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Iʼm not generally one to speak out about something, unless I see that there is a problem that isnʼt being solved by the chain of command, so for lack of better words, Iʼm declaring a Tea Party of sorts on the powers in the Athletic Department regarding the leadership of our Athletic Director.
We are in an ever-changing world when it comes to college athletics. The ESPN era of the 1980s-2000s brought bright lights to the larger conferences, especially those with football, to lucrative television contracts that have single handedly kept those institutions afloat. In pursuit of the elite recruit, these schools will pull out all the stops to keep their programs at the top. Unfortunately, as weʼve seen in the past, some institutions canʼt follow the NCAA guidelines for ethical recruitment.
Today, we are entering a new era of college athletics.. the Super-Conference. I believe that this will take the ESPN era to a new level of four to six conferences with 14-16 member institutions each, mostly driven around football. Those institutions who are afforded the opportunity to be apart of such an alliance, will most likely break away from the NCAA and form their own governing institution. The break-away of these schools will bomb the Gonzaga, Wichita State, and Creightons of the world back to the stone age with the likes of Howard, Charleston Southern, and Northern Arizona.
There is time between today and that date in the future, but likely not as much as we might think. Today, we have a leadership issue:
We have an Athletic Director who has grown substantially since taking over for Jim Schaus. He is not your prototypical Athletic Director but ultimately has done a fine job. I believe he along with our Assistant Athletic Director for Development have done a fine job making sure we keep Gregg Marshall happy and by finding those with deep pockets to match the high bidding powers of the BCS.
We all know our Athletic Director avoids confutation. He chose in his early hours not to intervene in the stalking case of our beloved baseball coach. If he would have chosen a different approach would we be where we are at today waiting for two more years to pass before our new era begins? Do we feel he will make the right hire? Better yet if Gregg did leave who would make that hire? We know he chose to back down to the Valley offices when our coach stuck his neck on the line years ago for the clock management blunder.
But going back to the basketball hire... I for one do not believe our Athletic Director would be making that hire. I believe unfortunately that our Senior Associate Athletic Director – External Operations has the AD’s ear. On a positive note he has the basketball background and I am sure has plenty of connections. I say unfortunately because this scares me. It scares me because I don’t think the masses know this man and what he stands for. Unfortunately, I have met him and unfortunately have seen his work, or should I say lack of...
Ever since Brian Pracht left the rains of Sr. Associate Athletic Director – External Operations to take a job at Arkansas and our Director of Marketing when her husband was fired as our softball coach we have constantly been complaining about mis- management of our in-game operations. Ever since these two changes have happened sponsorships dollars are at an all-time low for the department. Many major sponsors have either pulled out completely or made drastic cuts. In return we now see stupid gimmicky promotions that raise our blood pressure to new heights because we do not have the leadership. Anybody else see we are now sponsored by Papa Johns? Obviously this means Pizza Hut has started pulling away and chose against their exclusive sponsorship... Guess who oversees this area?
We constantly complain about the lack of communication from our athletic department. Our media relations department has never left the stone ages. Guess who oversees this area?
Now those are several reasons I have my fears. It is the disturbing things I have witnessed by our leadership in his personal life that really has me frightened. I have witnessed firsthand a severe lack of professionalism when it comes to our supporters. I have probably met him 20 or 30 times and he introduces himself every time. I don’t give thousands of dollars and expect him to know my life story but I do expect him to recognize that he has met me already before. I have heard this complaint from several of our supporters and many of them are supporters you want to know. I have had several conversations with him when I cannot understand the man. No it is not because of his southern draw and bad humor it’s because he is slurring words because of the alcohol he consumes on a regular basis. It is my understanding from several friends I have close to the program is that nobody in the athletic department cares for the man and that many of our supporters will not have anything to do with him. He has had several run-ins with female co-workers in which he has been reprimanded for. I know one of our supporters who met with our beloved President Beggs and informed him of these issues only to be sent to our Athletic Director to voice his concern. Go figure it fell on deaf ears when presented to our leader.
Why is our Athletic Director turning a blind eye to some of the personnel issues within the athletic department ? Is he scared of confutation? If something happens and our University is embarrassed because of something our Athletic Director has known about what will that do to us in this ever changing world of college athletics?
In my opinions we have several individuals that have a passion to make Wichita State elite and take us to the next level. It is my opinion that we have several mid-level management personnel who are future athletic directors at major BCS schools and have the ability today to keep WSU out of the stone ages and take us to new heights. I just hope we can keep them around for awhile. I am afraid that the disgruntlement within is pushing solid staff members out the door, some we cannot afford to replace at these times.
