State of the Art College Football Facilities

[TemplarCane]

Miami needed to improve their facilities, no doubt. By most accounts they’ve done a great job. The IPF and other expansions have gotten excellent reviews. Is the weight room smaller than the others? How much smaller? Are the individual lockers smaller?

What Miami does not need is a miniature golf course and a slip-n-slide. This is just flashy spending for it own sake. Ego.

Now, how about the school acquiring property on South Beach - right by the shore - and open an off-campus 20,000 square foot ‘academic center’? And by that I mean a private club for Canes athletes, coaches, and support staff? Could Alabaga and Clemsum beat that?

 

[CaneFan79]

USDA Officials Say Lolita's Tank at Miami Seaquarium Might Violate Federal Law | Miami New Times

Sea World is already teetering...How much more would it take for the Miami Seaquarium's owners to cut bait (n pun intended) and make RSMAS a good deal?

Not South Beach, but you already have a lot of the infrastructure already there.

 

[deleted1998]

Did not read

 

[CaneFan79]

OriginalCanesCanesCanes said: But ***** wants to use that money to add crushed velvet lining to the lockers and full length mirrors with inlaid Swarovski crystals...that way we can land some bloodthirsty savages.

That thinking, if accepted, means other programs, who are smart and forward thinking, will gain an insurmountable advantage over the Canes. This is already in full swing as for example; the Gators are in the process of investing $100,000,000 (yes, one hundred million dollars) for construction of a new athletic compound and a standalone football facility.

Recently, a big topic of conversation has been Miami underclassman opting for the NFL draft (McIntosh and Norton). Some believe that due to the wealth these players see in the South Florida area it motivates them to leave early for the cash. Those people could be on to something. When you follow their reasoning to its logical conclusion those same type of players as recruits must also be enthralled when visiting the Clemson’s, Alabama’s, Oregon’s and a horde of other college football programs that have jaw dropping football facilities (video links below). Furthermore, not only have those facilities become a magnet for the best 5 star players in the country, but they may even play a role in retention of underclassman.

“A decade of rampant athletics construction across the country has redefined what it takes to field a competitive top-tier college sports program. Football stadiums and basketball arenas now must be complemented by practice facilities, professional-quality locker rooms, players' lounges with high-definition televisions and video game systems, and luxury suites to coax more money from boosters.”

“The University of Tennessee built a $45 million Training Center, a 145,000-square-foot home for its football team with a two-story weight room, hydrotherapy room, amphitheater-style team meeting room and a public entrance featuring a water wall and museum commemorating Volunteers football history.” I’ll save the naysayers the trouble of posting that those facilities have not paid off for Tennessee football…YET!!!

“Virginia and Rutgers, athletic departments both highly dependent on student fees, have new football headquarters on their wish lists. And at Maryland, the university is planning a $155 million project to convert Cole Field House, its former basketball arena, into an indoor football practice facility, new locker rooms and offices for football, a training center for all athletes and an "Academy of Innovation and Entrepreneurship" for students. University of South Florida has committed $45,000.000 towards football facilities”

“Clemson Athletic Director, Dan Radakovich, asked Dabo Swinney what he needed to take Clemson football to the next level. Swinney jotted down a few BIG ideas for a football headquarters. I really thought he would take that piece of paper and just laugh," Swinney said. "But he didn't. ... every dream starts with a dreamer."

To be clear; I deplore what big money has done to college football, and what it will do in the future, but if you are going to compete at the highest level then new state of the art athletic facilities will be the price of admission. And yes, I am fully aware of the challenges Miami faces in funding such ventures, but despite the wonderful new indoor practice facility the Canes are already significantly behind most all of the top football schools, which makes me worry for the future of the program.

Finally if you take a kid to a Four Season Hotel with extraordinary management and then take him to a Days Inn with comparable management, where will he elect to stay? Bring a 5 star player to a college with a state of the art athletic compound whose coaching staff is also 5 star, and then bring him to a college who isn’t in the same universe facility wise, but also has a 5 star coaching staff…where is he most likely to sign? By the way; it is those headwinds that make the job Mark Richt and his staff have done concerning the 2018 recruiting class nothing short of remarkable.

