He IS interested... let's get him!
I now have more than one source that tells me that former
Rutgers Athletic Director Tim Pernetti would be very interested in the Columbia
A.D. job if approached by CU.
If we have not already approached him, there is no more time
to waste.
Pernetti is rainmaker who would have an immediate positive
impact on Columbia athletics. Everyone in the sports world I talk to thinks
this is a no-brainer decision and is wondering what’s taking so long for Columbia
to hire him already.
Again, I want to pre-emptively dispel anyone from thinking
that the scandal at Rutgers that led to his downfall should in any way give
Columbia any pause.
First off, while Pernetti did not do exactly all the right
things in the Mike Rice incident, I and many experts on the Rutgers story believe
Pernetti was unfairly ousted in the whole affair.
This column puts everything about Pernetti and that incident into the fairest
light.
But just as importantly, we should all consider strongly
Columbia’s current status as a severely wounded brand. How ludicrous it would be
if we attempt to ride on some kind of high horse after what our administration
has done to athletics in general and football in particular.
Columbia would offer Pernetti a chance to get back into a
profession he was born to do and do much better than 99% of his athletic
director peers. Columbia also offers Pernetti the glow of an much more elite
academic institution than any of his peers could ever hope to associate with.
In return, Pernetti would give Columbia a shot in the arm
and announce to the world that this university isn’t just paying lip service to
the dream of competitive athletics.
If you are going to the men's basketball game vs. Hofstra at Levien Gym Saturday night, do all of us a favor and seek out anyone from the administration you can find and talk Pernetti up. This is not the time to stay silent. Let them know we're being vigilant and we don't accept sheepish failure.
If you are going to the men's basketball game vs. Hofstra at Levien Gym Saturday night, do all of us a favor and seek out anyone from the administration you can find and talk Pernetti up. This is not the time to stay silent. Let them know we're being vigilant and we don't accept sheepish failure.
I want to hear reports of Pernetti visiting campus in the
coming days. I want to hear that Pernetti is being considered seriously by the
administration.
I want to hear that Columbia has hired Tim Pernetti as our
next athletic director.
15 comments:
The problem right now is no one is driving the ship. Bollinger is not an athletics minded type of guy and the people he hired flunked out. The existing infrastructure should not even be there at this point. Murphy should have been ousted several months ago and a new AD staff already in place.
So without a search firm handling the search, there is no leadership in place to make an educated decision.
Take away the cronyism and there's nothing there to fill the vacuum.
Jake, my concern is that the administration plus Campbell has labelled you and others as "bad guys" and thus your support might actually torpedo serious consideration of anybody who you support. While I would like to think that Campbell, who probably has veto power here, would not act in a petty or vindictive manner, one never knows. Also, the PC cops will be out in force on the AD appointment.
Then don't make me the only voice pushing for this great choice! I'm not asking to lead the push, I want alums with more clout to do this.
There is a search firm-
Campbell isn't petty about his decisions. He simply takes an alpha view of things and if people don't follow his lead then they are dismissed. He is a cutthroat with or or against us type of guy.
Campbell is the problem with CU football and needs to be ejected from any decisions, any role, any relevance other than donor. He can hobnob and likely nothing would prevent from him from that but his voice should be completely separated from any and all actual decisons.
It's not just the Rice scandal that makes him not the ideal candidate (though that certainly should come into consideration).
Pernetti also presided over Rutgers' dropping of such sports as tennis, swimming and rowing, all the while increasing the budget for football. This is not exactly the Ivy way, to drop sports. (To Columbia's eternal credit, however, we continue to row against Rutgers even though the sport there has been reduced to "club" status.)
Pernetti was also party to that notorious (in NJ) deal whereby former football coach Greg Schiano got, very much on the cheap, a prime piece of land near RU's stadium on which to build a house. That was when Schiano actually said that the deal was fine because he planned to stay at Rutgers "forever." (Which lasted about two years, and Schiano's lavish home now sits fallow, too close to the stadium to appeal to anyone not involved in Rutgers football.)
Again, however, the dropping of other sports in order to expand football (and to a much lesser extent basketball) is something the slick and glib-seeming Pernetti should be closely questioned about. A search committee considering Pernetti could do worse than to speak with alums and parents from the sports Rutgers dropped. He definitely, according to people who'd know from Rutgers, was distinctly unavailable to discuss the decision when Rutgers dropped those sports. One friend calls him "slippery."
Of course, too, he's, uh, "interested." He's always been a hack with little aptitude for anything else and he's currently unemployed.
What nonsense - what is "notorious" and "scandalous", is Columbia football for the past 55 years. Another apologist worried about rowing and tennis.
Hes not currently unemployed. He's an exec with the Yankees new soccer club:
http://www.nycfc.com/post/2013/09/09/new-york-city-football-club-delighted-announce-appointment-tim-pernetti-new-post
I always felt Rutgers was a peach job for the right coaching staff. Schiano's ego grew too big but he definitely deserves credit for raising the program out of mediocrity. Such a great market with no other FBS competition for miles in any direction.
I haven't researched Pernetti at all but if he had anything to do with helping Rutgers grow their stature in athletics then no reason he should be overlooked at CU.
Coach, you're sputtering haplessly above. To some, even to many, sports like rowing, tennis and swimming matter. Pernetti was very much a "one-trick pony" while at Rutgers. (Okay, a "two-trick" when things got out of hand in basketball.) He served Schiano well. Schiano served Rutgers well in several ways too, especially re academics (a "tradition" Kyle Flood has continued there).
But, again, Pernetti had little to do with Rutgers increasing its stature in ALL sports, in fact presided over the dismantling of some. And at Columbia, the much-maligned Dr. Murphy did in fact oversee signal successes in other, to-some-minor sports.
Columbia in fact has a graduate program in sports management. Surely there are alumni of this program worth taking a look at.
I tend to agree with Jake re Pernetti. RU used him as their fall guy and he handled it gracefully.
Also, while he may have dismantled some sports, I think that was at the direction of upper levels, looking to find budget to enhance their appeal to the Big 10. Overall, he handled a tough job pretty well.
The only issue is this; we can talk him up all we want, along with coaches, etc. The bottom line is that the search firm will come up with the candidates based on parameters they are given. WE have no real say, except to hold the proper feet to a hot fire if another bad choice is made.
I sincerely believe LB has gotten the message. We'll know pretty well within 6 months if he is taking this seriously or not.
Richard Szathmary discloses a facet of Pernetti that should not be overlooked in the rush to acclamation. We want success and enjoyment for all our scholar athletes, not an obsessive football-crazed atmosphere. The ideal AD would seek balance and inclusion, while still striving for optimum results in football.
Allie
True, Allie
None of us want to go from the one current extreme to the other, where obsession rules. Hell, all most of us(at least me) want is to get a fair return on the AD spend, via decent, competent teams. It would take 50 years of extraordinary performance to bring us even with HYP. That won't happen. But if we could start a legit rebuild this year that starts to put us in the upper half of the Ivy for all sports, including FB, we will have accomplished much.
I would go for the football crazed atmosphere for the next few years!!!
So would I coach!
Why all the vitriol toward Pernetti? Sounds personal to me.
And why can't we have a football crazed atmosphere and also be a highly selective academic school like Harvard, Penn, Stanford, Northwestern....
Why does it have to be one or the other? that is silly!
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