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2024 Volleyball: SEC, here comes Daddy


Js1

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11 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

Crazy that Faucette has three kids. 

 

What is HEB Center typically used for, just anything smaller than Moody? 

Texas Stars and Austin Spurs. And LOVB

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6 minutes ago, shadow_operative2.0 said:

They had indoor AVP beach there a few months ago, cameramen had to be very careful to only shoot the few hundred diehards that made an appearance. 

Yeah I'm guessing there are second thoughts being had over that format decision. At least there should be.

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On 1/15/2025 at 10:31 PM, Js1 said:

My God I loved that team so much 

 

I don't think people realize how loaded that team was. 

28-1 and only went to 5 sets in 2 matches all year. One being a loss to ISU on the road. If I remember correctly, our only loss was a match where we had several players sick too. 

 

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7 hours ago, Js1 said:

Oh shit. Matt Ulmer Oregon to Kansas. This late in the cycle too. Ouch 

Ouch, Oregon star player Colyer immediately portals to Wisconsin. Same day

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On 1/17/2025 at 1:03 PM, Js1 said:

Oh shit. Matt Ulmer Oregon to Kansas. This late in the cycle too. Ouch 

I don't understand that move even a little bit. I can make some guesses, but Kansas seems like a step down in many ways. 

I will say having to share the volleyball court/arena with so many other sports is a real bummer. The travel is a nightmare, and because of the half revenue portion Oregon is getting, there's a lot of commercial flights for sports not football or men's basketball, and Eugene isn't exactly the friendliest airport to fly in and out of in terms of flight selection. Portland is better, but it's a 2 hour drive, and still not exactly ideal. And then the Big 10 is obviously a gauntlet compared to the Big 12. But volleyball is one of those sports where that's not necessarily a bad thing.

I wonder if he has promises regarding NIL at Kansas while Oregon is focused on NIL for football? I don't actually know the answer. I went up there for the Nebraska match when they set an attendance record (primarily because of all the Nebraska fans that traveled there).

I'm stunned by this, really. 

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I assume it was NIL, travel and there’s no dominant team in the Big 12. Easier path to the postseason with KU than having to play Wisconsin, PSU, Nebraska, USC, UCLA

But let’s not forget Oregon let Mike White go as well and they haven’t replicated his success. Feels like it’s football, T&F and then everyone else gets crumbs 

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7 hours ago, Js1 said:

I assume it was NIL, travel and there’s no dominant team in the Big 12. Easier path to the postseason with KU than having to play Wisconsin, PSU, Nebraska, USC, UCLA

But let’s not forget Oregon let Mike White go as well and they haven’t replicated his success. Feels like it’s football, T&F and then everyone else gets crumbs 

They've spent money on men's basketball, and this past year they made a couple of big splashes in the portal in women's basketball.

Apparently it was all about NIL. I guess volleyball drew the short straw. 

When you say they let Mike White go, I feel like it's akin to saying North Carolina let Mack Brown go back in the 90s. They weren't willing to match UT's offer, but it's not like they wanted him to leave. Oregon simply doesn't have the resources that big football schools have, and they never will. Smaller enrollment, smaller alumni base, smaller regional population. The football stadium only seats like 54,000. A lack of luxury suites. No luxury suites in their multipurpose arena that hosts basketball/volleyball. They're on half shares of the Big 10 TV contract until the next one is negotiated. If it weren't for Phil Knight evening the playing field they'd have no chance to compete. 

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Since the first major round of realignment (2010), a west coast school has only won the title 4 times (2011 UCLA, 2016, 2018, 2019 Stanford).  The 2010s saw 60% of the titles go to non-west coast schools (PSU x3, Nebraska x2, Texas) and so far in the 2020s, 2x Texas, Kentucky, PSU, Wisconsin.   Only 3 west coast Final Four appearance since 2019 (Stanford 2019, Washington 2020, San Diego 2021). 

For softball, Mike did a good thing to get out when he did, because the Pac 12 was at least the 2nd best conference for softball for a long time (Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Arizona, Utah), but the B1G is pretty terrible + a horrendous travel schedule.  At least for softball, you're just doing weekend road trips for 3 games series; volleyball has midweek travel for conference games. 

If Kansas' devoted significant NIL resources to volleyball (and why not, outside of MBB, they don't have much going on) + a conference without a dominant program (or 2 or 3), Ulmer made a good decision I think.  Plus your Big 12 volleyball travel schedule is +1/-1 in terms of time zones.  Versus going from Pacific time to matches against Penn State, Rutgers, etc. 

I think I'd rather take my chances at KU than fight for NIL scraps at Oregon + shitty travel + having to face Wisconsin, Nebraska and Penn State every year just in conference. 

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11 hours ago, Js1 said:

Since the first major round of realignment (2010), a west coast school has only won the title 4 times (2011 UCLA, 2016, 2018, 2019 Stanford).  The 2010s saw 60% of the titles go to non-west coast schools (PSU x3, Nebraska x2, Texas) and so far in the 2020s, 2x Texas, Kentucky, PSU, Wisconsin.   Only 3 west coast Final Four appearance since 2019 (Stanford 2019, Washington 2020, San Diego 2021). 

For softball, Mike did a good thing to get out when he did, because the Pac 12 was at least the 2nd best conference for softball for a long time (Oregon, UCLA, Stanford, Washington, Arizona, Utah), but the B1G is pretty terrible + a horrendous travel schedule.  At least for softball, you're just doing weekend road trips for 3 games series; volleyball has midweek travel for conference games. 

If Kansas' devoted significant NIL resources to volleyball (and why not, outside of MBB, they don't have much going on) + a conference without a dominant program (or 2 or 3), Ulmer made a good decision I think.  Plus your Big 12 volleyball travel schedule is +1/-1 in terms of time zones.  Versus going from Pacific time to matches against Penn State, Rutgers, etc. 

I think I'd rather take my chances at KU than fight for NIL scraps at Oregon + shitty travel + having to face Wisconsin, Nebraska and Penn State every year just in conference. 

I think I'd be keeping an eye open for other opportunities. Use KU as a stepping stone for a better gig. He's still pretty young. But if Oregon isn't going to do what is required to compete at the highest level - and they've made that plain - no reason to stick around. You simply can't win at the highest levels in volleyball without some NIL and portal contributions. That has become obvious. And not just the NIL. You need to be able to provide chartered flights out of Eugene to compete in the Big 10, and Oregon has decided they can't afford that across the board under the terms of their Big 10 admittance. Commercial flights just completely suck out of the Eugene airport, especially to some of the locations in the Big 10 like Happy Valley. 

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On 1/20/2025 at 8:22 PM, SL Xpress said:

I think I'd be keeping an eye open for other opportunities. Use KU as a stepping stone for a better gig. He's still pretty young. But if Oregon isn't going to do what is required to compete at the highest level - and they've made that plain - no reason to stick around. You simply can't win at the highest levels in volleyball without some NIL and portal contributions. That has become obvious. And not just the NIL. You need to be able to provide chartered flights out of Eugene to compete in the Big 10, and Oregon has decided they can't afford that across the board under the terms of their Big 10 admittance. Commercial flights just completely suck out of the Eugene airport, especially to some of the locations in the Big 10 like Happy Valley. 

They miss you on VolleyTalk, btw.

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