Mike DeCourcy Provides His College Sports Insights

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00:00Langton Corsi is the esteemed columnist for the Sporting News.

00:08You can catch him on Fox Sports during the college basketball season and the Big Ten

00:12Network, which he now owns, I'm hearing.

00:14He owns a huge majority stake in the network.

00:18And he's also on the take for the Indiana Hoosiers in both football and basketball with

00:23his ties to the Hoosier state, even though he's a Pittsburgher through and through and

00:29also a huge Steeler fan like I am.

00:32Thank God for Mike DeCorsi.

00:34We've been blessed to have him on C2C every week for several years now.

00:37I think it's like 25 years straight he's been doing the show.

00:41Mike, Tony Bennett walked away from a fantastic coaching job and career at Virginia in Charlottesville.

00:52I mean, the guy did it all there.

00:54When he walked away initially, when we broke the story on here, we thought maybe he was

01:01sick or something.

01:02We didn't know why, but, you know, hours later we would find out basically it's because of

01:07what's happened to college athletics that's, you know, made him walk away.

01:13Could you believe it?

01:15I'm not surprised.

01:16There had been a lot of discussion about the possibility that he might go in this direction.

01:20The surprise, obviously, is that he declined to do it in the aftermath of the previous

01:27season, signed a contract extension in June, and then decides to do it on the very eve

01:34of the season.

01:35Gosh, he even attended ACC Media Day.

01:37Why would you go through that if you didn't want to coach?

01:40But he did.

01:41And I, you know, my position on this is really simple.

01:46That the changes in college sports that he acknowledged drove him out into retirement

01:55from college coaching are, okay, so they're problematic for him, and they certainly make

02:00it really difficult, really consuming, I think is the word, for college coaches.

02:06It's very difficult.

02:07You have to be on high alert all the time, and that's a really exhausting life.

02:11But what about the changes that occurred in the 15 years prior to that, Scott, when

02:18the University of Texas decided that paying their football coach at the time, Mack Brown,

02:23$3 million, which was more than anybody else was making, wasn't enough, and that he had

02:27to be paid $5 million.

02:29That massive increase set off an absolute firestorm of salary increases in college coaching.

02:36And as a result, when Tony Bennett was finishing his career for the last good number of years,

02:42he was making over $4 million a year.

02:45And over his last 11 years, he made $38 million.

02:50So those changes allowed him to have the freedom to say, you know what, I'm done.

02:55So there are changes that impact everything in this equation.

03:00And all we focus on are the changes recently that have granted a significant amount of

03:06power to the athletes, and not the changes that precipitated that, that granted an inordinate

03:14amount of money to the coaches.

03:16Do you think that's why Jay Wright walked away, too?

03:20He had all that money, and he just didn't need it anymore, any of the nonsense?

03:26Now I understand what you're saying.

03:27It's not just because of NIL and paying players.

03:31This is a lot deeper than that.

03:33But I mean, here's a guy that, you know, what didn't he win?

03:38He won the NCAA tournament.

03:40What didn't he win?

03:41He won several ACC titles.

03:43He won more games than anyone ever at that school.

03:47Honestly, what didn't he accomplish?

03:50And you're right, I didn't like the way, fair enough, it's his choice.

03:56But the way he handled it, I thought was weak, right before the season starts.

04:01And then he went through the motions of signing a new deal, and then he went to the media

04:05days.

04:06I mean, what was he thinking?

04:08Like he, don't tell me he made his mind up in the morning at breakfast and then made

04:12this decision by the afternoon.

04:14He had to have been drumming this up.

04:16Well, the way he explained it was that he and his wife took a weekend vacation, and

04:22they talked about it a lot and came to this decision.

04:25I think Tony Bennett's a wonderful man.

04:27I've known him for 25 years and couldn't like him more.

04:31He's terrific.

04:33The trap you get into when you're in this circumstance where you're thinking about walking

04:38away is that you're going to impact somebody negatively one way or the other.

04:44If he had left in April, his coaching staff, his entire support staff, would have basically

04:49been out of a job.

04:50And that's problematic for them.

