Sports

 Caught SIU President Dan Mahoney on WSIU this morning talking about campus free speech but I was interested by what he had to say about the new $100 million investment in sports facilites on campus. As I have pointed out, he said that although sports can be a big component of student life during their time at college, not a lot of students, save athletes, come to campus because of the sports progams. Of course, top tier colleges with massively funded sports programs may get more PR and attention from students considering a college but a university like SIUC or SIUE, that does not get invited to play in Bowls regularly will rarely get national metion.

I have taught at SEMO for two decades and make it a point to survey my students as to why they chose the school. The only ones that ever mentioned sports were those that came on a scholarship. Overwhelmingly, the reasons were location, price, major offered, finacial aid. Never the sports program

Super Bowl

 Dunno if any of you watched the Super Bowl the other day but not a lot of other people did. Ratings across all platforms were 96 million viewers, lowest viewership since 2006

SIUC Debate Team

In case you were not aware of this, SIUC has a nationally ranked debate squad, with botth the #1 and #7 teams in the country on the squad.  The squad's performance at the national level dates back to the late 1980s, with about a 10 year absence from the national stage from the late 1990s through 2008.  One would think, with this sort of performance, the debae program would get a lot more attention from the university and the community.  After all, it's competitive, which people like, and it lets the univeristy perform at the national level.  Maybe have the Dawg Pound put in aan appearnace ins support of the debate squad or have Director of Debate Dr. Todd Graham come speak to the Chamber of Commerce.  After all, if Coach Lennon gets an invite to speak, shouldn't Coach Graham?

New Basketball Coach?

KFVS12 says the new basketball coach is Barry Hinson, director of Men's Basketball Operations at the University of Kansas

Apathy over SIUC Sports

This article in the Post Dispatch is attracting some attention, especially for the focus on the downturn the SIUC basketball program has taken under Chris Lowrey, which has gone from  NCAA Tournament appearances in the early years of his coaching career at SIUC to a record 22 losses so far this year.  Of not is Lowrey's salary, $762,500 per year, almost double that of SIUC Chancellor Rita Cheng, who makes about half that, $368,000 per year.

Unfortunately, to buy Lowrey out of the remaining two years of his contract would cost the university over $1.4 million dollars, which, while some in the administration would probably love to do, as the performance of the sports programs reflects badly on the $70 million spent for the new sports facilities.  However, the university can ill afford to buy him out, given its current financial difficulties.

SIUC Basketball Relevant?

The Kalamazoo Gazette asks why the Salukis have lost their edge.

Last Game at McAndrew

Yesterday was the projected last game at McAndrew Stadium. About 240 past players showed up to join other fans to watch the game. I find it interesting that the news accounts don't mention the number of people who showed up, maybe because it was smaller than had been expected for the final game at McAndrew. From what I've heard, the athletic department was hoping for around 13,000, significantly more than the reported 11,500 that showed up.

Also, it's interesting that McAndrew stays up until the new staduim gets built. Maybe the new standium is less certain that it seems?

New Basketball Recruit

Is it that good of an idea, given the problems C'dale is having with crime for SIUC to immediately recruit a player who got let go from his last team for admitting to burglary?

Rams in C'dale

The St. Louis Rams are looking at SIUC as a location for one of their training camps sometime in the future. Won't happen until after 2010 as that's the earliest projected date for the rebuilding of McAndrew Stadium