Maine Offseason 2020: We Stay Home But Swayman Leaves

[Fishman'81]

Regarding Vachon.....yeah, she could have made more money somewhere else but......

1. She IS a native Mainer who played for UMaine (beat Stanford in NCAA senior year).

2. She is very close to her family who live in the Augusta area.

3. She has put her stamp on this program and has rebuilt it from the ashes of Blodgett/McInerney with a recruiting assist from Barron.

4. Fan support is unrivaled in the Northeast excluding UConn.

5. A hew hoops facility is on the horizon which I'm sure is a bit of a dangling carrot.

She's a hero to me. Could have easily taken a more lucrative job elsewhere, but has been true to her roots.

Her teams have been far more interesting to watch than have been Red's don't-give-a s*** hockey squads... Amy believes, she coaches, and she recruits.

If she chooses to stay home, God only knows how many wins she will rack-up.

[Fishman'81]

Correction, he had a losing record last season, but a winning record two seasons ago and this season. Actually, Coach Whitten is doing a better job of following the Sandelin Plan than Coach Sandelin did as he is 2 years ahead of schedule.



Sean

Love the data and the flow charts (if I have that terminology right).

Looks like the Sandelin-thing isn't happening for Red, though. (That would involve Maine actually getting better, and possibly winning something once in a while, as I understand the concept.)

I enjoy your posts, we all do, thanks for the effort. Keep it coming as long as care to. It's always interesting to see how much of a disaster Red has been from varying perspectives.

:P

[umhockey91]

She's a hero to me. Could have easily taken a more lucrative job elsewhere, but has been true to her roots.

Her teams have been far more interesting to watch than have been Red's don't-give-a s*** hockey squads... Amy believes, she coaches, and she recruits.

If she chooses to stay home, God only knows how many wins she will rack-up.

Coaching is definitely in her genes. Her father (Paul Vachon/Cony) brought girls basketball in Maine into the modern day and to a new level with his aggressive style of D and run & gun offense. Anyone remember the Lane sisters? Man.....I hated them at the time but in hindsight they were amazing players.

So.....anyone hear anything new?

[acs64]

Greetings from Florida. I guess I've learned to despise Maine hockey so much I had to get this far away, lol. Soooo, having not followed them at all I guessed they sucked this covid season and Reds head is on the chopping block. Without reading 10 million posts, are there any good, actually viable, candidates out there? Man this new format is all about advertising isnt it ?

[umhockey91]

Greetings from Florida. I guess I've learned to despise Maine hockey so much I had to get this far away, lol. Soooo, having not followed them at all I guessed they sucked this covid season and Reds head is on the chopping block. Without reading 10 million posts, are there any good, actually viable, candidates out there? Man this new format is all about advertising isnt it ?

He lives!.....in Florida! Hello old friend.

Viable candidates.....of course there must be someone out there that is willing to accept a 200K contract to coach a pre-historically successful program that has (had) tremendous fan support and has some facility improvements on the horizon. But will "viable" candidates meet the approval of the AD and more importantly the "good 'ole boys" that are ultimately in charge of a hire like this....???

[acs64]

He lives!.....in Florida! Hello old friend.

Viable candidates.....of course there must be someone out there that is willing to accept a 200K contract to coach a pre-historically successful program that has (had) tremendous fan support and has some facility improvements on the horizon. But will "viable" candidates meet the approval of the AD and more importantly the "good 'ole boys" that are ultimately in charge of a hire like this....???

Well maybe the good old boys need to be shown the exit.....f them. Howsabout we work on getting an energetic, intelligent and motivated sob who looks decent in a suit to run the program. Enough with the old attah boy we can get 'er done cant we? boys of the past. I had some hope for the Redster, maybe only because of some distant connections with him....but college hawkey aint easy to be successful in I suppose.

[umhockey91]

The "old girl ain't what she used to be.

2021 - If I told you that 3 Minnesota schools will be in the Frozen 4 and none of them are name Minnesota......would you believe me?

[NorthMike]

2021 - If I told you that 3 Minnesota schools will be in the Frozen 4 and none of them are name Minnesota......would you believe me?

What a great hockey culture out there in MN, ole Herb's initiative to support/grow MN youth hockey up through to feed the Gophers seems to still be working except the Gopher success part.
Duluth, Mankato, St Cloud - sure supports that theory out there that to have a successful hockey program you have to have a big fancy expensive on campus facility, be a private rich school, and be a metro school for well whatever they do in metro areas.

[AMC]

The "old girl ain't what she used to be.

2021 - If I told you that 3 Minnesota schools will be in the Frozen 4 and none of them are name Minnesota......would you believe me?

Three D-II schools who don’t light millions of dollars on fire playing FCS football and instead pour the vast majority of their resources into their only D-I programs.

That could be us. But instead of choosing one thing to be excellent at, the University of Maine tries to be all things to all people and gets mediocre results.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

Well maybe the good old boys need to be shown the exit.....f them. Howsabout we work on getting an energetic, intelligent and motivated sob who looks decent in a suit to run the program. Enough with the old attah boy we can get 'er done cant we? boys of the past. I had some hope for the Redster, maybe only because of some distant connections with him....but college hawkey aint easy to be successful in I suppose.

Time for a wake up call....watching these games this weekend...great action and games and all we can do is watch and WAIT while nothing happens @ Maine on what is the PLAN and where do we go from here....always a ?????marks and no answers....TIME TO WAKEUP Ken Ralph...time is here and now.

[acs64]

Time for a wake up call....watching these games this weekend...great action and games and all we can do is watch and WAIT while nothing happens @ Maine on what is the PLAN and where do we go from here....always a ?????marks and no answers....TIME TO WAKEUP Ken Ralph...time is here and now.

