Well said Guy abd JIM !! Both of you state the case far better than I can !!

--PM is NOT those two coaches who jumped !! Pox on them
--Ms Rooney made a fine speech apparently ! But talk is CHEAP !! She is the President of LUC--Does that mean nothing ?? Or is it just a title with a big office and desk !!
--As each day goes by this becomes more ridiculous and embarrassing !!

There was Quinlan School of Business brunch this past Sunday which was strictly about the business school. Dr. Rooney spoke along with a student who received an award and an alum who received an award for setting up an internship program.
Dr. Rooney did mention in her speech the impact that the Final Four run had on enrollment etc.
That said my wife and I did have an opportunity to speak with Dr. Rooney for about ten minutes. I did specifically ask her about Porter.
She indicated that Loyola would or should have a deal done "soon". This is a confident leader and I have faith that this will be the case.
I would be less confident if Father G were still the President because he was a macro guy. Dr. Rooney gets in the weeds and knows the details. She is a quick learner and clearly understands the significance of the Final Four. In a conversation with another university official I did ask specifically if the non tenured faculty issue had delayed things and while he did not say "yes" , he indicated that "timing can be everything".
I detected that there is a nervousness about the fact that alums are beginning to ask about this.
It is almost like there is an elephant in the room.
These are just impressions.
Both sides want to get a deal done, no doubt about it but in my view it is a question of hammering out key points beyond compensation.
I think there are things like length of contract, buy out provisions, assistant coaches salaries, charters, commitment to filling the arena.
I know Porter and his staff are out all the time recruiting. So he is gone a good amount of time, and I mean like always so this also may be holding up the finalization. I did talk to several university people and only heard one comment which bothered me and that was "there are not a lot of jobs out there that are viable options" Ok that is probably true. But keep this in mind, when this agreement is signed I hope it is so amicable that there has not been any poisoning of the well. The battle is always about money, opportunity and love of Chicago but loyalty can erode quickly in negotiations; we want this to be a win/win.
The other thing to consider is the deal must be ratified by the board. As someone said, "afterall Dr. Rooney does have bosses".
My conclusion out of all of this is this will get done with a 90% certainty. Also Porter is under contract until and through 2021. He is not under pressure to get this done so he can work the margins to make this deal as close to his ideal scenario as possible.
I am getting fidgety about this but not nervous. But that is often the case in negotiations.
As an fyi, Dr.Rooney was a key speaker at a women's leadership event today. So she does have a high profile and is widely respected. I bring that up because she is not about to let this the Porter new contract fail and become the fly in the soup.
So I could be wrong but I think this will be settled "soon" and be that I mean the next 15-30 days.

hey look the sky is not falling.

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MBB Scholarship Chart

I'm shocked

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MBB Scholarship Chart

Boom.

Will be interesting to see what the terms ended up being.

I hope that we keep our assistant coaches as well.

YAY !!!! The good guy wins !! The TEAM wins LUC WINS !!

I shall gainsay NOTHING of what I wrote--NOTHING !! But I will only add this-- PM is a man of honor--- I have lost some respect for LUC regents or whatever they are called BUT in the end the must have actually done the right thing !!


NOW LETS GO RAMBLERS !!

Congratulations to Coach Moser as well as AD Watson and President Rooney.

Though there was lots of *speculation* here (and recently in the Tribune) that Loyola was incompetently dragging its feet, both Watson and Moser made reference to the total package that they believed an extension would have to entail. Here's what I make of that. It evidently wasn't just a matter of a substantial salary increase and contract extension for the head coach. That was the case for Shaka Smart at VCU and Brad Stevens at Butler. That can be done quickly, as it was in those cases, especially if other programs are beating down the gates. If you'll excuse the term, it seems that Moser was asking for a huge change in the financial culture to support the program going forward. The millions of dollars in publicity that the team brought in isn't in the form of available cash. Priorities had to be changed. Choices and tradeoffs had to be made. That does not happen easily in universities. It looks to me like Loyola took the time to do it right. And they had the time.

I suspect the foundation is in place to make our program competitive in the long run. Now it's up to us to seal the deal with the final item on the agenda - bring your friends, fill the arena, and make it loud. Go Ramblers!