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For this review by Rick Taylor to really make a difference, Athletic Director Dianne Murphy must recuse herself from any involvement whatsoever.
That starts with the football alumni meeting with Taylor this Wednesday.
The fact that Murphy tried to control the attendance at the meeting by only inviting a select few people is disturbing enough. Hopefully, our publicizing of the invite has helped un-stack that deck at least a bit. I know some of the initially non-invited alums have now been allowed to attend.
But just as importantly, the alumni attendees at the Rick Taylor meeting MUST demand that Murphy not attend or be anywhere near that room! Taylor needs to hear the most candid comments and suggestions from the alumni and her presence in that meeting would likely intimidate many of the participants from laying a good deal of the much deserved blame at Murphy's feet for the football fiasco.
The false narrative Murphy and the rest of the administration are pushing is that Pete Mangurian looked like the perfect hire after an exhaustive search and that there has been a massive and competitive increase in funding, improvement of facilities, etc for football.
That starts with the football alumni meeting with Taylor this Wednesday.
The fact that Murphy tried to control the attendance at the meeting by only inviting a select few people is disturbing enough. Hopefully, our publicizing of the invite has helped un-stack that deck at least a bit. I know some of the initially non-invited alums have now been allowed to attend.
But just as importantly, the alumni attendees at the Rick Taylor meeting MUST demand that Murphy not attend or be anywhere near that room! Taylor needs to hear the most candid comments and suggestions from the alumni and her presence in that meeting would likely intimidate many of the participants from laying a good deal of the much deserved blame at Murphy's feet for the football fiasco.
The false narrative Murphy and the rest of the administration are pushing is that Pete Mangurian looked like the perfect hire after an exhaustive search and that there has been a massive and competitive increase in funding, improvement of facilities, etc for football.
Taylor needs to know the truth about those claims and here they are, once again, in concise form:
1) Mangurian was not hired as the result of any kind of legitimate search process. He was chosen unilaterally by Murphy in an extremely irresponsible move that should have resulted in her immediate dismissal and removal from campus.
2) Yes, Columbia has improved its football budget and facilities... relative to ITSELF, not the rest of the league. We are still woefully behind the rest of the league in most of those departments. Our recruiting budget is decent, but considering New York City travel and accommodation prices, it's not as great as one might think relative the to rest of the league. In short, our program spends and acts as if its mission is to defeat the 1985 Columbia Lions, not our Ivy opponents of TODAY.
3) Alumni outreach STINKS.
It's disgusting, but oh so telling, that a program with a 21-game losing streak is much more concerned with avoiding blame and real change instead of winning games.
It's really up to us whether they'll get away with it. The time for debating this under the Queensbury Rules is long over. These people are stealing our donation funds, robbing our scholar-athletes of a rewarding experience and good coaching, and destroying the potential to grow a new and loyal alumni fan and donor base for decades to come.
In short, they're not being polite or fair. They do not deserve to be treated better than they treat us.
It's really up to us whether they'll get away with it. The time for debating this under the Queensbury Rules is long over. These people are stealing our donation funds, robbing our scholar-athletes of a rewarding experience and good coaching, and destroying the potential to grow a new and loyal alumni fan and donor base for decades to come.
In short, they're not being polite or fair. They do not deserve to be treated better than they treat us.
11 comments:
And for some good news, men' s basketball ia 4-1 so far and women's basketball has already notched a few wins (including 2 in overtime). Both coaches, Smith and Glance, were in fact Murphy hires by the way.
Smith is the sort of caring, careful coach who takes the time to actually praise the passing abilities of both opposing players and his own team. Not at all like Mangurian, especially in terma of player encouragement and development.
The event should be webcasted. The technology is there. Quality microphones are incredibly cheap these days that would pick up audio for the entire room. Fire up a wifi connection and cast it.
I am a huge Kyle Smith fan, but if you were at the Wagner game and saw him tear into Kyle Castlin for forcing a bad shot instead of working the clock you would rethink your view that Smith is all sweetness and light. He is a terrific coach and a great guy whose players respect him, but he has the street cred to tear into a guy who screws up. And Castlin is the better player for what happened.
I am liking what I see lately from Smith, but let's all remember he has a grand total of ONE Ivy winning season so far. So I am not ready to Lionize, (pun intended), him yet.
This season is a real chance for him to gain somewhat early greatness status. Without Rosenberg, if we win 8 or 9 Ivy games, he's a big deal for sure.
Not a fan of coaches who rip into athletes. Emotion is always a part of sports but you have to be able to teach. You don't get your point across getting in someone's face. I find it stupid how basketball coaches wear coat and tie, strangling themselves while raising their blood pressure.
I never said Kyle Smith is "all sweetness and light." And Castlin deserved being berated there. He still has a lot of "playground" in his playing style. That's both good and bad. During Wagner it was bad for a few moments. But he's surely also a nice addition to thr team who's already established a presence.
Constructive criticism, if delivered passionately as Smith did to Castlin, is not always out of order. Smith saw Castlin go into playground mode when he was supposed to run the clock at a critical point in which we were trying to close out a tough game.
Connect the dots. If Bollinger really wants to correct this horror, why did he allow Murphy to announce last Sept. 1 that she was resigning effective July 1, 2015. Was this prolongation of our misery solely to give her another year.s salary? She was, in fact, FINISHED on Sept.1.
The football season was about to begin. A college AD has no effect on that. She can't sign free agents or grab players from the waiver list. When the season starts, the coach is in charge.
If Murphy had left when she resigned, we'd already have a new AD in place who could select the next coach.
Was she kept on in order to MC a delaying action for Bollinger, to keep Mangurian, and kick the mess down the road till Bollinger's retirement is in sight?
That's a very plausible scenario considering the past 60 years, 12 under Bollinger. Maybe it isn't the true
scenario but as always for Columbia fans, we'll just have to "wait and see." There are never any consumer guarantees for us.
Was Murphy kept on to MC a charade for Bollinger
No idea who or how many football alums are in this meeting but I hope afterwards you'll get on this blog and give us a full rundown of the give and take with
Taylor and how lame duck Murphy behaved.
Let's Go, Lions!
I will be at Faculty House tomorrow morning. I RSVP'd the invite even tho I didn't get one.
I will either get in, or be denied entrance. Either way, I win.
Stay tuned.
Good for yoy, Dawg. If they keep you out, that says a lot. Either way, I'm sure you'll pick up a lot of info.
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