If we fire Stoops, how do we play for the buyout and the hiring of a new coach?

4UK

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Sep 26, 2005
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We have a lot of dumbasses who think this is a reasonable way to spend money , it's not .

Do you know anything about business? And make no mistake, major college football is a business. Anyone with any business sense at all understands the concept of sunk costs. Sometimes you have to admit you made a mistake or a bad decision and move on. It's cheaper to take a loss in the short-term, rather than trying to hang onto an idea or product (or in this case, a coach) that's clearly a failure. The best managers never let sunk costs keep them from making changes that clearly have to be made for the long-term future of the company.
 
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Jan 29, 2003
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Do you know which game this was? I'd like to know what the reported attendance was because actual attendance can't be over 10,000
That was the Vandy game, Joker's last. I've seen sparse crowds at Commonwealth before, but nothing anything close to that. After that day, Barnhart simply had no choice in the matter - Joker had to go.

Probably shouldn't quote me, but I'm pretty sure announced attendance that day was 44,000+. Crowd estimation when it's that sparse and spread out is tricky, but hard for me to believe if it was 10,000 or better.
 
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Jan 29, 2003
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The best managers never let sunk costs keep them from making changes that clearly have to be made for the long-term future of the company.
Ironic that you'd phrase it that way, there was a story in the Wall Street Journal just yesterday about this in the sports world. The subject was rookie quarterbacks, and how a growing number of people and some advanced studies indicate you can tell reliably pretty early on if a kid has what it takes to make it as an NFL QB. But human nature being what it is, teams and coaches hang on and on, hoping against hope that the light bulb will go on. A main reason they don't do the smart thing - meaning, cut your losses and start the cleanup sooner - is pride and ego. To admit the guy you took #2 overall is a bust after only 2 seasons (even 1) is to tell the world you screwed up and maybe your judgment isn't great. Refusing to own up just compounds the problem, but that's the way it usually works out.
 

Xception

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Do you know anything about business? And make no mistake, major college football is a business. Anyone with any business sense at all understands the concept of sunk costs. Sometimes you have to admit you made a mistake or a bad decision and move on. It's cheaper to take a loss in the short-term, rather than trying to hang onto an idea or product (or in this case, a coach) that's clearly a failure. The best managers never let sunk costs keep them from making changes that clearly have to be made for the long-term future of the company.
And what is your plan going forward , if you take the hit you have no plan in place and at this school it's far from likely that it will be turned around . But go ahead with a buyout and watch the next coach likely fail like all of them have , good business .
If we were an elite program then it makes more sense , UK does not need to be wasteful when it's probably not going to change anything . If you had a elite coach lined up then maybe it makes sense there but we don't , it's another dice roll . That's bad business and in the real world you'd go out of business . Let's be honest that it has nothing to do with business at all , it's just a bunch of hissy fitting fans trying to justify the squandering of money .
 
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The_Godfather_rivals

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May 22, 2002
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Bottom line: Holding on to a coach that you would fire if it weren't for the cost of his buyout, only works to compound the problem.

The decision to retain or fire Stoops needs to be made independent of the cost of doing so. While the cost is steep and would be difficult for Barnhart to recover from in terms of people's trust in his judgment when negotiating on UK's behalf, the cost is something that UK can afford long term.