Jon Wefald may be retiring after 23 years as president of Kansas State University, but he’s apparently ready to try something new before stepping down.

For the first time, Wefald will speak at KSU’s swine profitability conference…

Earlier Wefald posts here.

…[M]ost basketball coaches, including KU’s Bill Self, are opposed to the new NCAA policy [ranking coaches on the basis of the academic progress of their players]. The coaches claim they are being singled out in the grade matter when there are many other factors in determining an individual’s or a team’s academic record. Such factors include faculty, tutors and others on campus who play a role in how a student athlete does in the classroom.

Those favoring the policy point out, however, that having their APR records publicized will make coaches more likely to pay attention to the type of young men they recruit and to the academic abilities of those being recruited.

It is surprising Penn State President Graham Spanier disagrees or questions the NCAA policy, saying the coaches ratings “could have a modest influence.” He added, “realistically, wins and losses weigh most heavily on a coach’s reputation.”

This coming from the president of one of this nation’s major universities. Spanier’s position on this matter lays bare any belief that university presidents and chancellors honestly believe the football and basketball players at their schools really are “student athletes.”

Chancellors and presidents talk a good game, acknowledging the need to rein in the almost runaway spending on Division I collegiate athletics and contending their athletes are students first, not athletes taking customized class loads to advance academically and remain eligible to play.

These pompous university executives want to win on the football field and basketball courts just as much as their alumni do and they want a coach who can deliver wins, full stadiums and fieldhouses and post-season contests. The classroom grades of the players are not as important as their grades on the football fields and basketball courts….

Lawrence Journal-World

The Leadership Institute or whatever [Find it yourself. UD doesn’t link to porn.] at Kansas State has released this fellatial book about the university’s president. It’s certainly true that his leadership style is much in the news. You can read dozens of articles about it this morning. Here’s one.

Wefald regrets error in pact
K-State president says mistake was giving ex-AD lengthy deal

MANHATTAN — Kansas State athletic director Bob Krause once spoke with optimism about the groundbreaking contract extension awarded to his predecessor, Tim Weiser.

… Weiser’s K-State career ended less than three years later, a separation that will cost the university $1.9 million. In light of those events, Krause and university president Jon Wefald now view the 10-year contract as a mistake.

“I can’t over-emphasize the fact that we just made a mistake,” Wefald said Wednesday, a day before details of Weiser’s $1.9 million separation agreement became public. “I’ll openly tell you that.” [We. Note the president’s willingness to take responsibility for what he and he alone has done.]

Wefald said K-State “got caught up in the BCS arms race” when other big-budget schools began expressing interest in Weiser. [Note the president’s lie. Weiser left because Wefald – against his advice – gave tons of money to keep a coach who crapped out on them.]

… “I don’t think we’ll be paying ADs here at Kansas State $700,000 again,” said Wefald, who will retire at the end of the academic year. “Who knows. I’m only going to be the president for another (few months). I’m just speculating about the future, (but) I don’t think you have to pay an AD $700,000 to have a good one.” [Note the president’s continued accountability: I’m outta here! Note the president’s self-alienation: I TOLD you not to pay him that much!]

… At K-State, one of Krause’s first major moves as athletic director was to give football coach Ron Prince a new contract with a larger buyout. That move backfired when the school fired Prince three months later, triggering the $1.2 million buyout clause…

“When you turn staff over, you budget it as a one-time expense,” said Krause, who estimated the school would pay $1.7 million in buyouts to Prince and his coaching staff. “That’s what you’ve got reserves for.” [Hey fuck you. We got a reserve.]

… One K-State donor said he stopped making financial contributions because of the instability within the athletic department, expressing frustrations echoed by K-State student Anika Bergh.

“It angers me because I pay so much money a year to be here and get the education that I want,” said Bergh, a season ticketholder in football and basketball. “To have them throwing away money like that, it just makes me feel like it’s money coming out of my pocket.”

Wefald viewed the settlement as the first step toward a more fiscally responsible strategy, one he said will not include long-term contracts like Weiser’s.

“Sometimes partnerships can’t last that long,” Wefald said. [Note the president lecturing us on how to run a university so that you don’t run it into the ground the way the president did.]

