Lyons got his man... boosters did not.

[bbwvfan]

So... Lyons stood up to the power of the deep pockets and denied their push.

No balls... showed he has some.

Leaves me with some questions...
1. How is this going to go for Shane and his football program?

2. Will Neal reach out to the deep pockets? Will there be a plan for doing so?

3. IMO, unifying the fan base is one thing. Bringing the deep pockets back to the fold is another. These rich old boys were pissed to have Rich leave... pissed to have Stewart put in place. Can/will they get behind Neal Brown?

4. I don’t believe WVU can grow as a program without their support. We don’t have enough deep pockets to replace them. Although, who really knows.... we’ve never really tried before. Gee just completed a $1 billion dollar endowment campaign. Can Gee get something done for his football program? Can he get a private campaign up and going? It’s kind of his thing...

Gee was directly responsible for pushing Dana out the door.

 

[Slaton10]

So... Lyons stood up to the power of the deep pockets and denied their push.

No balls... showed he has some.

Leaves me with some questions...
1. How is this going to go for Shane and his football program?

2. Will Neal reach out to the deep pockets? Will there be a plan for doing so?

3. IMO, unifying the fan base is one thing. Bringing the deep pockets back to the fold is another. These rich old boys were pissed to have Rich leave... pissed to have Stewart put in place. Can/will they get behind Neal Brown?

4. I don’t believe WVU can grow as a program without their support. We don’t have enough deep pockets to replace them. Although, who really knows.... we’ve never really tried before. Gee just completed a $1 billion dollar endowment campaign. Can Gee get something done for his football program? Can he get a private campaign up and going? It’s kind of his thing...

Gee was directly responsible for pushing Dana out the door.

We can see it’s super important. Look what this single donar has done for Houston

 

[WVUDAD]

We can see it’s super important. Look what this single donar has done for Houston

There is also a serious danger in just a few "mega boosters" having too much influence. Guys on here talk about no balls, but look at the Houston president and AD, ZERO balls, just doing what the casino guy says to do. Is it the college's football team or that one guy's? I would rather drop down to the MAC than have one guy running our program as a hostage. I get that these guys want to see their school do well, but the teams should be first and formost for the students and athletes, then for the fans. I get that I am wanting a dream from 50 years ago, but why is there an AD and president at these schools that have that one billionaire booster who calls all the shots?

 

[mad2mc]

There is also a serious danger in just a few "mega boosters" having too much influence. Guys on here talk about no balls, but look at the Houston president and AD, ZERO balls, just doing what the casino guy says to do. Is it the college's football team or that one guy's? I would rather drop down to the MAC than have one guy running our program as a hostage. I get that these guys want to see their school do well, but the teams should be first and formost for the students and athletes, then for the fans. I get that I am wanting a dream from 50 years ago, but why is there an AD and president at these schools that have that one billionaire booster who calls all the shots?

Where do you think most of the money comes from for the sports program? I do not donate to the MAC, so other guys have to step up and if I did donate, guys like Hendricks funnel in thousands, if not millions, more than I could ever dream. I don’t know how King Ollie did it, whether it was backing from some of the deep pockets or not, but he did a hell of a lot for WVU athletics in 2 years than any other AD as of yet. Lyin’ Shane Lyons taking credit for managing what Ollie started?

If he manages to pull this off without booster support, I will then give him credit. He was hired to move and improve the sports program. I haven’t seen 1 project that his name on it except the hiring of Brown. He doesn’t get his balls back.

 

[Slaton10]

There is also a serious danger in just a few "mega boosters" having too much influence. Guys on here talk about no balls, but look at the Houston president and AD, ZERO balls, just doing what the casino guy says to do. Is it the college's football team or that one guy's? I would rather drop down to the MAC than have one guy running our program as a hostage. I get that these guys want to see their school do well, but the teams should be first and formost for the students and athletes, then for the fans. I get that I am wanting a dream from 50 years ago, but why is there an AD and president at these schools that have that one billionaire booster who calls all the shots?

I think power 5 schools and all schools for that matter are at the point of no return. And this is what presidents and boards are paid to do. Find ways to funnel as much money into the schools as they can. Athletics has become an almost entirely different animal of how it does the math to generate monies. But in some ways it’s not too much different in the ways research departments recruit high level talent professionals to come to Morgantown.

 

[GoldRusher]

I agree bb the big money guys have to be all in or you are toast as a program. CFB has always been about money and making as much as possible as a school but its on a whole other level as slaton says.

JMO but I have to believe if its Brown and Lyons working together to raise funds as opposed to Dana and Lyons WVU is going to be in fine shape.

Just from the reports we have seen about Dana’s secret squirrel personality and judging from some of the things Dana has said in the past about not liking the ceo end of things and just wanting to coach ball I would think that the bond with the big fish donors is about to get better than its been... maybe in quite awhile actually.
Still too early to say for sure but.. Like They said over on TOS I agree, I dont think this is another chapter in WVU football, I think its another novel altogether.

 

[WVUDAD]

Good read on Shane "balls aplenty" Lyons dealings in the past month or so:

Shane Lyons Passed His First Major Test As WVU AD