NKU had great interest in their job when Votruba hired Scott after Jane's retirement. He made the mistake of hiring Scott, not for what transpired, but because he took the easy route to hire the guy already in the fold. Now, after the debacle with Scott, they have hired a short-term fix at AD to bridge the waters until everything settles down and they can find a more permanent solution. They are going to find when they open up the search that they won't have the interest in that AD job that they would like to have, for a myriad of reasons. They don't want to pay like a D1 school, and really, aren't in a position to at this point. They also have an uphill climb ahead of them in the D1 Men's Basketball world from a revenue standpoint, for a bunch of reasons we've debated on this site numerous times. Jane had it right that they never should have left D2, and I truly believe when the dust settles they end up back there. You see more and more schools going backwards all of the time because their eyes were bigger than their stomachs.

 

BOKC, is Molly Pascucci still the GM at BOK / SMG? She is really bright and tough as nails, if she is still there, they are in good hands on the SMG side. Before her they ran through a bunch of folks, and that only made their launch years ago all the more clunky.

 

 

Yes she is. BOKC is run very well with the people that they have in place from SMG. They know what they are doing. Molly wants a first class operation but can only do what she can do with what she has to work with (NKU).

NKU had great interest in their job when Votruba hired Scott after Jane's retirement. He made the mistake of hiring Scott, not for what transpired, but because he took the easy route to hire the guy already in the fold. Now, after the debacle with Scott, they have hired a short-term fix at AD to bridge the waters until everything settles down and they can find a more permanent solution. They are going to find when they open up the search that they won't have the interest in that AD job that they would like to have, for a myriad of reasons. They don't want to pay like a D1 school, and really, aren't in a position to at this point. They also have an uphill climb ahead of them in the D1 Men's Basketball world from a revenue standpoint, for a bunch of reasons we've debated on this site numerous times. Jane had it right that they never should have left D2, and I truly believe when the dust settles they end up back there. You see more and more schools going backwards all of the time because their eyes were bigger than their stomachs.

 

BOKC, is Molly Pascucci still the GM at BOK / SMG? She is really bright and tough as nails, if she is still there, they are in good hands on the SMG side. Before her they ran through a bunch of folks, and that only made their launch years ago all the more clunky.

 

I don't know much about the Division I and Division II particulars, but NKU would be better served playing at a smaller level due to the competition they face in this area for fans. They were playing in Division II when the BOKC opened in 2008 (that's when I started there as well for SMG events) and the crowds were more enthusiastic. I remember Bellarmine brought about 1,000 of their fans to a game and the atmosphere was great. From talking with people at the time, NKU also had a chance to win national championships in Division II. That is all behind them. The crowds are sparse this year, there is zilch enthusiasm as evidenced by a women's game that had NO STUDENTS IN THE BLEACHERS! My opinion is they made a mistake by moving up to Division I without proof they could draw at least 3,000 or 4,000 per game. The BOKC holds 9,000-plus seats and they are drawing about 1,000 per game for the men. I won't even venture a guess on the women crowds, but it's brutally small.

 

Molly is still GM and does a great job. She got Bruno Mars agent to build stages a couple of summer ago in the BOKC. That was fun stuff in the arena, and hardly anyone knew!

I'll add this in to the conversation:

 

I think I can pretty safely say that I'm about as proud of the Cov Cath student section as anyone. However, I've also been saying for years now that watching the Colonel Crazies perform some of their cheers scares the living crap out of me. It's only a matter of time before something really bad happens during one of those games. Bleachers only need be designed to withstand a uniform live load of 100 pounds per square foot (so says the International Code Council's Standard On Bleachers, Folding And Telescoping Seating, And Grandstands...which is what the Kentucky state building code looks to for its code). The footprint of an average adult male's physical foot is somewhere between 1/3 ft² and 1/2 ft², meaning ALL of their weight is being spread out over only about 1 ft². That being said, what happens when you have a 220 pound high school senior jumping up and down in unison with 150+ other high schoolers? I'll tell you this, it's not good....and it's a lot more than 100 pounds per square foot. Even if the bleachers at Cov Cath are sturdy enough to hold the Crazies when they're at their craziest, they still have no idea what all the other bleachers are designed for.

