Drake and UNI lose annual Iowa & Ia St games

[uniftw]

I'm not sure where this hate for Dannen is coming from. I've enjoyed him over Hartzell who became so obsessed with filling seats and giving away tickets that he probably lost us even more money. Dannen is a great guy who loves this university and loves his job. I'm not sure how many of you have had the opportunity to talk with some of our past few AD's but Troy is a class act.

Agree, he's a great guy, works hard with a very tough job. But, football & basketball need to breakeven for UNI to avoid more athletic program cuts. state funding will continue to decrease, need aggressive, proactive leadership or UNI will need to make further cuts.

Basketball does make money at UNI, and football should this year. However, there are very few programs that break even without money from conference tie ins at the fbs level, and the only fcs schools that make money are Montana, App State, Georgia Southern, and maybe a couple CAA schools

That is why he didn't do anything that could hurt the fb games against iowa or iowa state.

Hartzellwas a"better"people person, but he was so separate to have as many people at gamed as possible that he gave thousands of tickets away for nothing the tickets then went largely unused. Under Dannen UNI had set records for ticket revenue 2 or 3 times now

[unipanther99]

Dannen doesn't show his passion like Hartzell did, but Dannen is a realist at a time when UNI athletics needed a hard dose of reality. Hartzell cut men's swimming and tennis several years back and swore he would never cut another program. The financials finally caught up with us, and it was clear something would have to be done and he wasn't exactly seeing eye to eye with upper management at the university, so he left. In walks Dannen, who everyone assumes to be a yes man, but he's been a breath of fresh air IMO. Our athletic program is on much more stable footing than it was before he arrived.

A month or two ago it was Dannen bringing this issue up to the media, trying to get public pressure to come down on Iowa and Iowa State to continue the series. It's clear to me that public pressure isn't there, and probably largely due to apathy toward Iowa and Iowa State basketball the past several years. At this point, we need to accept reality and take the best deal we can get. Maybe the interest to renew the home-home series will be there in the future, and it doesn't make sense to unnecessarily burn bridges right now.

As for the football situation, there are schools out there who would occasionally pay us more, but I would much rather have the "steady paycheck." And as a fan, I really enjoy being able to attend and tailgate at these games without long drives, flights, or hotel rooms.

[DoubleJayAlum]

Dannen doesn't show his passion like Hartzell did, but Dannen is a realist at a time when UNI athletics needed a hard dose of reality. Hartzell cut men's swimming and tennis several years back and swore he would never cut another program. The financials finally caught up with us, and it was clear something would have to be done and he wasn't exactly seeing eye to eye with upper management at the university, so he left. In walks Dannen, who everyone assumes to be a yes man, but he's been a breath of fresh air IMO. Our athletic program is on much more stable footing than it was before he arrived.

I have no idea on the comparison between the two ADs so I won't touch on that, but Dannen does seem to be the epitome of a yes man. I understand not wanting to burn bridges, but you can express concern/disapproval of the cancelling of the series without going to a gas can. Dannen's comments in the DMR not only don't express those concerns/disapproval, but actually seems to justify the termination of the home and home series. That is why people are really questioning his comments. He gave Iowa and Iowa State political cover! He would have been better off saying nothing at all (like the Drake AD apparently did) than saying what he actually did. A casual sports fan that reads that article is left with the impression that Iowa/ISU's decisions were good ones and that is entirely unacceptable.

Add to this latest episode the fact that Dannen was the one who came out publicly a year ago about UNI potentially dropping to D2 if state funding was reduced further (something that will certainly be used against UNI in recruiting), and one wonders if he is really thinking through his comments before he makes them or is just positioning himself for a higher paying job with Iowa/ISU.

[unipanther99]

DJA, it's like you're single-handedly trying to keep the rumor alive that going to D-2 was ever an option for UNI. Dannen's report clearly showed UNI going to D-2 would lose even more money.

[Ali]

Maybe we should take a cue from Illinois St and look at moving to FBS.

[unipanther99]

Maybe we should take a cue from Illinois St and look at moving to FBS.

Perhaps you are correct. It as if it's an accepted excuse to not even come close to breaking even.

[DoubleJayAlum]

DJA, it's like you're single-handedly trying to keep the rumor alive that going to D-2 was ever an option for UNI. Dannen's report clearly showed UNI going to D-2 would lose even more money.

And it is like you are completely incapable of accepting the fact that this was reported in a newspaper story that everyone read.

Why ignore everything else I said in my post about being a yes man? No comment on that whatsoever?

[Ali]

DJA, it's like you're single-handedly trying to keep the rumor alive that going to D-2 was ever an option for UNI. Dannen's report clearly showed UNI going to D-2 would lose even more money.

And it is like you are completely incapable of accepting the fact that this was reported in a newspaper story that everyone read.

Why ignore everything else I said in my post about being a yes man? No comment on that whatsoever?

Who cares? Move on.

[unipanther99]

DJA, it's like you're single-handedly trying to keep the rumor alive that going to D-2 was ever an option for UNI. Dannen's report clearly showed UNI going to D-2 would lose even more money.

And it is like you are completely incapable of accepting the fact that this was reported in a newspaper story that everyone read.

Why ignore everything else I said in my post about being a yes man? No comment on that whatsoever?

You've never been able to come up with a quote from a UNI official saying D-2 was a viable option. It was reasearched only to show those on the outside that it wasn't a viable option. Because someone prints something that is misleading or inaccurate in a news story doesn't make it so.

I'm not in a position to know if Dannen is actually a yes man or not. President Allen hasn't exactly chimed in on the subject, but I would imagine situations where the AD and upper administration don't agree in lockstep are fairly rare these days. Just because Hartzell was a lone wolf, sometimes bordering on loose canon, doesn't make Dannen a yes man.

[uniftw]

The d2 crap dja bring up is the fbs study uni did acouple years ago. Three move looked at moving fbs, d1 non scholly (like drake) out moving d2....d2 was said to be the worst option....


Dja is cherry picking to for his agenda