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MILLER: Coaching exits not about the financial gap and all about the financial gap

tom miller, grand forks herald
·3 min read

Feb. 16—GRAND FORKS — Offensive coordinators

Danny Freund

and

Jake Landry

didn't leave Grand Forks solely to jump at the

financial gap between UND and the rest of the Missouri Valley Football Conference — an area addressed by the Herald in a report published Friday morning.

Freund and Landry left UND more because South Dakota State and North Dakota State present a safer professional future and closer access to the dreams of coaching in the Power 5, where coaching salaries can be 10 times that of the FCS.

It's not UND's immediate financial gap with the MVFC that's directly responsible. When UND countered with an offer to Freund after South Dakota State's courting, the school might've been close to the financial offerings of the Jackrabbits.

Again, it's not the short-term financial gap, it's the competitive gap. UND has proven to be a Top 25 program annually in the FCS but not a serious national title contender like the top two Dakota schools.

The question UND needs to answer, then, is this: How much of the competitive gap was created and upheld by years — or decades — of the financial gap? And what steps can be taken to narrow both gaps?

In some ways, UND is making considerable strides.

For starters, UND athletic director Bill Chaves pointed out his department increased funding for the football program more than anyone in the MVFC between 2022 and 2023.

UND football is also entering a new era, soon to be in possession of a $20 million addition to the Pollard Center and a $40 million Memorial Village. These will house a new locker room, a weight room run by a new strength coach and fancy modern coaching offices. Potentially, a football player could live in Memorial Village and never have to brave the Grand Forks winter to enter the locker room, weight room, meeting room or practice field.

Those facility shortcomings have long been a hurdle in recruiting and will be a major factor in the next few recruiting classes. UND has spent the Division I era with a locker room either in a dilapidated former football stadium or, as currently, a science building. You can bet every MVFC coach makes sure a competing recruit knows that.

The

701 Awards

, financial outputs to athletes tied to academics and retention also known as Alston awards, will also boost UND's status among league peers.

Chaves also points out UND head coach Bubba Schweigert, perhaps the coach falling behind his peers the farthest in the MVFC, has elected to turn down raises across the last 10 years in order to bump his assistant salary pool.

That's admirable for Schweigert, of course, but it can't be a long-term solution. The Schweigert Era will end one day and his successor won't be interested in that kind of discount.

It's not to say there's an easy solution to the financial gap. It's easy to tell someone else how to spend their money. There are no guarantees spending more on a head coach and coordinators provides a perfect return on investment.

Illinois State and Northern Iowa are spending a lot more on head coaching salaries than UND and haven't had the success of the Fighting Hawks in recent years.

But if you look at the rank of pay for head coach and his coordinators in the MVFC, it's easy to see a theme. NDSU and SDSU at the top, Indiana State and Murray State at the bottom. It kind of looks like the standings year by year.

In the end, as it pertains to coaching salaries of top coaches, UND should ponder this: Do you build a $20 million addition to a $20 million practice facility — cementing status as holding some of the best facilities in all of the FCS — to be surrounded in a financial tier by Indiana State and Murray State?

Address the financial gap to address the competitive gap to stop the flow of coaching exits.