Gross Decline?

As I was calculating the updated records of both the Men's and Women's programs this afternoon, I started looking a little closer at just what DOCTOR Daryl Gross's leadership has meant to Syracuse Athletics in terms of winning and losing. Now overall, we have seen marked improvement in certain sports, however in general, the Athletics Program has a much worse record now than it did during the final years of Jake Crouthamel's leadership.

After going through the numbers again and again, it is rather disturbing to see what has happened. The three traditional powerhouse programs for Syracuse University, the Men's Basketball and Lacrosse teams, as well as the Football team have all suffered major setbacks during the DOCTOR Daryl Gross era, which I like to refer to as the Post Apocalyptic Era. During this time, the Men's programs (including the Men's Soccer Program) have gone 145-114-9 (.558). Compare that to the 151-88-7 (.628) record of the same Men's programs prior to DOCTOR Daryl Gross and you can see my astonishment.

The situation gets even more discouraging when I looked at the numbers for the Women's programs. With the sharp decline on the Men's side, I was assuming that Women's sports were suddenly performing with much better results. Of course, you know what they say about assuming. Under DOCTOR Daryl Gross, Women's programs have gone 332-312-11 (.515), compare that to the 315-297-6 (.514) record before DOCTOR Daryl Gross, and you see that he really has not done much to improve Women's sports.

However, the area of greatest concern happens to deal with the revenue generating sports. The two sports at Syracuse that generate the most revenue to fund all of the other sports happen to be the Men's Basketball and Football programs. Under DOCTOR Daryl Gross, these programs have gone an abysmal 98-69 (.587) compared to the 87-41 (.680) that they went prior to his arrival. The question is, how much longer will fans continue to support these Men's teams that have struggled under DOCTOR Daryl Gross?

Some Breathing Room

It has been a fantastic week for Syracuse sports fans assuming that you aren't a fan of the Men's Basketball Program which ended the season on a low note with a loss to UMass in the Dome on Tuesday, or are a of DOCTOR Daryl Gross who saw his Orangemen and Orangewomen go a combined 8-2 on the week.

• Men's Lacrosse: 1-0 (1.00)


• Women's Lacrosse: 1-0 (1.00)


• Tennis: 3-0 (1.00)


• Softball: 3-1 (.750)


• Men's Basketball: 0-1 (.000)


• Total: 8-2(.800)

Now that it is Spring

Since the last update that I made to the records of Syracuse sports, we have almost concluded the winter sports season and the spring season has started. I'm sure that DOCTOR Daryl Gross is pleased to see the Men's Lacrosse team return to the ways of old to help bail out the Men's Basketball team who has had a rather disappointing season.

• Men's Lacrosse: 5-1 (.833)


• Women's Lacrosse: 7-2 (.778)


• Women's Basketball: 20-8 (.714)


• Men's Basketball: 17-12 (.586)


• Tennis: 6-11 (.353)


• Softball: 7-16 (.304)


• Total: 62-50 (.554)

1 + 1 = 3

There are those times when I am just straight up embarrassed by Syracuse University and the athletic department. Thankfully it doesn't happen as often as it could, but just yesterday an email announcement about the Women's Lacrosse game provided just the moment...

Subject: #1 vs. #6 WOMEN’S LAX TONIGHT!
From: suathleticsnews@suathletics.com
Date: Mon, March 24, 2008 3:36 pm
To: GetGrossOut
Priority: Normal
Options: View Full Header | View Printable Version | View Message details

The No.1 ranked and three time defending National Champions, Northwestern, takes on the No. 6 ranked Syracuse Women's Lacrosse team tonight in the Carrier Dome. Game time is set for 7:00PM, you do not want to miss this great matchup tonight between these two top 5 teams.

That's No. 1 Northwestern vs. No. 6 Syracuse tonight, March, 24th at 7:00pm!

Admission is FREE for everyone, so wear your ORANGE and come fill the stands

Syracuse does consider itself an institution of higher learning, right?