Utah State job is open...

[Joe Bobcat]

Why can’t we have nice things:

https://www.rrcatcast.com/2023/04/06/da ... -moves-on/

Utah State is a better program than MSU, and it’s not that close. But Utah State is also a stepping stone, if he succeeds there he won’t be there long either IMO.

https://utahstateaggies.com/facilities

https://msubobcats.com/facilities

I don't see a ski training area at USU nor do I see either of these:

https://bigskyresort.com/mountain-sports

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJ ... e&ie=UTF-8

Correct me if I'm wrong or can't locate it, but has USU ever hosed an NCAA Championship event such as the one MSU was hosting when the entire country was shut down because of Covid?

I don't know why you keep bringing up Big Sky over and over again, unless the ultra-wealthy people who hang out there but have no other connection to MSU are going to all of a sudden start pouring millions upon millions of dollars into higher education funding so that we can quintuple our coaching salaries to match what USU can offer. And while they're at it, get MSU an invite to the MWC so we're out of a one-bid conference that inherently limits how much the program can grow.

Who do you suggest MSU is going to get to fund their athletic facilities? Do the math:

How many former MSU football players are there? (What is the seating capacity of Bobcat Stadium?). I dare say most of the Saturday crowd at that place adjacent to Kagy got about as close to athletics after high school as Al Bundy...So that's not a very reliable source of funding.

I've never heard of the coaches heading to booster club meetings in the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, etc. But I actually attended one in Glasgow along with about 15 others. Same thing in Great Falls. As long as the athletic department doesn't want to go where the graduates of the school actually live and work, what is wrong with tapping those folks for a few bucks? Hell, everytime I get on I-70 between Bonner Springs, Kansas and Lawrence, Kansas (about 40 miles give or take) I pay the troll $4.00 for the privilege of supporting the University of Kansas. The state will not put a toll road on U.S. 191 up the canyon or on I-90, so why not have the ones that fly into Belgrade, get in their rental car to go spend a couple weeks a year in their 10 to 53 million dollar cabin help pay for improvements? Christ, the convention center in Big Sky hosts some of the largest corporations in the world and Bozeangeles gets an OPI conference once in a while...

But I understand why the local yokel mentality doesn't want to allow somebody like the state's present governor move there and donate 50 million (one of his donations).

Participation trophies all around. Except for a few on the ski team, track and cross country, rodeo, film and television, computer science, microbiology and physics...

How many former jocks are there and what is the football stadium capacity? How many employees are on MSU's payroll? How many of them attend? What is the athletic fee? Not to mention how does the tuition compare to the National average?

Take the money and run. The non-residents who live and play in and around Gallatin County are more vested in the community than the ones who moved there thirty, forty years ago.

Bunch of NIMBYs. Too bad. The ones up the canyon are there and I don't believe they are going away.

I am super confused from your rant, but most new transplants to Big Sky are not going to automatically want to support a university they have no connection to. Your argument makes no sense.

Leon has been making inroads with the Yellowstone Club and Big Sky. I believe the Yellowstone Club hosted a dinner for the football team last Summer. Also, he has hosted people from there in his suite at the Stadium It only takes finding one of those whales who loves sports and takes an interest in MSU and it could land some really significant dollars. To most of those people there, a few million dollars is nothing.

You can't be serious! He needs to go to places like Fort Benton, Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell, Glasgow, Miles City where all the deep pocket filthy rich Montanans reside! Nobody who did not attend MSU will so much as buy a ticket for one of their games let alone fund new facilities! Ludicrous behavior...

Please tell us you're being sarcastic. If you don't know by now that Leon will look under every rock, behind every stock of grain and blade of grass, in every valley and on every mountain top across this entire state and beyond for anyone interested and willing to support Bobcat athletics, you just haven't been paying attention.

[superbobcat]

I don’t have a problem with it at all. Despite what some think we are not a wealthy state and I get tired of trying to pay for it all. Their green money is just as good as mine and they have more of it. The only thing I would urge caution on is the strings that may come with it.

[BobcatDel]

Why can’t we have nice things:

https://www.rrcatcast.com/2023/04/06/da ... -moves-on/

Utah State is a better program than MSU, and it’s not that close. But Utah State is also a stepping stone, if he succeeds there he won’t be there long either IMO.

https://utahstateaggies.com/facilities

https://msubobcats.com/facilities

I don't see a ski training area at USU nor do I see either of these:

https://bigskyresort.com/mountain-sports

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJ ... e&ie=UTF-8

Correct me if I'm wrong or can't locate it, but has USU ever hosed an NCAA Championship event such as the one MSU was hosting when the entire country was shut down because of Covid?

