Dear John Purdue Club Members:

Thanks for the outpouring of support for Matt Painter and for your concern for our Purdue men’s basketball program.

In an effort to allay many of your concerns and dispel much of the misinformation by “unnamed sources”, Athletics Director Morgan Burke has asked me to share with each of you that he is working diligently with President France Córdova and our Board of Trustees to ensure that Matt remains our head coach for many years to come.

Proactively they have made an investment in Matt that was communicated last evening, clearly reinforcing their continued commitment to him and to our championship program.   They did not wait to counter anyone else’s offer.  It is my hope that the words and actions of our President, our Board and Morgan will encourage Matt, Jerri and their family to remain with Purdue.

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. 

As a self-supporting university auxiliary, we can spend only what we raise, so everyone’s participation will ensure that we retain Matt and provide championship-quality experiences for every single one of our Boilermaker student-athletes.

Thanks for your continued loyal support and passionate commitment….stay tuned!

BOILER UP, HAMMER DOWN, and HAIL PURDUE!

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I'll be sure to check in with Dick Weiss of the NY Daily News for his take on this, but before I do that, let's just think about a few things.

For one, if Burke is indeed making this sort of an effort and attempting to let Matty know how much he means to all of us, then that's good and I am happy Burke is doing so. Should it have gotten this far? Probably not. But all any of us can do is look forward and do what we can from this point onward. If this is accurate, that's what Cordova and Burke are doing. 

If I sound a bit skeptical, it's because I am. There's also the possibility that this is smoke being put out by Purdue to soften the blow they will surely receive from irritated Purdue fans and JPC members with deeper pockets than the wealthy and handsome Boilerdowd. Yes, it could be propaganda. 

For now, I'm going to give this some measure of credence, since nobody else out there has been able to confirm anything other than that Mizzou really loves our Matty. This content actually comes from a source that could/should know something -- the University. (Well, technically, it comes from the JPC but there's no way they would release something like this without Purdue's consent.)

Also, let's not overlook the fact that if more of you cheap a-holes had joined the JPC, we might not even be in this position. So yeah, it's kind of your fault, fans. Well said, JPC and Purdue. You do your best collectively to make us all dislike you, don't you?

Let's hope this is the potential good news it could be and that the Painter-Burke relationship isn't so far gone it cannot be salvaged.

(Thanks to the JPC'ers who forwarded us this info.)