It's certainly a blow to the program. You had to figure it would happen sooner or later. I read somewhere-- either speculation or an actual quote Davis dropped somewhere-- that he might have been looking to openings in the future because of money, security, career development, etc. There are very few programs on the men's side (maybe BYU, Hawaii, UCLA, USC) that could justify the kind of salary that Davis deserves at this stage of his career. On the women's side, there are several programs (19 that average over 2000 in attendance per game) and much more potential at larger programs (Big 10, etc.) that bring in the kind of revenue to pay what a man with Davis' credentials and experience should expect.

My hope is the assistants and the team can carry over some of the building blocks that Davis put in place to continue success over the next several years. I hope the university learns from this and develops the program more in revenue, attendance and stature so its not caught up a blind success alley with no place to go again. Good luck to Shane-- what a great success story for him personally, and good luck to him. He certainly paid dues at Loyola, got all the experience he could, and brought the program to enormous heights. But he also needs to think of his family's future, understandably.

Men's volleyball, even at the most successful and highly-functioning athletic departments, is not a really lucrative place for salaries. Only Hawaii and BYU drew over 3000 per match last year. Loyola was 6th in men's volleyball attendance last year with 888 per game, and had just over 1000 in the 2014 season (including the NCAA tournament matches at Gentile) rank 4th... so you do the math.

According to Tom Kelly the athletic budget is 16 million a year. If it took another 50k to keep Shane
that's .3125 of 1%.
or 20% of the 250k it reportedly cost to play in the CBI last year.
or the 50k could have come from a poorly run golf outing
or by a donor directed endowment to supplement the coach's salary
Tom Kelly told me that money raised for athletics needs to go for operations and not directed gifts.
The best question to ask is how much money would it cost to buy all the media that covered Volleyball. Let's start with the 2 1/2 hours on ESPN that we didn't have to pay for.
These are the kind of decisions that are made by people who have never been responsible for revenue EVER!!!
It's one day later and I'm more pissed off than before that we let one of our own just walk away for next to nothing.
If Tom Kelly and his crew are so well connected then why didn't they just make a phone call to raise the money. If the University is putting its resources to work what is the amount we are talking about in comparison to a 500 Million endowment.
This whole thing just stinks and its an embarrassment to Loyola.

LU 86 raises some very interesting points. I do think though if he was more passionate his analysis would be more convincing. He is far too subtle in his commentary.

Although I do think money had a role in this, I wonder if recruiting did as well. Shane has a very young family, and he can win at Northwestern without travelling as much for recruiting. This year, only half of Loyola's roster is from the Midwest whereas U of I, a consistently ranked team, has a roster with only two people from outside the Midwest (and most are from Illinois). Therefore I wonder if he wanted to stay local more often so that he could be with his family more often without compromising wins.

Right on the money Tank.
Mens is allowed 4.5 scholarships a year. Women's 12. A whole lot more latitude of where you can look and how.
After having his scholarship total allegedly boosted to 3.8 prior to the first championship, Susan Malisch had Tom Kelly allegedly approve a reduction to 3.25. Nice job by these two highly capable administrators. That's just the sort of thing a coach wants after winning a NCAA title. Once again what are we really talking about here. The value of one full ride to Loyola under an Athletic Department with a 16 million dollar budget. Here's the first lesson from the actual real world of business for Kelly and Malisch. A good administrator maximizes pennies they don't pinch them.
I'm officially pissed off again.

With regard to budgets, 2014 is the most recent year for which I have consistent info, and Loyola's total athletic budget was $14.3 million. It may very well be $16 million by now. But Northwestern's 2014 athletic budget was $68.2 million, and they ranked 12th out of the 14 schools in the Big 10-- five schools were over $100 million.

Those are the figures I came up with too. It think that makes the point that Kelly isn't a very truthful person.

Upon further review, from a very reliable source, Loyola made every effort to keep Shane Davis as coach by putting an attractive offer on the table that was then exceeded by NU. In addition Loyola officials at a very high level were involved in this effort.

SO IT APPEARS THAT THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO THE STORY.

you can obviously choose which story you want to believe but let me say the sources that provide this information are very reliable and have never let me down.