With a department in crisis, Indiana State athletes and Sycamores fans deserve better

[Muda69]

https://www.indystar.com/story/sports/columnists/gregg-doyel/2024/06/13/indiana-state-athletic-department-crisis-mode-fans-deserve-better-new-ad-president-coaches-leaving/74084977007/

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A wildly popular baseball coach who never wanted to leave is gone, following out the door a basketball coach who never wanted to stay, as the Indiana State athletic department — and its fan base — plumbs new depth of plummeting morale. This is neither breaking news nor a recent development, but the ISU athletic department, like the school as a whole, is in crisis mode as the campus prepares to welcome a new president and athletic director to Terre Haute.

And while I’d love to share good news here, because few things make me happier than the success of a state school, the news isn’t good. Because one problem at Indiana State remains:

The Board of Trustees.

Those folks, as well-intentioned as they must be, have overseen the collapse of the athletic department at the same time enrollment figures have been dropping. Four-year enrollment is dropping across the state, and country, but the trend hits harder at a school like Indiana State, which offers the most affordable tuition among the state’s five largest public universities (IU, Purdue, IU Indy and Ball State).

The Board of Trustees made a poor hire in 2016 at athletic director (Sherard Clinkscales) and a disastrous hire in 2018 at president (Deborah Curtis), spent too many years watching those two drive this athletic department off a cliff — even rewarding them with contract extensions through 2025 — before finally getting separation from those two a year ahead of schedule. Curtis announced in October the 2023-24 school year would be her last, while the school and Clinkscales announced a mutually agreed separation on Dec. 31.

Those two get the brunt of the angst from supporters of Sycamores athletes, and they deserve it, but the Board of Trustees allowed this to happen with poor hires and zero oversight. The low moment came last spring when the Indiana State baseball team won the Terre Haute Regional but turned down the chance to host the Super Regional against TCU because of a sheer lack of effort from Curtis and Clinkscales. The 2023 Special Olympics were in town that week, eating up most of Terre Haute’s hotel vacancies, but rather than working with nearby communities and colleges for alternative housing options — as Kentucky had successfully done that spring to host the Lexington Regional — Indiana State pulled its Super Regional bid without a peep … and then hid behind the arrival of the Special Olympics.

 

That lack of care from his top two bosses gutted baseball coach Mitch Hannahs, a 1989 Indiana State alum who applied for the job several times before finally getting it in 2014. Hannahs, the back-to-back Coach of the Year in the Missouri Valley Conference, left last week for South Florida after leading the Sycamores to their third regional in five years.

The Super Regional fiasco of 2023 hurt him, and people close to Hannahs will tell you the school’s failure to replace Clinkscales with longtime assistant AD Angie Lansing was the final straw. Lansing, who applied for the job in 2016 that went to Clinkscales, is universally liked and widely considered one of the most valuable employees on campus. She was given the title “interim AD” after Clinkscales’ departure, but the impermanence of that move pushed Hannahs out the door of the only job he’d ever really wanted.

The departure of men's basketball coach Josh Schertz was different. He was wildly successful — kudos to Clinkscales for hiring him — but unpopular within the athletic department, a self-serving climber routinely allowed by Clinkscales to play by different rules from the rest of the department. After leading Indiana State to the 2024 NIT title game, Schertz shopped around and found the highest bidder at Saint Louis, with inaccurate rumors flying in Terre Haute of alumni raising millions to keep him.

This is not a school with deep pockets, which makes the future of its athletic department terrifying in an era where NIL and the transfer portal have made it even more difficult for mid-majors to compete, especially given the backward step the Missouri Valley Conference has taken as a whole. But this is a school where things can get done. Thanks largely to Schertz, Hannahs and the school’s perennially awesome track and field programs, Indiana State — despite its financial limitations — has ranked third in the Valley in all-sports tabulations over the past four years.

The Sycamores can survive with hard and smart work, but in addition to losing those two successful coaches, the athletic department has seen the departures of key personnel in marketing, operations and sports information, and failed to replace most in a timely manner (if at all, in some cases). This is a school where players on the softball team have had to use the press box to change into practice gear, where the air-conditioner in one campus gym broke and went unrepaired for a year, where the Board of Trustees features mostly out-of-towners — leading to the disconnect with the Terre Haute community — and where one BOT member used Twitter this spring to try to bully Lansing into making a hire he wanted.

This is a department, and a school, that inspire no confidence. And this is a campus, and town, that deserve better.

“This athletic department has so many issues,” said one former longtime employee, “I don’t know if it’ll ever get back to normal.”

Famous Sycamore athletes like Larry Bird, Carl Nicks, and Bruce Baumgartner need to get on the ISU Board of Trustees and start knocking some heads.

 

[Impartial_Observer]

Welcome to the new world of college athletics. 

[temptation]

11 minutes ago, Impartial_Observer said:

Welcome to the new world of college athletics. 

Beat me to it.  The have nots are slowly beginning to fade away.

[Irishman]

4 hours ago, temptation said:

Beat me to it.  The have nots are slowly beginning to fade away.

