Northwestern produces video "Positively Dr Gragg"
- Thread starter Eurocat
- Start date
What a poser. The fact that he thought this would be ok only cements his reputation for being completely out of touch with reality.
I don't mean to be harsh, but a 'damaged brand' as AD is not in our best interest as an institution, and will only harm our student athletes because it will repel talented coaches as well as donors. A puff piece on YouTube will have not fix that damage.
Can we do a poll? The question is,
"How likely is it that Dr. Gragg will EVER rehabilitate his reputation with NU"
a) very likely
b) moderately likely
c) 50/50
d) unlikely
e) cold day in hell
Can we do a poll? The question is,
"How likely is it that Dr. Gragg will EVER rehabilitate his reputation with NU"
a) very likely
b) moderately likely
c) 50/50
d) unlikely
e) cold day in hell
He has failed upward his entire career? Dare we hope some other institution steals him?
Poser is the best description that I can think of!!
I noticed he he was "working behind the scenes" to get us the Las Vegas Bowl. I'm not upset about the game, but it appears, based on 2022 payouts (Music - 5.5M, Pinstripe -4.4M, Las Vegas - 2.9M), that it is the "lowest" tier 3. Only a 5-7 Gopher team is below us. It doesn't seem like he worked too hard.
Maybe he worked really hard but just sucks at his job
Bowl payouts are sent to the conference, pooled, and distributed equally (even if a school did not make a bowl game) amongst all 14 schools (plus a share for the conference office).
I'll criticize Gragg for many, many, many things, but I'm fine with how the bowl positioning worked out and I have actually wondered how Phillips would've played it.
A reasonable case could have been made to the (former) Outback Bowl Committee to take us over Wisconsin, but I wouldn't have been rushing to get my flight to our third Tampa trip, this time against a Heisman candidate leading LSU onto the field. Two of our last three bowl trips were to New York and Nashville, respectively...a third bowl game vs. Auburn or against a Miami team with a lot to prove...meh.
Never been to Vegas for the team and Utah will definitely be a very tough opponent but not unbeatable.
It's very important to note that Gragg and Schill are very much tied together in terms of their fates because of what happened over the past offseason. I doubt one sticks around much longer than the other.
And they are relying on Braun and Collins to basically carry them by performing at the highest level. Rest of the AD has mostly been stellar (ignoring baseball for a moment), so if the CFB/MBB teams perform, that would probably save their jobs.
Or perhaps not. Money talks and the biggest $ donors at the school were very close to Fitz. Just a reality of the situation.
I agree with you. I think the players and the coaching staff - the same ones he abandoned then threw under the bus by whining about their t-shirts - were the ones doing the work to get us to the Las Vegas Bowl.
I don't think he can be blamed for that. Pinstripe obviously will take Rutgers whenever it can. It's like the Hawaii Bowl taking Hawaii. We have been to Music City and Maryland never has and it's only a 9 hour drive from College Park to Nashville, so a pair or a threesome of fans can split the driving and leave in the early AM and be there by lunch. Of course one can fly too, but I am saying that is not necessary in these crazy days in the skies. But the point is - they have never been there - we have.
Las Vegas Bowl is fine. Don't the Big Ten schools pitch their takes from the bowls in a big pot and divvy them up equally anyway? Or am I misremembering?
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You are correct; bowl teams generally get some money to help with travel/hotel/food expenses, but the actual bowl payouts are all added into the overall conference pot with the TV money and other postseason money (NCAA Tournament).
So it's all shared among all schools.
It’s a nice video with a weird title.
The message is “look what our Cats have done this fall”, but the title is “look what I have done this fall.”
The message is “look what our Cats have done this fall”, but the title is “look what I have done this fall.”
Speaking of titles - someone should do a psych study on people to want to be called "Doctor" after getting PHD's. E.g. on the insecurities and subsequent yearning for status and acceptance that leads them to that - even though they are not doctors.... Some of my best friends are PHD's - but most that I know don't throw the title around.
