I think people forget how much of this process is required by the state.
The state requirements are that the job be publicly posted for at least a week, that the contract be approved by a majority of the Governor-appointed Board of Trustees. That's it.
It is not state law that a search committee be formed, or that any delay beyond that one week occur. Nor is that mandated by any University bylaw. In the case of the University's guidelines about searches, all of that can be exempted due to "unique talents and skills required for the position" OR "urgent departmental needs that cannot be addressed through the normal search process".
All things considered, in a perfect world with no time pressure, setting up a search committee for the AD and getting different stakeholders involved is probably a very good idea, especially given the upheaval in University leadership.
A perfect world was not what we stepped into when Mike Thomas was fired.
Of course, it's important to note, if Rick George would have said yes to Shad Khan's proposal, there would have been none of these formalities and he would have taken the job within 10 days of Thomas' firing.
We are here because we had no backup plan when George said no.