Do you think Michigan will swoop in a try and hire Hurley? Let’s face it, they have the money $$$ to make an offer that would be hard to refuse and UConn would not be able to match. After what Hurley has done for UConn Basketball I certainly could not be mad at him if he took the cash. Unfortunately, that’s life outside The power conferences. Teams from the power conferences can swoop in and take your best players and coaches in an instant. If I’m Michigan why wouldn’t you kick the tires.
Where does this myth about power conferences being able to do whatever they want in hoops come from? First, am I imagining that we have an all conference player who just bailed on a Big Ten school to come here? Second, yes, the Michigan AD's budget dwarfs ours, but it still is a budget. Could they afford paying Hurley $10M a year? Yes, they could, but only by diverting $8M a year from what they could otherwise use in their football budget. To date, there is no evidence to think either Michigan or other P5 schools are willing to do this, which is why, to date, Big East basketball budgets are competitive with those of the P5.
Does that mean some school won't back up the truck and offer Hurley boatloads more money? No, that could happen. But the myth that, TODAY, P5 schools have basketball budgets dwarfing ours is just that -- a myth. (And again, maybe in five years that will prove to be the case, but our budget has been uncompetitive with Michigan's forever and it has not caused Michigan to spend multiples of what we do for hoops. )
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