You're in the bottom five worst posters in the history of CIS.
Thank you! Your comment is especially meaningful when recognizing your brilliant work on this blog, such as; "Can Cane "fans" stop swinging from 'bama's nuts every five seconds please?" Wow! No one can ever deny that you are a deep thinker. Your words are intelligent, profound and life changing. You have my vote as the top five best posters in the history of CIS! By the way, I get the sense you've done a little nut swinging yourself.
Hands down Bass you’re by far and away one of the worst posters on here! Guess what numb skull, when
we won each of our five titles our facilities were always in the mid range. And it didn’t matter then and it don’t matter now. Right coach like Richt and the flood gates open which usually equals competing for titles for us. How about being grateful that our facilities are the best they’ve ever been and for the first time we have closed the gap on the Top facility teams. So if we won with worse, it makes sense that we can win with more but you’ll probably think of something else to cry about anyways! Lol
So, because 16 years ago we won our last National Championship with inferior facilities during a period when our competitors facilities were nothing special, it is your brilliant conclusion that same formula will work today when most every major program have done massive upgrades to now like Disney World facilities, or are in the process of doing so.
I guess you believe riding around town in a Model T is as good as a Ferrari to pick up broads, because at one time in the past the Model T was the go to automobile and your additional selling point is you can give them rides up and down the beach with clear skies and sun year 'round. I can promise you this, if you take the Ferrari to a place with no beaches, terrible weather, etc. you will pick-up the finest looking women and draw them away from the beaches, great weather etc. versus relying on the the Model T. to sell your program.
How many times do I have to post that when Dabo Swinney was asked by his Athletic Director what it would take to take Clemson's football program from a top 15 program, to a perennial playoff participant Swinney told him; "state of the art football facilities! And another program that goes by the moniker; "Crimson Tide", has had a wee-bit of success during the last 7 years or so recognized the critical importance of over the top football facilities are a must if you want to be dominant. Now, you may believe that Swinney and Saban don't know what they are talking about or doing, but if you look closely, close one eye and squint with the other one you may find that they've accomplished a tad more than the Canes over the past many years.
As for the funding...I am well aware of that challenge, but 18 to 20 year old kids don't give two shyts about funding, they simply employ the eye test, and if they don't like what they see at campus 'A', but see what they like at campus 'B'...they're most likely going to sign with 'B'. Miami must find a super donor or a consortium of high-end donors to put Miami's facilities on an even footing with the top programs. To do that I don't know if that means another $20MM to $50MM to get the job done. At the very least their should be a rough estimate budget developed, along with renderings of a wished for football facility that can be shown to prospective donors.
1. Florida State: Al Dunlap
Dunlap retired in Ocala, Florida, and he and his wife have given $15 million to Seminole athletic facilities. (Dunlap, a West Point grad, never attended FSU.)
2. Alabama: Paul Bryant Jr.
Bryant is Alabama royalty: His father was Bear Bryant, the legendary Crimson Tide coach. The younger Bryant became a successful businessman, owning dog tracks that grossed millions and selling several businesses (including a cement company) for hundreds of millions. Bryant has donated more than $20 million to Crimson Tide football, and he’s currently the president of Alabama’s Board of Trustees.
3. Oregon: Phil Knight
The cofounder and CEO of Nike—worth around $20 billion—might be the most high-profile college booster in America. Knight, who was a track star during his time at Oregon, has poured $300 million into his alma mater and its athletic program, turning the Ducks into an athletic (and, arguably, sartorial) powerhouse. He’s funded stadium renovations and a football performance center considered among the most lavish in college sports.
4. Oklahoma: Christy Gaylord Everest
Everest comes from one of Oklahoma’s wealthiest and most powerful families. A former University of Oklahoma trustee, she owned the Oklahoman newspaper and a diverse array of businesses, but sold nearly all family holdings to Denver entrepreneur Phil Anschutz. The Gaylord family as a whole has donated more than $80 million to the university, including $18 million to athletic programs. (The Sooners’ football stadium is the Gaylord Family Oklahoma Memorial Stadium.)
