Can there be a university stupider than Texas Tech? It gives millions of dollars to that master of BDSM, Mike Leach, and then when his psycho coaching style becomes a national scandal and TTU fires him, Leach sues TTU – a lawsuit that will end up costing them millions and millions more.

And all for what?

So that Texas Tech can show the world what really goes on at this university.

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UD thanks Brad.

From a letter signed by eighteen faculty:

Lois B. DeFleur’s two-decades-long tenure as president of Binghamton University has ended in real harm to the university’s reputation and pride… Withdrawal from membership in Division I is in the interest of this university that aspires to be a ‘premier’ public research institution… It will send a strong message to Chancellor Zimpher, our students and alumni that we intend to end the spirit of cover-up that was encouraged from the top, raise our academic standards, and restore BU’s reputation.

For the last ten years, Dennis Lasser, a finance professor, has been faculty representative to the NCAA. So he’s done a terrific job of monitoring things at his institution… I guess that’s why the New York Times reporter thinks it’s worth his while to interview Lasser about a situation he did a good deal to help bring about.

Lasser’s comment is contemptible.

The basketball program is a disaster, but if you look at the regular sports and look at the performance before this change in regime, we were doing things the right way… The only reason I would say leave Division I is if we didn’t learn our lesson. If we self-assess properly, I think we can get back on the right track.

… Brittney Griner takes the pressure off of New Mexico’s Elizabeth Lambert.

The Oregonian:

Despite winning football seasons in recent years, sports finances for Oregon State University and the University of Oregon both fell in the red by the end of the last fiscal year, according to a report the State Board of Higher Education’s finance committee will review Friday.

Oregon State intercollegiate athletics’ ending balance, what the board calls working capital, was $5.9 million in the hole as of June 30, 2009, and the University of Oregon’s sports programs posted a $642,000 deficit.

State Board policy requires universities to keep their ending balances positive. The board probably will ask administrators from each university to come up with a plan to bring working capital, current assets minus liabilities, into the black.

It’s a very unorthodox play, so pay attention:

The Sporting Blog:

CITADEL QUARTERBACK CHARGED WITH
ROBBERY OF ONE OF HIS OWN COACHES

Among the four people charged Saturday in a Charleston, S.C., armed robbery was Miguel Starks, who was being considered as the possible starting quarterback next season at The Citadel, and Reginald Anthony Rice, a former linebacker for the military academy, as well as two College of Charleston students.

The victim in the case is one of Starks’ own coaches at The Citadel, assistant coach Joshua Harpe of West Ashley.

A police affidavit states Starks pointed “a handgun (semiauto) at the victim, struck him once in the head with the handgun and ordered him back into (the) apartment … The defendant … then bound the victim with black duct tape around his legs, mouth and eyes and threw him face down on the living room floor.”…

UD thanks David.

An Ohio State University football fan, Van Ness is converting his firetruck into an enormous Buckeyes helmet.

From The Lantern, OSU’s newspaper:

The fire engine, a Ford C-8000 Sanford Pumper, most recently belonged to a landscaping company that used it to transport water…

He … had to keep the project a secret from his family.

“It was classified because I didn’t want my mother to find out I spent money on a fire truck,” he said. “She wouldn’t have been happy.”

Van Ness said the Fire Buck will feature two flat-screen televisions, high-definition satellite coverage of Buckeye football games, a video game system, propane grill, and removable seating on the rear deck.

… The OSU Fire Buck is stationed at Street Creations Body Shop in Groveport, Ohio, for body and paint work, and then will be on its way to Auto Additions in Westerville, Ohio, for graphics. Once finished, the engine will resemble an OSU football helmet…

University of Mississippi athletics is looking for a new mascot. A local writer recommends William Faulkner.

… I first wrote that Faulkner should be Ole Miss’ mascot in November of 2006. …Faulkner went to Ole Miss as a student, the university owns his home, Rowan Oak, and his Nobel Prize for literature, Faulkner played quarterback in high school, and, most importantly, the alums I’ve heard from all love the idea. It’s impossible to do better than Faulkner.

… Faulkner was a literary rebel, a man who refused to follow contemporary ideas of what a story should look like, and, as a result, millions of people know the state of Mississippi through his words. Are you telling me that a Faulkner mascot, a student dressed up in a tweed jacket, with a pipe in the corner of his mouth, a mustache, and a cane,* wouldn’t immediately become the most iconic mascot in the South? Maybe the entire country?

