YES we CAN WIN!

Just in case those of you reading my two blogs over the past 10 years haven't figured it out...

The ONLY reason I do this is because I have always believed and still believe that Columbia Football CAN win!

In fact, those who attack me here and elsewhere always take that assertion of mine as an insult in some way. They think up a million excuses for our records and seem most angry that someone has come along to say it's not acceptable and certainly not inevitable that we have to lose.

I may not always be right about the best way for us to get there, but the criticisms I level here are always made with the clear knowledge that we have failed to do something that is not impossible.

Anyone who doesn't know this already about me and this blog has willfully not been paying attention.

BREAKING: Two Possible Updates

Sources tell me there's a very good chance Columbia will hire a head football coach BEFORE it hires an Athletic Director.

And those sources also say an offer has been made to a "big name coach," although no one can really define what would make a coach a "big name" in the minds of the Columbia intelligentsia.

"Wrong Coach"

Phil Wallace


Phil Wallace was one of the best student radio broadcasters of Columbia sports on WKCR of the last 30 years or so.

Today, the 2004 Columbia grad writes this interesting account of what happened when he tried to suggest a football head coaching candidate to Athletic Director Dianne Murphy three years ago.

It's just one more piece of evidence that the fix was in all along for the disastrous hiring Pete Mangurian, but it's also an important lesson for what happens in the coming weeks.

The football program cannot survive another unethical, under-the-table, secretive hiring process.

So, if you've made a suggestion about a coaching lead and have had any response from anyone in the administration, make sure you keep a safe record of that exchange! And, let the public know about it as soon as possible so no flimsy denials can be made at a later date.

This is serious moment for all athletics at Columbia. Either we act vigilantly now and demand that the administration keeps us informed, or we can complain about it later... again.

Here is a very short list of what all reasonable alumni/fans want right now:


1) A Weekly Public Update on the A.D. and Head Football Coaching Hiring Processes. 

That includes providing the names of the people on the search committees or search firms hired, and opportunities for some kind of public forum to discuss the choices as Princeton and so many other schools routinely do.

If the administration is unable or unwilling to provide the above, it should at least explain why.


2) Publish the Relevant Parts of the Rick Taylor Report

Rick Taylor didn't do his report for free. That means university funds, provided by donors like us, paid for it. We deserve to see at least an executive summary of the report.

If the administration is unable or unwilling to provide the above, it should at least explain why.

Here's How It's Done, part 2

Finding colleges that do their AD and coach searches in a more efficient and ethical way than Columbia is like finding sand on the beach.

Here's a look at some state schools and even community colleges who do it better than Columbia:

UC-DAVIS

UCD athletic director search reaches final four.

UC Chancellor talks with selection committee.

U. MONTANA

Public forum scheduled.

Members of the public are invited to meet the first of five candidates for the Grizzly athletic director position at The University of Montana

Western Washington University

Candidates visit campus for open forums.

NEW MEXICO STATE 

AD search narrowed to 11 candidates.

KANSAS CITY COMMUNITY COLLEGE

Athletic Director candidates forum.

UM-Dearborn 

UM-Dearborn announces athletic director open forums.

The Right Way and the Wrong Way

Time's up!



As we head into the first full week of 2015, the time has run out on the grace period I was willing to extend to the administration for keeping us all in the dark about the search process for the new athletic director and head football coach.

This is the week for the alumni, fans, and current student-athletes to be updated on the situation. 

This is the week we need to hear something supportive and substantive about athletics from President Bollinger or Board of Trustees Chairman Schiller. 

Actually it's well PAST time, and if anyone doubts that I invite you to examine how one of our fellow Ivy schools conducted its search for its new A.D. the RIGHT way. 

Here is the blow-by-blow account of how Princeton routinely informed the public as it replaced Gary Walters over the course of 2013-2014.

As you read the timeline below, ask yourselves: did Columbia do any of these things in the past six months? 

(D1) PRINCETON UNIVERSITY

·         September, 4th 2013–Gary D. Walters, who in a five-decade career as a student-athlete, coach, administrator and NCAA leader has established his voice as one of the most respected in college athletics, is in his 20th year as Director of Athletics at Princeton University. Walters has announced that he will be stepping down at the conclusion of the 2013-14 academic year.

·         September, 2013–List of Committee members.

·         October-November 2013–Princeton held Open forums with the Athletic Director Search Committee Monday, October 14, 2013 for students, Tuesday, October 15, 2013 for faculty and staff, and Saturday, November 16, 2013 for Alumni

     

·         March 10th, 2014–Princeton announces it will hire a new Director of Athletics before the end of the academic year.

        

·         April 15th, 2014—School president, Christopher L. Eisgruber announced this afternoon that Mollie Marcoux will become Princeton’s next Athletics Director. A 1991 graduate, she will be replacing Gary Walters, who announced back in September that he planned to step down after twenty years in the position. She was previously the executive director of Chelsea Piers, a management organization which includes athletic and entertainment complexes in New York City and Connecticut.

And look what the folks at Portland State recently did. 

They pared the candidates for A.D. down to two and let the campus community provide feedback about both of them. 

It's amazing that Columbia fans and alumni are so battered by the treatment we've received by this administration and cabal of favored donors and officials who run athletics that we don't even know what to demand and expect. 

But the above examples from Princeton and Portland State are how real schools who really care about athletics and their alumni get it done.

And at Columbia, I believe this disdain extends to ALL alumni whether athletics are involved or not.

This is the same disdain we see when the Columbia College Today magazine and Columbia Magazine continue to lionize the alumni who participated in the violent and destructive 1968 riots and more recent students who have made attacking the university their calling card. Of course these people don't donate a cent to Columbia, and yet they are venerated as heroes while those who support athletics and the reputation of the university as a whole are denigrated.

It's also amazing that Columbia sports fans and fans of the other Ivies can continue to be so confused as to why we keep losing. 

Take a look at how we hire our people, keep the processes secret, and conduct everything we do in athletics with dishonor. 

Garbage in, garbage out. 

Maybe it's not too late to fix this situation, but the culture needs to change at the top. 

And for those of you who still don't get it, let me spell it out for you very briefly:

President Bollinger, Bill Campbell and the rest of the powers in the Columbia administration are spitting in your faces regularly. They despise you and especially despise me for daring to give you a voice. 

Do something about it.