The Illinois AD Search

chief2007 · Feb 12, 2016

AutoPoster 3000 said:
I did not originally totally agree with this, but now that we've reached a point where our two top "Illini Guys" are not interested and/or too expensive for us, and, upon further consideration, our best fallback "Illini Guy" is not good enough for somebody with veto power, I'm rapidly coming around to this viewpoint. Seems like, at a minimum, we could have multitasked over the past three months and cultivated a few promising Plan Bs, Cs, and Ds with some external options.

Others were interviewed including Central Michigan AD Dave Heeke & Florida Atlantic AD Patrick Chun. Heeke has withdrawn.

TomB · Feb 12, 2016

IlliniBubba said:
I've seen a couple of posters now refer to "rebooting" the search or starting over with a new set of candidates. Where did this come from? Unless I missed something, I don't see anything that indicates we are expanding our search in any way. It seems like George is out, Tiley is a remote possibility, and Whitman and Michael (to a lesser extent) are the fallbacks.

Where did we get this idea that we are restarting the search?

That may have come from my post. It wasn't intended as a suggestion of what is going on, but of how search processes usually work. I've seen it happen in both the public and private sector.

My guess (and that's all it is) is that the process is held up because they (or the people they answer to) would really like Tiley and they feel they can't move on until its absolutely clear that it can't happen.

I don't have a problem with this and don't see it as incompetence. The decision/timing to fire Thomas and the decision on Cubit? Possibly. At minimum mistakes were made there. But the committee wasn't involved in either of those decisions. I do give Killeen and Wilson a little slack because they do have issues to focus on currently that are more critical to the University than the AD position.

Maybe the committee Likes Whitman. Maybe they don't. Same with Michael. (I know a guy who does a little sports reporting who has been high on him since day one. Even over George.) I don't have a clue.

If they don't like those guys and Tiley doesn't pan out, then they will have to expand the pool. It's not a reboot of the process however, it's a continuation.

Stevegarbs · Feb 12, 2016

sdillini said:
Whether the people running the search are competent or not is certainly debatable. But people who are getting upset at the length of time it's taking, and using that as a proxy for incompetence don't really have perspective. 3-4 months for a retained search for a high level executive in the business world is entirely normal. Exactly normal, as a matter of fact. And things don't always go smoothly. Getting it right is another matter, and that's where the competence/incompetence should be judged.

Exactly. This thread has exposed the depths of IL "navel gazing makes us geniuses." :tsk:

Cubby Blue · Feb 12, 2016

AutoPoster 3000 said:
If you know there is a leadership vacuum at the top necessitating a complex committee-based decision-making approach, which brings in too many self-interested factions, some of whom like to go rogue to push their agenda, resulting in information and misinformation leaking out like a sieve in every direction, and there's little you can do to counteract all this because institutional controls have gone offline as a result of months of internal upheaval, then unfortunately, you don't have the luxury of conducting a leisurely, broadly-sweeping candidate search during which dozens of names are considered and passed on while unofficial deadlines get perpetually extended.

I had to breathe 3 times during that sentence.

IlliniBubba · Feb 12, 2016

TomB said:
My guess (and that's all it is) is that the process is held up because they (or the people they answer to) would really like Tiley and they feel they can't move on until its absolutely clear that it can't happen.

Ok, that makes sense. That's my guess as well - was just thrown by some of the talk about "rebooting" the search.

icengineer · Feb 12, 2016

AutoPoster 3000 said:
...but now that we've reached a point where our two top "Illini Guys" are not interested and/or too expensive for us...

Did I miss something? Where/when was it disclosed that Tiley has been eliminated? I think there has been enough info put out to eliminate George but haven't seen anything like that for Tiley.

illini39 · Feb 12, 2016

Cubby Blue said:
I had to breathe 3 times during that sentence.

Absolutely hilarious!!! POD

InterimLoyalty · Feb 12, 2016

Am I the only foolish person on here that prefers Whitman over Tiley? I get that Tiley has been a success at whatever he's done so far. But I love the fact that Whitman is younger, has the experience of having played here, has some athletic director experience and has what seems like every intangible you could ask for in terms of personality and intelligence.

Franklin Delano Bluth · Feb 12, 2016

InterimLoyalty said:
Am I the only foolish person on here that prefers Whitman over Tiley? I get that Tiley has been a success at whatever he's done so far. But I love the fact that Whitman is younger, has the experience of having played here, has some atletic director experience and has what seems like every intangible you could ask for in terms of personality and intelligence.