04:52He leaves now, and the players who all signed up to play for Tony Bennett and everything

04:57that entailed, then they are out of a coach.

05:00So there's really no good time to do this.

05:06I can understand why people complained about it, and I understand why there is another

05:10side to it as well.

05:12But for me, the real thing comes down to is that college basketball is a terrific sport.

05:20And the players do have an exorbitant amount of power now because of instant eligibility.

05:26What we use colloquially as the transfer portal.

05:29The portal itself is not the problem.

05:30The problem relative to the coaches and the stability of the sport is the immediate eligibility

05:37any time you want to leave.

05:39That's the problem.

05:40And the solution to that is to make the athletes employees.

05:44But that creates a whole other set of problems, and it's why the universities and colleges

05:49aren't really all that eager to do that.

05:52So in the article, you talked about all these guys that stopped when they were in their

05:5770s.

05:58That guy's nowhere near that.

06:00And you talked about how overwhelming the job is, how draining it is, and how stressful

06:06it is.

06:08He was a great teacher as a coach.

06:15There's nothing he can do to impress me with this decision.

06:17I'm sorry.

06:18I'm not going to sit here and agree with any of it.

06:21I think he effed the whole program up nice and juicy.

06:25And what's going to happen in the aftermath of his bloodletting here?

06:29I mean, who's taking over?

06:30Remember, though, Scott, if he had left in April, they would have had to go find a whole

06:35new roster because just about everybody that was wearing Virginia colors last year would

06:41have left.

06:42And then they would have had a difficult time assembling another roster.

06:45So that would have really put the problem at that spot.

06:48I think there may be some players who haven't spent a redshirt year who could, if they wished,

06:53decide to just say, OK, I'm not playing this year and I'm going to go somewhere else.

06:58But they may decide that they know Ron Sanchez.

07:02They've been around him now for five, six months.

07:04Maybe they'll decide that and some for many more than that.

07:07But the new ones, the new players have met Ron and know him and have worked with him.

07:11And maybe they like him enough to stick around.

07:14So I don't think that he gave the program a rough ride.

07:18I do think that the players who had committed for him and who returned for him, I think

07:24that's tough.

07:25But like I said, somebody was going to get a tough deal in this.

07:29I just look at it, the main thing for me, the main takeaway for me is that there are

07:35lots of college coaches who still want to do this.

07:38The fact that Roy retired at 70 and Nick Saban retired, I think, 72 and Mike Krzyzewski

07:44retired at 75, it's not an unusual age to retire.

07:48That's pretty much what most people would have done with that amount of wealth and that

07:53age and experience.

07:55But there are lots of coaches who are in their 70s who are still going.

07:57I mean, Tom Izzo will turn 70 this year.

08:00Jim Laranega is in his 70s.

08:02Leonard Hamilton is 76.

08:04They're still hanging on.

08:05Why are they still doing it if it's so bad?

08:09I know that it's tough.

08:11I know that it's rougher than it's been.

08:13And it was always a difficult job because of the recruiting calendar.

08:17But I look at the fact that there's always somebody who wants to do it.

08:23College basketball 50 years ago, nearly 50 years ago, survived the departure of John

08:27Wooden.

08:28And what happened, Scott?

08:30You know, it got way more popular.

08:32Way more popular.

08:33So I just think that college basketball will survive Tony Bennett as well.

08:38Yeah, I don't think UCLA ever got better than John Wooden.

08:43I'm sorry.

08:44And here's another thing.

08:45They're already trying to push me out the door, Mike, let alone you.

08:50And I'm not even old.

08:51People keep telling me I'm not old.

08:53Well, I'm not old, but I'm 59.

08:54Now 59, I'm washed my ass.

08:57OK, can I make it to 67 so I can get that check in my mailbox?

09:02For Christ's sakes, honestly.

09:04And Ron Sanchez, who is that?

09:07I don't even know who that is.

09:09Don't even start with me with Ron Sanchez.

09:12Just go watch the Steelers beat the Giants Monday night.

09:14Stay out of my basketball affairs.

09:16I don't really want to talk hoops with you until it really starts.

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