The Illinois AD Search

[ILLmatic04]

If true, this is the moment when we really find out whether or not the administration cares about athletics. I'm not holding my breath.

 

[sigint]

I'm finding it very hard to believe George is still seriously interested in being our AD, but the one thing I can definitely agree with is that those demands have 0% chance of being met.

 

[IlliniJim20]

Yes please to all of the above. First, a guy like George is worth way more than $1M/year....double it or triple it....he will earn it back for the DIA in 6 months minimum, maybe even 6 days!

Also, all of those other concessions around academics and compliance are badly needed.

I really hope this is true and we give the guy all of it.

Agree with those posters who agree with his demands

If academic issues, admissions are abused, this privilege can always be revoked.

I too want to believe this post. I hope and pray administration comes to their senses.

 

[orangeswarm76]

If true, really wanting to believe then this is the guy we need, he's got stones. Makes sense across the board bring him aboard immediately. His demands would make a legitimite athletic school , our academics will speak for themselves. O dear lord make this happen. ��

 

[Deleted member 569417]

None of those demands are even really "demands" in the sense of they are painful and "asking for a lot".

Let's look at the "demands"
Involved in hiring of chancellor - I'd think key members of the University would be involved. This seems like a no brainer. Even if you don't do exactly what he says, allowing him input and feedback into the process is dead simple.
Salary/Contract - Anyone that thought they'd get him for less than $1M is smoking something, and the 6 years, whatever. Again, this isn't even a 2nd thought it so easy
Sole control of coaching hires - Umm, isn't that SOP? The AD should have this, so again, easy
Revision of academics - Getting our admissions to the NCAA levels, and not something above them should be what every school is at. This isn't hard to do. Will the admin see past their noses and get that a few athletes getting in will not cost them precious research dollars?
Compliance - again, being where everyone else is should be the goal, rather than making the hurdles we have to clear far higher than everyone else.

Nothing here is hard. Nothing here hurts the UofI. The academics and compliance are simply demanding we are on a level playing field. This isn't asking for an advantage, this isn't asking for cheating, simply level the playing field.

If these are truly the "demands", and we pass, then no one can ever again question "does the Administration care about Athletic success". The answer will be clearer than ever.

I wasn't as thrilled as many are with George, but if this is where his head is at, pay that dude $2M and get his !!! here immediately. Like tomorrow, and have him get on the horn with football coaches.

 

[mattcoldagelli]

Also, the myth of "Illinois: Compliance Wunderkind" continues to be an unkillable zombie. We get minor violations all the time and the Beckman investigation revealed shocking levels of incompetence around basic things like eligibility and how to count scholarships.

We're mediocre at this, too, and for some reason puff our chest out like we're operating on some noble pedestal.

 

[Hoppy2105]

Also, the myth of "Illinois: Compliance Wunderkind" continues to be an unkillable zombie. We get minor violations all the time and the Beckman investigation revealed shocking levels of incompetence around basic things like eligibility and how to count scholarships.

We're mediocre at this, too, and for some reason puff our chest out like we're operating on some noble pedestal.

We still puff our chest out because that is what Guenther was brought in to do. And now, we have very little to hang out hat on accept the IDEA that we are still on that "strict adherence to the rules" level. Sheesh, even our compliance crusade has failed and our administration can't/won't see it.

 

[justsomedude]

George couldn't be more perfect, and the UI admin will once and for all send the death blow stating they not only don't care about athletics, they're actively sabotaging it.

None of those demands is crazy.

 

[EJ33]

...and the Beckman investigation revealed shocking levels of incompetence around basic things like eligibility and how to count scholarships.

We're mediocre at this, too, and for some reason puff our chest out like we're operating on some noble pedestal.

Spot on again...one of the most ludicrous things the report revealed was that Beckman tried taking Simon's scholarship when it didn't even count against the limit. In other words, Simon's Twitter rant and Beckman's downfall were sparked by a complete misunderstanding of the scholarship count.

