Why would it surprise anyone that John Christensen was asleep at the wheel during this process? I asked him straight up where he was at while Trev Alberts was running roughshod over Mike Denney and the program the last few years and of course he had no answer other than to say "this conversation is over."

I have a feeling Shatel's going to be eating serious crow on this one, and if so, the wrestling community AS A WHOLE should rain down all kinds of hell on the Weird-Harold because this publication has shafted our sport for far too long. I think a year-long withholding of ALL information - preview info, dual and tournament results, refusing comment and access to wrestlers on feature stories - would be a good way to tell them what we, as a community, think of their "coverage" of our sport.

It is pretty amazing that someone as seemingly weak as Christsen is in charge of one of our public universities. I really makes me questions the other leadership within the system, especially after UNL's recent boot from the AAU. They will be the only school in the Big 10 that is not a member. It’s hard to excuse that away.

Shatel dismisses ESPN's report saying that it is old news and that he has already covered it (LOL). I cannot see ESPN investing the time and money to do a piece one a DII School that most people have never heard of if there is not something substantial to it. Also if Christensen and Alberts have nothing to hide they should be lining up to get their story out. It appears they have ducked the issue on national TV. The same thing happens with rodents; once the lights come on they scatter.

I hope they cover the financial irresponsibilty that this move reprsents. Trev Alberts states that college athletics has become a business. If that is the case Trev needs a lesson in supply and demand. How is moving to DI going to magically increase attendance for UNO Athletics? Is there a market for more DI Basketball in a state like Nebraska where football is king? Can three DI Basketball Teams within a half of an hour of each other be economically sustained? College programs that are profitable either have a niche fan base (Creighton), are in a big time conference (Nebraska) or control the market of the geographic region they are in (NDSU, SDSU). It absolutely baffles my mind that UNO’s move to DI was allowed to happen by our Board of Regents. This is a huge gamble with the tax payer’s money. Alberts build it and they will come strategy is very risky to say the least. To bank the universities economic future on men’s basketball is absolutely insane.
UNL has their Fans averaging 9,395 people per game. Creighton has their Fans averaging 13,507 people per game. They both have established and loyal fan bases. They also play in legit conferences in the Big Ten and the Missouri Valley. How does UNO then plan to get people to come to their games? They have alienated a significant hard core part of their fan base that they will never get back. With Creighton and Nebraska in the mix why go to a UNO Game? Are people going to line up and pay $15 a game plus $6 to park to see UMKC, SDSU and NDSU at the Civic? That is going to be the choices because a legit team in not going to give UNO a home game. Why eat hamburger (UNO) when you can eat steak (Creighton, Nebraska)? UNO is just creating a more expensive version of what they already have.
In 2010-2011 UNO had an average attendance of around 500 people for men’s basketball and they are making the move to DI and increasing their men’s basketball budget by 114%. Centenary, a current Summit League Member, average attendance for men’s basketball was 531 and they are moving to DIII. Who is making the more fiscally responsible decision UNO or Centenary? The MIAA, UNO’s current conference has 7 teams rank in the top 24 of DII for men’s basketball attendance with an average of 2038 per game. With that kind of attendance why wouldn’t these teams be clamoring to go DI if there is so much money to be made? The truth is that there is not money to be made for teams like UNO in DI. The picture becomes even more bleak when you add in the increased funding for other sports such as volleyball, women basketball, baseball and men’s and women’s soccer. They will be able to say they are DI, but in the end it will not pay the bills.
Summit League Attendance no team in the top 100. The league ranked 21st out of 31 DI Conferences with an average attendance of 2154 per game.
School Average Attendance
Centenary 531
Indiana Purdue Fort Worth 1957
IUIPUI 1225
NDSU 3305
Oakland 4130
Oral Roberts 3369
SDSU 2503
Southern Utah 2315
Western Illinois 759
South Dakota 1454

MIAA Top 25 DII Attendance Average 2038
Rank Division II G/S Attendance Avg. Rank Division II G/S Attendance Avg.
6. Fort Hays St. 14 34,972 2,498
7. Augustana (SD) 15 37,463 2,498
10. Pittsburg St. 12 26,998 2,250
11. Washburn 13 28,160 2,166
12. Central Mo. 14 29,807 2,129
13. St. Cloud St. 12 24,593 2,049
18. Mo. Southern St. 14 25,209 1,801
19. Emporia St. 14 24,627 1,759
24. Mo. Western St. 13 21,655 1,666

quote:

Originally posted by The Observer:
May 8, 2011 Sunday at 9:00a.m. on ESPN and at 10a.m. on ESPN2

Correction: I believe this is on this morning at 8 and 9 central time and not 9 and 10.

Here's the story

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn...ews/story?id=6488960

Great story -- wonder why all this information and research hadn't been done by the alleged leader in Nebraska news media???

