Last Chance

The point spreads for this weekend are out and Cornell is an eight-point favorite over the Lions at Wien Stadium.

Needless to say, this game is the best chance for the Lions to win a game this year. The Big Red may actually have a similarly good chance to win next week at home against the much weaker than expected Penn Quakers.

But if Columbia loses on Saturday, we’re looking at finishing the season with a 21 game losing streak, (we have no chance the following week at Brown… none). And we’ll also be faced with having to wait another year for even a shot at ending this streak.

Head Coach Pete Mangurian and the Orwellian drones in the athletic department can talk all they want about “progress,” but a 21 game losing streak is a complete breakdown of a sports team at any level and everyone knows that.

A 21-game losing streak isn’t the product of practice fields or class schedules or financial aid. It's the result of bad coaching, bad recruiting, bad strategy, and mismanagement at every level.

Yes, there are some ingrained problems at Columbia. But a 21-game losing streak is a severe bleeding wound that needs to be bandaged as the first priority.

It appears that the most important priority for the administration now is to make sure no outside group ever gets a chance to review the athletics department. That’s a big reason for the quickie candidacy of the laughably unqualified Ted Gregory for Athletic Director. The hope is that Gregory will placate the alumni by firing Mangurian quickly, thus deflecting the scrutiny that should be placed on his getting the job.

A better scenario is to make Dianne Murphy clean up her own mess, fire Mangurian and then let that outside sports management consulting firm take over the hiring process for Mangurian’s replacement.

The insular Bill Campbell Drinking Club management team has failed us time and again. This has to stop.

If only Bill Campbell employed the kind of tactics at Columbia that he uses in the private sector. In an interview conducted just before this season began, Campbell boasted that he, (he used the word "we," but the decision was all his, who is he kidding?), never even considered firing Mangurian at any point last season.

Never! Really? Even after the 40+ point losses to teams we were beating by that margin just three years earlier? 

Never? Even after the Twitter scandal and bar brawls proved what little control and discipline Mangurian was bringing to the team? 

Never?!?

And this from the man who has been portrayed as a trigger happy firing guy in Silicon Valley. A book released last year recounted just how quick and eager Campbell was to fire Twitter founder Dick Costolo. If only he could be as aggressive with CU football.

When I interviewed Campbell myself in 2009, he boasted about how Silicon Valley was the true center of meritocracy in America. Results and talent and hard work won out, everything else was cut loose. 

One has to consider that Campbell sees Columbia football as some kind of happy respite from that world. And maybe it is... for him.

But as much as I don't want wins alone to be the measure of success for college athletics, the epic failures in football and many of our other sports at Columbia is unacceptable. The fact that sports at CU have become some kind of personal plaything for Bill Campbell alone is even more unacceptable. His involvement and control is well beyond a healthy level. 

And to the groups like CAEC who are trying to make changes and wondering why they've been blocked, the answer is simple: Bill Campbell isn't letting it happen. 

I have to ask, where is the Spectator and WKCR right now? They have rightfully complained about the football collapse, but now they need to use their bully pulpit to pressure the administration to at least keep the alumni and students informed about the A.D. hiring process. The silence is scary, because it confirms that a ridiculous choice like Gregory is indeed in the works.

A short column in the Spec demanding some answers about the A.D. search would go a long way. At this point, everyone is getting shut out.