Tuesday, May 22, 2018

"Good coaches will succeed"

The excuse for firing coaches that do not win is built into the motto above. And the problem with it is that there is an element of truth in it. On the whole, all else being equal, as with all endeavors, we can expect that the better coaches will win more games than those who are not as capable.

The problem is that in the D1 money sports, we expect success so quickly that often not enough time is given for the adage to hold true, and so coaches are tempted to bend the rules to succeed quickly to save their jobs. The emphasis is put on bringing in talent as opposed to developing talent, and recruiting is where the sleeze is found in college sports.

Probably in the sports that are not so visible and so tied up with big budgets, this saying is much more true; but in football and basketball we have changed it to read, "Coaches who are willing to cheat will succeed." And that is our fault, to a large extent. At least we fans are a contributing factor.

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