I don't know why you keep bringing up Big Sky over and over again, unless the ultra-wealthy people who hang out there but have no other connection to MSU are going to all of a sudden start pouring millions upon millions of dollars into higher education funding so that we can quintuple our coaching salaries to match what USU can offer. And while they're at it, get MSU an invite to the MWC so we're out of a one-bid conference that inherently limits how much the program can grow.

Who do you suggest MSU is going to get to fund their athletic facilities? Do the math:

How many former MSU football players are there? (What is the seating capacity of Bobcat Stadium?). I dare say most of the Saturday crowd at that place adjacent to Kagy got about as close to athletics after high school as Al Bundy...So that's not a very reliable source of funding.

I've never heard of the coaches heading to booster club meetings in the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, etc. But I actually attended one in Glasgow along with about 15 others. Same thing in Great Falls. As long as the athletic department doesn't want to go where the graduates of the school actually live and work, what is wrong with tapping those folks for a few bucks? Hell, everytime I get on I-70 between Bonner Springs, Kansas and Lawrence, Kansas (about 40 miles give or take) I pay the troll $4.00 for the privilege of supporting the University of Kansas. The state will not put a toll road on U.S. 191 up the canyon or on I-90, so why not have the ones that fly into Belgrade, get in their rental car to go spend a couple weeks a year in their 10 to 53 million dollar cabin help pay for improvements? Christ, the convention center in Big Sky hosts some of the largest corporations in the world and Bozeangeles gets an OPI conference once in a while...

But I understand why the local yokel mentality doesn't want to allow somebody like the state's present governor move there and donate 50 million (one of his donations).

Participation trophies all around. Except for a few on the ski team, track and cross country, rodeo, film and television, computer science, microbiology and physics...

How many former jocks are there and what is the football stadium capacity? How many employees are on MSU's payroll? How many of them attend? What is the athletic fee? Not to mention how does the tuition compare to the National average?

Take the money and run. The non-residents who live and play in and around Gallatin County are more vested in the community than the ones who moved there thirty, forty years ago.

Bunch of NIMBYs. Too bad. The ones up the canyon are there and I don't believe they are going away.

I am super confused from your rant, but most new transplants to Big Sky are not going to automatically want to support a university they have no connection to. Your argument makes no sense.

Leon has been making inroads with the Yellowstone Club and Big Sky. I believe the Yellowstone Club hosted a dinner for the football team last Summer. Also, he has hosted people from there in his suite at the Stadium It only takes finding one of those whales who loves sports and takes an interest in MSU and it could land some really significant dollars. To most of those people there, a few million dollars is nothing.

You can't be serious! He needs to go to places like Fort Benton, Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell, Glasgow, Miles City where all the deep pocket filthy rich Montanans reside! Nobody who did not attend MSU will so much as buy a ticket for one of their games let alone fund new facilities! Ludicrous behavior...

Please tell us you're being sarcastic. If you don't know by now that Leon will look under every rock, behind every stock of grain and blade of grass, in every valley and on every mountain top across this entire state and beyond for anyone interested and willing to support Bobcat athletics, you just haven't been paying attention.

I’m with you Joe. Was the comment real or just to get a rise? Cruzado will help if Leon needs it. Seems to me Gianforte has given about $50mm to MSU facilities and never attended (but lives in Bozeman). The Jones family only gave $101mm to the nursing program to support rural health initiatives….the largest contribution to any nursing program in the US ever and from a Texas couple with no ties to MSU. Didn’t Arthur Blank from HD host an Atlanta Falcons kids camp at MSU pre-Covid and he has a rather notable former Bobcat on the team now. Nick Faldo is out supporting the Bobcats on ESPN Gameday and Rese said it was his favorite site to visit last year. And last but not least Yellowstone’s quite by Beth Dutton….”……all they care about is who the Bobcats are playing this week”…..that’s gotta bring them in!!!! If Leon is indeed up courting the Yellowstone Club folks then more power to him!