 

The first 20 seconds of this video (filmed at the BOKC) makes me cringe just to watch. Everyone repeatedly jumping in unison creates something called harmonic vibration...and harmonic vibration does terrible things to even the strongest of structures.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmYxTTOpBy0

I'll add this in to the conversation:

 

I think I can pretty safely say that I'm about as proud of the Cov Cath student section as anyone. However, I've also been saying for years now that watching the Colonel Crazies perform some of their cheers scares the living crap out of me. It's only a matter of time before something really bad happens during one of those games. Bleachers only need be designed to withstand a uniform live load of 100 pounds per square foot (so says the International Code Council's Standard On Bleachers, Folding And Telescoping Seating, And Grandstands...which is what the Kentucky state building code looks to for its code). The footprint of an average adult male's physical foot is somewhere between 1/3 ft² and 1/2 ft², meaning ALL of their weight is being spread out over only about 1 ft². That being said, what happens when you have a 220 pound high school senior jumping up and down in unison with 150+ other high schoolers? I'll tell you this, it's not good....and it's a lot more than 100 pounds per square foot. Even if the bleachers at Cov Cath are sturdy enough to hold the Crazies when they're at their craziest, they still have no idea what all the other bleachers are designed for.

 

The first 20 seconds of this video (filmed at the BOKC) makes me cringe just to watch. Everyone repeatedly jumping in unison creates something called harmonic vibration...and harmonic vibration does terrible things to even the strongest of structures.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmYxTTOpBy0

 

This goes back to the construction flaws for the retractable bleachers when the BOKC was built. They wanted this facility built in a hurry, and the result is borderline negligence in what you are pointing out. SMG does due diligence and fixes the breaks, but it all goes back to the construction of the building prior to 2008. Only way to fix the problem is either eliminate the end zone bleachers (possibly in the works!) or spend thousands of tax dollars replacing current bleachers for a facility that isn't used often enough.

The first 20 seconds of this video (filmed at the BOKC) makes me cringe just to watch. Everyone repeatedly jumping in unison creates something called harmonic vibration...and harmonic vibration does terrible things to even the strongest of structures.

 

For an example of what harmonic vibration can do...watch this video. It's a video of the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state. Instead of high school students jumping in unison and causing the harmonic vibration, the bridge collapse occurred as a result of wind drag. The constant wind coming off of Puget Sound would push across the bridge's girders and cause them to continually vibrate. The girders had been designed to more than sufficiently handle the weight of the bridge, but no regard for the wind had been accounted for when they were designed. Without getting too far into the physics, the girders eventually vibrated their way into a state of harmonic vibration...kind of a "vibration in unison" by layman's terms, and that vibration allowed the overall magnitude of the vibrations frequency to increase as the entire structure shook with the same frequency. The bridge eventually collapsed as a result.

 

It may sound like an over-dramatization, but the same thing can very VERY literally happen here. A couple of years ago I emailed a video of the Cov Cath student section to a couple of bleacher manufacturer's that I've worked with in the past. Both of them responded in relative shock that nothing terrible has happened yet at a Cov Cath game. Like I said...it's only a matter of time.

 

[video=youtube;j-zczJXSxnw]

For an example of what harmonic vibration can do...watch this video. It's a video of the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state. Instead of high school students jumping in unison and causing the harmonic vibration, the bridge collapse occurred as a result of wind drag. The constant wind coming off of Puget Sound would push across the bridge's girders and cause them to continually vibrate. The girders had been designed to more than sufficiently handle the weight of the bridge, but no regard for the wind had been accounted for when they were designed. Without getting too far into the physics, the girders eventually vibrated their way into a state of harmonic vibration...kind of a vibration in unison by layman's terms, and that vibration allowed the overall magnitude of the vibrations frequency to increase as the entire structure shook with the same frequency. The bridge eventually collapsed as a result.

 

It may sound like an over-dramatization, but the same thing can very VERY literally happen here. A couple of years ago I emailed a video of the Cov Cath student section to a couple of bleacher manufacturer's that I've worked with in the past. Both of them responded in relative shock that nothing terrible has happened yet at a Cov Cath game. Like I said...it's only a matter of time.

 

[video=youtube;j-zczJXSxnw]

 

Thank you for adding to my intense fear of sitting on a bridge during rush hour. :taz:

I don't think that will ever happen in the BOKC. Maybe some minor breaks, but no catastrophe like the video posted. Just my opinion.

Thank you for adding to my intense fear of sitting on a bridge during rush hour. :taz:

 

I could go into a ton if different reasons that you have no need to be concerned about the bridges around Cincinnati...but the biggest one is the fact that those bridges have been there for a LONG time without collapsing. It only took the Tacoma Narrows Bridge 4 months to collapse after being completed.

 

The video isn't great, obviously, but take notice that the fans are all jumping in unison.

 

Happened at University of Maryland's Ludwig Field back on September 6, 2013.

 

Maryland Fans Break Bleachers In Fit Of Passion - FOX Soccer

The simple solution is just have NKU games in the BOKC - there's rarely many students in attendance! lol. I could not resist. Shame on me!