5. Auburn: Jimmy Rane
Known as the “Yella Fella” after his wood products—he’s CEO of Great Southern Wood Preserving—Rane is president of the Auburn Board of Trustees and an Auburn megabooster. Part of Auburn’s new football facility is named for him.
6. Georgia: Don Leebern Jr.
Owner of a large alcohol distribution company, Leebern is a major Georgia booster and a university regent. He was reappointed in 2012 amid numerous accusations of misconduct: He allegedly had an affair with then-gymnastics coach Suzanne Yoculan and helped oust former football coach and athletic director Vince Dooley when he refused to promote her.
7. Michigan State: Peter Secchia
Secchia, the Michigan State alum has given millions to the school’s athletic programs.
8. Ohio State: Les Wexner
Wexner is the former CEO of L Brands (which includes Victoria’s Secret) and has owned and sold several other retail outlets in his career. The bra baron is worth $6 billion, making him the richest man in Ohio, and Ohio State’s deepest-pocketed booster. He gave $100 million to the school in 2011—the largest gift in its history—and the football team’s complex is named for him. An ESPN profile of former OSU prez Gordon Gee mentions he had two letters from Wexner on his desk, including one that read: “BEAT Michigan, not mimic Michigan.”
9. Texas A&M: Monty Davis
Davis is COO of Core Laboratories, which assesses oil reserves and provides earth analysis for the energy industry, pulling in $1 billion per year. (A Glassdoor reviewer called Core management a Texas A&M “boys club.”) Davis is on the board of the Aggie booster organization, the 12th Man Foundation, and with his wife, Becky, led donations for the $12 million Davis Player Development Center.
10. Baylor: Drayton McLane Jr.
A Baylor grad and native Texan, McLane made his fortune through McLane Company, a family business he built into an international food-service conglomerate that he sold to friend Sam Walton for $50 million, plus loads of Walmart stock. He’s now worth about $2 billion. The onetime owner of the Houston Astros gave $200 million to his alma mater to fund its new football stadium, which is named after him. McLane has been a prolific donor to conservative super-PACs and Republican committees.
11. UCLA: Jim Collins
An engineer who worked his way through UCLA, Collins built a restaurant empire in the United States and abroad, bringing hundreds of KFC franchises to Southern California and building the Sizzler chain of restaurants internationally. Collins retired in 2011, but has kept up his involvement with UCLA: He was the lead donor for the campaign to renovate Pauley Pavilion, the home of Bruins basketball.
12. LSU: James Bernhard Jr.
One of Louisiana’s most successful businessmen, Bernhard built the Shaw Group, an energy, chemical, and construction company, into a Fortune 500 business before selling it in 2013 for $3 billion. A major LSU benefactor, Bernhard was once named the Tiger booster organization’s “Member of the Year.”
13. Stanford: John Arrillaga
The real estate billionaire grew up poor and earned a scholarship to Stanford as a basketball player. With partner Richard Peery, he bought up Silicon Valley farmland in the ’60s and turned it into office space now occupied by Google and Apple. He’s Stanford’s biggest donor, having given hundreds of millions to the university and its athletic programs, including the renovation of its football stadium.
14. Southern California: B. Wayne Hughes
Hughes built Public Storage, the largest self-storage company in the United States, from a single facility. Now worth $2.5 billion, Hughes is a USC trustee and, befitting a longtime athletics megadonor, was inducted into the Trojan sports hall of fame. Fiercely private, Hughes is nevertheless politically active:
15. Ole Miss: Robert Dunlap
Dunlap owns a chain of tire stores in the South and has been a Rebels booster for decades. In 2010, when the university moved to get rid of its Confederate caricature mascot, Colonel Reb, Dunlap was part of a booster group opposing the decision, even suggesting that he’d stop his philanthropic giving if Reb got the boot. Well, Reb is no longer, but apparently Dunlap is still a valued booster: As of 2011, he’s named as a charter member of the Vaught Society, which recognizes those who have given $350,000-plus to Ole Miss athletics in their lifetimes. (Dunlap says he’s given more than $1 million.)