Still remember during an IU game last season, Joel Klatt put it best. Programs like IU will be more like a minor league program. Guys will sign and play with the hopes of a better offer after a year at the D1 level. Guys who are not starters in those programs will move to a program they can become a starter and prove their value. I don't envy a coach like Cignetti. His team will be more competitive than IU has been, but to what end? When key players can transfer easily. 

[Irishman]

for ISU though, the BBall coach move to St. Louis is an odd move; not even a lateral move. he is going to quickly find out, along with the players who joined him there that last season was a once in a lifetime shot. They will not be the darlings of college basketball they were last season. I will be interested in seeing the game when St. Louis plays AT ISU. 

[Gipper]

13 hours ago, Irishman said:

Still remember during an IU game last season, Joel Klatt put it best. Programs like IU will be more like a minor league program. Guys will sign and play with the hopes of a better offer after a year at the D1 level. Guys who are not starters in those programs will move to a program they can become a starter and prove their value. I don't envy a coach like Cignetti. His team will be more competitive than IU has been, but to what end? When key players can transfer easily. 

Unfortunately, that's what it's devolving to.  It's all about greed.

[Bash Riprock]

14 hours ago, Irishman said:

Still remember during an IU game last season, Joel Klatt put it best. Programs like IU will be more like a minor league program. Guys will sign and play with the hopes of a better offer after a year at the D1 level. Guys who are not starters in those programs will move to a program they can become a starter and prove their value. I don't envy a coach like Cignetti. His team will be more competitive than IU has been, but to what end? When key players can transfer easily. 

Most likely you are correct, although I did see where IU ranks really high in NIL dollars generated.  Will it all be spent on hoops (without much of a return in past few years) or will Coach Cigs get a bigger piece of the pie??

14 hours ago, Irishman said:

for ISU though, the BBall coach move to St. Louis is an odd move; not even a lateral move. he is going to quickly find out, along with the players who joined him there that last season was a once in a lifetime shot. They will not be the darlings of college basketball they were last season. I will be interested in seeing the game when St. Louis plays AT ISU. 

I did see where his paycheck almost doubled by going to the Billikens....

[Bash Riprock]

I did read the new ISU president (big fan of sports) did hire a new athletic director that is getting accolades.

https://gosycamores.com/news/2024/6/12/general-indiana-state-university-appoints-nathan-christensen-as-new-director-of-athletics.aspx

Christensen comes from South Dakota State, which is a powerhouse in FCS football.  Hopefully, he will have this focus and get a new venue on campus.  That old crap hole they play in miles from campus is turrible.  (using Barkley words)  Impossible to recruit in the Missouri Valley as those schools either have awesome newer stadiums and practice facilities or have re-invested significantly into their older ones improving them to today's standards.  He will need to determine if ISU will continue to play at that level or get out much like Western Illinois did a couple of years ago.

[Muda69]

13 minutes ago, Bash Riprock said:

I did read the new ISU president (big fan of sports) did hire a new athletic director that is getting accolades.

https://gosycamores.com/news/2024/6/12/general-indiana-state-university-appoints-nathan-christensen-as-new-director-of-athletics.aspx

Christensen comes from South Dakota State, which is a powerhouse in FCS football.  Hopefully, he will have this focus and get a new venue on campus.  That old crap hole they play in miles from campus is turrible.  (using Barkley words)  Impossible to recruit in the Missouri Valley as those schools either have awesome newer stadiums and practice facilities or have re-invested significantly into their older ones improving them to today's standards.  He will need to determine if ISU will continue to play at that level or get out much like Western Illinois did a couple of years ago.

Yes it is a crap hole.  Needs natural grass.    Does it still have a golf course that surrounds it?  I remember during my ISU days going there to play a round of golf and instead of you know, actually trying to get the ball in the hole we took turns seeing how many balls we could drive into the stadium onto the field.

 

 

[Irishman]

3 hours ago, Bash Riprock said:

I did see where his paycheck almost doubled by going to the Billikens....

I saw that too, but feel he jumped too soon. Stay at ISU, have another great year, and even bigger paydays will come. Going from ISU with some history and always a great crowd to St. Louis, with none of that??? Could be a dead end road for his path up. 

[Bash Riprock]

On 6/14/2024 at 2:08 PM, Irishman said:

I saw that too, but feel he jumped too soon. Stay at ISU, have another great year, and even bigger paydays will come. Going from ISU with some history and always a great crowd to St. Louis, with none of that??? Could be a dead end road for his path up. 

Its a good point....

Further point mid majors turning into a feeder system for the big schools.  ISU baseball team, a top NCAA program, is losing players to big time programs.  2 already left for LSU, others for Clemson, Oregon and IU.  15 others currently in the portal....

Sigh....

[Bash Riprock]

On 6/14/2024 at 11:05 AM, Muda69 said:

Yes it is a crap hole.  Needs natural grass.    Does it still have a golf course that surrounds it?  I remember during my ISU days going there to play a round of golf and instead of you know, actually trying to get the ball in the hole we took turns seeing how many balls we could drive into the stadium onto the field.

 

 

Not sure about the golf course, but I do remember that...trying to cut the corner by going over a portion of the stadium.