Mike Buddie

[Monkanfan]

Taking the TCU AD job?

He’s been solid for us-big loss..

If true, cut to the chase and hire Bob Beretta!

[wpgrad]

$5 says they’ve already called Berreta

[rbmarmy]

Any chance there will be second thoughts on this so-called league we are in.And don't tell me the $2,000,000 bowl payday sealed the deal.

[WrekDivr]

ESPN reporting the move as well. Sad to see him go. Seems like we are winning more star games these days with some good coach hires.

https://www.espn.com/college-sports/sto ... die-new-ad

[Oliphant]

Good riddance.

[apgarme]

I am a little surprised to see Mr. Buddie leave when the Michie renovation is far from complete. I agree with the previous comment that an AD's ability to hire good coaches is crucial to athletic success at West Point.

In my opinion, we have made some bad AD hires in the not too recent past. I felt that Mr. Greenspan and Mr. Anderson were overly focused on facilities to the detriment of good coaching selections.

I hope that the new AD selection is very carefully made.

[rbmarmy]

Greenspan was there to specifically raise money and he did and protect T Berry at the same Anderson made plans to build a new home for entertaining. To most of these guys it is a job, not a responsibility and they come and go like a revilving door and we pay the freight

[OptionThis]

Three takeaways from Mike Buddie's departure.

1. He did a solid job at WP and regardless of him not being around to oversee the stadium upgrade project, he did get it funded and started. Hopefully Michie's completion will lead to a commensurate upgrade in the whole game - day experience at WP.

2. His departure puts Buddie's comments to the Athletic - that he was to paraphrase him, fine with Coach Monken serially interviewing for other jobs - in context.

3. At least he is heading to a program that doesn't have an immediate need for a new head football coach. Though Sonny Dykes had a rough 2023 ( 5 - 7) TCU's 9 - 4 record in 2024 and maybe more important, the national championship Coach Dykes lead the Horned Frogs to in 2022 should earn him several more years in Fort Worth.

[Usma80]

I agree with Oliphant- “Good Riddance”, and I’m a life long Yankee fan born & raised in Bergen County NJ. I don’t base that on his entire tenure at USMA - but specifically for the crap parting gift he gave us by committing us to the Independence Bowl when he had no obligation to do it. So, we end a fantastic season in a lousy bowl, playing a very weak team after a comical scramble of “who wants to play Army that has a losing record and is located 55 minutes away from the stadium?” Of course he couldn’t care less, he’d already committed to head out the door.

[wpgrad]

Buddie deserves a lot of credit for getting Monken's salary high enough that he would no longer leave to go to a Group of 5 job. Lets remember, it was just 2014 when we hired monken at a salary of 800k. It is now 2.3M, with 900k extra in incentives. If buddie was not diligent in getting that 800k to a much high number, I think it was likely we would have lost Monken to a hiring paying G5 job probably after we beat Houston in that bowl. That is to be applauded

He also deserves credit for getting the new stadium built. Like it or not, michie is pretty much a dump of a stadium. This new stadium upgrade will be huge and hopefully will lead to improved concessions, improved bussing, etc for the whole stadium experience cause right now...honestly....its a pretty crappy all around event. Leave house at 6am....get through traffic....waiting on buses...bad food...post game long walk down the hill or up the hill....then drive home in the dark......

From a football standpoint though.......
1) The constant quest for money has made games like Army Navy ridiculously stupid expensive. He has priced out the average fan and the average donor (who used to donate a low amount but still get access to tickets). I know many classmates who have donated forever but now the last 1-3 years have not been able to get seats or good seats as ticket allocation has been given to USAA, CBS, etc as part of our new contracts. More tickets for the rich folks, outpricing the middle class folks.
2) Joining the AAC was a dumb lazy move. Just see the "benefits" of being in a conference as it pertains to our bowl matchup (ie, no benefit at all)
3) Scheduling of home games gets worse and worse each year, and is ANY army fan really excited about buying season tickets in 2025 to watch Tarleton State, Charlotte, North Texas, Temple and Tulsa? Those are our 5 home games this year...not 6....not 7... I think, over time, as we see even with long time ticket holders on this board...combining this type of home schedule with the early kickoffs and this policy will run off long time fans that are the bread and butter of fall football. Knock games versus teams like Holy Cross all you want...but fans attend those games. They do not attend Tarleton games or low level AAC games.
4) I think we are going to see alot of "one time" fans that come in, are willing to drop 500 bucks on a ticket to see tulsa, just to hob nob in the new side of the stadium and toss their old grad money around buying $20 beers....but the main stadium will be emptier each year and those one time fans will be coming once every few years.

So...a good legacy...but certainly some flaws.