PHOTOS: Clemson's new $55 million football facility - Business Insider

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lupS-rvh6Zw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMQ7eso_a8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMvru1j4tp8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ta_uTdXl-tE[/FONT]

I'm no expert on how this stuff is getting funded, so maybe its all private funds/donations etc. But if it's not, even a small bit of it, I'm left with this thought:
One day, just like taxpayer funded pro stadiums and arenas, one would hope that taxpayers in states where these state schools are spending RACKS on all this extra nonsense, will start asking "What does this have to do with education? Even better, what does this have to do with football?"

It's one thing to question why Miami can't keep up with these schools and their eternal "5 Star Wars" space race, but the other question needs to be asked of those big state schools.
Why you need all this, when is enough, and why (usually in struggling states where public funds are like gold) is so much money going to pimpin out locker rooms and game rooms and wutever other nonessential mess coaches/ADs keep asking for and getting.

Now if its private money from boosters? Fine, its their money and they can spend it how they want (still doesn't answer the "what does this have to do with football" question) and they will do just that.

But any percentage, whether big or small, that is public funds and is going to all this stuff that doesn't matter one iota when that whistle blows and the ball is snapped, needs to be under more public scrutiny.

I'd say this is getting ridiculous, but its been ridiculous for about 15 years now.

Most of the athletic facilities and Coach salaries are paid for by the booster organizations with some level of state aid, depending on how they package the facility/upgrade (See O'Connell/Doak). The thing you have to look at is lifecycle cost of a facility and a state employee pensions. It's similar to the military; you have an acquisition budget (facility) and an Operations & Maintenance budget (repairs/repairman). It can get pricey. The State of Tennessee is on the hook for Pat Summitt's son, as she was able to transfer her pension to him and he is only 27 years old. That's some money in the out years.

I did make one error in earlier bringing up Michigan. In reality, it and UVA could go private tomorrow and make a windfall, as the state money they get as part of their budgets is in the single digits and they could make much more in tuition money because of their repution (like private UPenn).

Bottom Line: As long as a state can tax, the state's schools will have an advantage in $$$$ as it pertains to keeping up the physical plant of a university (which includes said facilities).

 

[TreOFive]

Que Yawn gif

 

[BigDikCane]

Let's do it big with our IPF... I was thinking Mark should put in some big *** salt water tank like they have at Sea World with a ******* retarded Manatee swimming around in it..

 

[TheMatador]

Let's do it big with our IPF... I was thinking Mark should put in some big *** salt water tank like they have at Sea World with a ****ing retarded Manatee swimming around in it..

Nah..will remind me of the ******* Gator splashing around in Flipper's tank in the OB East end zone after the Gator Flop.

Don't want no tanks/aquarium in my facility. Wish the ******** woulda drowned. Should have kept some man-eating sharks in that dam tank instead of Flipper.

 

[77cane]

We have a beaches with hotties strutting their stuff. Case closed.

 

[M3N]

With the new ACC network coming and the Adidas deal- we have the resources to do what we want. Having the room and blessing from Coral Gables is a different matter.

Let’s get a quality 10th coach first

 

[gruntking]

 

[Earnest T. Bass]

The NCAA under Mark "Really, I didn't know" Emmert will always be biased towards the state schools who spend money...Love to know how many "favors" he got on this project:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/04/02/ncaa-president-emmert-previous-cases-uconn-lsu/2047607/

Where the NCAA is lacking, the free market may correct; those rights deals CFB is enjoying right now may change:

https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/12/10/college-footballs-declining-ratings-2017-media-circus

Less $$$ from TV and exhausted donors (The last $50 million Stephen Ross gave to Michigan was for his eponymous Business School, not athletics) may turn this arms race into a trot...At least we can hope so, as it's unsustainable. What happens when your gleaming bauble turns 20? O$Uck brought on line a myriad of facilities in 1997 (Woody Hayes Center, etc.), but now needs to spend more...

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-athletics/2017/05/82438/ohio-state-releases-high-detail-renderings-of-future-athletic-district

Of course, the facilities are from "donated" money, but the real property maintenance (i.e. the technicians hired to fix these places when they break down, to include their health care, retirement, etc.) is borne by the Ohio taxpayer (how would you like your tax dollars going to something you despise?)

https://www.osu.edu/departments/dept/Physical%20Planning%20and%20Real%20Estate

Let's not forget the dorms the student-athletes use and other state-funded perks.

