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This isn’t just a missed hire.
It’s a reckoning.
After Bryan Hodgson turned down Syracuse Orange men's basketball, D.A. says the message is loud and clear:
Syracuse’s expectations no longer match its reality.
For years, the Orange have believed they belong at the top of college basketball — competing with the biggest programs, landing top coaches, and chasing Final Fours.
But in today’s NIL-driven era, belief isn’t enough.
If the money isn’t there, neither is the ceiling.
D.A. explains why this moment forces Syracuse — and its fans — to confront a brutal truth: the program may not be equipped, financially, to compete where it thinks it belongs.
And if that doesn’t change, the gap will only grow.
🔥🔥🔥 FRESH FOOTBALL CONTENT EVERY DAY🔥🔥🔥
Welcome to the official channel of Damon Amendolara (D.A.), host on SiriusXM Mad Dog Sports Radio 🏈🔥
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0:00
Syracuse fans are a hearty bunch. We all
0:03
know about the snow, Keith Smart amongst
0:06
other things, but they, us, we, this one
0:12
is going to take a while to get over
0:14
because Brian Hodgson, the head coach at
0:16
South Florida, has reportedly said no to
0:21
the Syracuse Orange basketball program.
0:23
And for a USF coach to either, according
0:26
to Jeff Goodman, stay at South Florida
0:30
or take the job at Providence and not
0:33
say yes to Syracuse is a real reckoning.
0:36
It is something that a lot of a lot of
0:38
fans are unable to probably at this
0:41
point even truly kind of get into the
0:44
teeth of because it seems so out of body
0:48
for a a program and a brand like that to
0:52
not be able to land a guy like this.
0:55
He's from upstate New York. A reminder
0:58
that you can always subscribe to the
1:00
YouTube channel and continue to get
1:02
videos every single day. We've got
1:04
football offseason videos every single
1:06
day and many more videos just like this
1:07
on the Syracuse program, my alma mater.
1:11
The fact that Brian Hodgson, it seemed
1:13
like it was predestined. Here was a guy
1:15
that was on the rise. Here was a guy
1:17
that made the NCAA tournament at the
1:20
very moment Syracuse was in desperate
1:22
need of a guy that understood the modern
1:24
landscape of college basketball. He had
1:27
won at Arkansas State. He is winning at
1:29
South Florida. He has been an assistant
1:32
under Nate Oats and he's a guy from just
1:35
down the road who got emotional about
1:38
his dad being able to finally watch him
1:40
as a head coach. His dad suffers from
1:42
dementia heart crushingly,
1:44
heartbreakingly and will be a able to
1:47
finally watch his son play because it's
1:50
not that much of a travel onus that is
1:53
put on him. So, the idea that a guy that
1:56
is that close to his family that's in
1:59
upstate New York would say no to the
2:02
Syracuse job is kind of mindblowing
2:06
here. But it unfortunately
2:09
it really puts into focus all of the
2:12
fears, realizes all of the worries about
2:15
the modern state of the Syracuse
2:17
basketball program. The fact is that
2:19
this is a pretty blinking light, a
2:21
pretty loud blinking light that Syracuse
2:24
doesn't have the resources to match its
2:28
brand, to match its expectation. I mean,
2:31
you have an on-ampus facility that, you
2:33
know, is going to get 20, 25, maybe
2:35
30,000 people in it, and you can't get
2:38
the guy from USF who's from the area.
2:40
That is a real problem. And this this
2:42
falls on new AD Ryan Blair. It falls on
2:45
the new chancellor and it falls on the
2:47
decision makers inside that athletic
2:49
department to say, "Are we ready to
2:52
really play like a big program?" And
2:55
apparently right now they're not ready
2:56
to yet, at least at this juncture,
2:58
because the loss of Brian Hodgson is
3:02
ultimately one that is going to leave a
3:04
mark for a long time. Even if they pivot
3:06
and get to Jerry McNamera,
3:09
we will have to wonder when will they be
3:12
truly ready to compete at the highest
3:14
level in college basketball.
3:16
You know, we are a proud lot. You know,
3:20
there are a lot of things you can ding
3:22
Syracuse athletics for. There's a lot of
3:25
final fours that do not end in a
3:27
national championship. There is the
3:29
Keith Smart, you know, jump shot in 87
3:33
to to beat him by Indiana. There is a
3:35
football program that consistently kind
3:38
of lets us down with either expectations
3:41
that are not ultimately, you know,
3:44
realized or just a football program that
3:46
has dragged us through the mud of non
3:49
bowl seasons and busted quarterbacks and
3:52
terrible coaches like Greg Robinson.