What’s more, Faulkner actually encourages football fans to read — and if you read message boards, the e-mails I get, or even the comments after these articles, who could be against that?…

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* And a drink.

From an editorial about President Lois DeFleur, responsible for the worst scandal in SUNY Binghamton’s history. The editorial appears in Pipe Dream, the university newspaper.

Tiger [Woods] allegedly only slept with 14 women.

DeFleur fucked us all.

When a great university goes out of its way to hire a cheater, all it has to do is sit back and wait.

Extra point: He’s costing them a fortune.

Nicely written piece in On Milwaukee about the forthcoming basketball arena at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

As soon as she set eyes on football coach Rich Rodriguez, University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman decided to make this trouble-prone loss-leader her mistress.

Before Rich even came to Ann Arbor, she paid his millions in debts to West Virginia University. She overlooked his many legal entanglements, his long history of coaching violations, his tendency to belittle his players. She set Rich up in glorious surroundings and gave him massive amounts of money.

Love does funny things to you.

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Fervent she may be about Rich, but Coleman knows she cannot shout her love from the rooftops. Not everyone approves. So when she meets with trustees to discuss Rich’s latest infractions (the NCAA is investigating Rich for breaking team practice rules) , she makes sure it’s closed door.

But here we go again. When it comes to Rich, you never stop paying:

When the University of Michigan Board of Regents met this month for an update on the NCAA investigation of the football program, they did so behind closed doors. And that, says a lawsuit filed today, was illegal.

The suit, filed by a U-M alumnus in Washtenaw County Circuit Court, accuses the Board of Regents of violating the state Open Meetings Act, which places restrictions on how and why such public bodies can meet in private.

Robert Davis’ lawsuit says discussing the NCAA probe isn’t a valid reason to meet privately. The Open Meetings Act allows such boards to meet behind closed doors to discuss things such as personnel issues, student disciplinary cases and consultations with its attorney on certain issues. The law spells out procedures that must be followed to go into a private session. The lawsuit claims regents did not follow proper procedure…

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When asked to comment, Coleman burst into song:

He will not always say
What you would have him say
But now and then he’ll say
Something wonderful!

The thoughtless things he’ll do
Will hurt and worry you
Then all at once he’ll do
Something wonderful!

That’s the first paragraph of the story. There’s a lot more stuff like that after it.

From a blogger at Huffington Post:

Here’s the Cliff Notes version: Player pummels student into coma, flees country. Player knocks over woman while shoplifting condoms from Wal-Mart. Team season assist leader arrested for selling cocaine. Academically unqualified basketball prospects given special waivers. Players caught using stolen debit card. Subtle (and unfounded) hints of racism leveled at admissions officers trying to protect the school’s integrity. Text messages which point towards improper petty cash distributions to players. Smear campaigns leveled at a professor and New York Times reporter who had the audacity to rain on the parade. Head coach placed on indefinite leave. Athletic director forced out. University president announces retirement. University reputation in shambles.

In Newsweek:

… Have you ever had a discussion about higher education that wasn’t polluted with babble about the college team and the amazingly lavish on-campus facilities for the cult of athletic warfare? … By a sort of Gresham’s law, the emphasis on sports has a steadily reducing effect on the lowest common denominator, in its own field and in every other one that allows itself to be infected by it.

… are a mite pissed. With the university’s sports-mad president. Because of the recent report on SUNY’s excruciatingly corrupt athletics program. (Background here.)

[President Lois DeFleur was] conveniently out of town when the audit results were released. The hypocrisy is sickening, especially coming from the woman who has continuously touted our claim as the Premier Public University of the Northeast. All the while, she has been privately putting academics second to her NCAA dreams.

And now, after dragging this school through the mud on her quest to D-1 fame, DeFleur is leaving the premises and not looking back, leaving us to deal with the mess.

With all due respect Ms. President, we’ve been taught that it’s honorable to own up to your mistakes, not set up others to take the fall and cover your own ass. Your skeletons are coming out of your airplane hangar, and if you have any respect for the school you’ve claimed to love for the past 20 years, you should show your commitment by sticking around to help us salvage this school and its reputation.