Bottom line: UM can't tax like a state can. Right now, the Michigan taxpayer looks to be on the on the hook for at least some of the heinous Nasser crimes:

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2018/01/04/msu-taxpayers-nassar-crimes/1001199001/

It's an inherent advantage that only a few private schools have been able to compete against and all of the other schools not named Miami are a LOT wealthier (ND, SC, Stanford).

Not like I haven't whistled past the grave yard before:

https://www.canesinsight.com/thread/alabamas-dominance-context-death-cfb/104100?highlight=death+cab

Unfortunately, Florida announced their $100,000,000 athletic compound during September 2016, along with a number of other programs stating that building state of the art football facilities is on their current to-do-list. Further, in recent weeks Florida made public the designer/architect and builder for their project. While I hope this trends stops I think there is simply to much momentum for that hope to come true. Also, one could make the argument that the programs that have already built these Disney like facilities would love to see it stop as that would mean less competition.

So what is UF (actually their UAA) spending this money on exactly? Of course, the O'Connell center renovation was done in conjunction with UF itself, so all those fees you pay the state went to help that endeavor...Something UM doesn't have as a funding source. Okay, here are the planned facility items:

http://floridagators.com/sports/2017/3/2/facility-projects.aspx

- UM has no women's softball team, so that $$$ isn't of any consequence as far as competitiveness with UF goes

- They are spending on their baseball stadium. They won their first NC (after who knows how many CWS trips) before any shovel has hit the ground. Is A-Roid at Mark Light that run down after NINE years? I think Miami's competitiveness has more to do with the non-headcount scholarship limitations of NCAA Baseball (MUCH cheaper for baseball recruits to go to UF/FSU than UM) and an aging coach still at the helm, than it does with facilities.

- http://hurricanesfootballfacility.com/overview.html

http://hurricanesfootballfacility.com/features.html

In conjunction with the Schwartz and the Hecht renovation after the coaches move into the IPF, what more do you want?!? You can't outspend the UAA, especially when they can team up with the university and be augmented by state funds (FSU did this by putting classrooms at Doak Campbell, there are academic facilities at Michigan Stadium, etc.)

Spending $$$ to just spend it is stupid. Where there are capability gaps, you spend the money, but don't waste it.

You probably think buying new F-35s to do CAS is better than keeping A-10s!

Who is suggesting spending dollars just to spend dollars? Answer this question; after watching the videos I included in my original post is it your belief that even after the new IPF is completed that Miami's football facilities are comparable to Alabama's, Clemson's, Penn State's, Oklahoma, et al.?

If I thought for one nano-second that the F-35 would be a safer, more efficient killing machine than the A-10, along with being better at protecting our people…then, you’re **** right I would vote for that aircraft. But, interestingly enough, with the advent of the F-35, discussions are taking place to…wait for it…UPGRADE THE A-10’s! Thank God some of those on this blog are not in charge of this decision as they would simply point to past success, make comparisons that bring comfort to their views and list the reasons why it would be hard to improve the A-10. These upgrades are not to make the A-10 close to being as good as the F-35; they are designed to make the Warthog better than the F-35.

Winners don’t want to be almost as good as the competition; they want to bury their competition. Also, winners do not sit around pointing out all the reasons they can’t be as good as the competition or rationalize why they have to settle. You can always find and justify reasons to fail!

If I were a fan of the aforementioned schools who have state of the art football facilities and read the defeatist comments on this blog I would be thrilled.

The reality is that college football programs across the country have or are in the process of turning their football facilities into modern day Taj Mahal’s. Me pointing out this obvious challenge may make you and others irate at me for pointing out this FACT, but I know with 100% certainty this is not going away by insulting me and calling me names (I would be happy beyond words if that actually worked). Denial and rationalization may make you feel good for the short term, but reality will soon visit us all.

 

[Earnest T. Bass]

Ernest Bass is responding in a way similar to his namesake.

What an idiot.

He uses a hotel analogy, I destroy his argument using the same analogy, and he tries to invalidate the argument because I used the analogy he chose. Maybe next time pick a different analogy for me to destroy you with.

You actually have no coherent response, so you chose some pretty lame insults to counter with.

