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Any Burman supporters out there?

Wow...I'm very surprised by this spread...pretty diverse.

I’m surprised by the 7s and 8. We haven’t had sustained success in any sport other than arguably women’s basketball (and football consistency). There have been some really bad men’s basketball hires. The MWC makeup has only got worse in his tenure but I see that as out of his control. The positives I see are a consistent presence to keep the department functioning and an instrumental role in the HAPC and stadium remodels and bringing in Bohl and a few other coaches.

He's good at soliciting funds from state legislature.

He's an absolute master at creating the illusion of an insurmountable bar for success. Hell, he's so damn good he and Bohl crafted a plan to get junior a promotion and Burman sold it to the fanbase with a bunch of nonsense about transfers, continuity, blah, blah. Of course, it was enough for the fanbase to swallow hook line and sinker.

Man's genius in that regard.

307bball wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 9:54 am Any Burman supporters out there?

I think Burman is doing the very best he can. But that's not good enough. Get someone who can do better.

Good successes on the women's side of things. Each year we seem to have two of their teams playing very well.

Nice work getting facilities upgrades, even if I'm not a personal fan of the place formerly known as The Dome of Doom. Thank god the aquatics center is underway.

The men's b-ball roller coaster is a big negative for me.

Shame on you 6's, 7's, and 8's.

Question: What athletic department in the MWC has the fewest championships since inception, including those teams that left?

McPeachy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 8:45 am Shame on you 6's, 7's, and 8's.

Question: What athletic department in the MWC has the fewest championships since inception, including those teams that left?

It is Wyoming and I don’t think it’s particularly close for MWC championships.

We did have a run in wrestling for Western Wrestling Conference championships prior to joining the Big 12 but I am presuming you are not counting those in the total.

McPeachy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 8:45 am Shame on you 6's, 7's, and 8's.

Question: What athletic department in the MWC has the fewest championships since inception, including those teams that left?

I don't think the people that rated him higher are looking to the AD to deliver conference championships. I did not rate him that high but I also don't look to him to deliver titles. I've long believed that the function of a collegiate AD has more to do with high attendance in revenue sports and utilizing the athletics programs as a marketing tool for the university itself than raw competitive success (though they are highly correlated).

307bball wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:08 pm

McPeachy wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 8:45 am Shame on you 6's, 7's, and 8's.

Question: What athletic department in the MWC has the fewest championships since inception, including those teams that left?

I don't think the people that rated him higher are looking to the AD to deliver conference championships. I did not rate him that high but I also don't look to him to deliver titles. I've long believed that the function of a collegiate AD has more to do with high attendance in revenue sports and utilizing the athletics programs as a marketing tool for the university itself than raw competitive success (though they are highly correlated).

Championships = High Attendance = Front Porch Of The University of Wyoming = Increased Enrollment = Everyone Wins

IMO - the primary, and most critical function of an athletic department is to win championships. You don't put out a radio ad with just silence, nor a print ad on social with an incoherent illegible message. That is what "marketing" Wyoming is doing by not winning championships in our mostly poop conference.

If the ad isn't responsible for success, why is he the 5th highest paid uw employee?

McPeachy wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:43 am

307bball wrote: ↑Tue Feb 13, 2024 1:08 pm

I don't think the people that rated him higher are looking to the AD to deliver conference championships. I did not rate him that high but I also don't look to him to deliver titles. I've long believed that the function of a collegiate AD has more to do with high attendance in revenue sports and utilizing the athletics programs as a marketing tool for the university itself than raw competitive success (though they are highly correlated).

Championships = High Attendance = Front Porch Of The University of Wyoming = Increased Enrollment = Everyone Wins

IMO - the primary, and most critical function of an athletic department is to win championships. You don't put out a radio ad with just silence, nor a print ad on social with an incoherent illegible message. That is what "marketing" Wyoming is doing by not winning championships in our mostly poop conference.

I largely agree...but it's nuanced at the administrative layer. They get to make one decision (hiring somebody) that has an impact on winning championships...and then those results are kind of out of their hands. The other 99.99% of the stuff they do is trying to keep that high attendance and marketing visibility whether they win championships or not. Nick Saban has been a legendary coach at Alabama who is rightly credited with winning. The AD at Alabama is somebody whose name I don't even know. That is because he's not the one primarily responsible for all the success Alabama has had. Now he made the right hire, obviously, but after that it's up to the coach to recruit strategize and win. If you make the right decision as an AD with a dynamic hire who is just better than everybody...your job of selling your university is trivially easy. If you screw up (*cough Wyo men's basketball *cough), it is nigh impossible. Now most of the time you don't get to live at the extremes. You make hires that are within the middle of the spectrum and you do the best you can.

I am not one who has strong feelings about Burman but I've examined that lately. It seems like most people view him as mediocre with a small contingent that think he's bad and an even smaller contingent that view him positively. One of the criticisms of him is the fact that Wyoming's athletic programs have very few champions in all sports compared to other conference schools. I have a couple questions:

Has there been a time period in Wyoming athletics where there were either a lot of champions or an average amount of champions in comparison to conference members?

Do you think that the modest success of the football program the last 8 years is saving him?

As I mentioned in a post awhile back, Burman is Laramie's Fair-Haired-Boy. His daddy was a millionaire who owned Burman Chevrolet and developed a lot of land along Grand Avenue in East Laramie. Tom is probably a Laramie High grad, and possibly a UW grad. I don't see him leaving any time soon ... not until Tom himself chooses to leave. But hey ... As usual ...There's always next year!

In light of the CSU Joe Parker firing, I guess a positive is that Burman didn't get us into a terrible financial situation. CSU is now facing 22 million yearly athletic budget deficits that Parker is responsible for because of the terrible stadium bond financing plan.

Burr in our saddle is a complete clown. He is awful a promoter and like someone already mentioned he is a good old boy who comes from money and privilege and that nepotism highway is always working for many in the state who have been in that good old boy pipeline for years. Mediocrity is his calling and in all too many cases mediocrity is the new excellence. Burman is like that wallpaper in your house in that its always been there.He needs to scuttle down Grand Ave and hit I80 east or west and just keep on driving far and farther away.