Roan to JMU

[EKU05]

Not going too much into this because I could go for a while.

But Nathan wasn’t going to Eku stuff before the softball stuff happened because he got his feelings hurt. And he’s very sensitive and petty.

So hard for me to believe anything he says. Not saying everything he said was wrong, but he’s probably missing a lot of what happened in that story.

I agree on both counts. Nathan can be petty. But he's also right about a decent bit of it (or at least probably so).

[Chris81]

With AD Roan leaving it sure looks like the Colonels hope is getting dimmer.

[FormerColonel08]

Him getting his feelings hurt and being petty happened before the whole softball stuff though. And it’s led to him just completely refusing to cover anything EKU which is embarrassing on his end. At least from my standpoint, it’s embarrassing on his end.

[Braxton]

Nothing like this coming out yesterday, the day before EKU giving day.

[And1]

Him getting his feelings hurt and being petty happened before the whole softball stuff though. And it’s led to him just completely refusing to cover anything EKU which is embarrassing on his end. At least from my standpoint, it’s embarrassing on his end.

I noticed the hostility ramp up with EKU's decision to leave the OVC. EKU's sports social media accounts create content at such a high level that sports coverage from the Register isn't very important to Eastern any longer. The pettiness from Nathan in his column and in some of his previous social media posts, its obvious that Matt Roan broke him.

[Steve 82]

With AD Roan leaving it sure looks like the Colonels hope is getting dimmer.

From what some of the rumors are about D-1 football reorganization we may not need to worry about joining a current FBS conference to meet our goals.

[RollKerns]

I don't live in Richmond anymore and don't read the Register to begin with but it has appeared for some period of time that Nathan Hutchinson has had some sort of bitterness towards EKU. I am not sure exactly what it was just because I am not in enough inner circles to fully understand it but clearly there are issues with that relationship.

I have often been to verbose on forum boards that are supposed to be fun ways to talk about our team. I am sure many of us who are all apart of the same community have noticed this. I try to be reasonable and talk about things with opinion but nuance at the same time. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Nathan being upset is probably out of line and professional. However, Matt Roan absolutely gets his name in the news for a lot of negative things.

Protection of the press is so vital for them to hold people accountable. I felt like Matt Roan and by extension Jane Worthington wasn't really ever held accountable for the state of the softball program. It's all forgotten now as they have perhaps the best team in school history (winning cures all). But there was legitimate issues occurring within the team and it pretty much was ignored for us hoping the program was so small we would all forget. I watched the Louisville game yesterday with my wife and all she could say was "how did the coach keep her job that makes them look like a joke". That's coming from an uniformed bystander--even she knew about the investigation and as a bystander forgot what happened. Nathan had a duty to report that to us. And we sort of all forgot after a few days and moved on. But he did the right thing by reporting it. And an AD who gets mad over that report clearly is sensitive for a reason. In my job I oftentimes feel I get unfair media coverage from our very small local media. But it isn't ever personal. The comments people make might be, but it isn't for the reporters who also just have a job to do.

I understand that I am far too much of an Aaron Sorkin type idealist but him dodging the open records request really bothers me to my core. It is shady and wrong. I truly believe that no matter the situation it is better to be honest. If you're honest it works out. Matt Roan was more than just dishonest. He intentionally tried to perpetrate a fraud. I cannot get over that.

He clearly is very very good at his job. He gave us unprecedented success financially. There is excitement around athletics that haven't existed as long as I have been around or alive. People actually -talk- about EKU athletics and mention going to football games. I feel like if we did ever get to the FBS level it would be because of him and how he legitimized our athletics. I would say the FBS dream, which was very far fetched is likely fully dead now. Regardless of what the landscape may look like in a few years.

I think I can say that I am not upset entirely to see Roan gone because I was angry at him for lying to me. Yes, even somebody I didn't know. However he did a great job and was okay with looking the other way on some things in order to get to where we wanted to go. It is an interesting dichotomy for sure.

[Colonel12]

Agreed RollKerns fully.

Did he do a great job? Yes at times.
Was he shady? Absolutely.
Did he try and succeed at covering up the softball scandal? Yeah.
Am I glad he is leaving? Yeah.
Do I trust McFadden not to replace him with someone who is good at the job and high integrity? Absolutely not.

The triad of McFadden, Roan, Diaz, is getting broken up.

McFadden please leave now too.

[EKU05]

Great post, Roll Kerns.

I agree on almost all counts. I'm not sure that I see FBS as any more or less likely than it was before. If we make a good hire maybe that person gives us a fresh new angle. It's way too early to tell, and it's also way too dependent on potential future movement over which we have no control. We could literally do a worse job than we have been doing but still get in if the movement above us gets crazy enough to do something to C-USA like it did two years ago. Or we could be stuck right where we are.

With regard to Steve82's post about reorganization; I'm still a skeptic that any catastrophic breakaway will take place. What happens within the current structure has changed dramatically, and it will continue to do so. The pecking order of teams and conferences may well also change to a degree with the Big 2 almost assuredly staying on top. But in my opinion, too many institutions are mutually benefitting from the current setup in too many different ways to totally dismantle it. I expect the current system to just become increasingly dysfunctional but stay just mutually beneficial enough to be perpetuated.

Either way, as your screen name says...Roll Kerns!

[Steve 82]

Great post, Roll Kerns.

I agree on almost all counts. I'm not sure that I see FBS as any more or less likely than it was before. If we make a good hire maybe that person gives us a fresh new angle. It's way too early to tell, and it's also way too dependent on potential future movement over which we have no control. We could literally do a worse job than we have been doing but still get in if the movement above us gets crazy enough to do something to C-USA like it did two years ago. Or we could be stuck right where we are.

With regard to Steve82's post about reorganization; I'm still a skeptic that any catastrophic breakaway will take place. What happens within the current structure has changed dramatically, and it will continue to do so. The pecking order of teams and conferences may well also change to a degree with the Big 2 almost assuredly staying on top. But in my opinion, too many institutions are mutually benefitting from the current setup in too many different ways to totally dismantle it. I expect the current system to just become increasingly dysfunctional but stay just mutually beneficial enough to be perpetuated.

Either way, as your screen name says...Roll Kerns!

What the rumor deals with is a reog of D1 football where there will be the P4, the G5 with the FCS conferences doing full football scholarships and then non-scholarship, reduced scholarship, and HBCU conferences in the third tier all still under the NCAA.