I believe the report points the finger at Jason Lener (Asst AD in charge of football) for not understanding the scholarship rules *and* for not flagging the turnover in athletic trainers as an issue. Correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[Second and Chalmers]

I am hearing the rogue party is really going after Rick George, but George is demanding to be heard in the hiring of the next chancellor, along with being named AD, and is asking north of 1 million a year for his services. AND he wants a 6 (or more) year guaranteed deal, full and sole control of coaching hires, and a revision of the admissions for athletes to the NCAA/B1G minimum. He wants to run the DIA more like a professional sports enterprise while staying with some important traditional aspects.

Students accepted between current standards and B1G minimums will be enrolled in a special "educationally disadvantaged curriculum" to ensure that they acclimate properly to the stringent academic standards at UI. Like a UI only Bridge Program Lite. This is to appease the academic contingent involved in the hiring process.

He also wants the compliance department to adhere to the standard, rather than being the poster child for compliance leadership. This is a major sticking point because a large contingent of decision makers, particularly in the BOT, believe that compliance is king and worry much less about our incompetence at revenue sports performance than they do about further stain to UI's overall reputation.

Ultimately, this is what is going down. I don't see any way the eggheads in admin allow this to happen, instead choosing to revel in the process rather than the results.

Don't really care if anyone believes this or not, don't post often but if anyone cares to look, my small record speaks for itself.

I absolutely believe that people in the know are telling you that. I do not believe for a second that that's the truth.

That is the same people who are planning to "run their own search" knowing exactly the dog whistles to blow in order to position themselves as the faction who "gets it".

The incongruence between not just this and the statement George made about the Illinois job, but also the rhetoric of this and the rhetoric George uses in describing his role at CU (wasting time on YouTube clips of AD candidates FTW) is massive. "More like a professional sports enterprise" are not words that would ever pass through Rick George's lips. That's just the fever dream of Rick George riding into town aboard a dinosaur made out of Shad Khan's money that angry donors knows can hypnotize a wide swath of Illini opinion leaders.

 

[Rusty Shackleford]

I am hearing the rogue party is really going after Rick George, but George is demanding to be heard in the hiring of the next chancellor, along with being named AD, and is asking north of 1 million a year for his services. AND he wants a 6 (or more) year guaranteed deal, full and sole control of coaching hires, and a revision of the admissions for athletes to the NCAA/B1G minimum. He wants to run the DIA more like a professional sports enterprise while staying with some important traditional aspects.

Students accepted between current standards and B1G minimums will be enrolled in a special "educationally disadvantaged curriculum" to ensure that they acclimate properly to the stringent academic standards at UI. Like a UI only Bridge Program Lite. This is to appease the academic contingent involved in the hiring process.

He also wants the compliance department to adhere to the standard, rather than being the poster child for compliance leadership. This is a major sticking point because a large contingent of decision makers, particularly in the BOT, believe that compliance is king and worry much less about our incompetence at revenue sports performance than they do about further stain to UI's overall reputation.

Ultimately, this is what is going down. I don't see any way the eggheads in admin allow this to happen, instead choosing to revel in the process rather than the results.

Don't really care if anyone believes this or not, don't post often but if anyone cares to look, my small record speaks for itself.

So, the BOT is going to F this up, we all can agree on that, right?

In all seriousness. These aren't HIGH demands and he knows what he wants to do to make us legitimate again.

Get it done.

Or go higher Tommy Michael and be sitting in the same position 4 years from now, going nowhere.

 

[EJ33]

These aren't HIGH demands

I agree, but the administration and faculty don't see it that way - at least the special admits piece. This was a priority for Mike Thomas and he never got it done.

 

[thatguy92]

I absolutely believe that people in the know are telling you that. I do not believe for a second that that's the truth.

That is the same people who are planning to "run their own search" knowing exactly the dog whistles to blow in order to position themselves as the faction who "gets it".

The incongruence between not just this and the statement George made about the Illinois job, but also the rhetoric of this and the rhetoric George uses in describing his role at CU (wasting time on YouTube clips of AD candidates FTW) is massive. "More like a professional sports enterprise" are not words that would ever pass through Rick George's lips. That's just the fever dream of Rick George riding into town aboard a dinosaur made out of Shad Khan's money that angry donors knows can hypnotize a wide swath of Illini opinion leaders.

Hey, we finally agree on something 2nd & Chalmers!

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Hey, we finally agree on something 2nd & Chalmers!

