Cowpokes Need Help-Funny

[MichiganSooner]

Remember a few years ago when T-Bone and Holder came up with the "brilliant idea" of insuring some older alumni so that when the codgers died, OSU athletics would receive the life insurance because the department would be the beneficiary? They insured these people with $10 million policies. After a couple years, no one had died and Holder and T-Bone took the life insurance salesman to court claiming the insurance deal was "not profitable". The judge ruled in favor of the insurance company.

Now, someone has died!!! OSU can not decide if it want to take the life insurance proceeds of ten million dollars.

[Soonerjeepman]

well if OU wanted to pay my life insurance for 10 million, that'd be cool..I'd write in though that my family got either 500K or 1M...that would still be a good investment for them and me!

[Soonerfan88]

I thought they couldn't afford the premiums so lost the policies and prompted the lawsuit to get back what they had already paid. I don't think they are going to get a dime of that $10M.

[MyT Oklahoma]

Classic!

P.S. Poor Aggies.

[XingTheRubicon]

"If this guy owned a funeral home, no one would die."

-G. Gekko

[ouflak]

I'm trying to guess the reasons they wouldn't cash this instantly without hesitation:


They still think they have a lawsuit and want to appeal (or they have a future distinct lawsuit). Accepting the insurance payout invalidates their case?
Now that someone has actually died, they are having moral/ethical queasiness about actually going through with this scheme.
They are afraid of further lawsuits should they try to claim this money since they did attempt to cancel the policy rather vigorously. The result might cost them more than its worth?
Accepting this claim would insure that Pickens loses the lawsuit filed against him by the insurance company?


It would be kind of interesting to know what the deal is.

[badger]

Here's the article if anyone's curious (http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/OSU_to_decide_on_collecting_10_million_Gift_of_a_L ifetime/20130421_11_A1_CUTLIN483474) (via Tulsa World)

While flak is probably on the right track, I highly suspect that much like this insurance (scam?) thing was all because of Boone, the holdup is also likely because of Boone as well.

The fact that they are losing money through bad investments would be just a marvelously funny joke if they were just our little brother in-state sports rivals, but it because a much more serious issue when you remember that (a) they are a non-self sustaining athletic program that (b) relies on state funding as a public institution and (c) they're once again putting sports ahead of athletics, neither of which they are especially well-known for, wrestling aside.

NP presented me with an interesting scenario yesterday when I mentioned this story to them: What if college athletics explodes again and the Big 12 is no more. What if OKLAST did not have the option of tagging along with OU anymore, and OU's only option for a new big boy conference was one without OSU (SEC, Pac XX, etc). OU would have to take it, and OSU would be left in a Sun Belt-like situation, saddled (heh heh) with millions in athletic debt that they would no longer have any hope of repaying.

It isn't just OSU. ISU recently did major renovations to their football facilities, Baylor is about to take the new stadium plunge, TCU already completed their gigantic stadium project, Kansas is probably still paying their last three coaches millions in hopes that their new millions of dollars football coach will pan out.

In short, a lot of little guys are really relying on the Big 12 succeeding as a 10-team big boy football conference. The college sports stock market cannot tank (like the real one did, causing OSU's debt issues in the first place, mentioned in the article), or a lot of debt will go unpaid.

[badger]

PS: If you take away the worry that the state taxpayers may be guarantors on OSU's bad financial decisions, yes, this is funny.

[MichiganSooner]

OSU decides to take the $10million.

[badger]

Cutting losses is probably the best way to go forward. As such, they should drop football :stunned:

[CowboyMRW]

Here's the article if anyone's curious (http://www.tulsaworld.com/article.aspx/OSU_to_decide_on_collecting_10_million_Gift_of_a_L ifetime/20130421_11_A1_CUTLIN483474) (via Tulsa World)

While flak is probably on the right track, I highly suspect that much like this insurance (scam?) thing was all because of Boone, the holdup is also likely because of Boone as well.

The fact that they are losing money through bad investments would be just a marvelously funny joke if they were just our little brother in-state sports rivals, but it because a much more serious issue when you remember that (a) they are a non-self sustaining athletic program that (b) relies on state funding as a public institution and (c) they're once again putting sports ahead of athletics, neither of which they are especially well-known for, wrestling aside.

NP presented me with an interesting scenario yesterday when I mentioned this story to them: What if college athletics explodes again and the Big 12 is no more. What if OKLAST did not have the option of tagging along with OU anymore, and OU's only option for a new big boy conference was one without OSU (SEC, Pac XX, etc). OU would have to take it, and OSU would be left in a Sun Belt-like situation, saddled (heh heh) with millions in athletic debt that they would no longer have any hope of repaying.

It isn't just OSU. ISU recently did major renovations to their football facilities, Baylor is about to take the new stadium plunge, TCU already completed their gigantic stadium project, Kansas is probably still paying their last three coaches millions in hopes that their new millions of dollars football coach will pan out.

In short, a lot of little guys are really relying on the Big 12 succeeding as a 10-team big boy football conference. The college sports stock market cannot tank (like the real one did, causing OSU's debt issues in the first place, mentioned in the article), or a lot of debt will go unpaid.

I'm going to assume you mean putting sports ahead of academics.

However, we just recently passed the 1 billion dollar mark for our academic side. We finished a year and 7 months early. So we can continue to campaign and raise more money on the same "Branding Success" market.

Also, this is the largest freshman class in the history of Oklahoma (not just OSU) and 30% are out of state students.

