Nathan Christensen Introductory Press Conference

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TreeTop said:
From the TribStar…

"I want to meet with as many people as possible," he told the Tribune-Star when asked about his priorities. "Basketball is obviously what makes this place tick, but I want broad-based successes. And football is a priority for me."

Exactly what I didn’t want to
Bluethunder said:
He can be as big of a football guy as he wants, it still doesn’t change the fact that there is little interest in the program from fans, alumni and former players. It also doesn’t change the finances regarding the issues Jason mentioned above.

The fiscal reality of the situation says that unless he is is able to raise millions upon millions specifically for football, he will ultimately have to make some difficult decisions.

He is quoted as saying that he understands that basketball is Indiana State’s bread and butter. But basketball, baseball, etc are not helped by football. A rising tide can lift all boats, but the football program is a broken down fishing boat with more than a few leaks and taking on water.

There is only so much money in the athletic department coffers. Do you want to use a large percentage on a program that very few seem to care about, or will you continue to throw 4-5 million year after year at a program that Terre Haute and Indiana State students/alums have shown they have little appetite for supporting with their own donations?

His answer to the question above will tell us whether he is a forward thinking person with the backbone to actually improve athletics at State or whether he is a status quo, don’t rock the boat type who will just duct tape around the problems and continue to waste time and resources.
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So, what if football does become a winning team, and we have a big excitement like we did basketball and baseball? Maybe the new casino that needs big spenders sponsors the team, and those fans stay at the hotel? Let’s face it! No matter how good our basketball and baseball team does at the Mid Major level, it will get dismantled by The Big, Power Whatever Vultures.
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Sherman should be the A.D., not stuck behind a microphone...this is the environment where his "True Grit" can prosper. New guy? When did UNI drop FB? Baseball? SD St...isn't that where "The Great One" was weaned?
 
I'm hoping that Nathan's experiences at UNI and SDSU will allow him to see just how far behind the 8-ball ISU football is and how it would be nearly impossible to turn it into a sail compared to a anchor. UNI isn't close to what they were in the 80s-90s-00s, but they still have a nice indoor facility, healthy attendance where they can draw 10,000 pretty routinely, solid alumni/donor base for the program, and an extremely rich history and they are struggling to compete in the current climate. I hope that he remembers how engaged that schools fanbase is with football and realize it's tough for them compared to what he will see with ISU football donors.

He is coming over from one of the hottest FCS programs in the country. He knows exactly what it takes to compete at the highest level of FCS (which really doesn't get you much) he knows what the facilities look like, what attendance looks like, what tailgates, donors, fan engagement, athletes, coaches, budget, stadium, he knows what all of that looks like. I don't think it will take him long to look around and just see we do NOT have it. It's going to take some marbles but i hope he has them to make the tough decisions.
 
BankShot said:
Sherman should be the A.D., not stuck behind a microphone...this is the environment where his "True Grit" can prosper. New guy? When did UNI drop FB? Baseball? SD St...isn't that where "The Great One" was weaned?
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Lansing went to school at South Dakota.
 

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The biggest problem ISU football has is the same problem ISU basketball had; and that's being stuck in a contract with a below average coach that can't get out of his own way.
 
Sycamorefan96 said:
The biggest problem ISU football has is the same problem ISU basketball had; and that's being stuck in a contract with a below average coach that can't get out of his own way.
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Far from the only problem but it is a problem. Just for the sake of argument Mallory is here until 2027, that is 4 more seasons. Let's say he gets canned after those 4 seasons of maybe a couple of wins. How much time would be enough to give a new coach to turn around the program that hasn't been a winner in decades? 4? 5? 6 years? It isn't going to happen overnight. So best cast scenario is we have a winning team in 8 seasons. 8x4.6million = $36,800,000. BEST case scenario we spend nearly $40,000,000 for 1 winning football season. That doesn't get into a falling apart stadium, NIL, budget increases, coaching salary increases, donor fatigue, etc. I mean how do you even entice a young and up and coming coach to come here? We need to cut the program now, and not waste another dime into the program
 
Bluethunder said:
Two ways to look at that. A priority to keep, or a priority to deal with.

A bat in my house is a huge priority as well, because it needs to be dealt with.

If he is saying that football is a priority because it needs to be discussed, looked at, dealt with, etc then I agree 100%

If he is saying it should be a priority as a sport at Indiana State, then the wrong hire has been made…..period.
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You know you aren't the AD and I don't think he is going to ask for your opinion. Take a look down the road at Evansville. They dropped football to put that money towards basketball and where did it get them.
 
swsycamore said:
You know you aren't the AD and I don't think he is going to ask for your opinion. Take a look down the road at Evansville. They dropped football to put that money towards basketball and where did it get them.
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Of all the problems Evansville might have, nit wasting money on FB isn't one of them.

If they can't buy basketball success as is, imagine how much worse they'd be if their program had the boat anchor that is college FB dragging them down.
 

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swsycamore said:
You know you aren't the AD and I don't think he is going to ask for your opinion. Take a look down the road at Evansville. They dropped football to put that money towards basketball and where did it get them.
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Or Creighton, or Providence, or Marquette, or Wichita State or Xavier or Gonzaga or…

Don’t take it so personal. The Math is your enemy, not us.
 
If ISU dropped football we'd have way more in common with the public Horizon League schools (minus Youngstown St) than any Big East school or Wichita St.
 
MovingScreenOfDeath said:
Of all the problems Evansville might have, nit wasting money on FB isn't one of them.

If they can't buy basketball success as is, imagine how much worse they'd be if their program had the boat anchor that is college FB dragging them down.
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Right. Evansville has 2k students. If they had football, they’d have to fund millions through student fees. And if they were funding millions through student fees with only 2k students, that increase in student fees would only implode their enrollment even further.
 

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swsycamore said:
You know you aren't the AD and I don't think he is going to ask for your opinion. Take a look down the road at Evansville. They dropped football to put that money towards basketball and where did it get them.
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Evansville's mistake was joining the Missouri Valley Conference, not dropping football.

Tiny school with a tiny fan base and tiny endowment. That was a much better fit in the Horizon and it's no shock that their basketball success fell off after moving up. You could make an argument that them leaving the Horizon was what opened the door for Butler.
 
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