uniftw wrote:I'm not going to argue Marshall's worth to WSU...but with a 3.3mpy tag on his head anything less than a title in the next 3-5 years is sure to ultimately be deemed a failure and overpaying...as well as anything less than a s16/elite eight every single season on the way....right?
I could see why someone would have that opinion.
In my opinion, the limitations on Wichita State's program are the same whether they're paying Marshall $1 million or $10 million. They'd be the same limitations whether we have Marshall as our coach or Coach K. WSU will always struggle to get big name noncon opponents without taking buy games, will always struggle to get elite recruits, will always struggle to get conference games televised, and so on. His salary doesn't change that -- maybe with recruits, just because they know he's less likely to leave, but that's about it.
I think you have to look at Marshall's value to the university as being about more than athletics. WSU's success under Marshall hasn't just been about an NIT title/four straight NCAA appearances/Final Four/Undefeated Season/Sweet 16. It's also been about a vastly higher profile for the university, significantly higher enrollment, the Innovation Campus, the new dorm, significantly increased donations, and so on and so on. Which doesn't even get into the benefits to Wichita as a city, economic and otherwise. And none of that even touches on the athletic department.
I personally think that if Marshall ends up retiring at Wichita State, WSU is going to be used as a model throughout the nation of how a "smaller" university can use athletics to dramatically improve everything about it. Marshall is the publicity driver, but Dr. Bardo is probably just as important. Lots of universities increase their athletic profile through athletic publicity -- Dr. Bardo seems to have a strategic, aggressive desire to transform the university, enabled by athletic publicity.
And while I'm obviously not an independent observer, I'm not a Wichita State alumni, either. Ultimately what Wichita State does as a university, independent of the athletic department, doesn't matter that much to me. But I'm very impressed with the moves WSU has made as a university in the last several years. The groundwork has been laid to transform WSU into something very different.
But ... I think if you look at Marshall's salary as a driver for the improvements towards the university as a whole, and as a way to continuously drive attention to the university and build the loyalty that's needed to drive donations to fund university improvements, I really don't think the athletics themselves are that important. WSU will just want Marshall to keep doing what he's been doing: win at a level that continuously keeps WSU in the news. A national championship would absolutely do that, but so would regular Sweet 16 runs. No question, though, WSU wants a national championship, and that's a possibility now.
I'm not sure I agree with the number just because it seems so astronomical, but WSU's study estimated the university received $571 million in advertising just from the Final Four run alone. That's Marshall's new salary for the next 173 years. If that number is even ten times what WSU actually made, $57.1 million is still probably more than Marshall will make from WSU in his career, even with this new contract, and doesn't account for the publicity of these last two years, and any future publicity.
And hell, WSU's last several years are even more impressive given the state of Kansas politics. Donations are going to be more and more important to the university itself given declining state funds.
I don't live in Wichita anymore and haven't in some time ... but when I go back, the city is different than I remember it. There's more of a swagger around town, and there's more pride in the city itself. You can legitimately make the argument that Marshall is transforming Wichita.
IMO, basketball success is the third most important part of Marshall's job.