[allcat]

Why can’t we have nice things:

https://www.rrcatcast.com/2023/04/06/da ... -moves-on/

Utah State is a better program than MSU, and it’s not that close. But Utah State is also a stepping stone, if he succeeds there he won’t be there long either IMO.

https://utahstateaggies.com/facilities

https://msubobcats.com/facilities

I don't see a ski training area at USU nor do I see either of these:

https://bigskyresort.com/mountain-sports

https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJ ... e&ie=UTF-8

Correct me if I'm wrong or can't locate it, but has USU ever hosed an NCAA Championship event such as the one MSU was hosting when the entire country was shut down because of Covid?

I don't know why you keep bringing up Big Sky over and over again, unless the ultra-wealthy people who hang out there but have no other connection to MSU are going to all of a sudden start pouring millions upon millions of dollars into higher education funding so that we can quintuple our coaching salaries to match what USU can offer. And while they're at it, get MSU an invite to the MWC so we're out of a one-bid conference that inherently limits how much the program can grow.

Who do you suggest MSU is going to get to fund their athletic facilities? Do the math:

How many former MSU football players are there? (What is the seating capacity of Bobcat Stadium?). I dare say most of the Saturday crowd at that place adjacent to Kagy got about as close to athletics after high school as Al Bundy...So that's not a very reliable source of funding.

I've never heard of the coaches heading to booster club meetings in the Twin Cities, Atlanta, Seattle, Denver, etc. But I actually attended one in Glasgow along with about 15 others. Same thing in Great Falls. As long as the athletic department doesn't want to go where the graduates of the school actually live and work, what is wrong with tapping those folks for a few bucks? Hell, everytime I get on I-70 between Bonner Springs, Kansas and Lawrence, Kansas (about 40 miles give or take) I pay the troll $4.00 for the privilege of supporting the University of Kansas. The state will not put a toll road on U.S. 191 up the canyon or on I-90, so why not have the ones that fly into Belgrade, get in their rental car to go spend a couple weeks a year in their 10 to 53 million dollar cabin help pay for improvements? Christ, the convention center in Big Sky hosts some of the largest corporations in the world and Bozeangeles gets an OPI conference once in a while...

But I understand why the local yokel mentality doesn't want to allow somebody like the state's present governor move there and donate 50 million (one of his donations).

Participation trophies all around. Except for a few on the ski team, track and cross country, rodeo, film and television, computer science, microbiology and physics...

How many former jocks are there and what is the football stadium capacity? How many employees are on MSU's payroll? How many of them attend? What is the athletic fee? Not to mention how does the tuition compare to the National average?

Take the money and run. The non-residents who live and play in and around Gallatin County are more vested in the community than the ones who moved there thirty, forty years ago.

Bunch of NIMBYs. Too bad. The ones up the canyon are there and I don't believe they are going away.

I am super confused from your rant, but most new transplants to Big Sky are not going to automatically want to support a university they have no connection to. Your argument makes no sense.

Leon has been making inroads with the Yellowstone Club and Big Sky. I believe the Yellowstone Club hosted a dinner for the football team last Summer. Also, he has hosted people from there in his suite at the Stadium It only takes finding one of those whales who loves sports and takes an interest in MSU and it could land some really significant dollars. To most of those people there, a few million dollars is nothing.

You can't be serious! He needs to go to places like Fort Benton, Great Falls, Billings, Kalispell, Glasgow, Miles City where all the deep pocket filthy rich Montanans reside! Nobody who did not attend MSU will so much as buy a ticket for one of their games let alone fund new facilities! Ludicrous behavior...

You're right, there is no way a professional golfer from England would ever come to our games.

[Cat Grad]

Decent story and his statements concerning hires from Utah as assistants ought to help ease the thoughts about losing several assistants.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-stat ... -anywhere/

[Joe Bobcat]

Decent story and his statements concerning hires from Utah as assistants ought to help ease the thoughts about losing several assistants.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-stat ... -anywhere/

I'm not sure what you have read or listened to but the link below will take you to an interview with Sprinkle that might lead you to think he is working toward having 2 of his assistants from MSU follow him to USU. The whole interview is great but if you only want to catch the part about Danny's thoughts on assistants go to the 5:50 minute mark.

https://kslsports.com/category/podcast_ ... =DJ+%26+PK

[MSU01]

Decent story and his statements concerning hires from Utah as assistants ought to help ease the thoughts about losing several assistants.

https://www.sltrib.com/sports/utah-stat ... -anywhere/

I'm not sure what you have read or listened to but the link below will take you to an interview with Sprinkle that might lead you to think he is working toward having 2 of his assistants from MSU follow him to USU. The whole interview is great but if you only want to catch the part about Danny's thoughts on assistants go to the 5:50 minute mark.

https://kslsports.com/category/podcast_ ... =DJ+%26+PK

Yeah, it was pretty clear to me that Sprinkle wants to bring both Andy Hill (Utah connections) and Chris Haslam (International) to USU. If one or both of those guys is in the running for the MSU head coach job, it makes sense why he wouldn't be able to announce anything yet.