16. Notre Dame: John W. “Jay” Jordan
Jordan, who has been called a “merchant banking pioneer,” is the cofounder and co-CEO of Jordan Company, a private equity firm. The Chicagoan has sold billions of dollars’ worth of companies. A former Fighting Irish football player, Jordan has donated tens of millions to his alma mater.
17. Arizona State: Ira Fulton
Fulton, a self-made real estate magnate, is one of the most generous philanthropists in the West. A former Arizona State football player, Fulton has given more than $100 million to his alma mater and sits on the board of the Sun Devil Club, the school’s booster organization.
18. Wisconsin: Herb Kohl
The former four-term US senator is one of the wealthiest people in Wisconsin and a major booster of Badger athletics. Kohl, who built his parents’ grocery stores into a nationwide retail chain, gave $25 million for the construction of a new basketball arena, which was named the Kohl Center. He also owned the Milwaukee Bucks for nearly 30 years, and sold the team in April for $550 million, pushing his then-$264 million net worth even higher.
19. Nebraska: Howard Hawks
Hawks is the founder and chairman of Tenaska, one of the largest private energy companies in the country, specializing in power plants, natural gas, and private equity. Nebraska’s new football training facility is named after him, and he and his son donated generously to the Huskers’ new basketball facility. Hawks spent nearly $200,000 of his own money to get on the University of Nebraska’s Board of Regents.
20. Kansas State: Jack Vanier
Hailing from a prominent, wealthy Kansas ranching family, Vanier gave the largest gift in Kansas State history—$60 million—which included $20 million to renovate the Wildcats’ football stadium. Perhaps the biggest beef man in a beefy state, Vanier served for 26 years on the board of agribusiness giant Archer Daniels Midland, which was the subject of a historic price-fixing suit in 1993.
21 (tie). South Carolina: Joe Rice
Rice is cofounder of Motley Rice, a hugely successful South Carolina law firm. He’s one of America’s most prolific trial lawyers, having won several historic, multibillion-dollar settlements, including a $246 billion victory over the tobacco industry in 1998, which remains the largest civil settlement in American history. The Gamecocks’ new $8.5 million athletics center is in Rice’s name, and coach Steve Spurrier reportedly flew to the Bahamas with Rice on his private plane, and vacationed on Rice’s yacht. Spurrier said Rice is “sort of like the owner of a team.”
21 (tie). North Carolina: Charlie Loudermilk
Loudermilk, a high-profile Atlanta philanthropist, founded and built Aaron’s, a furniture and appliance retailing and leasing company worth $2 billion. The FDIC is suing him over allegations that he presided over predatory lending practices while he was chairman of Buckhead Community Bank in Atlanta. The student-athlete center in Chapel Hill, to which Loudermilk donated $7.5 million, is named for him.
23. Clemson: Thomas Chapman
Chapman is the former CEO and chairman of Equifax, one of America’s largest credit agencies. The company has sparred occasionally with the Federal Trade Commission, which has successfully sued Equifax and other credit firms for violating the Fair Credit Reporting Act. Chapman is one of Clemson’s biggest benefactors, having given millions to athletics and academics there. He played baseball on scholarship there and went on to a brief professional career, playing in the Philadelphia Phillies organization in the 1960s.
24. Missouri: Don Walsworth
This big-time booster heads up Walsworth Publishing, a Missouri-based publishing company that specializes in high school yearbooks. He played forward on the basketball team during his time at Mizzou, and after making his millions in the yearbook biz, Walsworth has given back generously. In 2013, he gave an $8.3 million gift to the school’s athletic program.
25. Louisville: John Schnatter
You might know Schnatter better as the “Papa” behind Papa John’s, the pizza chain he founded in 1984. He did not attend Louisville but is a lifelong resident of the area and the school’s most high-profile booster. Since 1996, he’s donated more than $20 million to the school and paid $5 million to secure naming rights to the football stadium, Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium. (He famously enjoys himself at games—sometimes a little too much.) The pizza baron, reportedly worth $600 million.
