pics of Grambling's facilities...

[Political Hack]

http://footballrumormill.com/2013/10/22/more-photos-of-the-grambling-football-facilities/

awful. high schools are better.

[ShotgunDawg]

That looks like a JPS school

[smootness]

Big yikes. It all comes down to how much is available in funding, though. If it's true that Grambling is refusing private donations, then I think the players did the right thing. They are evidently going to have to shame the school into doing something.

[Coach34]

what kind of idiot refuses money?

[FISHDAWG]

those acoustical ceiling tiles are quite inexpensive and very easy to replace ... Clorox is even cheaper ... looks like zero effort is being made

[J-Dawg]

This doesn't surprise me in the least.

Story time: As a high school senior in 2005, I took one of my 'college days' to visit LA Tech (which is pretty crappy in it's own right, no offense). As we wrapped up our tour of LA Tech and it's engineering department, we decided to drive around town (Ruston is pretty decent for a tiny town) and the surrounding area just to get a feel. Ended up taking Hwy 80 out of town, and it took us directly through Gramblings Campus. Middle of nowhere, then boom, there's a college. Reminded me alot of MVSU in Itta Bena. Could tell it was run-down and crappy then, which was 8 years ago. Alcorn State or JSU are both much nicer than what I saw at GSU.

[smootness]

what kind of idiot refuses money?

Apparently they're trying to de-emphasize football, and the rumor is that they fired Doug Williams because he wanted to begin accepting private donations, and the administration did not.

Or that may not even be a rumor, it may be common knowledge, I don't know. But that's what I've heard.

Just awful handling by the administration as a whole. They have basically alienated all of their alumni through the whole deal; firing Doug Williams? At Grambling? For a reason like that? Bad, bad move.

[Jack Lambert]

Apparently they're trying to de-emphasize football, and the rumor is that they fired Doug Williams because he wanted to begin accepting private donations, and the administration did not.

Or that may not even be a rumor, it may be common knowledge, I don't know. But that's what I've heard.

Just awful handling by the administration as a whole. They have basically alienated all of their alumni through the whole deal; firing Doug Williams? At Grambling? For a reason like that? Bad, bad move.

Football and Eddie Robinson are the only reason people know who Gramblin is. Rather then running from it they should be using it to their advantages and taking all money they can from it.

I found this on espn that says they are accepting money.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/9864598/jackson-state-pursue-litigation-grambling-state-following-forfeit

[smootness]

Then maybe it was just a rumor, or maybe Grambling is now trying to save face by pretending they were always open to private money, I have no clue.

I think the issue was actually that they wanted any private donations to be given to the school in general so that the school could decide how to use it, and they were turning away any money specifically given to the athletic department or earmarked for football.

So who knows, really; all I know is that the administration has messed this up, not the players. The players brought attention to something that needed it, and now they may actually be causing changes to occur.

[BulldogBear]

Good grief, this has to hurt recruiting . I bet they found some kind of way to avoid showing some of this on visits

[MafiaDawg]

Didn't these players sign up to play there knowing what the facilities looked like? I doubt they became crappy overnight.

[smootness]

Yes, but Grambling gets a lot of their players at this point because their parents either went to Grambling or just want their kids to go there because of what Grambling has been in the past.

They're competing against other HBCU schools, and it's not as though most of those other schools have shining facilities, either.

[engie]

And JSU is rightfully suing the hell out of them on top of it for ruining their homecoming and costing them a bunch of money.

Might be all for naught though --- half a million judgement only gets you paid if the school has half a million to give you -- which Grambling apparently doesn't.

[BulldogBear]

I wondered if the SWAC would make Grambling play here two years in a row instead of JSU going there next year or at least see some of that fine paid to the conference. I tweeted Rob Jay to ask the SWAC commissioner/president, whatever he is, about that on "Talkin' Sports" but the guy was a no show for the interview. Rob Jay said he may not have asked him that sharp of a question even if he had!

[J-Dawg]

....or it's their only option to play D1 football....