Texas, Kansas, and California are the three largest states the class comes from, outside of OK.

Our enrollment has passed OU's enrollment.

[badger]

You caught me on the typo, but I'm not going to cede ground on the rest. :)

Enrolling more kids just makes you a degree factory. It does not raise the quality of education, it does not raise your research standing tier, it doesn't even make your orange any brighter.

Congratulations on your "Branding Success" fundraiser. Now, let's just clarify your billion dollar thing --- pledges, right? Not money in the bank, just pledges, if I'm not mistaken. People said they'll eventually give that money, much like some people thought OSU would eventually get $10 million after they died. Boone and Holder also had quite run going with their hedge fund that they wouldn't let OSU touch before the market crashed, eh? Millions of dollars lost there.

As such, I don't take much stock in your pledge drive, not because I think your donors are dishonest, but because OSU has a really bad recent history of money management.

Kudos to Pokes for sticking by their alma mater despite all these embarrassing gaffes.

PS: Public universities love outta staters in down economies with declining state funding --- because out of state tuition brings in more money! So, I also don't credit OSU for bringing in more outta staters. It's what all the publics are doing these days

[CowboyMRW]

You caught me on the typo, but I'm not going to cede ground on the rest. :)

Enrolling more kids just makes you a degree factory. It does not raise the quality of education, it does not raise your research standing tier, it doesn't even make your orange any brighter.

Congratulations on your "Branding Success" fundraiser. Now, let's just clarify your billion dollar thing --- pledges, right? Not money in the bank, just pledges, if I'm not mistaken. People said they'll eventually give that money, much like some people thought OSU would eventually get $10 million after they died. Boone and Holder also had quite run going with their hedge fund that they wouldn't let OSU touch before the market crashed, eh? Millions of dollars lost there.

As such, I don't take much stock in your pledge drive, not because I think your donors are dishonest, but because OSU has a really bad recent history of money management.

Kudos to Pokes for sticking by their alma mater despite all these embarrassing gaffes.

PS: Public universities love outta staters in down economies with declining state funding --- because out of state tuition brings in more money! So, I also don't credit OSU for bringing in more outta staters. It's what all the publics are doing these days

I could be wrong, but I believe that billion dollars is money raised and in the bank already.

[tycat947]

You caught me on the typo, but I'm not going to cede ground on the rest. :)

Enrolling more kids just makes you a degree factory. It does not raise the quality of education, it does not raise your research standing tier, it doesn't even make your orange any brighter.

Congratulations on your "Branding Success" fundraiser. Now, let's just clarify your billion dollar thing --- pledges, right? Not money in the bank, just pledges, if I'm not mistaken. People said they'll eventually give that money, much like some people thought OSU would eventually get $10 million after they died. Boone and Holder also had quite run going with their hedge fund that they wouldn't let OSU touch before the market crashed, eh? Millions of dollars lost there.

As such, I don't take much stock in your pledge drive, not because I think your donors are dishonest, but because OSU has a really bad recent history of money management.

Kudos to Pokes for sticking by their alma mater despite all these embarrassing gaffes.

PS: Public universities love outta staters in down economies with declining state funding --- because out of state tuition brings in more money! So, I also don't credit OSU for bringing in more outta staters. It's what all the publics are doing these days

I think over half of this billion dollars is the money Booger Pickens has donated to athletics (all the donations to get the football stadium built) and the $25 million Sherman Smith donated for the IPF that Booger lost and thus Sherman didn't get to see built before he died. See pics here. http://www.okstate.com/view.gal?id=140706 Looks like a fancy on the outside barn. You can see the big garage doors that open for cooling.

[picasso]

I'm going to assume you mean putting sports ahead of academics.

However, we just recently passed the 1 billion dollar mark for our academic side. We finished a year and 7 months early. So we can continue to campaign and raise more money on the same "Branding Success" market.

Also, this is the largest freshman class in the history of Oklahoma (not just OSU) and 30% are out of state students.

Texas, Kansas, and California are the three largest states the class comes from, outside of OK.

Our enrollment has passed OU's enrollment.
Print a t-shirt and spank away!

[Soonerjeepman]

I'm going to assume you mean putting sports ahead of academics.

However, we just recently passed the 1 billion dollar mark for our academic side. We finished a year and 7 months early. So we can continue to campaign and raise more money on the same "Branding Success" market.

Also, this is the largest freshman class in the history of Oklahoma (not just OSU) and 30% are out of state students.

Texas, Kansas, and California are the three largest states the class comes from, outside of OK.

Our enrollment has passed OU's enrollment.

honestly not much competition from the Ks schools. All 3 are on the same level. I'd say your vet school must be easier to get in than KSU.

[olevetonahill]

honestly not much competition from the Ks schools. All 3 are on the same level. I'd say your vet school must be easier to get in than KSU.

What the deal is , Right now theres a BIG demand for Sheep shearers and Chicken pluckers

[jkjsooner]

The whole thing doesn't make sense unless they were actually insuring against the potential early loss of future donations. If that's the case then the program was a hedge (or a legit use of insurance) so it wasn't neccessarily supposed to be profitable.

The reason it doesn't make sense is that insurance companies are good at actuarial analysis so if you insure a lot of people you're probably going to lose unless you know something about those you are insuring that they don't know.

[cleller]

OSU was enrolling more kids back in 1980 when I was a freshman. Lower standards.

They're still below OU in all the college rankings, which is where they'll stay.