Feels like the magnitude of losing right now carries more weight than it has in the past due to conference realignment. And that's probably just my paranoia as a Tulsa fan fearing the worst-case scenario of being relegated into football obscurity... I saw that Colorado State and Air Force were going to join the AAC but then backed down a couple days later after being harangued by their conference mates... If the MWC stays together and we only add cupcakes, we're gonna be wishing we Bowlsby instead of Aresco in this realignment game.
I agree the losing presently is not that big of a deal when conferences are evaluating programs.
The issue is what we are doing about it and where we compare to our peers in administration support/expectation and resources/facilities.
We can't lose, not care, have no one show up, be behind (mostly because we are small not because we are 'spending less') budgets and at the back of facilities.
Firing a bad coach, who is destroying your support, and which has no reputational or economic draw back at least shows you're paying attention and there is a standard.
Keeping a coach who can bring zero positives, is currently hurting the program, and has little potential as a long term future coach with a high risk of doing more damage says we don't care.