Nah, we're both #TeamShield too, if I recall. :thumb:

 

[84Illini]

If it's true that these are RG's conditions for taking the job, It's unlikely that the university will meet them. I think they shift too much power in the direction of the AD position, and away from the chancellor.

It's important to remember that the university is a research and teaching institution, not a sports franchise. Chancellor is the more important position in the hierarchy. For the AD to say that he wants input into who his direct supervisor will be, and that the chancellor will have minimal or no input into multi-million dollar hires or admissions policy for a department that he or she is responsible for is asking a lot. The university would be making the more important position less attractive. That's not very sound organizational decision making.

 

[illiniaaa]

If it's true that these are RG's conditions for taking the job, It's unlikely that the university will meet them. I think they shift too much power in the direction of the AD position, and away from the chancellor.

It's important to remember that the university is a research and teaching institution, not a sports franchise. Chancellor is the more important position in the hierarchy. For the AD to say that he wants input into who his direct supervisor will be, and that the chancellor will have minimal or no input into multi-million dollar hires or admissions policy for a department that he or she is responsible for is asking a lot. The university would be making the more important position less attractive. That's not very sound organizational decision making.

Pipe dream meets wet dream... We'll land a man on Mars before they add a new athlete friendly curriculum over there.

 

[IlliniJim20]

So if a top notch research professor, who has the ability to bring in millions of dollars of research grant $$$ makes comparable demands wrt to his/her department, what would the administration say?

What if some genius researcher, who can't write a coherent sentence, wants to continue his/ her research here? Not too far fetched, as I have seen horrible communicators/ writes who are brilliant in their line of work.

The bottom Line would be the prestige of the university. Improve it!!!!!!!!

 

[orangeswarm76]

Question: Northwestern was 10 - 2 this year. Do they have lower admission standards and better facilities than we do?

No they are higher but always have been , we tried to change things in mid flight, obviously it is not working so change back or stay in the basement. I have no problem with higher academics but we are not included in the stanfords or northwestern discussion, QUIT trying to be like them.

 

[WesterveltVictoryCigar]

Question: Northwestern was 10 - 2 this year. Do they have lower admission standards and better facilities than we do?

Sure, no one's saying it's not possible, but why limit your recruiting pool unnecessarily?

 

[IlliniOX08]

Question: Northwestern was 10 - 2 this year. Do they have lower admission standards and better facilities than we do?

No but they also have the perfect situation for them. Real AD in place, coach who knows how to periodically get the most out of his talent situation. Also NW is a private school.

NW shouldn't be our aim. We should be acting like a large public university, like 98% of the other Power 5 public schools. Letting in 85 football players and 13 basketball players on reduced standards isn't going to have any effect on the appearance of our academics. Nor is it going to affect the other 33,000 undergrads or 12,000 grad students on campus. We're talking about 0.3% of the student population here. I think we have some room to start acting like other big schools.

 

[84Illini]

Question: Northwestern was 10 - 2 this year. Do they have lower admission standards and better facilities than we do?

Ultimately, you ask yourself who you are as an institution.

When I was an undergrad a thousand years ago, athletes enjoyed academic supports that the rest of us who just paid tuition did not receive. I suspect the same is true today. Now, that's not enough? Now we have to introduce new curriculum to make it possible for students who cannot succeed at the university, even with supports, to attend? How easy does it have to be? Ohio State easy? North Carolina easy?

I believe Cardale Jones said it best when he tweeted, "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS". That's the attitude that wins national championships. Illini fans know too well what it took for UNC to win it all in basketball in 2005.

It's a deal with the devil, but it works. If that's the most important thing.

 

[muskyman99]

Can donors get involved in the salary and perks of a AD?

 

[Second and Chalmers]

Ultimately, you ask yourself who you are as an institution.

When I was an undergrad a thousand years ago, athletes enjoyed academic supports that the rest of us who just paid tuition did not receive. I suspect the same is true today. Now, that's not enough? Now we have to introduce new curriculum to make it possible for students who cannot succeed at the university, even with supports, to attend? How easy does it have to be? Ohio State easy? North Carolina easy?

I believe Cardale Jones said it best when he tweeted, "Why should we have to go to class if we came here to play FOOTBALL, we ain't come to play SCHOOL classes are POINTLESS". That's the attitude that wins national championships. Illini fans know too well what it took for UNC to win it all in basketball in 2005.

