Big Sneakers to Fill at Rutgers
Stuart Nachbar
December 12, 2008
I´m working on the road this week. I just checked my e-mail and found out that Rutgers athletic director Bob Mulcahy was asked to leave his position at the end of the year. I´m not going to go into the what´s and why´s of the firing; you can read the news coverage for yourself at nj.com, the major New Jersey news site. But I wonder what the next athletic director has in store for him.
For those readers who do not live in New Jersey, the finances and business practices of the Rutgers athletic department were investigated twice, first by the state comptroller, then later by a committee appointed by university president Richard McCormick. Mulcahy was criticized for some of his decisions, for example to arrange a deal for a sports marketing company to pay $250,000 of the head football coach´s salary, but neither investigative report showed that the athletic director did anything illegal, nor that he took any action that violated NCAA rules. If that were the case, then Mulcahy would have quit on his own accord.
Long story short: the university was embarrassed and the fastest solution was to ask a 72 year old athletic director to retire. They preferred to leave the post in an acting or vacant capacity, rather than allow Mulcahy to finish the school year and assist the university in finding a replacement. That sounds odd, unless there was a fear of more investigations by state government agencies or the media that could spread the embarrassment around. But my hunch is that there will be more investigations in the media; the first two provided just the right hint of scandal for the political reporters.
So now Rutgers must find a new athletic director. My hunch is that man or woman will need the wisdom of Solomon, the intimating stance of Jesse Ventura and a cast iron stomach. This is not a job for the genteel Ivy Leaguer or the faint of heart. Rutgers has invested too much in its sports programs to be anything less sports-wise than their peer state schools such as Berkeley or Virginia. And judging by the attendance at football and the major women´s basketball games, Rutgers fans seem to like their sports that way. They want to feel like winners when their teams win.
The new AD should come from a school that has had to make similar strides: to develop nationally respected revenue sports programs (including recruiting and retaining head coaches who become attractive candidates for other "big-time" jobs), make sure the athletes graduate and avail themselves of resources to learn and find employment, keep admission prices reasonable, and do nothing that sniffs of embarrassment to the president or the board of governors. That appears to be the hardest part of the job description.
Any AD candidate who has read of Mulcahy´s firing must wonder if the president and board of governors will trust him with the boosters and the budget. An athletic director at Rutgers must be an entrepreneurial thinker; the university´s athletic successes are too recent to be considered traditions. But as Bob Mulcahy learned, entrepreneurial thinking can clash too strongly with academic temperament.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
For those readers who do not live in New Jersey, the finances and business practices of the Rutgers athletic department were investigated twice, first by the state comptroller, then later by a committee appointed by university president Richard McCormick. Mulcahy was criticized for some of his decisions, for example to arrange a deal for a sports marketing company to pay $250,000 of the head football coach´s salary, but neither investigative report showed that the athletic director did anything illegal, nor that he took any action that violated NCAA rules. If that were the case, then Mulcahy would have quit on his own accord.
Long story short: the university was embarrassed and the fastest solution was to ask a 72 year old athletic director to retire. They preferred to leave the post in an acting or vacant capacity, rather than allow Mulcahy to finish the school year and assist the university in finding a replacement. That sounds odd, unless there was a fear of more investigations by state government agencies or the media that could spread the embarrassment around. But my hunch is that there will be more investigations in the media; the first two provided just the right hint of scandal for the political reporters.
So now Rutgers must find a new athletic director. My hunch is that man or woman will need the wisdom of Solomon, the intimating stance of Jesse Ventura and a cast iron stomach. This is not a job for the genteel Ivy Leaguer or the faint of heart. Rutgers has invested too much in its sports programs to be anything less sports-wise than their peer state schools such as Berkeley or Virginia. And judging by the attendance at football and the major women´s basketball games, Rutgers fans seem to like their sports that way. They want to feel like winners when their teams win.
The new AD should come from a school that has had to make similar strides: to develop nationally respected revenue sports programs (including recruiting and retaining head coaches who become attractive candidates for other "big-time" jobs), make sure the athletes graduate and avail themselves of resources to learn and find employment, keep admission prices reasonable, and do nothing that sniffs of embarrassment to the president or the board of governors. That appears to be the hardest part of the job description.
Any AD candidate who has read of Mulcahy´s firing must wonder if the president and board of governors will trust him with the boosters and the budget. An athletic director at Rutgers must be an entrepreneurial thinker; the university´s athletic successes are too recent to be considered traditions. But as Bob Mulcahy learned, entrepreneurial thinking can clash too strongly with academic temperament.
Contact Stuart Nachbar at http://www.EducatedQuest.com, a blog on education politics, policy and technology or read about his first book, The Sex Ed Chronicles, a novel on education and politics in 1980 New Jersey, at http://www.SexEdChronicles.com.
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