Agreed. Two of my sons are MDs and I don’t even call them doctor, 😁
As a Juris Doctor, I guess I could use the term. but even ”Esquire” seems weird to me.
In defense of Schill calling himself Doctor , he does have in addition to his law degree some type of additional training that did give him a PHD so we are back to your original point.
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I'm aware the money is distributed evenly. I was measuring the "clout" of the game by payout.
I don't believe we were ineligible for any of the recent bowls - UK was at Music in 22. When possible, get the best bowl: matchup, attention and desirability for fans. I think Vegas is an easy, though, reasonable option. The pre-Christmas timing will probably degrade attention.
We were probably going to Vegas now matter what. I don’t throw that on Gragg, but the end result would have been the same if you or I were AD. Point is, Gragg didn’t accomplish anything with “ his fighting behind the scenes” and even throwing that comment out there backs the narrative that he is an ineffective empty suit. Words not results.
Braun and the team accomplished this; I'm with @Purple Pile Driver that we were headed to Vegas regardless of everything else at 7-5.
Important things:
Winning games. At 4-8, we would not have gone bowling. At 5-7, we would have been in Detroit as the APR qualifier (like Minnesota). At 6-6, we would have probably been behind a 6-6 Illinois and gone to Guaranteed Rate/Phoenix.
At 7-5, the most important things happened: Braun/Cats knocked off Illinois to keep them at 5-7, also knocked off Minnesota at 5-7 to force them in as an APR qualifier at the bottom of the list.
And then we got an assist from FSU being denied a CFP bid and being sent to the Orange Bowl (which returned Reliaquest/Outback to the lineup).
So everything went right because the team won the important games (keeping teams like Minnesota, Purdue, Illinois out of our way).
Vegas is a high quality bowl; it's the same tier as Music City and Pinstripe (picks in between those 2). Yes it's early in the season, but it's one of the best if not the best among the pre-Christmas bowls.
The way I've always rated bowls has been:
CFP/NY6/BCS is always the top tier (Playoff/championship then Rose/Sugar/Orange/Fiesta/Cotton/Peach).
Citrus is the clear #1 of all non-NY6/BCS bowls, it's always been the most prestigious non-NY6/BCS bowl and features the #1 SEC pick vs #1 Big Ten pick.
Outback is the clear #2 and features #2 SEC pick vs #2 Big Ten pick.
Then there's a middle tier of games that has traditionally featured Music City, Gator, Pinstripe, Alamo, Holiday, and now also includes Vegas instead of some of those prior ones like Holiday.
Then there's a lower tier of games that has traditionally featured games like Guaranteed Rate, Texas Bowl/TicketCity Bowl, Redbox, etc.
Then there's Detroit, which has always been the last bowl on the list.
So we ended up on the middle tier, which we go to isn't a big deal imo; Music City/Vegas/Pinstripe are all similar in value. They're all good bowls, and we ended up there because FSU got left and because we beat Illinois. Those 2 were the biggest factors.
Important things:
Winning games. At 4-8, we would not have gone bowling. At 5-7, we would have been in Detroit as the APR qualifier (like Minnesota). At 6-6, we would have probably been behind a 6-6 Illinois and gone to Guaranteed Rate/Phoenix.
At 7-5, the most important things happened: Braun/Cats knocked off Illinois to keep them at 5-7, also knocked off Minnesota at 5-7 to force them in as an APR qualifier at the bottom of the list.
And then we got an assist from FSU being denied a CFP bid and being sent to the Orange Bowl (which returned Reliaquest/Outback to the lineup).
So everything went right because the team won the important games (keeping teams like Minnesota, Purdue, Illinois out of our way).
Vegas is a high quality bowl; it's the same tier as Music City and Pinstripe (picks in between those 2). Yes it's early in the season, but it's one of the best if not the best among the pre-Christmas bowls.
The way I've always rated bowls has been:
CFP/NY6/BCS is always the top tier (Playoff/championship then Rose/Sugar/Orange/Fiesta/Cotton/Peach).
Citrus is the clear #1 of all non-NY6/BCS bowls, it's always been the most prestigious non-NY6/BCS bowl and features the #1 SEC pick vs #1 Big Ten pick.
