I am not sure Small took a demotion in his associate role at UDub, at least in a monetarily sense.
My feeling is Hosmer has sense and will do well at Valpo. I presume and hope Padilla made the right decision to move forward.However, she was very misleading praising the number of engineering majors in a D1 football program that doesn’t exist anywhere else. Valpo is D1 in name only, and more like a glorified D3 program, thus one would expect true student athletes unlike power 5 or scholarship funded programs.
I think she will hold teams and coaches accountable for success.
Perhaps, but not to the players. Many mention the chance to play D1 as a reason for coming to Valpo. I very much doubt that The Ohio State University has 10 engineering students on their roster and most likely many more "basket weaving" majors.
When looking at the top 15 engineering schools--for undergrad only--students have (don't quote me on this) three options, other than military schools, if they want to play D1 football. Valpo is one of those schools. If nothing else, even if you want to call it "glorified D3", it is bringing a bunch of engineering students to Valpo who we know are not getting a full ride.
The ability to become an engineer and a nurse while playing D1 also is a deterrent from transferring. Student athletes have a difficult choice when deciding to enter the portal at Valpo. Most of the institutions they would be transferring to would likely not allow them to continue in their pursuit of engineering or nursing.
The ability to become an engineer and a nurse while playing D1 also is a deterrent from transferring. Student athletes have a difficult choice when deciding to enter the portal at Valpo. Most of the institutions they would be transferring to would likely not allow them to continue in their pursuit of engineering or nursing.
Unfortunately this is all to true. Rosters with no STEM/medical/difficult degrees are very common. Not un-common to see a lot of gen ed and un-decided majors around the NCAA.
The timing of the Washington announcement of Small and our new AD is very odd. I highly doubt that UW would wait 5 months to announce something on Valpo's behalf, so it had to be a buyout situation of some sort, where Valpo was not allowed to say anything negative about Small leaving to deter potential employers. It appears that we'll never know.
Small's departure was termed a resignation which should eliminate future compensation for him. There may have been a mutual agreement not to say anything positive or negative about each other.
