Bianco to LSU

[camlock]

His salary is way over and the big key here is he learned from Skip how to make more, and he's given that at Ole Miss. Skip still gets it primarily in Baton ROuge, b/c everything is SKip Bertman this and that....

Now does LSU have the money, of course, but as long as Bertman is the AD is he gonna give it to a guy that he knows will demand to be the #1 baseball guy (kinda like Saban going to Miami, he wanted not only to be coach but to have control of what going on with managerial duties) in town??? VERY VERY doubtful...And flip side is Bianco is not going to go into a situation like that cause he knows it won't work for him...

I have also heard from some old timers at LSU that Bianco and Skip don't/never had the best working relationship and that Bianco used his time working under Skip to learn and build a resume and probably won't see him working under him again in any capacity.

The scholarship thing is the only arguement (aside from the assumption that b/c Bianco played for and coached at LSU that he wants to be back there) that has any clout towards Bianco leaving, but honestly I question it's validity. Because how come if his reason is he could win a NC at LSU with those schollys, how come he's been every bit as competitive as LSU over the past 3-4 years??? Argueably, last year he had a better (talented) team or as good a team as LSU has put on the field since 2000. So how much a factor is that??? He is out recruiting LSU hand over fist the last 3 years.....Argueably he might could do ever MORE at LSU, but that's how you see it...is that how he sees it??? Is the grass always that much greener on the other side in his eyes? Especially when he has grazed in the pasture?

Ever think he might not like the LSU program anymore since he (and Jim Wells) got snubbed for Smoke flippin Laval to begin with??? Maybe there are burnt bridges now...

AND #1, being a die hard Ole Miss fan living in Baton Rouge, 75% (heck maybe 90%) of the people I talk to about this who truly believe he'll leave for LSU if called on are Ole MIss fans...Most of the LSU people believe he was THE MAN when they hired Laval and he's lost now and they feel that way. Ole Miss fans are just pessimist and paranoid about LSU in general, going all the way back to Billy freaking Cannon....and that my friends is the real issue

[Po Monkey Lounger]

This discussion about limited baseball scholarships and advantages other states have over MS schools due to state scholarship money from lotteries, etc., just begs the question: IF such were the huge advantage some say, how did UM have such a successful season last year, and why is MSU kicking ass this year? Do the MS schools just have better coaching? Are we smarter and work better with what we have? No, while this would be just dandy if true, I think the most likely explanation is that the MS schools find other scholarship money for its baseball players ---other than the limited athletic scholarships. Believe it or not, some of the baseball players are actually good students, who qualify for academic scholarhips.

[Greenhead22]

Most don't realize that the majority of your college baseball players are at least 3.0 students, but since they play sports it's hard for them to be able to receive other financial aid when they are on athletic scholly, whether it's 10% or 80%.

I worked in the loan/scholarship dept at msu for 3 yrs, and it was sad to see those players come in trying to get some additional help. Heck I would pull up their account info and tell them how much they still owned, which was a good bit for 90% of them that walked through the door. It was especially bad on the out-of-state players that couldn't get an exemption.

[stitch]

As far as the scholarship situation, it makes perfect sense. If you look a the rosters of LSU, GA, etc, they will have 25 kids on some type of scholarship vs 11.7 for State and Ole Miss. Can State and Ole Miss put together a team occasionally that will be in the top 10, sure. Can they do it every year and be be ranked in the top 10 every year like LSU baseball, no. State was ranked in the top 10 every year when things were "equal" with scholarships, it's hard to compete now. Would GA compete in football with only 40 scholarships vs 85 in the rest of the conference....sure they would some years, but they couldn't do it every year.

As far as Bianco leaving, I'm not going to disagree with the demands you had for LSU, I'm just saying he would replace Smoke. Skip is not very happy with Smoke. I don't know if you saw some of Skip's comments last year when Smoke was considering the Oklahoma job, but they weren't very favorable.

[Greenhead22]

We can talk about this all we want, fact of the matter remains that Bianco is not and will not leave UM for a long time unless Boone and Khayat just force him out.

[stitch]

I'm opening up the books, 2:1 odds that Bianco will be in Baton Rouge....

[duckkiller]

well my guess is that if Smoke is gone then they will talk to Bianco and all its gonna take is $$$$$$ and he will be leaving Oxfard b/c LSU has way more $$$$$ to give than Oxfard and he has a better chance to be successful in BR than he does OM but he has built the program at UM. However the season is far from over so Smoke still has a chance

[stitch]

By the way, why did Bianco change his name?

[duckkiller]

What are you talking about? all I ever heard him called was little skip or Bianco

[stitch]

The way he pronounces it now is different than when he was a player.....the joke around MSU is "when did he change his name?"....did he he change all of a sudden when he became a successful coach?

[duckkiller]

OH i didn't know Are you going to the game? looks like I am stuck in Vegas drinking cold beer and doing home work but hey atleast we can get cold beer now