2024 college basketball coaching carousel

The downside of throwing millions at superstuds.

 

The recruiting power base for schools like DePaul, UD-Mercy, St. John's and BC has gone to hell with the competitive collapse of the great Catholic city leagues which used to be huge factors in prep sports in past decades (as well as the metro city schools). ND has also suffered from this as well.

While the bluest blue chips would sign with the major big time schools, the local Catholic universities would load up on the second level leftovers when the big boys had skimmed the cream of the crop.

Up until about the Nineties, both the PSL and Catholic League in metropolitan Detroit would turn out dozens of D-I players every year, now you can count the total on one hand. Of course the number of high schools in those leagues has dropped 50 percent or more.

Nowadays, the second-level leftovers can't even keep you competitive at the mid-major level (see DePaul and UDM).

 

DePaul is Big East, although they’ve been so sorry for so long that they might not hack it in the Missouri Valley or Horizon either.

 

But they should really consider giving it a try.

 

I really wonder if that's the next step for DePaul & Georgetown if TBD & Cooley can't turn them around. It doesn't do the Big East any good to have those two dragging the league down and there's close to a half-dozen upper mids in the eastern two time zones (VCU, Dayton, Charleston, Belmont, Saint Louis outside of this year) who could jump in and not go 2-16 or 0-18.

 

Private schools in general are in a real pickle.

They're already getting disproportionally hit by the enrollment gap, something that's only going to become more stark in the next decade at least.

With a smaller alumni base, they're going to have a lot more trouble sustaining a NIL kitty. Notre Dame is already falling behind in that department in men's hoops compared to nearby public rivals.

If this is headed where we think this is heading and student-athletes become employees? That's likely a non-starter for private schools and the lesser lights among them are going to have a real problem pulling it off, especially in football.

They don't have the revenue base to handle paying athletes, especially if it has to be tied into Title IX. A lot of public schools don't either, but they have more reliable revenue streams than private schools do.

Basketball is not as much of a cost-suck as football is (Boston College, for just one example, is going to have one helluva time sustaining big football), but it's not insignificant. Big East basketball is really good, but they don't have media rights money like the football conferences do.

If I were a fan of a private school not in the Big Ten or SEC, I'd be scared to death about what the future holds. Just as I am scared to death for what it holds for all mid-majors.

 

There’s a bill in Mississippi that would force three of the eight senior colleges in the state to shut down. And while it may be designed primarily to shit on HBCUs, at least one predominantly white school would get the boot (because I promise they aren’t shutting down Jackson State.)

That bill probably uses a meat ax where a scalpel is called for, but there are more public colleges than we think that won’t survive the looming demographic crater.

 

Which schools are staring up at the guillotine?

 

There are eight colleges named as candidates, but everyone knows Ole Miss, Mississippi State and Southern Miss are safe. Jackson State is the largest of the HBCUs and their alumni tend to have the most pull in the state. So that leaves Alcorn State and Mississippi Valley State on the HBCU side and Delta State and Mississippi University for (not just) Women as PWIs. All have small enrollments and MUW is probably screwed because it is only 30 miles away from Starkville. That leaves the other three schools with only one life raft between them.

Note that I have no clue if this bill will go anywhere. @Batman probably has a better read on that.

 

Pony up again, politicians! I got an alma mater to save!

 

Note to self. Add Mississippi to states TBF should avoid.

Buncha clowns down there.

 

As you often hear said in Alabama, "Thank God for Mississippi."