$20 Handling Fee for United Center Game??? BOGGLE!

It's bad enough the men's basketball team is playing Auburn, a perennial $EC basketball doormat, for the annual United Center game.  But charging a $20 handling fee for tickets?  On top of $60 to sit downstairs?

I thought Mike "MAC" Thomas was using B1G Network ca$h money to pay off the contracts of Zook, Bruce All Mid-Major and Jolette Law? 

How Low Will UI Football Go?

Complete turd show at the Big House.  Underdog on road, 4th and inches at midfield on the opening drive (which looked decent) and you punt. Michigan scores.  Down 10-0 on the road, as an underdog, 4th and 4 from the scUM 32 and you try a 50 yard field goal in poor conditions.

Any chance we beat IU for Homecoming?  They gave Ohio State a tough game.

This sucks.  So does Tim Beckman and his staff. Yeah, let's throw a 2 yard screen pass to a WR on 3rd down and 5!

Memorial Stadium Event Staff FAIL

Our pal Robert from A Lion Eye had some issues with Memorial Stadium event staff.  Apparently he didn't leave the stadium quickly enough for their liking. The way this turd of a season is going, will there be any fans left for event staff to harass.

Meanwhile, $60 for tickets downstairs for the United Center basketball game vs. Auburn?  WTF?

Chewing The Tobacco in Beckman's Contract

It's bad enough our football coach got busted chewing tobacco on the sidelines, in clear violation of NCAA rules. Now, we here at FireMikeThomas take you inside the particular's of Tim Beckman's contract:


1)  a bonus of 8% of his base salary of $400K for merely making a bowl game.  No need to worry about that this season! Thanks Tim Beckman!

 

2) $150K bonus if he's still the coach on 1-31-15.   A $350K bonus if still here on 1-31-17.

 

3) yearly salary increases of $100K.

 

4) UI paid the $130K buyout of his Toledo contract.

 

5) free car usage for his wife and he. but no free tobacco?  

 

6) free membership at Champaign Country Club.   Caesar Salad with Coach Guenther!

 

7) joint responsibility for scheduling with MT.  Remember, RZ beefed about scheduling when asked, saying that "a HC should have as much input as his AD allows."

 

8) ah yes, the buyout.  the rumour of a "mere" $400K buyout is B.S.

 

if UI sacks Beckman for being a bad coach the buyout is as follows:

 

TWO TIMES the base salary of $400K for the remainder of the contract plus any prorations, less $275K per year based on Beckman's duty to mitigate damages.

 

EXAMPLE:  UI sacks Beckman on 8/1/2014.  It owes Beckman TWO TIMES the base salary  for partial Contract Year 3 (400,000) PLUS TWO TIMES the full year's salary owed for years 4 and 5 (that is $800,000 PER YEAR)  MINUS $137,500 for Beckman's duty to mitigate damages in year 3 (prorated) and MINUS $550,000 total for Beckman's duty to mitigate damages in years 4 & 5 ($275,000 per year, times 2)= for a total lump sum  of $1,312,500.   BOGGLE!

 

 

Football Is A Joke

We thought Mike "MAC" Thomas had found a competent coach. Boy we were wrong! 2-3, and the team looks awful. Too many penalties, turnovers and a bad offense and bad defense.

can't wait for the crowd of 20,000 for homecoming!

John Groce? JOHN FREAKING GROCE? MAC REPRESENT!

We cut Mike Thomas slack in the football search...Lord Guenther killed UI football and frankly we were happy that Tim Beckman, who resurrected Toledo from the dead, took the job. We are optimistic Beckman can do a good job. Can't be worse than 88-131-2.

Sadly, certain Trustees of a certain skin color whined about the hire. Did anyone tell them Kevin Sumlin was never interested and that Texas A&M was his dream job? So these two Trustees whined and moaned about how UI never hired a football or men's basketball coach of a certain skin color.

So when MT finally sacked Bruce Mid Major, everyone on Earth knew that the first call that MT would make would be to Shaka Smart. The "hot" name and he is of a certain skin color. Problem was that Smart never really was interested. So right there, MT had to put up a dog and pony show to appease those certain BOT members of a certain skin color.

Then MT swung for the fences with Brad Stevens, who listened and declined. My question-what the fck is UI paying $90,000 to https://www.parkersearch.com/collegiate-athletics??? A competent search firm should not only weed out potential red flags, it should be able to screen exactly who is interested and who is merely looking to get a raise from a current employer.

So now we have John Groce, whose name has riled up the fan base as a loser hire. Our bigger concern-his half-brother was Eric Gordon's AAU coach and ended up with a job under Kelvin Sanctions at Indiana.

Hey Mike Thomas! If you won't even talk to Frank Martin or Chris Mack, you are an idiot of the caliber of Ron Guenther, uh, I mean Warren Carter!

Mike Thomas, YOU IDIOT!!!

Playing a football game in Chicago? No way dude! Did you not see the one-way field debacle at Wrigley Field last year? Did Loren Tate not tell you about Lord Guenther's awesome idea to play a game at Soldier Field in 1994? How did that turn out? 10-9 loss, with 37,000 fans in attendance! Awesome, NOT!

Please keep the football games in Champaign!