I'll add this in to the conversation:

 

I think I can pretty safely say that I'm about as proud of the Cov Cath student section as anyone. However, I've also been saying for years now that watching the Colonel Crazies perform some of their cheers scares the living crap out of me. It's only a matter of time before something really bad happens during one of those games. Bleachers only need be designed to withstand a uniform live load of 100 pounds per square foot (so says the International Code Council's Standard On Bleachers, Folding And Telescoping Seating, And Grandstands...which is what the Kentucky state building code looks to for its code). The footprint of an average adult male's physical foot is somewhere between 1/3 ft² and 1/2 ft², meaning ALL of their weight is being spread out over only about 1 ft². That being said, what happens when you have a 220 pound high school senior jumping up and down in unison with 150+ other high schoolers? I'll tell you this, it's not good....and it's a lot more than 100 pounds per square foot. Even if the bleachers at Cov Cath are sturdy enough to hold the Crazies when they're at their craziest, they still have no idea what all the other bleachers are designed for.

 

The first 20 seconds of this video (filmed at the BOKC) makes me cringe just to watch. Everyone repeatedly jumping in unison creates something called harmonic vibration...and harmonic vibration does terrible things to even the strongest of structures.

Good info, CWB. Someone else mentioned that other high schools and colleges jump on the bleachers as well. But with CCH being all guys, you have a lot more weight shaking the bleachers, in comparison to student sections with girls mixed in the cheering section. For example, take 100 CCH students in a section compared to 100 NCC students (boys and girls) in a section.

One other problem for the BOKC with boys high school games is the girls coaches at two schools (guess which?) are moaning about the boys getting regular season showcase games at the BOKC and the girls don't. I admit very little knowledge about Title 9, but can't they use their eyes and see the crowds at tournament time?

They should have gone to BOK on Saturday night while we were standing out in the cold, right Lawnboy? :lol2:

NKU had great interest in their job when Votruba hired Scott after Jane's retirement. He made the mistake of hiring Scott, not for what transpired, but because he took the easy route to hire the guy already in the fold. Now, after the debacle with Scott, they have hired a short-term fix at AD to bridge the waters until everything settles down and they can find a more permanent solution. They are going to find when they open up the search that they won't have the interest in that AD job that they would like to have, for a myriad of reasons. They don't want to pay like a D1 school, and really, aren't in a position to at this point. They also have an uphill climb ahead of them in the D1 Men's Basketball world from a revenue standpoint, for a bunch of reasons we've debated on this site numerous times. Jane had it right that they never should have left D2, and I truly believe when the dust settles they end up back there. You see more and more schools going backwards all of the time because their eyes were bigger than their stomachs.

 

BOKC, is Molly Pascucci still the GM at BOK / SMG? She is really bright and tough as nails, if she is still there, they are in good hands on the SMG side. Before her they ran through a bunch of folks, and that only made their launch years ago all the more clunky.

 

When I was at NKU I was a part of a group who did a research project and survey on NKU's potential move to D1. The results from the student project was obvious the move shouldn't happen and it didn't make financial sense. It was presented to leadership. Seemed most leaders were in agreement.

 

Fast forward a few years they play tricks with numbers and ignore obvious logistical problems, and now it is the popular choice.

 

As an NKU grad I've always thought this was poorly thought out and a bad move. Then when they hired Scott anyone remotely involved in NKU new he was in over his head.

For an example of what harmonic vibration can do...watch this video. It's a video of the 1940 collapse of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state. Instead of high school students jumping in unison and causing the harmonic vibration, the bridge collapse occurred as a result of wind drag. The constant wind coming off of Puget Sound would push across the bridge's girders and cause them to continually vibrate. The girders had been designed to more than sufficiently handle the weight of the bridge, but no regard for the wind had been accounted for when they were designed. Without getting too far into the physics, the girders eventually vibrated their way into a state of harmonic vibration...kind of a "vibration in unison" by layman's terms, and that vibration allowed the overall magnitude of the vibrations frequency to increase as the entire structure shook with the same frequency. The bridge eventually collapsed as a result.

 

It may sound like an over-dramatization, but the same thing can very VERY literally happen here. A couple of years ago I emailed a video of the Cov Cath student section to a couple of bleacher manufacturer's that I've worked with in the past. Both of them responded in relative shock that nothing terrible has happened yet at a Cov Cath game. Like I said...it's only a matter of time.

 

[video=youtube;j-zczJXSxnw]

 

I remember studying this in a college PHysics class. Cool video.

Then when they hired Scott anyone remotely involved in NKU new he was in over his head.

 

If you remember when Dr. Votruba (whom I very much like) had his presser at Jane's retirement and he talked about wanting a D-1 A.D. because that is where they were going. They had a number of good candidates and narrowed it down to a solid group...and Scott. At the end of the day, they didn't want to pay then what it would take for a solid D1 A.D., so they took the path of least resistance. Like you mention, everyone in the know knew he was in over his head.