Big Ten Decides Commissioner Jim Delaney Cannot Fire Coaches
After mulling a proposal that would empower Big Ten commissioner Jim Delaney to fire roguish coaches, the league says it’s no longer considering the possibility.
As if there was anything to even consider.
The plan, as discussed by conference higher-ups in response to the fallout at Penn State, would give the 23-year commissioner and a committee of Big Ten presidents the authority to penalize individual members who threaten to damage the league’s reputation.
Translation: in light of the Penn State debacle, which was ultimately enabled by a scandalous power grab, the Big Ten’s proposed solution involved meting out more, unbridled power to the highest man in charge.
Can’t imagine where that solution could go wrong.
Big Ten schools can now breathe a sigh of relief now that the league has nixed the rumored proposal. Had it signed off on the plan, the Big Ten could have effectively kissed goodbye any hopes of ever attracting a marquee coaching name again.
No big-time coach would ever hop aboard a league that gives a team of conference presidents the jurisdiction to fire him at its discretion. That’s why athletic directors earn six- and seven-figure salaries.
Big Ten basketball does not need its own rendition of the Terrelle Pryor saga, when Commissioner Delaney spoke in favor of Pryor and four other Ohio State football players charged with selling memorabilia and receiving improper benefits before he had all the facts. This was an internal matter meant to be solved internally, by officials with access to the resources necessary to investigate the situation fully.
Those officials with the wherewithal to do so reside on campuses, not in league offices.
Extreme and unusual cases like the Sandusky scandal, where university higher-ups—including those laced in the athletic department—are in on the cover-up, tend to sort themselves out in their natural domain: the court of law.
Make no mistake about it, Jim Delaney, even armed with the power to fire coaches, would have never had the gall to fire the legendary, once noble Joe Paterno. He’d have never seen it through the public backlash and ridicule.
So if an omnipotent Jim Delaney isn’t nipping Paterno in the bud—which is precisely what his escalation in power is seeking to accomplish—what exactly would this rejected proposal achieve? In the end, just more fuss and controversy what with another NCAA conference bylaw that leaves too much to discretion.
Under Delaney’s dictatorship, would Bo Ryan’s job be safe after the Badgers head coach initially placed restrictions on outbound transfer Jarrod Uthoff—forbidding him from joining a Big Ten or ACC school? After all, Ryan’s draconian move, which didn’t curry much favor from the public, certainly threatened to “harm the reputation” of the Big Ten.
Would Northwestern coach Bill Carmody have survived the 2011-12 season after his Wildcats missed the NCAA tournament again because of a disappointing finish? With the a berth in the N.I.T., Northwestern prolonged for at least one more year its unmatched streak of futility, remaining the only D-1 program from a Power Six conference to never make the NCAA tournament. That’s not a good look for the Big Ten either.
What constitutes “damage” to the Big Ten’s reputation is a topic too vague to entertain. But if all the league is worried about is damage control in the wake of the Penn State saga—and on the day of the largest mass shooting in U.S history—then the Big Ten needs to reassess its mission statement and brush up on its priorities.
Let university administrators police their own institutions, without the snooping and prodding of overly-empowered conference officials. If school leaders cannot be trusted, then college athletics has substantially larger problems on its plate—problems even an all-powerful Jim Delaney couldn’t fix.