Maybe it will be different this time around.

[Ma#1ne Hky]

Maybe it will be different this time around.

You could be very well right...but from my view everything looks like nothing is in the works. Just status quo and all the while they wait and see, others pass them by in improving their Programs with the right people and plan. Seems like Maine is in the so called LAME DUCK MODE.

[Sean Pickett]

Three D-II schools who don’t light millions of dollars on fire playing FCS football and instead pour the vast majority of their resources into their only D-I programs.

That could be us. But instead of choosing one thing to be excellent at, the University of Maine tries to be all things to all people and gets mediocre results.

I'm two years behind on my NCAA Financial reports tracking (and 4 years behind on Minnesota State as they ignored my last requests), but none of the schools spend the vast majority of their resources on men's ice hockey. The average percentage of the athletic budget spent on men's ice hockey for 2010-18 for Minnesota-Duluth is the highest at 23.1%, for St. Cloud it was just 14.4% and for Minnesota State for 2010-16 it was 18%. For the most recent reports I have UMD reported men's ice hockey was 25.3% of expenses (2018), SCSU reported it was 15.3% (2018) and MSU reported it was 19% (2016). Even when you add in women's ice hockey it's still below 50% for each school: UMD 39.5% (average), 39.3% (2018); SCSU 22.8% (average), 24.6% (2018); and MSU 26.7% (average), 29.1% (2016). So, a significant amount of the overall athletic expenses, but far from a majority, let alone a vast majority.

For comparison, Maine spent an average of 10.01% of their expenses on men's ice hockey from 2010-18 and 9.7% in 2018. However, when you compare dollars it looks differently. Here are the average each team spent from 2010-18 (-16 for MSU):

Maine	$1,974,759
Minnesota State	$1,973,659
Minnesota-Duluth	$2,215,755
St. Cloud State	$1,757,063

and here is how much each school spent in 2018 (2016 for MSU):

Maine	$2,098,494
Minnesota State	$2,362,995
Minnesota-Duluth	$2,902,844
St. Cloud State	$2,034,429

Sean

[Runsub5]

I'm two years behind on my NCAA Financial reports tracking (and 4 years behind on Minnesota State as they ignored my last requests), but none of the schools spend the vast majority of their resources on men's ice hockey. The average percentage of the athletic budget spent on men's ice hockey for 2010-18 for Minnesota-Duluth is the highest at 23.1%, for St. Cloud it was just 14.4% and for Minnesota State for 2010-16 it was 18%. For the most recent reports I have UMD reported men's ice hockey was 25.3% of expenses (2018), SCSU reported it was 15.3% (2018) and MSU reported it was 19% (2016). Even when you add in women's ice hockey it's still below 50% for each school: UMD 39.5% (average), 39.3% (2018); SCSU 22.8% (average), 24.6% (2018); and MSU 26.7% (average), 29.1% (2016). So, a significant amount of the overall athletic expenses, but far from a majority, let alone a vast majority.

For comparison, Maine spent an average of 10.01% of their expenses on men's ice hockey from 2010-18 and 9.7% in 2018. However, when you compare dollars it looks differently. Here are the average each team spent from 2010-18 (-16 for MSU):

Maine	$1,974,759
Minnesota State	$1,973,659
Minnesota-Duluth	$2,215,755
St. Cloud State	$1,757,063

and here is how much each school spent in 2018 (2016 for MSU):

Maine	$2,098,494
Minnesota State	$2,362,995
Minnesota-Duluth	$2,902,844
St. Cloud State	$2,034,429

Sean

Thanks Sean. Very interesting! This begs the question if Maine is spending similar amounts of money (except possibly Minnesota-Duluth), why is Maine a mediocre program? Do you have a percentage of what the athletic department spends for hockey at Maine?

[Drew S.]

I'm two years behind on my NCAA Financial reports tracking (and 4 years behind on Minnesota State as they ignored my last requests), but none of the schools spend the vast majority of their resources on men's ice hockey. The average percentage of the athletic budget spent on men's ice hockey for 2010-18 for Minnesota-Duluth is the highest at 23.1%, for St. Cloud it was just 14.4% and for Minnesota State for 2010-16 it was 18%. For the most recent reports I have UMD reported men's ice hockey was 25.3% of expenses (2018), SCSU reported it was 15.3% (2018) and MSU reported it was 19% (2016). Even when you add in women's ice hockey it's still below 50% for each school: UMD 39.5% (average), 39.3% (2018); SCSU 22.8% (average), 24.6% (2018); and MSU 26.7% (average), 29.1% (2016). So, a significant amount of the overall athletic expenses, but far from a majority, let alone a vast majority.

For comparison, Maine spent an average of 10.01% of their expenses on men's ice hockey from 2010-18 and 9.7% in 2018. However, when you compare dollars it looks differently. Here are the average each team spent from 2010-18 (-16 for MSU):

Maine	$1,974,759
Minnesota State	$1,973,659
Minnesota-Duluth	$2,215,755
St. Cloud State	$1,757,063

and here is how much each school spent in 2018 (2016 for MSU):

Maine	$2,098,494
Minnesota State	$2,362,995
Minnesota-Duluth	$2,902,844
St. Cloud State	$2,034,429

Sean

I don’t think the total number is very meaningful. For example I’m sure every school values schollies differently but every school has a limit of 18. I would bet they allocate administrative expense to each team differently too as well. What counts is coaching budget, recruiting budget, travel budget, and equipment. All indications are Maine’s budget is severely limited in those areas.