Gregg Marshall resigns as head basketball coach
Head Coach Gregg Marshall yells to his team during the second half of the game against VCU on Saturday, Dec. 21.
This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available
Gregg Marshall has resigned as the men’s basketball head coach, the university announced in a news release Tuesday. Marshall has been the head coach of WSU men’s basketball for 13 seasons.
“This was a difficult decision, but one I feel was necessary for my family, the university and, most importantly, the student-athletes,” Marshall said in a statement. “I remain grateful for my years spent at Wichita State. I wish to thank the coaches, student-athletes, the university, the community, and all of Shocker Nation for their unending dedication, support and loyalty. I am incredibly proud of this men’s basketball program and all it has achieved over the past 14 years and am confident of its continued success.”
Assistant coach Isaac Brown will take over as the Shockers interim head coach for the upcoming season.
Marshall and WSU agreed to a contract settlement of $7.75 million to be paid over six years. The university’s Intercollegiate Athletic Association will cover the settlement.
Prior to his resignation, Marshall was making just over $3.5 million per year on a seven-year rolling contract. According to USA Today, Marshall was the 15th highest-paid coach in the country.
On Nov. 10, Stadium’s Jeff Goodman and CBS Sports reported that WSU and Marshall were expected to part ways by the end of the week. Goodman previously reported on the abuse allegations against Marshall after a sixth-month long investigation of his own.
In late August, the university launched its own investigation into Marshall which was conducted by Tueth Keeney, a St. Louis-based law firm.
On Oct. 8, multiple reports surfaced with allegations into Marshall’s behavior. The allegations include Marshall reportedly punching former men’s basketball player Shaq Morris during practice and choking former assistant coach Kyle Lindsted, among other allegations.
Other allegations included verbal abuse and racially charged insults among others.
“Our student-athletes are our primary concern,” Director of Athletics Darron Boatright said about Marshall’s resignation. “While the university acknowledges the success of the basketball program under Coach Marshall, this decision is in the best interest of the university, its student-athletes and the WSU community. WSU will continue its pursuit of excellence with the help of its student-athletes, staff and loyal supporters of the basketball program.”
Ten players have transferred from WSU in the past two seasons, including the seven players who transferred this offseason. In two seasons prior, only four scholarship players had transferred out of the program.
All five transfers who went to a Division-I school have received a waiver to be immediately eligible for the 2020-21 season.
The Shockers are slated to play their first game of the season against Utah State in eight days as they travel to South Dakota for the Crossover Classic.
Sean Marty was the sports editor for The Sunflower. Marty, a senior from St. Louis, majored in communications with a journalism emphasis and minored in...
Angry Furby • Nov 17, 2020 at 8:42 pm
So, if I violate my contract by abusing students I can get a golden parachute of $7.75 million!?
Mathew • Nov 17, 2020 at 4:56 pm
Maybe now we can get the ICAA’s funding under control!
WSU spends $2,421,082 in general use funds(tuition and state/tax dollars), $762,134 in restricted use funds, and $4,269,016 in student fees for a grand total of $7,452,232, that’s roughly $26,710.51 per student-athelete.
For comparison, according to WSU’s budget:
Adding up research, instruction, academic support, student services, and subtracting the portion of the general and restricted use funds that go to the ICAA… WSU spends $289,752,392 on academics and student-services, or roughly $19,316.83 per student.
That means for every dollar that goes to athletics per student-athlete WSU spends $0.72 on academics per student. And, when compared to the Graduate Assistant stipend, similar statistics emerge. All this while departments go understaffed and are in dire need of faculty, while GTAs make on average $8,000/yr, while the amount of software made available to students remains few, etc.
Meanwhile, according to the ICAA’s public financial records they provide no financial support to WSU and there is no clear evidence that the ICAA helps the school in any way.
Come on WSU! We can do better! We the students deserve better! Defund athletics from the general use funds! Put that money towards hiring new faculty and the GA stipend!
Also, fun fact: Marshal was paid 10x’s more than the women’s basketball coach! Just saying.
Data was found:
https://goshockers.com/sports/2015/5/4/Financial_Information.aspx
https://www.wichita.edu/administration/budget/FY21AdoptedBudgetOnline.pdf
https://www.wichita.edu/about/public_information/wsu_topics/topics_enrollment_numbers.php
https://openrecords.wichita.edu/index.php?gf-download=2019%2F10%2FGC_GradAppt_ORR.pdf&form-id=1&field-id=18&hash=c69bd4b91f124cab56126baa4357d4f422321022b3777ec1c634afc5cf30bc41&TB_iframe=true
Related scholarly articles:
https://www.air.org/sites/default/files/downloads/report/Academic-Spending-vs-Athletic-Spending.pdf
https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED536146