It's a deal with the devil, but it works. If that's the most important thing.

I think the most important thing to understand is that we're already there and have been for a long time.

The caliber and background and preparedness of entering students that make up our two revenue sport teams is very little different than it was in 1990 or 1970 or whatever.

The caliber of the average student at large on campus, however, has skyrocketed and continues to go up. Every year it's higher ACT's and better grades and more test prep and more tutoring and more flashy extracurriculars and on and on and on.

The athletes don't belong. You can spot them a mile away. That doesn't mean they're dumb or they don't deserve to be there, or that their classroom experience isn't of value to them in their lives, but they are just different sorts of students than everyone else. The DIA makes up for this by having a large, expensive infrastructure to shepherd the revenue sport athletes along that inches right up to the borderline of academic fraud as necessary. It is the INTENTION of the academic support staff at Illinois that the athletes complete and have sovereignty over their own classwork. The extent to which that is always true, hey, don't ask don't tell.

So where it becomes ludicrous is when you are happily admitting 28 kids every year who are total mismatches for the school, but it would mean THE END OF THE UNIVERSITY to admit a handful who are ever-so-slightly more of a mismatch for the school, and virtually always on matters of preparedness rather than intelligence and study habits. A class their high school didn't have, an extra semester of a foreign language they'll never use, little piddling stuff like that. Meaningless distinctions.

If a kid won't meet academic services halfway on being a meaningful student, UNC-like curricular workarounds should not be tolerated. Becoming a criminal enterprise like Florida State is gross and should not be tolerated. But in terms of opening the doors to a bunch of kids that don't belong at the school and exist on an island propped up by team-provided "tutoring"? That's the world we're already living in. You can't be halfway pregnant.

 

[IlliniOX08]

So where it becomes ludicrous is when you are happily admitting 28 kids every year who are total mismatches for the school, but it would mean THE END OF THE UNIVERSITY to admit a handful who are ever-so-slightly more of a mismatch for the school, and virtually always on matters of preparedness rather than intelligence and study habits. A class their high school didn't have, an extra semester of a foreign language they'll never use, little piddling stuff like that. Meaningless distinctions.

If a kid won't meet academic services halfway on being a meaningful student, UNC-like curricular workarounds should not be tolerated. Becoming a criminal enterprise like Florida State is gross and should not be tolerated. But in terms of opening the doors to a bunch of kids that don't belong at the school and exist on an island propped up by team-provided "tutoring"? That's the world we're already living in. You can't be halfway pregnant.

Yes. All of this.

 

[orangeswarm76]

I think the most important thing to understand is that we're already there and have been for a long time.

The caliber and background and preparedness of entering students that make up our two revenue sport teams is very little different than it was in 1990 or 1970 or whatever.

The caliber of the average student at large on campus, however, has skyrocketed and continues to go up. Every year it's higher ACT's and better grades and more test prep and more tutoring and more flashy extracurriculars and on and on and on.

The athletes don't belong. You can spot them a mile away. That doesn't mean they're dumb or they don't deserve to be there, or that their classroom experience isn't of value to them in their lives, but they are just different sorts of students than everyone else. The DIA makes up for this by having a large, expensive infrastructure to shepherd the revenue sport athletes along that inches right up to the borderline of academic fraud as necessary. It is the INTENTION of the academic support staff at Illinois that the athletes complete and have sovereignty over their own classwork. The extent to which that is always true, hey, don't ask don't tell.

So where it becomes ludicrous is when you are happily admitting 28 kids every year who are total mismatches for the school, but it would mean THE END OF THE UNIVERSITY to admit a handful who are ever-so-slightly more of a mismatch for the school, and virtually always on matters of preparedness rather than intelligence and study habits. A class their high school didn't have, an extra semester of a foreign language they'll never use, little piddling stuff like that. Meaningless distinctions.

If a kid won't meet academic services halfway on being a meaningful student, UNC-like curricular workarounds should not be tolerated. Becoming a criminal enterprise like Florida State is gross and should not be tolerated. But in terms of opening the doors to a bunch of kids that don't belong at the school and exist on an island propped up by team-provided "tutoring"? That's the world we're already living in. You can't be halfway pregnant.

Best post I have seen and read. Agree fully