You really have no counter to my response. It’s simple. We can’t spend lavishly like the SEC powers, nor do we need to. Additionally, surpluses at Miami are better allocated to coaching talent and functional facility improvements. We have enough now with campus, location, stadium improvements and other magic city advantages to have a strong product to sell. Even Ernest T. Bass can see that.

Cut the act. You’re just trolling for attention.

Finally, you literally have no clue what “inner city kids” like or don’t like and much of your commentary about them was stereotypical and ignorant.

You clearly spend zero time with any urban kids, otherwise you would know you can’t categorize them as all the same. But that’s typical of your attention starved shallow posting.

You're right Sweetie Pie! I have no idea about inner city kids, which makes me having been raised in a similar environment guilty of not learning anything...but thank God you are here to educate me...Biff! Those who I grew up with would be mildly surprised that I haven’t spent time with them throughout my lifetime (urban city kids/adults). You have a unique way of being wrong about…everything!

And wow…you “DESTROYED” my hotel analogy…seriously; you are bad to the bone, Doris! During this destroying of my hotel analogy you compared the UM football program to a small, boutique operation. I could be wrong, Cupcake, but I don’t think most Canes see that as something they want to be known for. I can just here it now as the Canes take the field… Here Comes the Small, Boutique Miami Hurricanes!!!

The mere fact you believe I post to get your attention speaks to your arrogance and belief that you are special. Well, you certainly are... "Special"! Also, you have used that trolling defense most anytime someone takes exception to your idiotic posts or make a point that is above your pay grade, which is almost always.

You are so insecure and posting nonsense on various blogs gives you a false courage. Of course you and I know that your tough talk stops as soon as mommy tells you to clean your room and take a bath. “Ah Mom…I don’t wanna take a bath!”

Your ignorant rants are infamous for their mind numbing redundancy, lack of foundation and infantile insults.

While you’ve once again trolled a thread looking for a way to change the subject or deride the OP with name calling it does not change the irrefutable facts contained in my original statement.

 

[OriginalCanesCanesCanes]

You’re just trolling now.

You don’t counter any arguments, just a lot of infantile insults that have yet to refute the substance of my counter argument.

You have become a weak parody of yourself.

A parody account literally flailing away.

All those words and yet not even one decent or coherent argument, worthwhile insult, snippet of humor, or even a modicum of savagery.

You’re bored and boring and have nothing to add. Try a lot harder or just don’t bother to post, you’re wasting everybody’s time.

 

[OriginalCanesCanesCanes]

Just to add...when [MENTION=94]valid[/MENTION] is the champion of you and your argument, you’ve crossed over into bizzarro world.

You are now in league with someone who has the uncanny ability to literally be wrong about literally everything he posts. It’s like a superpower, but in reverse.

Congratulations, [MENTION=94]valid[/MENTION] is on your side.

 

[valid]

Just to add...when [MENTION=94]valid[/MENTION] is the champion of you and your argument, you’ve crossed over into bizzarro world.

You are now in league with someone who has the uncanny ability to literally be wrong about literally everything he posts. It’s like a superpower, but in reverse.

Congratulations, [MENTION=94]valid[/MENTION] is on your side.

Outside of Kevin Olsen, what have I been 'wrong' on? I'll wait.

 

[DTP]

The jury is still waaay out on these lush, over extravagant athletic facilities and whether or not they actually lead to more on field success. Sure Bama and Clemson Have reached the pinnacle but what about the other big spenders? It wasn't long ago that Phil Knight made Oregon the flashiest destination for football. Top of the line facilities and the latest and greatest equipment and a never ending array of neat-o uniforms that college kids apparently go gaga for. Coming off a 7 win season and bringing in their third head coach in three years. Solid investment. Maybe having a benefactor with seemingly bottomless pockets like T. Boone Pickens would help Miami become the super football powerhouse that Oklahoma State is? Or maybe they can break the bank on facility upgrades and buy out coaches with 7 figure buyouts so they can win 8 games a year like Texas A&M?

 

[SWFLSWAGG17]

Did the Penn st video show the new showers where they'll ignore children being raped?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Partner...that is your territory so I'll leave that up to you to figure out. Although, I don't mean to disappoint you, but I don't think that is part of their current curriculum...sorry!

