I would be ecstatic with either George or Tiley. But I'm curious to know why so many people in the media think George is so much superior to Tiley? From the limited research I've done I sort of think that Tiley is the best candidate. I mean, other than facilities improvements what has George accomplished at Colorado? Can't really say they've been knocking it out of the park in either basketball or football.
Personally, I would prefer Tiley to George, but I admit I'm partial to candidates with a more generalized CEO leadership orientation than candidates with prior hands-on athletic director experience. I think dynamic, visionary people tend to fluidly adjust to new challenges and quickly overcome whatever experience deficiencies they may have when they arrive. Based on his spectacular successes with the U of I tennis program and Australian Open, I would gamble his learning curve here would be short. He also seems to have the kind of natural charisma to win friends and goodwill in places where his predecessors struggled, whether that be with fans, donors, or the media.
Having said that, George has been an executive for the PGA and Texas Rangers, so he's no slouch in the leadership category either.
This is also why I'd prefer Whitman as the fallback, because, even though his leadership accomplishments are fewer and lower profile to date, at least he has some and he demonstrates a lot of long-term potential.
Tom Michael, meanwhile, has only been in charge of one organization (EIU for a year and a half) and if you Google him, you can't find one article highlighting an accomplishment of his since he's been there. Even his bio on the EIU athletics site (
http://www.eiupanthers.com/staff.aspx?staff=271 ) lacks a single reference to any improvement, project, or achievement of his in that job. The only positive thing anyone can say about him is that he was point man on the the Assembly Hall renovation. There's also the leadership "it" factor, which, if you watch his pressers or read his interviews, he clearly doesn't have.
In sum, the falloff from my #1 to my #2 is not great. The falloff from #2 to #3 is survivable. The falloff from #3 to #4 is going off the cliff Wile E. Coyote style.