Potato Heads up close.

“During the last nine seasons, the University of Idaho football team has lost 82 of 105 games. Even with its winning seasons as members of the Big Sky conference, its “all-time ranking” is 118 out of 125 schools.

At a Dec. 16 Faculty Council meeting, the chair said it was not fair to pick on any one specific unit of the university during bad times. But when one program has been favored over others for years, then an appeal to equitable treatment is the only principled position.”

A couple of professors write in the University of Idaho newspaper.

… under-attended loser football team at the mediocre American university. Sure, it’s an empty expensive nothingness — but what other game is there in town? Isn’t it cruel of people to suggest that funds should go elsewhere?

But sometimes you have to put aside emotion and ask the sorts of questions Joyce here’s asking in the Springfield News-Leader:

… According to official reports submitted by MSU, its total athletic spending was $13.9 million in 2007-08. The actual total is somewhat greater, but certain outlays are not covered by NCAA and federal reporting rules.

Slightly more than 45 percent of the total was financed by ticket sales, advertising, NCAA Conference distributions and other “student-athlete” generated funds. Only 17.5 percent of athletic spending was covered by private contributions and endowment and investment income.

The remaining 37 percent of athletics spending — $5.2 million — was the program’s deficit. This is the subsidy provided by students and taxpayers. During these times of financial stringency, it becomes increasingly critical for the university to reduce this subsidy and shift limited resources to academic needs.

It was for this reason that [coach] Bill Rowe spoke of the need for his replacement to excel in “fundraising” — i.e., increasing private contributions above 17.5 percent of program costs.

He particularly highlighted the incoming AD’s need to increase “support for the football program.” Reported costs of the football team were $2.4 million in 2007-08, while private donations were $90,510 – only 3.8 percent of total spending. Meanwhile, ticket sales covered only 7.1 percent of football expenses.

Analyzed as a business, well, let’s not go there. The annual football deficit is $1.3 million.

Analyzed as a sport, the team has produced a win/loss record of 50 percent or higher only four times in the past 15 seasons, and once in the current high-profile coach’s three seasons. (His cumulative record is 12-21.)

Analyzed as entertainment, attendance at home games averaged only 8,958 during the 2008 season, despite the fact that students receive free admission. Even so, nearly half of the stadium’s 16,600 seats sat empty. The situation would undoubtedly have been worse if MSU did not suspend its usual rule against alcohol on campus to permit tailgate parties before each game.

Analyzed from a fairness perspective, 56 percent of all MSU students are females, but they are forced to subsidize –through their tuition — this all-male sport. Also, MSU has ongoing problems achieving compliance with the Federal Title IX rules against discrimination in its athletic program. An appreciation for the spirit of Title IX would go a long way in revitalizing the women’s program.

Analyzed from an academic perspective, only a minority of MSU’s football players typically earn college degrees, and the graduation rate is among the lowest of all athletes on campus. Moreover, the program’s $1.3 million annual deficit dissipates scarce resources that could otherwise be available to bolster the university’s academic programs…

Blah blah blah. You’ve heard it all before on this blog. Team eats shit, mainly drunk students at the games, almost no one on the team graduates, program’s bleeding money, what the hell’s going on year after year…

But you know and I know that a boy and his delusions aren’t easily separated. MSU will stay in the game.

… at the University of Texas make?

… [Augie] Garrido, the highest-paid coach in college baseball, received a $160,000 raise this offseason that will bring his annual salary to $800,000. The five-year contract, which begins in September, calls for Garrido’s salary to be increased by at least $50,000 per year, meaning he is scheduled to become the first college coach to make $1 million or more by September 2012.

The contract also states that if Garrido was dismissed from his job, he would receive $300,000 per year for each year left on the contract. However, he would not receive that money if he resigned or was terminated for cause under the university’s “standard of conduct” provisions.

Well, ol’ UD‘s gonna draw on her years of experience with university coaches and make a prediction about that standard of conduct thing. Although UT just suspended him for driving his Porsche drunk as a skunk at one in the morning — he was too wasted to remember to turn on his headlights, which attracted police attention — Garrido, with the help of an attorney, will get that money.