Nerd

 

[Fightinibis]

Miami will never be able to outdo the bigger schools in terms of facilities, so as always, the sales pitch will highlite other benefits of the U. There’s also gotta be a point of diminishing returns here, so we don’t need to keep up with Bama. Instead we just need to keep improving facilities as possible. The university had done a good job here the last few years.

So true, though we would have been further along without the 15 year freeze corrupt Shalalalalalala put on anything related.

UM

 

[CaneFan79]

The NCAA under Mark "Really, I didn't know" Emmert will always be biased towards the state schools who spend money...Love to know how many "favors" he got on this project:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/04/02/ncaa-president-emmert-previous-cases-uconn-lsu/2047607/

Where the NCAA is lacking, the free market may correct; those rights deals CFB is enjoying right now may change:

https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/12/10/college-footballs-declining-ratings-2017-media-circus

Less $$$ from TV and exhausted donors (The last $50 million Stephen Ross gave to Michigan was for his eponymous Business School, not athletics) may turn this arms race into a trot...At least we can hope so, as it's unsustainable. What happens when your gleaming bauble turns 20? O$Uck brought on line a myriad of facilities in 1997 (Woody Hayes Center, etc.), but now needs to spend more...

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-athletics/2017/05/82438/ohio-state-releases-high-detail-renderings-of-future-athletic-district

Of course, the facilities are from "donated" money, but the real property maintenance (i.e. the technicians hired to fix these places when they break down, to include their health care, retirement, etc.) is borne by the Ohio taxpayer (how would you like your tax dollars going to something you despise?)

https://www.osu.edu/departments/dept/Physical%20Planning%20and%20Real%20Estate

Let's not forget the dorms the student-athletes use and other state-funded perks.

Bottom line: UM can't tax like a state can. Right now, the Michigan taxpayer looks to be on the on the hook for at least some of the heinous Nasser crimes:

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2018/01/04/msu-taxpayers-nassar-crimes/1001199001/

It's an inherent advantage that only a few private schools have been able to compete against and all of the other schools not named Miami are a LOT wealthier (ND, SC, Stanford).

Not like I haven't whistled past the grave yard before:

https://www.canesinsight.com/thread/alabamas-dominance-context-death-cfb/104100?highlight=death+cab

Unfortunately, Florida announced their $100,000,000 athletic compound during September 2016, along with a number of other programs stating that building state of the art football facilities is on their current to-do-list. Further, in recent weeks Florida made public the designer/architect and builder for their project. While I hope this trends stops I think there is simply to much momentum for that hope to come true. Also, one could make the argument that the programs that have already built these Disney like facilities would love to see it stop as that would mean less competition.

So what is UF (actually their UAA) spending this money on exactly? Of course, the O'Connell center renovation was done in conjunction with UF itself, so all those fees you pay the state went to help that endeavor...Something UM doesn't have as a funding source. Okay, here are the planned facility items:

http://floridagators.com/sports/2017/3/2/facility-projects.aspx

- UM has no women's softball team, so that $$$ isn't of any consequence as far as competitiveness with UF goes

- They are spending on their baseball stadium. They won their first NC (after who knows how many CWS trips) before any shovel has hit the ground. Is A-Roid at Mark Light that run down after NINE years? I think Miami's competitiveness has more to do with the non-headcount scholarship limitations of NCAA Baseball (MUCH cheaper for baseball recruits to go to UF/FSU than UM) and an aging coach still at the helm, than it does with facilities.

- http://hurricanesfootballfacility.com/overview.html

http://hurricanesfootballfacility.com/features.html

In conjunction with the Schwartz and the Hecht renovation after the coaches move into the IPF, what more do you want?!? You can't outspend the UAA, especially when they can team up with the university and be augmented by state funds (FSU did this by putting classrooms at Doak Campbell, there are academic facilities at Michigan Stadium, etc.)

Spending $$$ to just spend it is stupid. Where there are capability gaps, you spend the money, but don't waste it.

You probably think buying new F-35s to do CAS is better than keeping A-10s!

Who is suggesting spending dollars just to spend dollars? Answer this question; after watching the videos I included in my original post is it your belief that even after the new IPF is completed that Miami's football facilities are comparable to Alabama's, Clemson's, Penn State's, Oklahoma, et al.?