Outback is the clear #2 and features #2 SEC pick vs #2 Big Ten pick.
Then there's a middle tier of games that has traditionally featured Music City, Gator, Pinstripe, Alamo, Holiday, and now also includes Vegas instead of some of those prior ones like Holiday.
Then there's a lower tier of games that has traditionally featured games like Guaranteed Rate, Texas Bowl/TicketCity Bowl, Redbox, etc.
Then there's Detroit, which has always been the last bowl on the list.
So we ended up on the middle tier, which we go to isn't a big deal imo; Music City/Vegas/Pinstripe are all similar in value. They're all good bowls, and we ended up there because FSU got left and because we beat Illinois. Those 2 were the biggest factors.
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The US keeps getting dumber and dumber based on test results with one of the few bright spots being certain groups of immigrants who come to the table with want to from the get go. My apologies to the good educators out there but getting that degree means zero in terms of being good at the discipline. It's getting more credentials in how best to make others stupid. At least a scientist is really doing hard stuff. PhD educators are sitting around figuring out ways to create social programs no one wants or needs and how to better clean erasers.
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Teachers are thieves and we need more hedge fund managers.
When I met him at an event last year he introduced himself as Dr. Gragg. My thought was “aren’t you full of yourself”.
LOL! That is such a Gragg story.
You should have introduced yourself (if you had not already done so) as "DrCats1967, Cardiology" (even if you are not a doctor of any kind, just to screw with him) and asked him what his specialty was.
You should have introduced yourself (if you had not already done so) as "DrCats1967, Cardiology" (even if you are not a doctor of any kind, just to screw with him) and asked him what his specialty was.
Beating on hedge fund managers is another post. Happy to oblige when the subject comes up.
I really don't have any problem with someone wishing to be addressed as "doctor" if they have any type of doctoral degree, Phd or otherwise. I have an MD. I know plenty of good people who worked very hard to obtain their Phd. A doctoral degree is a doctoral degree.
My dad was a heart surgeon, so I am biased. But there are only two types of doctors:
1) MDs
2) Dr. Evil.
PhD’s had the term doctor first. Medical doctors started using it to give their pseudoscience (leeches, random salves, foul-tasting drinks, penicillin) an air of legitimacy.
Medical doctors are the cranks, people.
Medical doctors are the cranks, people.
Can a witch doctor reserve plane tickets or a hotel as Doctor-so-and-so?
As long as Phoenix and Detroit remained on the table any efforts to get us to Vegas were welcome. In the end however, we actually fell to the lowest possible bowl based on pecking order since there were not enough teams left to fill Phoenix and Detroit. Apparently we had to be picked over 5 win Minnesota so no one did any favors getting us where we landed.
Now if we had not beat Illinois they would have been in the picture and our destination could well have been either Vegas or Phoenix depending on whether the Vegas Bowl preferred the Illini over us.
In any event even with just six wins we would have still avoided Detroit.
So to summarize, the good doctor's efforts hypothetically may have helped under other scenarios, but in reality nothing he did got us to where we were destined to land. It is hard to take credit for getting us to a bowl better than Detroit or Phoenix when those options ended up not being on the table for the Wildcats. Instead our thanks and gratitude should be directed to Alabama for winning against Georgia which set the dominoes to fall as they did.
Now if we had not beat Illinois they would have been in the picture and our destination could well have been either Vegas or Phoenix depending on whether the Vegas Bowl preferred the Illini over us.
In any event even with just six wins we would have still avoided Detroit.
So to summarize, the good doctor's efforts hypothetically may have helped under other scenarios, but in reality nothing he did got us to where we were destined to land. It is hard to take credit for getting us to a bowl better than Detroit or Phoenix when those options ended up not being on the table for the Wildcats. Instead our thanks and gratitude should be directed to Alabama for winning against Georgia which set the dominoes to fall as they did.
The crank who fixed my torn meniscus, and the other who dealt with my torn labrum and rotator cuff say you can call anytime...
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