. I don’t want to watch a clusterfuck of a neutered season anyway.

Nothing’s gonna be played till we get The Shot anyway. Social distancing, masks, or not. Ain’t happenin. The vaccine or a rock solid treatment regimen is the only thing that will get us moving again.

Let's hope news of late trials by companies like Regeneron work and can be approved for safety soon. It is showing promise as a therapeutic cure and preventative using multiple antibodies.

We might be taking vaccines and booster shots for awhile with this mutating virus just like the flu but that is better than nothing.

 

[Fryowa]

The cost of scholarships is much broader than that though. The overhead is a good sum.
Owning a rental house that you have to mow, move snow, keep maintained, keep the electricity on and heat on, pay taxes on, all while it's not rented and bringing in any $ is going to hurt.
Now imagine having a staff of 30 and a stadium and facilities like a college does.
I've been in much smaller facilities budget meetings and you would be surprised at what it takes.

You just don't get it, do ya bud?

Overheads have literally zero to do with scholarship payments. If anything, variable overhead rates decrease per scholarship awarded.

Confuscious say...

It's better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt...

 

[uihawk82]

If all conferences go to conference only schedules, whee does that leave Notre Dame?

It would be funny if they couldn’t play anybody.

Well they have had their chances to join conferences but they love their NBC contract. Notre Dame can play BYU and some other independents and they could play some top UNI FCS type teams, haha.

 

[okeefe4prez]

And still I wait...as I have for the past 2 months, for a solid, rational reason why the Power 5 have not gotten together and simply moved the fall football season to the spring. Very possibly a vaccine will be available by then, more fans in the stands, revenue into university coffers in the same fiscal year -- it's a no-brainer, really. But the SEC's definitive statement they were going to play this fall no matter what spooked the other conferences and they mindlessly fell into line, despite all reason. Shockingly dumb on their part. Why risk losing an entire season of revenue just to play in the fall instead of the spring? Just dumb.

Because there is probably not going to be a vaccine widely distributed by spring and they know it. When we have Christmas and New Years and a huge flare up with general cold and flu season, there is going to be even less of an appetite for football in spring than there is now. If they can't pull it off in late summer and early fall, it ain't gonna happen. I mean, I love Trump, but if you watch this video or any video of Jim Crow Joe talking, you shouldn't be overly optimistic about The Germ clearing out by spring.

 

[Fryowa]

Poor Independent Notre Dame. Karma baby.

Exactly. F 'em.

They want the autonomy that comes from living on an island then they have to take the bad with the good.

 

[4thngoal]

Yes, a college has fixed costs. The fixed costs have zero bearing on marginal cost, though, and the relevant metric for the true cost of a scholarship is marginal cost. How much does it cost to add one more student? For a college to add 1 more or 100 more students costs virtually nothing. Iowa has like 30,000 students. Adding 300 kids on scholarship adds almost no marginal cost to the core educational product. They might add a handful of profs to keep student to teacher ratios in some range, but that's the only actual core marginal cost. It is certainly not the 8 figure cost that the athletic department reports.

I am not disagreeing with you. I'm merely pointing out the fact that as you said you might have to add some professors. Yes and those professors are going to need rooms to profess in. Preferably with heat and electricity. They are probably going to need parking spaces. The food services are going to need upgraded to accommodate 400 new students and teachers. All that is going to require a couple more janitors and maintenance men.
I'm not saying it's billions, but it's a chunk of change when you add up every detail.
Plus now you have all the overhead of an empty stadium to deal with.

 

[Robowe]

 

[4thngoal]

Like I said, I've been in my share of facilities management meetings. My limit was 5 million. If I wanted 5 million and could justify the cost to return, I could get it signed off on in less than a week.
I understand how much it takes to keep a place going. In every detail, because you start skipping details and it blows your cost to return all to pieces and that blowback lands straight in your lap. That was dealing with something smaller than what the scale of the University of Iowa is on.
Cause and effect. There is a difference between 1 more and 100 more. What you are saying is that the rooms are already built, the parking lot is already built and I understand that, but again there are a lot of other details that go into it.

 

[uihawk82]

C

None of those kids would be paying their respective schools tuition money if they weren’t athletes, and thcost.”

Are you saying none of the football players would want to go to Iowa as just a student or wouldnt have the academics to go to Iowa, or what exactly?

 

[uihawk82]

And still I wait...as I have for the past 2 months, for a solid, rational reason why the Power 5 have not gotten together and simply moved the fall football season to the spring. Very possibly a vaccine will be available by then, more fans in the stands, revenue into university coffers in the same fiscal year -- it's a no-brainer, really. But the SEC's definitive statement they were going to play this fall no matter what spooked the other conferences and they mindlessly fell into line, despite all reason. Shockingly dumb on their part. Why risk losing an entire season of revenue just to play in the fall instead of the spring? Just dumb.

The P5 want their TV money, and maybe some ticket money, NOW not in the spring. It is always about the money. If the season falls apart this fall they can try to resume in the spring and still try the 2021 season on schedule.

 

[BryceC]

Yes, a college has fixed costs. The fixed costs have zero bearing on marginal cost, though, and the relevant metric for the true cost of a scholarship is marginal cost. How much does it cost to add one more student? For a college to add 1 more or 100 more students costs virtually nothing. Iowa has like 30,000 students. Adding 300 kids on scholarship adds almost no marginal cost to the core educational product. They might add a handful of profs to keep student to teacher ratios in some range, but that's the only actual core marginal cost. It is certainly not the 8 figure cost that the athletic department reports.

AD's pay the schools for the cost of tuition and stuff like that. That's why scholarships cost and that's why it's in the budget, because it is actual AD budget money going out of the door, even if it's just going to the registrar's office.

 

[Grady]

Because there is probably not going to be a vaccine widely distributed by spring and they know it. When we have Christmas and New Years and a huge flare up with general cold and flu season, there is going to be even less of an appetite for football in spring than there is now. If they can't pull it off in late summer and early fall, it ain't gonna happen. I mean, I love Trump, but if you watch this video or any video of Jim Crow Joe talking, you shouldn't be overly optimistic about The Germ clearing out by spring.

Maybe there will be a vaccine by spring, maybe there won't be -- even epidemiologists don't know at this point, and BTen administrators sure as heck don't know. With this pandemic we've learned one thing -- no one can predict its rate or geographic spread. We have to constantly deal with the ever-changing present. At present there is no vaccine. At present there is little appetite to put players, their families, and fans at risk. The spring may provide different circumstances, it may not. But why not wait and see -- you can always cancel the season in the spring if need be.

 

[RobHowe]

Broderick Binns Named Executive Director of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Former Hawkeye footballer moves into new role in athletic department:

LINK

 

[kicker22]

This conference only games crap sucks. Just cancel it all now. I'm not about half assing football. To make this decision now in early July is nuts.

This turns it into just a a money grab. That will cripple many of the FCS lower level ones. It's easy to see why the BIG is doing it. All these athletic departments are hemorrhaging money. Paying almost 2 million bucks to have a couple cupcakes play you doesn't seem worth it. It's more about that to these schools then it is anything health related although that's all they'll ever mention it being.

Well the bowl season will be different if it ever gets to that point. Let alone a playoff/championship. Just a huge fat asterisk next to it all. I'm not getting my hopes up for much of a season now. This blows goats.

I'm 100% in agreement about cancelling the season, but you really think cancelling non-conference games is half assing it? The non-conference portion of the season is half assed to pave the way for the conference season. I see this more as cutting the mostly irrelevant bullshit of the 95% of programs out there that don't schedule any meaning OOC games anyway.