Iʼm not sure what else to do. I hope that this will be a catalyst to bring an investigation and change.
We are in an ever-changing world when it comes to college athletics. The ESPN era of the 1980s-2000s brought bright lights to the larger conferences, especially those with football, to lucrative television contracts that have single handedly kept those institutions afloat. In pursuit of the elite recruit, these schools will pull out all the stops to keep their programs at the top. Unfortunately, as weʼve seen in the past, some institutions canʼt follow the NCAA guidelines for ethical recruitment.
Today, we are entering a new era of college athletics.. the Super-Conference. I believe that this will take the ESPN era to a new level of four to six conferences with 14-16 member institutions each, mostly driven around football. Those institutions who are afforded the opportunity to be apart of such an alliance, will most likely break away from the NCAA and form their own governing institution. The break-away of these schools will bomb the Gonzaga, Wichita State, and Creightons of the world back to the stone age with the likes of Howard, Charleston Southern, and Northern Arizona.
There is time between today and that date in the future, but likely not as much as we might think. Today, we have a leadership issue:
We have an Athletic Director who has grown substantially since taking over for Jim Schaus. He is not your prototypical Athletic Director but ultimately has done a fine job. I believe he along with our Assistant Athletic Director for Development have done a fine job making sure we keep Gregg Marshall happy and by finding those with deep pockets to match the high bidding powers of the BCS.
We all know our Athletic Director avoids confutation. He chose in his early hours not to intervene in the stalking case of our beloved baseball coach. If he would have chosen a different approach would we be where we are at today waiting for two more years to pass before our new era begins? Do we feel he will make the right hire? Better yet if Gregg did leave who would make that hire? We know he chose to back down to the Valley offices when our coach stuck his neck on the line years ago for the clock management blunder.
But going back to the basketball hire... I for one do not believe our Athletic Director would be making that hire. I believe unfortunately that our Senior Associate Athletic Director – External Operations has the AD’s ear. On a positive note he has the basketball background and I am sure has plenty of connections. I say unfortunately because this scares me. It scares me because I don’t think the masses know this man and what he stands for. Unfortunately, I have met him and unfortunately have seen his work, or should I say lack of...
Ever since Brian Pracht left the rains of Sr. Associate Athletic Director – External Operations to take a job at Arkansas and our Director of Marketing when her husband was fired as our softball coach we have constantly been complaining about mis- management of our in-game operations. Ever since these two changes have happened sponsorships dollars are at an all-time low for the department. Many major sponsors have either pulled out completely or made drastic cuts. In return we now see stupid gimmicky promotions that raise our blood pressure to new heights because we do not have the leadership. Anybody else see we are now sponsored by Papa Johns? Obviously this means Pizza Hut has started pulling away and chose against their exclusive sponsorship... Guess who oversees this area?
We constantly complain about the lack of communication from our athletic department. Our media relations department has never left the stone ages. Guess who oversees this area?
Now those are several reasons I have my fears. It is the disturbing things I have witnessed by our leadership in his personal life that really has me frightened. I have witnessed firsthand a severe lack of professionalism when it comes to our supporters. I have probably met him 20 or 30 times and he introduces himself every time. I don’t give thousands of dollars and expect him to know my life story but I do expect him to recognize that he has met me already before. I have heard this complaint from several of our supporters and many of them are supporters you want to know. I have had several conversations with him when I cannot understand the man. No it is not because of his southern draw and bad humor it’s because he is slurring words because of the alcohol he consumes on a regular basis. It is my understanding from several friends I have close to the program is that nobody in the athletic department cares for the man and that many of our supporters will not have anything to do with him. He has had several run-ins with female co-workers in which he has been reprimanded for. I know one of our supporters who met with our beloved President Beggs and informed him of these issues only to be sent to our Athletic Director to voice his concern. Go figure it fell on deaf ears when presented to our leader.
Why is our Athletic Director turning a blind eye to some of the personnel issues within the athletic department ? Is he scared of confutation? If something happens and our University is embarrassed because of something our Athletic Director has known about what will that do to us in this ever changing world of college athletics?
In my opinions we have several individuals that have a passion to make Wichita State elite and take us to the next level. It is my opinion that we have several mid-level management personnel who are future athletic directors at major BCS schools and have the ability today to keep WSU out of the stone ages and take us to new heights. I just hope we can keep them around for awhile. I am afraid that the disgruntlement within is pushing solid staff members out the door, some we cannot afford to replace at these times.
Iʼm not sure what else to do. I hope that this will be a catalyst to bring an investigation and change.
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