Caught the tail end of their conversation today, talking about CW and Rogers was saying they have to do something to get this all under control, etc... Doug said Gerry Dinardo (HC that went from Vanderbilt to LSU in 1995) told Doug how when he was hired LSU drove him to every major high school in the state and introduced him to the HC's at each high school. Afterwards, the donors at LSU told Dinardo if there was a player he had to have, just let them know and they would "take care of it". Dinardo said he went home and told his wife, how could I have been so naive at Vanderbilt to think that we could ever compete in this league?
Doug used the story to tell Mark that rampant cheating within the SEC has been around for a LONG time and that the donors are use to shelling out big bucks and now that it is legalized the donors are basically all over it.
Doug talked about Charles Thompson on the cover of SI and from that the OU administration actually cleaned up the program quite a bit, and he said although OU has cheated (Big Red Cars as an example), he said it was never near the level of the SEC schools. He said that OU donors do not understand the mentality of donors in the SEC and that for many of these SEC donors athletics is far more important than academics. Doug said the fact OU does not have the donor desire to bid at the level of the SEC schools for CW proves the move to the SEC could not be timed any worse (including losing LR and now having an unproven HC without LR's name recognition to recruit to) for OU, and that right now, the big donors at OU simply do not place the same importance or desire to do what it takes to win in the SEC.
Doug said in the past OU was guaranteed to win at least 10 games or more in the Big 12 and be able to recruit within your own conference as the best program and cheat at a small level. He said OU goes to the SEC now and has zero branding as a big dog in the SEC, and he said the days are over for OU winning at least 10 games every year and the fanbase is in a for a huge adjustment and new reality, and he said in the SEC they will be just another school within the 6 or so in the SEC whose donors have been investing far more in football than the donors at OU. Doug specifically mentioned Texas A&M and said A&M has far more donor desire to spend huge bucks to win big in the SEC and OU will not be able to out spend A&M let alone Texas.
Mark Rogers did not dispute ANY of it.
It was a pretty sobering message laid out by Doug, and Rogers did not dispute any of it.
Doug used the story to tell Mark that rampant cheating within the SEC has been around for a LONG time and that the donors are use to shelling out big bucks and now that it is legalized the donors are basically all over it.
Doug talked about Charles Thompson on the cover of SI and from that the OU administration actually cleaned up the program quite a bit, and he said although OU has cheated (Big Red Cars as an example), he said it was never near the level of the SEC schools. He said that OU donors do not understand the mentality of donors in the SEC and that for many of these SEC donors athletics is far more important than academics. Doug said the fact OU does not have the donor desire to bid at the level of the SEC schools for CW proves the move to the SEC could not be timed any worse (including losing LR and now having an unproven HC without LR's name recognition to recruit to) for OU, and that right now, the big donors at OU simply do not place the same importance or desire to do what it takes to win in the SEC.
Doug said in the past OU was guaranteed to win at least 10 games or more in the Big 12 and be able to recruit within your own conference as the best program and cheat at a small level. He said OU goes to the SEC now and has zero branding as a big dog in the SEC, and he said the days are over for OU winning at least 10 games every year and the fanbase is in a for a huge adjustment and new reality, and he said in the SEC they will be just another school within the 6 or so in the SEC whose donors have been investing far more in football than the donors at OU. Doug specifically mentioned Texas A&M and said A&M has far more donor desire to spend huge bucks to win big in the SEC and OU will not be able to out spend A&M let alone Texas.
Mark Rogers did not dispute ANY of it.
It was a pretty sobering message laid out by Doug, and Rogers did not dispute any of it.
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