3:55
There is so much that the Syracuse
3:58
basketball fan, Syracuse sports fan,
4:01
Syracuse resident deals with. I mean,
4:03
just look at this winter. And I remember
4:05
going up there when uh UNCC was in town
4:08
and I I went to the Carrier Dome for a
4:10
game and yes, I still call it the
4:11
Carrier Dome. And I asked one of the
4:13
women in the alumni department, you
4:15
know, how was the winter? And she said,
4:16
"Well, we got 124 ines."
4:20
I said, "Of snow?"
4:22
Yeah, it's like 10 feet. And this was
4:26
February when the the winter was not
4:28
done yet. So, you've got to be a hearty
4:30
lot. you you've got to have a certain
4:33
resiliency.
4:35
But I think it's a hard thing to
4:37
rationalize to get your your arms around
4:41
that in today's college basketball world
4:44
that a coach from USF who is from the
4:48
area as a native could possibly say
4:51
financially it's really not a not worth
4:55
my time. Now the Providence job is a
4:57
good job. It's a very good job. It's in
5:00
a basketballonly conference and a
5:02
basketball only school with uh a really
5:05
good market behind it. It's a good
5:07
population in the city of Providence.
5:10
And you've got some deep pockets within
5:12
that alumni base that just wants men's
5:14
basketball to be everything. While
5:16
Syracuse is going to have to feed a
5:18
bunch of different mouths, specifically
5:20
football included. At the same time,
5:23
there are six Final Four banners in the
5:25
rafters. There's a national championship
5:27
within the last 25 years. There is a guy
5:30
by the name of Carmelo Anthony that is
5:33
as big a a brand as you're going to find
5:35
over the last 20 years in basketball in
5:38
general that you know not only has his
5:40
name on the practice facility but has a
5:42
son on the roster and his you know
5:45
courtside at so many games. You still
5:48
have a relevance in in the cultural
5:52
stance, cultural sensibility of
5:55
basketball, but what you don't have is
5:57
deep pockets. What you don't have is an
5:59
alumni base that has a bunch of NIL
6:02
engines running. And maybe you can blame
6:04
John Wild Hack, the former AD, the
6:07
outgoing AD, for allowing the program to
6:10
fall behind. Maybe it's just the lot of
6:12
of the Syracuse um program that it it
6:17
brands itself in a good way as a huge
6:19
school, as a state school, but in fact
6:22
does not have state school resources.
6:24
It's a private school. When I went
6:25
there, it had about 10,000 undergrad.
6:28
Now it has about 15,000 undergrad. But I
6:30
would imagine most of you that do not
6:33
know the Syracuse program intimately.
6:35
And maybe those that even do that are
6:37
they're in central New York might not
6:39
realize, wow, you know, that's that's
6:42
much smaller than I thought when you're
6:44
talking about, you know, major campuses
6:46
of state programs that have 40 50 60,000
6:50
students. I would imagine USF has around
6:52
50,000 students. So Syracuse is, you
6:56
know, a quarter of that.
6:58
It also does not have your millionaires
7:02
and in some cases billionaires that just
7:04
kind of fork over major cash like some
7:06
of these universities do, whether it's
7:09
Phil Knight, Tboon Pickkins has been
7:11
one. We've seen the um we've seen Tilman
7:14
Fertitta at uh at Tilman Fertitta at
7:17
Houston. We've seen a couple of these,
7:19
you know, huge alumni that just pump
7:22
money into their program. It's not the
7:23
case at Syracuse. We know the name Adam
7:26
Whitesman. He's a guy that has has had a
7:29
lot of money and um has done some kind
7:32
of splashy things around program events
7:35
and basketball um games. Everybody kind
7:39
of wants him to get back involved. He
7:41
has been distanced from the program for
7:45
many reasons apparently. I don't know
7:47
the the intimate details of that, but
7:51
it's tough day. The pivot can be good to
7:53
GMAC, but this is a reality check no
7:56
matter if that happens or not. Thanks
7:58
for watching everybody. I'm DA Damon
8:00
Amendara.