If I thought for one nano-second that the F-35 would be a safer, more efficient killing machine than the A-10, along with being better at protecting our people…then, you’re **** right I would vote for that aircraft. But, interestingly enough, with the advent of the F-35, discussions are taking place to…wait for it…UPGRADE THE A-10’s! Thank God some of those on this blog are not in charge of this decision as they would simply point to past success, make comparisons that bring comfort to their views and list the reasons why it would be hard to improve the A-10. These upgrades are not to make the A-10 close to being as good as the F-35; they are designed to make the Warthog better than the F-35.

Winners don’t want to be almost as good as the competition; they want to bury their competition. Also, winners do not sit around pointing out all the reasons they can’t be as good as the competition or rationalize why they have to settle. You can always find and justify reasons to fail!

If I were a fan of the aforementioned schools who have state of the art football facilities and read the defeatist comments on this blog I would be thrilled.

The reality is that college football programs across the country have or are in the process of turning their football facilities into modern day Taj Mahal’s. Me pointing out this obvious challenge may make you and others irate at me for pointing out this FACT, but I know with 100% certainty this is not going away by insulting me and calling me names (I would be happy beyond words if that actually worked). Denial and rationalization may make you feel good for the short term, but reality will soon visit us all.

Thanks for engaging on the F-35...Admittedly, if the enemy had only low-level AAA/SAM, an F-35 over 10,000 AGL might be a better option, but I digress.

I am not irrate with you, 'nor have I called you names in this thread. You want UM to be better in CFB and believe spending on "Taj Mahals" will get them there; no harm there.

The IPF is a definite need, along with the other features it's structure brings. Lets get that built and then go from there. As DTP pointed out, Oregon's crazy facilities have gotten them ZERO NCs and a lot of coaching changes. I remember Chip Kelly called Phil Knight "The Owner" a few years back on The Dan Patrick Show. Is Phil causing the turmoil there? Heck, the whole "is Gundy and Pickens getting along" was one of the storylines at the end of the season. Do you want that in our Football program? It's already torpedoed our baseball program with "DiMare Fresh" preventing us from getting alumnus Greg Lovelady to skipper the 'Canes after tearing it up with Wright State. Now UCF is benefitting from his excellence...All because we are held hostage by a donor.

 

[gruntking]

The NCAA under Mark "Really, I didn't know" Emmert will always be biased towards the state schools who spend money...Love to know how many "favors" he got on this project:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/ncaab/2013/04/02/ncaa-president-emmert-previous-cases-uconn-lsu/2047607/

Where the NCAA is lacking, the free market may correct; those rights deals CFB is enjoying right now may change:

https://www.si.com/tech-media/2017/12/10/college-footballs-declining-ratings-2017-media-circus

Less $$$ from TV and exhausted donors (The last $50 million Stephen Ross gave to Michigan was for his eponymous Business School, not athletics) may turn this arms race into a trot...At least we can hope so, as it's unsustainable. What happens when your gleaming bauble turns 20? O$Uck brought on line a myriad of facilities in 1997 (Woody Hayes Center, etc.), but now needs to spend more...

https://www.elevenwarriors.com/ohio-state-athletics/2017/05/82438/ohio-state-releases-high-detail-renderings-of-future-athletic-district

Of course, the facilities are from "donated" money, but the real property maintenance (i.e. the technicians hired to fix these places when they break down, to include their health care, retirement, etc.) is borne by the Ohio taxpayer (how would you like your tax dollars going to something you despise?)

https://www.osu.edu/departments/dept/Physical%20Planning%20and%20Real%20Estate

Let's not forget the dorms the student-athletes use and other state-funded perks.

Bottom line: UM can't tax like a state can. Right now, the Michigan taxpayer looks to be on the on the hook for at least some of the heinous Nasser crimes:

https://www.freep.com/story/opinion/columnists/nancy-kaffer/2018/01/04/msu-taxpayers-nassar-crimes/1001199001/

It's an inherent advantage that only a few private schools have been able to compete against and all of the other schools not named Miami are a LOT wealthier (ND, SC, Stanford).

