Purdue officials sent a letter to the John Purdue Club and the contents of the letter suggest the school may be preparing for the loss of Matt Painter to the Missouri Tigers. Painter is meeting with Mizzou but as of now it's hard to tell via the various reports how serious he is about taking the job.
Missouri was reportedly willing to offer Mike Anderson an average of $2 million per year and Painter is reportedly about $700,000 below that annual mark (not including incentives). That's the biggest reason Mizzou may have an edge but, of course, we're all guessing at this point since he hasn't made a decision.
So can Purdue raise the money if that's what will do it for Painter? In the letter, Purdue's associate AD Nancy Cross' words are telling:
Personally, I have been overwhelmed with the number of e-mails pledging to join the John Purdue Club or increase support. Ironically, I believe we would not be in this situation had more than 11% of our current membership participated in the Mackey Challenge and more than 150 of our nearly 9,000 members recruited at least one new member. More of the Big Ten television revenues could have been allocated for compensation for the basketball coaching staff members and less toward the critical path of updating Mackey Arena.
You can read the full letter at Midwest Sports Fans but it comes across almost in an accusatory tone. It's almost as if Purdue is already bracing for the loss of Painter. The school is saying something like, 'We could have kept him if you would have given more money'. That to me sounds like someone setting the donors up as the fall guy.
Either way, we should be hearing something on Painter's decision before the end of the week.