[tetoncat]

So we could lose top 2-3 players, a transfer, and potentially some new freshmen, and top 2 assistants. We better get someone hired fast. If all that happens next year does a 180 potentially from what we were expecting.

[Travelingcat]

Not sure if posted yet, but this is per Parker Cotton on Twitter.

Danny Sprinkle has received a 5-year contract at Utah State, with an initial base salary of $900,000 and an annual increase of $25,000, per an open records request.

Sprinkle's base salary with MSU was $185,711.

USU also pays the $250,000 buyout in Sprinkle's MSU contract.

$900,000/year versus $185,000 per year, pretty damn easy decision to make. Plus he will be able to afford a house. $185,000 a year might get you a decent 2 bedroom condo in bozeangeles.

I'll have to confess I was ignorant about the level of salary differential and it changes my view of his move. That's life-altering money, even excluding the basketball improvement-- hard not to see it as an upgrade.

To me it points even more to the urgency of trying to join the Mountain West and also join FBS for football. University of Wyoming (same market size) is paying their basketball coach 700K base this year. This will always be a job that 90+% of good coaches are going to want to move up from. But right now, with both head and assistant coaches, we're not even able to offer a salary that's vaguely competitive to keep folks here a few years longer than they might otherwise.

Coaches have lots of other considerations besides financial (kids finishing up school, they're from Montana, they're an alum, they really like Bozeman, etc.) If we were able to offer a guy like Coach Sprinkle 450K, very possible we keep him for a few more years until the perfect job comes calling. If we were FBS, we'd have the same thing for our coaches. Some will choose stability and good lifestyle over attempting to "secure" the bag immediately with the next gig.

But right now, we're not even vaguely competitive to hang on to those coaches for a few extra years because our financial compensation is not even in the same universe as the schools the next level up.

[Cat Grad]

So we could lose top 2-3 players, a transfer, and potentially some new freshmen, and top 2 assistants. We better get someone hired fast. If all that happens next year does a 180 potentially from what we were expecting.

What's the history of the hiring process within the MUS? When's the next BOR meeting?

[Hawks86]

The next meeting is May 17th but that has no bearing on when the new coach is hired.

[Cat Grad]

The next meeting is May 17th but that has no bearing on when the new coach is hired.

Who approves the contract? Just sayin...

We all know and understand. Sorry, but I can no longer make heads nor tails out of why "it is what it is..."

[MSU01]

The next meeting is May 17th but that has no bearing on when the new coach is hired.

Who approves the contract? Just sayin...

We all know and understand. Sorry, but I can no longer make heads nor tails out of why "it is what it is..."

I believe that the Commissioner of Higher Education has ultimate approval on coaching hires. At least that's how it was back in 2017 when Bobby Hauck was rehired by UM somewhat controversially due to the issues in their program during his first stint.

[Cat Grad]

The next meeting is May 17th but that has no bearing on when the new coach is hired.

Who approves the contract? Just sayin...

We all know and understand. Sorry, but I can no longer make heads nor tails out of why "it is what it is..."

I believe that the Commissioner of Higher Education has ultimate approval on coaching hires. At least that's how it was back in 2017 when Bobby Hauck was rehired by UM somewhat controversially due to the issues in their program during his first stint.

I was being sparky, forgive me please. Here's the hoops they have to jump through:

https://www.montana.edu/policy/hr_polic ... 711.1.html

[Cat Grad]

The next meeting is May 17th but that has no bearing on when the new coach is hired.

Who approves the contract? Just sayin...

We all know and understand. Sorry, but I can no longer make heads nor tails out of why "it is what it is..."

I believe that the Commissioner of Higher Education has ultimate approval on coaching hires. At least that's how it was back in 2017 when Bobby Hauck was rehired by UM somewhat controversially due to the issues in their program during his first stint.

I was being sparky, forgive me please. Here's the hoops they have to jump through:

https://www.montana.edu/policy/hr_polic ... 711.1.html

Have fun with this:

https://mus.edu/borpol/bor700/711-1.pdf