Not like I haven't whistled past the grave yard before:

https://www.canesinsight.com/thread/alabamas-dominance-context-death-cfb/104100?highlight=death+cab

Unfortunately, Florida announced their $100,000,000 athletic compound during September 2016, along with a number of other programs stating that building state of the art football facilities is on their current to-do-list. Further, in recent weeks Florida made public the designer/architect and builder for their project. While I hope this trends stops I think there is simply to much momentum for that hope to come true. Also, one could make the argument that the programs that have already built these Disney like facilities would love to see it stop as that would mean less competition.

So what is UF (actually their UAA) spending this money on exactly? Of course, the O'Connell center renovation was done in conjunction with UF itself, so all those fees you pay the state went to help that endeavor...Something UM doesn't have as a funding source. Okay, here are the planned facility items:

http://floridagators.com/sports/2017/3/2/facility-projects.aspx

- UM has no women's softball team, so that $$$ isn't of any consequence as far as competitiveness with UF goes

- They are spending on their baseball stadium. They won their first NC (after who knows how many CWS trips) before any shovel has hit the ground. Is A-Roid at Mark Light that run down after NINE years? I think Miami's competitiveness has more to do with the non-headcount scholarship limitations of NCAA Baseball (MUCH cheaper for baseball recruits to go to UF/FSU than UM) and an aging coach still at the helm, than it does with facilities.

- http://hurricanesfootballfacility.com/overview.html

http://hurricanesfootballfacility.com/features.html

In conjunction with the Schwartz and the Hecht renovation after the coaches move into the IPF, what more do you want?!? You can't outspend the UAA, especially when they can team up with the university and be augmented by state funds (FSU did this by putting classrooms at Doak Campbell, there are academic facilities at Michigan Stadium, etc.)

Spending $$$ to just spend it is stupid. Where there are capability gaps, you spend the money, but don't waste it.

You probably think buying new F-35s to do CAS is better than keeping A-10s!

Who is suggesting spending dollars just to spend dollars? Answer this question; after watching the videos I included in my original post is it your belief that even after the new IPF is completed that Miami's football facilities are comparable to Alabama's, Clemson's, Penn State's, Oklahoma, et al.?

If I thought for one nano-second that the F-35 would be a safer, more efficient killing machine than the A-10, along with being better at protecting our people…then, you’re **** right I would vote for that aircraft. But, interestingly enough, with the advent of the F-35, discussions are taking place to…wait for it…UPGRADE THE A-10’s! Thank God some of those on this blog are not in charge of this decision as they would simply point to past success, make comparisons that bring comfort to their views and list the reasons why it would be hard to improve the A-10. These upgrades are not to make the A-10 close to being as good as the F-35; they are designed to make the Warthog better than the F-35.

Winners don’t want to be almost as good as the competition; they want to bury their competition. Also, winners do not sit around pointing out all the reasons they can’t be as good as the competition or rationalize why they have to settle. You can always find and justify reasons to fail!

If I were a fan of the aforementioned schools who have state of the art football facilities and read the defeatist comments on this blog I would be thrilled.

The reality is that college football programs across the country have or are in the process of turning their football facilities into modern day Taj Mahal’s. Me pointing out this obvious challenge may make you and others irate at me for pointing out this FACT, but I know with 100% certainty this is not going away by insulting me and calling me names (I would be happy beyond words if that actually worked). Denial and rationalization may make you feel good for the short term, but reality will soon visit us all.

Thanks for engaging on the F-35...Admittedly, if the enemy had only low-level AAA/SAM, an F-35 over 10,000 AGL might be a better option, but I digress.

I am not irrate with you, 'nor have I called you names in this thread. You want UM to be better in CFB and believe spending on "Taj Mahals" will get them there; no harm there.

The IPF is a definite need, along with the other features it's structure brings. Lets get that built and then go from there. As DTP pointed out, Oregon's crazy facilities have gotten them ZERO NCs and a lot of coaching changes. I remember Chip Kelly called Phil Knight "The Owner" a few years back on The Dan Patrick Show. Is Phil causing the turmoil there? Heck, the whole "is Gundy and Pickens getting along" was one of the storylines at the end of the season. Do you want that in our Football program? It's already torpedoed our baseball program with "DiMare Fresh" preventing us from getting alumnus Greg Lovelady to skipper the 'Canes after tearing it up with Wright State. Now UCF is benefitting from his excellence...All because we are held hostage by a donor.

I don't know... I think ugly is beautiful.