It was orange, but he wore a Tech hat...Originally Posted by Tech77
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It was orange, but he wore a Tech hat...
''Don't be a bad dagh..."
McClelland on swapping playing Texas A&M for Texas Tech for <$100K...
The 2016 football schedule Louisiana Tech athletic director Tommy McClelland inherited back in 2013 could have allowed the Bulldogs to petition for a one-year membership into the Southeastern Conference Western Division. With a few contract changes and the help from a fellow athletic director, Tech swapped a potential non-conference gauntlet of Mississippi State, Texas A&M and Arkansas to Texas Tech, Arkansas and UMass. "We were in the SEC West essentially when I first took over the job," McClelland told The News-Star on Wednesday. "My first reaction was I gotta provide our team the opportunity to be competitive. That's just brutal."It might not have the same firepower Tech now has three road games and still needs to add an FCS home game for 2016 but once the details are digested, McClelland said it made the most sense.
Moving the game from Little Rock to Fayetteville lost us the game according to what the computers say home field advantage is worth. McClelland's Arkansas contract renegotiation didn't involve any additional guarantee money for Tech either while Arkansas made a lot more money from the deal. Also, McClelland's deals called for SEC and Big 12 officials, respectively. You know how Central Michigan stole a win at Oklahoma State? MAC officials in Stillwater. What sparked USM's comeback win at Kentucky? C-USA's lead officiating crew in Lexington. There's no doubt in my mind that we win the Arkansas game with C-USA or neutral officials like other ADs can get in negotiations. Arkansas' 4th down game-winning TD was delivered thanks to 2 holds that were not called.
And as I pointed out a couple years ago, Texas Tech is just as strong a program as Texas A&M. It was laughable for McClelland to say that we'd be uncompetitive with Texas A&M and somehow Texas Tech would be less brutal.
McClelland is 0-2 thus far on these scheduling deals. Hopefully our road trip to Massachusetts turns out better.
This contract extension is shameful when you consider everything as a whole. 5 years?! Why??? And what does it say about our AD's leadership when he takes a pay raise when we don't have the money to fund full COA to 4 sports nor partial COA to our other 12 sports? Shameful.
Last edited by Dawg06; 09-18-2016 at 04:41 PM.
That was in Starkville. Otherwise, spot on. It's laughable that he's done enough to deserve a raise.
One more thing. The game that was supposed to be played at Texas A&M, BVDV's contract called for C-USA officials.
This is all on y'alls' boy, Guice. "he gets it" some of you said. Well....gets what?
From the original Arkansas contract:
1. The parties mutually agree to cause their respective varsity football teams to meet in Little Rock, Arkansas, on the 3rd day of September 2016 and then and there engage in a game of football with the game time to be designated by the HOME TEAM at a later time.
13. It is agreed by both parties that in the event of breach by either party, actually damages would be of an uncertain amount and, in view of that fact, the breaching party shall pay the non-breaching party the sum of Nine Hundred Twenty Five Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($925,000) as reasonable and contemplated liquidated damages.
There was no "out" in the contract for the game to be moved to Fayetteville.
If Tommy did not agree to move the game to Fayetteville, either the game would have been played in Little Rock as it was contracted, or Arkansas would have been forced to pay the $925,000 buyout to Tech as a breach of contract.
Instead, Tommy allowed Tech to get shafted. He agreed to let Arkansas move the game to put Tech in a more disadvantaged situation, let Arkansas make more money, let Tech lose more money, not make Arkansas pay Tech any additional guarantee, nor did he make any attempt to get rid of the SEC officials. This was negligence on the part of our AD. Worst. Negotiator. Ever. And the sad part is that the local media refuses to call him out on his horrible deal.
Yeah, if we had to agree to move the game to Fayetteville and we got nothing out of moving the game then that's very weak leadership by our AD. Anybody got evidence to refute this?
For some reason Guice thinks Tommy is the "best hire he's made." Seriously. That's what he said.
I'm not making this up. The only change to the contract was the location of the game. Tech got absolutely nothing. We somehow found an AD more incompetent than BVDV.
...piss poor negotiator! Leaves money on the table and smiles about it!
I'm an asshole! What's your excuse?
Isabella asked why the game was moved. Our AD refused to comment. Apparently he had one of his minions in the TAC basement tell Isabella (off the record of course) that Arkansas threated to cancel the game completely. Isabella (the SEC homer) is convinced that Arkansas could have walked away w/out paying us a dime.
Which is laughable.
13. It is agreed by both parties that in the event of breach by either party, actually damages would be of an uncertain amount and, in view of that fact, the breaching party shall pay the non-breaching party the sum of Nine Hundred Twenty Five Thousand and No/100 Dollars ($925,000) as reasonable and contemplated liquidated damages.
Arkansas would've had to pay Tech $925,000 to cancel the game.
From the chat a couple weeks ago:
Q: How many less Tech fans will make the trip to Arkansas with the game moved from Little Rock to Fayetteville? How much did Arkansas pay to move the game? And if they didn't pay, why did Tommy McClelland move the game?
Isabella: Hard question to answer. This game was moved (contract was adjusted) on Nov. 5, 2014. It's not like this just happened 2 months ago, so I don't know how many planned on going then versus how many are going now. I imagine there are people who don't want to tack on another three hours to drive.
I've reported this before, but as a refresher, there was no additional language about money paid to move the game. The only terms of the original contract that changed was a venue change.
Arkansas has gone away from having games in Little Rock and wants to move them home. Tech didn't have much leverage in this situation. Sounds like it was either move the game or we'll find another team to come play us. This year, Arkansas kept Alcorn State in Little Rock. It would make sense that Arkansas wanted to play a better opponent at home and leave a SWAC team for Little Rock. Louisiana Tech at home generates way more interest than Alcorn State at home
Isabella is the guy who believed our AD had a contract with Goff. He actually wrote that he saw the contract. He was not allowed to publish a copy of that PUBLIC RECORD, but he believed it.
FYI Tommy's $23,000 raise would've been enough to fund full cost of attendance stipends for 16 student-athletes (an entire basketball team) instead of only funding a partial amount.
But... "That's not who we are."
What message is our "leadership" sending our student-athletes?
Last edited by Dawg06; 09-19-2016 at 11:03 AM.
I can't see where they had any leverage. Unless we would be completely unable to find a replacement. MAYBE Arkansas with its deep pockets has an easier time replacing a game.
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