Originally posted on December 15th, I will be adding appropriate articles to this post as more information comes out.
New York Times December 17, 2011 For Maryland, Distant Memories of a Track and Field Power
December 15th Post
It is pretty clear that Major Universities have lost track of the purpose of their athletic programs. They have either become the Minor Leagues for the pros or they are entertainment outlets for the masses of regular students. When I was in graduate school the then business manager of the University of Connecticut Athletic Department came to speak to us about her job. Someone asked her what was the craziest thing she had seen so far. She rolled her eyes and said there were a lot of things people on the outside just would not understand. Then she told the following story.
Jim Calhoun the men's basketball coach at UConn had new carpeting put into his office. Shortly after the new carpeting was put in a recruit came in and told him that the coaches office at one of their rival schools -- I think it was Syracuse but my memory is foggy on this -- had a much nicer office. Calhoun investigated and found out that the other coach had a much more plush and luxurious carpet. So even though, Calhoun had just gotten new carpeting in his office, he ordered it ripped up and much nicer carpeting put down to of course great expense.
The point of the story from the administrative end was that most people do not understand how competitive recruiting is for the best athletes in the major sports that coaches are actually worried about the type of carpeting they have in their office and how it compares to their rivals. From my point of view, it was the first of many stories I have heard about the excesses in major college sports. The sad thing is there is ultimately a limit to this kind of behavior. However, major colleges are willing to sacrifice a lot of the rest of their athletic programs in order to do things like make sure the carpet is just right for the Men's Basketball Coach.
Since I am from Maryland and the University of Maryland recently announced cuts in their athletic program, these excesses and their impact has hit especially close to home. So I am posting an article I saw on Letsrun.com today but originally posted in the Washington Post regarding the issue.
University of Maryland Cutbacks and Why Big Universities Need Small Sports
This is the comment on the article on Letsrun.com
Lenny Bernstein writing in the Washington Post about the
University of Maryland's decision to cut it's men's track and field
program. Meanwhile, the school's football coach Randy Edsall will
make $2 million each year - way more than the entire track and field
budget - despite the fact he has a career record of 76-80 and took the
23rd-ranked team in the land with a 9-4 record and ran them into the
ground to a 2-10 record in 2011.
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