Don't be fooled by the title "Athletic Director". Just becasue he had the same title at Wash-U doesn't mean he had the same role. Tiley's experience and position with Tennis Australia translates much better to the role he'd have at Illinois. While Whitman did do some fund raising and things like that, it was not on the same level as Tiley.

**Not saying I don't like Whitman, I think that he may become a very good AD some day. Its just that where they are both at now, Tiley is the better candidate.

Cubby Blue · Feb 12, 2016

Franklin Delano Bluth said:
Don't be fooled by the title "Athletic Director". Just becasue he had the same title at Wash-U doesn't mean he had the same role. Tiley's experience and position with Tennis Australia translates much better to the role he'd have at Illinois. While Whitman did do some fund raising and things like that, it was not on the same level as Tiley.

**Not saying I don't like Whitman, I think that he may become a very good AD some day. Its just that where they are both at now, Tiley is the better candidate.

In your opinion. :thumb:

I have Whitman and Tiley about even myself. I like Whitman because of his football background. When I saw the study about Kentucky that showed even they made way more money off of their football team than basketball, it resounded in my brain. Get me a Bronze Tablet football dude and he can turn it all around. Law student makes even more sense these days and might even come in handy with where our sports are these days as well. Yes, Tiley has more worldly experience, but having never been an AD is kind of strange. I wonder how many power 5 conference teams hire people that have never before been an AD anywhere????

Franklin Delano Bluth · Feb 12, 2016

Cubby Blue said:
In your opinion. :thumb:

I have Whitman and Tiley about even myself. I like Whitman because of his football background. When I saw the study about Kentucky that showed even they made way more money off of their football team than basketball, it resounded in my brain. Get me a Bronze Tablet football dude and he can turn it all around. Law student makes even more sense these days and might even come in handy with where our sports are these days as well. Yes, Tiley has more worldly experience, but having never been an AD is kind of strange. I wonder how many power 5 conference teams hire people that have never before been an AD anywhere????

See: George, Rick

Cubby Blue · Feb 12, 2016

Franklin Delano Bluth said:
See: George, Rick

and the jury is still out on that hire.

I think if you want a fundraiser period, you hire Tiley. To me, where we have failed is not in the fundraiser category. Yeah, it is always nice to get more money. But, where we have failed is in the hiring and retaining categories.

Joel Goodson · Feb 12, 2016

Cubby Blue said:
In your opinion. :thumb:

I have Whitman and Tiley about even myself. I like Whitman because of his football background. When I saw the study about Kentucky that showed even they made way more money off of their football team than basketball, it resounded in my brain. Get me a Bronze Tablet football dude and he can turn it all around. Law student makes even more sense these days and might even come in handy with where our sports are these days as well. Yes, Tiley has more worldly experience, but having never been an AD is kind of strange. I wonder how many power 5 conference teams hire people that have never before been an AD anywhere????

Whitman may very well turn out to be a great AD. He certainly has impressive attributes. As to experience, using a bicycle metaphor, he's progressed from training wheels to a kid's bike.

Tiley's not only driving an F1 car, he's built and manages the team. No bicycle experience, but it doesn't take a giant leap to think he could handle it.

Cubby Blue · Feb 12, 2016

Joel Goodson said:
Whitman may very well turn out to be a great AD. He certainly has impressive attributes. As to experience, using a bicycle metaphor, he's progressed from training wheels to a kid's bike.

Tiley's not only driving an F1 car, he's built and managing the team. No bicycle experience, but it doesn't take a giant leap to think he could handle it.

I think he could too. I just think Whitman has also excelled at everything he has done. So he's not a tennis guy?

coryfor3 · Feb 12, 2016

chief2007 said:
Others were interviewed including Central Michigan AD Dave Heeke & Florida Atlantic AD Patrick Chun. Heeke has withdrawn.

Butkuser · Feb 12, 2016

Cubby Blue said:
In your opinion. :thumb:

I have Whitman and Tiley about even myself. I like Whitman because of his football background. When I saw the study about Kentucky that showed even they made way more money off of their football team than basketball, it resounded in my brain. Get me a Bronze Tablet football dude and he can turn it all around. Law student makes even more sense these days and might even come in handy with where our sports are these days as well. Yes, Tiley has more worldly experience, but having never been an AD is kind of strange. I wonder how many power 5 conference teams hire people that have never before been an AD anywhere????

Football connections are certainly a point in Whitman's favor, it's no coincidence that the AD thread is in the Football Forum...Football is the kingpin.

Don't know if that outweighs Tiley's strengths, but it is meaningful.

ILLmatic04 · Feb 12, 2016

coryfor3 said:

This is it. This is the best GIF.