UT probably won’t even try to cite the provision. Fans would be furious.

Well, that little item about the college football coaches who got to wrestling with each other at the Opryland Hotel and fell out of a window [go here] has hit the bigtime.  Google News is on fire.

And you know why?  Because every now and then an event occurs that so distills the essence of a certain world as to give the event mythic stature.  What a local Nashville reporter calls the “tragic” defenestration of two big drunk semi-nude members of the Westminster College community has swiftly taken on the same important national resonance as Borat.

************

Reminder: Here’s another recent university coach story. These guys really know how to get into the paper.

… from the Bellingham Herald:

… [W]e applaud Western president Bruce Shepard for being willing to make the tough decision to cut the football program. It took a brave leader to cut a program that some consider important to the school’s reputation. Some students, alumni and community members are very sad to see football go. But academics should always come before athletics – for students and for schools.

… The University of Washington could use the same kind of leadership. In Seattle, the university has agreed to pay nearly $3 million in total annual salaries to the new head coach and offensive and defensive coordinators. That seems an incredible waste of public funds…

• Remove the management of the academic counselors in the Academic Success Program from the Athletic Department, transferring it to the dean’s office in the College of LS&A. ASP counselors do “excellent” work and become athletes’ second families, said [a member of the committee reforming athletics]. But their advice has to be aligned with athletes’ post-graduation goals.

• Remove the task of hearing appeals of student athletes who wish to stay academically eligible to participate in sports from the Committee on Academic Performance. That faculty body has come under scrutiny on campus because its members are offered free trips to attend Michigan football bowl games, courtesy of the Athletic Department.

These are a couple of the recommendations a University of Michigan faculty committee has put forward in order to clean up various athletic scandals, or scandals in the making, there. For background on the ticket business, go here. UD figures the recommendation about this means to put pressure on the conflict of interest-challenged members of that committee so they’ll give up their precious freebie.

… applauds the school’s decision to shut down its football program.

Western, at least in my 14 years on its faculty, never had a football culture. Most students were apathetic, faculty rarely attended games, and Whatcom County evinced little interest despite a passion for high-school games. Aside from the rivalry with Central Washington University, a football game rarely drew more than 2,000 fans. When Shepard’s decision was announced in Thursday’s Bellingham Herald, not a single reader posted a comment.

The Saturday tailgate culture of big-school football had no grip on a campus with no fraternities or crowds of community backers available in larger cities. Western students prefer active snow sports and basketball; Title IX brought women’s sports into the limelight, and Western women in crew, volleyball, and basketball developed excellent records and lots of campus support…

A commenter disagrees:

It’s beyond question that there’s not much of a “football culture” at Western. To me, the fact that the university could field a team and avoid that very “culture” was one of the great things about the program. You can make a sound argument for dropping the program. But purely line-item budgeting isn’t a good one. By that measure, Western, which doesn’t have much of a Shakespeare culture, either, would be issuing pink slips to English professors…

The problem with this argument is that universities exist to encourage a culture of Shakespeare. They’re supposed to lead people toward things like Shakespeare, even if people don’t know shit about Shakespeare and don’t care that they don’t know. Educate — to lead forth. Universities are not about leading people to football.

… Even though [Rutgers athletic director Robert] Mulcahy was dismissed, the university will continue to pay his generous salary — and his over-the-top perks — for the next 18 months while getting nothing in return. If he deserved to be fired, he deserved to be prevented from continuing to feed at the public trough.

But Mulcahy will be fed, and fed well. A university spokesman told the Bergen Record this week the university is obliged to honor the remainder of Mulcahy’s contract. His salary alone will cost them another $511,875. He will continue to receive a car or annual automobile stipend of $12,000 and health benefits and insurance for the next 18 months.

Rutgers also must pay Mulcahy’s annual membership fees at the exclusive Baltusrol golf club, believed to be about $8,000. That’s outrageous. Why should taxpayers and struggling college students have to foot the bill for any already highly paid public employee — a fired employee, no less — to sharpen his golf game?…