(Your sarcasm meter should have just exploded after reading that statement, btw...)

Wrestling was actually operating at a profit, according to the TV report, and football was only losing $50K, not $1.4M as Alberts announced.

If the movers and shakers within the University of Nebraska don't look at this report and start asking questions, I will be very surprised and disappointed.

The story really starts to get into the truth behind what's going on. It stinks to high heaven. It sounds like emails that shouldn't have been deleted were...criminal investigation?

How embarrassing is it that our Board of Regents members just went right along with this plan without any homework or due diligence?

This is from an article in the OWH this morning. I have never heard any of these cost to moving to DI laid out before. They are planning on paying for this from future savings and from contrubutions from the NU Foundaiton. He claims they will have a net gain of $400k by dropping wrestling? How do they come up with their numbers? The OSL piece was in direct contridiction to the numbers given by Trev. Of course neither him Christensen or Whitehouse would be interviewed for the piece. That in its self his highly suspicious. Why would they not take a chance to defend their decision on national television unless they have something to hide. I think there needs to be an investigation into this by the Attorney General.

In all, UNO anticipates transition costs of at least $2.7 million. The school expects to cover them through its existing athletic budget — primarily by savings from cutting football — along with some upfront support from the private University of Nebraska Foundation.

$1.4 million application fee to the NCAA
$250,000 to the Summit League as an entry fee
Severance packages totaling $903,768.
$80,000 to the Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association
Alberts said UNO will save $1.3 million a year by dropping football, while the net savings by cutting wrestling approaches $400,000.

http://www.omaha.com/article/2...-for-division-i-move

OTL says wrestling was AHEAD $143,000 and that Trev did not count the money the partial athletic rides paid toward tuition or the amount would be even higher. But of course we knew it wasn't about money.

I hope everybody got a chance to watch OTL this morning. Really made the "powers" look bad. If the local media doesn't follow through with this report then something is going on.

It's plain and simple, Trev LIED. We in the wrestling community knew it, now the world knows!

I'm going way beyond Trev now. I am really troubled with the fact that the media, politicians and even coach Osborne seem to not want to touch this.

Exactly what happens when decisions like this are made in haste, in a vacuum and by incompetents like Alberts that have no business running a university athletic department. There were many reasons why the dropping of these sports happened and none of them had anything to do with money. I hope State Senator Tyson Larson calls for a criminal investigation into those deleted emails.

This is the article from OTL. It states State law requires that all correspondence which has "long-term ramifications to the operation of the agency" be retained for eight years.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn...ews/story?id=6488960

The article points to a significant misrepresentation of the university's financial statement by not counting tuition receivables;

"The university counts the cost of athletic scholarships as an expense against the football department, but it doesn't count the tuition that student-athletes pay as revenue. If it did, Schwarz said the football program could count at least an additional $700,000 in revenue, and for wrestling it would be at least $200,000."

The value of paying athletes in D2, D3, and NAIA programs is undeniable.

Need to hold the Board of Regents accountable for their vote. Need to find some good lawyers to take this case and up the cost to UNO. That will get Christensen and Alberts fired.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: ArmBar,

So let's publish State Senator Tyson Larson's email so we can all direct our wishes to him that he launch a criminal investigation.

quote:

Originally posted by BLASCHKO:
This is the article from OTL. It states State law requires that all correspondence which has "long-term ramifications to the operation of the agency" be retained for eight years.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn...ews/story?id=6488960

Public officials saying "no comment"? Emails being mysteriously deleted - by whose decision?

Senator Tyson Larson

(402) 471-2801
tlarson@leg.ne.gov

http://news.legislature.ne.gov/dist40/

I just posted on OTL comments section . They referenced (on OTL) that there would be follow up information on the financing aspects on ESPN.com, but I couldn't find it anywhere. Does anyone know where it was or did I misunderstand their reference?

Steve66532 (5/8/2011 at 4:39 PM) Report Violation I hope Trev the Chancellor and the Board of Regents are now proud of how they have showed the rest of the world how we make decisions behind closed doors here in Nebraska. With the national dialog about transparency in government and organizations, it is nice to see that the birds have come home to roost with those involved in this decision. As a Nebraskan, I am shamed that this is the way they have made decisions regarding our student athletes, coaches, alumni and long time supporters. This was an elitist decision, made behind closed doors, manipulating numbers to represent THEIR agenda.

Wait until they go for the money that they already have alluded to that "we will need to bring our facilities up to Div.1 standards" (paraphrased). The money required for a new or updated basketball and hockey facility will DWARF the amounts of money they alluded to being a root cause of dropping these programs.

The TRUTH can stand the light of day. This decison can not. One can only wonder if this decision will come back to haunt them or if the public memory will fade with the next news cycle.

This Nebraskan will not soon forget!