Sybok · Feb 12, 2016

AutoPoster 3000 said:
I did not originally totally agree with this, but now that we've reached a point where our two top "Illini Guys" are not interested and/or too expensive for us, and, upon further consideration, our best fallback "Illini Guy" is not good enough for somebody with veto power, I'm rapidly coming around to this viewpoint. Seems like, at a minimum, we could have multitasked over the past three months and cultivated a few promising Plan Bs, Cs, and Ds with some external options.

Where does this information come from?

Flight 33 · Feb 12, 2016

Cubby Blue said:
and the jury is still out on that hire.

I think if you want a fundraiser period, you hire Tiley. To me, where we have failed is not in the fundraiser category. Yeah, it is always nice to get more money. But, where we have failed is in the hiring and retaining categories.

The jury is out on that hire? Are you serious? Rick George walks on water at Colorado. He just built a massive new athletic complex that is as good as any in the country. He raised $85M+ in 2015, up from $11M/year from the prior guy. So far, he's been wildly successful.

Flight 33 · Feb 12, 2016

Sybok said:
Where does this information come from?

Rumors out there, I've heard the same things but I don't know if they are true or not.

Let's just grab Whitman...I'd be happy with that hire if Tiley and George are indeed out.

sigint · Feb 12, 2016

TomB said:
My guess (and that's all it is) is that the process is held up because they (or the people they answer to) would really like Tiley and they feel they can't move on until its absolutely clear that it can't happen.

I don't have a problem with this and don't see it as incompetence. The decision/timing to fire Thomas and the decision on Cubit? Possibly. At minimum mistakes were made there. But the committee wasn't involved in either of those decisions. I do give Killeen and Wilson a little slack because they do have issues to focus on currently that are more critical to the University than the AD position.

I absolutely see it as a sign of incompetence that they are just now seriously talking to Tiley months into the process. We have 4 candidates who have some level of mutual interest who also have Illinois ties. Tiley was very clearly in the top half of those 4. How have we not negotiated at all with him until just now? With George turning us down multiple times, you can't consider that even a remotely legitimate excuse.

sigint · Feb 12, 2016

Cubby Blue said:
I think if you want a fundraiser period, you hire Tiley. To me, where we have failed is not in the fundraiser category. Yeah, it is always nice to get more money. But, where we have failed is in the hiring and retaining categories.

From an Illiniboard article last year, we are actually 9-10th in the conference in fundraising. Nationally, schools like Iowa State get more in donations than we do. Fundraising is actually a problem for us.

That being said, I would agree with the general sentiment that hiring a good coach will increase winning which increases donations.

IlliniOllie · Feb 12, 2016

sigint said:
From an Illiniboard article last year, we are actually 9-10th in the conference in fundraising. Nationally, schools like Iowa State get more in donations than we do. Fundraising is actually a problem for us.

That being said, I would agree with the general sentiment that hiring a good coach will increase winning which increases donations.

Absolutely agree that winning is what will bring the fans and their donations back. It won't happen right away, because the fanbase has been burned too many times - football spectacularly collapsed twice after BCS appearances, and the basketball program fell down the stairs after Dee and Augie left - but consistent winning will bring the fans, and their money, back to Champaign.

It would also help if the public perception of the program wasn't one of incompetence and bungling at every turn. Who wants to donate money if you don't think that it will be well-spent?

Monte Carlo · Feb 12, 2016

Ransom Stoddard said:
I seriously think this is a myth. We had some scattered success in both Football and Men's Basketball, but the DIA hasn't been "proud" in my lifetime. And I'm 50.

Agree totally on football, but basketball from early 1980s through Webers first three years was a very, very good stretch of b-ball. A couple of Final Fours, another Elite 8 appearance, a number of Big Ten titles. The only missteps you had were the couple of years after the NCAA mucked up the Deon Thomas issue. Since Dee and James graduated, it has been spotty at best.

South Farms · Feb 12, 2016

sigint said:
I absolutely see it as a sign of incompetence that they are just now seriously talking to Tiley months into the process. We have 4 candidates who have some level of mutual interest who also have Illinois ties. Tiley was very clearly in the top half of those 4. How have we not negotiated at all with him until just now? With George turning us down multiple times, you can't consider that even a remotely legitimate excuse.

I'm not trying to defend the admin here , as I think they are a joke , but isn't it very plausible he told them last Dec he was interested in the opening , but it had to be all put on hold until after the Aussie Open and he would deny interest in the job if asked in public ?

Isn't that possibly how it went down ?

Then UI waited until discussions with RG were for sure terminated to restart them ? Tiley is not going to enter negotiations if UI is/was still pursuing RG . I know I wouldn't . I would say " get back to me when I am who you want and we will talk . "