Feeling Pain of the Business of Sport
As March Madness gets underway, a different type of madness may have been penetrated the administration walls at Nebraska-Omaha, where football and wrestling were cut to help deal with deep financial problems in the athletics department. http://www.omaha.com/article/20110313/MAVS/303139964
In a move announced on Sunday, UNO will move to Division I and become the newest member of the Summit League. While cutting football and wrestling, the department will add men's soccer and golf and "invest more heavily" in baseball, and women's basketball. It is a move that administrators say will enable the program to find footing.
UNO A.D. Trev Alberts said that football was a "heavy drain" on the departments $9.5 million budget. If they go Division I, substantial investment would be have been needed in the wrestling program. Therefore in the long term interests of the entire athletics program, UNO is moving on without two of its premier and most historically successful programs. It should be pointed out that the Summit League does not sponsor football and wrestling and that if UNO moved to DI, they face an NCAA moratorium of June 1 to make the move.
While nearly everyone was fixated on who was going to make the NCAA Division I basketball tournament, student-athletes in football and wrestling at UNO were hit with this political tsunami of sorts. It sounds strange that you would drop football and wrestling as you are making the move into Division I. But administrators say they can rectify the financial situation by taking football out of the equation.
On UNO chat boards, there are many that believe that there was a conspiracy against UNO football, which has been around for 100 years. In 1954, its undefeated, untied team won the Tangerine Bowl (now Florida Citrus Bowl), and also won seven NCC titles before that league disbanded a few years ago. UNO has participated in the NCAA Division II playoffs seven times. Several players, including Marlin Briscoe, Chris Bober and Chris Cooper played in the NFL. The wrestling program is one of the best at Division II with three consecutive national titles and six championships in the past eight seasons.
Now I don't know Trev Alberts, the AD at Nebraska-Omaha, nor do I know John Christensen, the UNO Chancellor. They obviously have had some tough decisions to make. The UNO athletic program has been struggling to find grounding for several years. Tough decisions were obviously at their feet. As pointed out in Tom Shatel's column in the Omaha World Herald, there were many financial reasons behind the move. Shatel agreed with the decision. Others not so much.
What I find at fault is the uncaring and insensitive handling that Alberts and Christensen showed those impacted by this decision, ranging from the coaches to alumni to, and I might add most importantly, the students and their families.
When you have a public persona, as is the case with most universities and colleges, it behooves an open process with major change is in the mix.
For these student-athletes to hear that your program was ending only a few days after you worked with the A.D. on hiring some new staff and football announced a new recruiting class of 20, and then to have it happen in a late night meeting, well that is wrong handed. It is not only improper administrative behavior but is cold, heartless and disrespectful. At the very least Alberts and Christensen could have waited until the wrestling team and coach Mike Denney had returned home. To announce a press conference and let word leak out before they had come back to campus smacks of insensitivity.
Alberts was a standout football player at Nebraska, who was drafted high in the NFL draft. I would think that along the way the former Husker would value face-to-face communication. It doesn't appear on the face that he does.
Alberts and Christiansen have egg all over their suits. This situation demanded a face-to-face discussion with the student-athletes after visiting with the coaches. They should have informed Behrns that his program was on the verge of ending. To allow him to hire a coach very recently is bad management and not very human. Take the case of the new hire, he gets his family ready to move to Omaha and begins preparing for a new life. Now, shockingly he has to see if he can get his old job back or set out looking for something new. And, what about the 20 recruits, they think long and hard about where to go and then weeks after they make that decision, the University casts them aside without consideration.
This insensitive noncommunication administrative decision rubs me the wrong way. Student-athletes and their families deserve better. Think back for a moment, especially all of you that competed. From a young age, you worked hard and laid out your heart and soul into your sport. You wanted to be the best you could be and the team was important. When student-athletes chose the UNO wrestling and football programs, it was a family decision. Most of these student-athletes thought long and hard about attending the institution. After they arrived, they spent endless hours in the weight room, on the practice field and in the classroom attempting to remain eligible. They became your school's greatest PR tools. Everywhere they went, they talked about how they loved it in Omaha, how it was great competing for the school.
The University has said it will do right by the students by honoring scholarships and try to help the 150 student-athletes impacted find another school.
I also think of the rage that many UNO alumni are feeling, especially those who gave their heart and soul to competing for the school. Why were they not informed of this process? Especially major donors like Van Deeb, a former UNO football player, who was ready to make a substantial financial gift. Well now, he will pull that donation and is leaving the UNO Athletic Board that he has served on for 18 years. He steps away from a university that has been such a big part of his life. He said the 100-year tradition of UNO football is being destroyed and he wants no part of it. http://www.ketv.com/r/27209630/detail.html
David Sokol, a major athletic donor and successful Omaha businessman, said he heard nothing and he is seething over this decision. http://omaha.com/article/20110315/NEWS01/703159891#sokol-mavs-sacrificed-for-huskers
The legacy of the football and wrestling programs were virtually cast out in space. It will be as if what they did there had no merit. Sokol says that UNO caved to pressure that Nebraska wouldn't support another Division I program, even at the FCS level. And, Alberts has had numerous discussions with his former coach, Tom Osborne, the current AD at Nebraska. What they discussed we don't know. However in 2006, a Nebraska regent, Chuck Hasselbrook, said that UNO football should be cut, a proposal he had made 10 years prior. Hasselbrook said that he supported athletics but only to a level that didn't cut problems in the school's academic mission. http://www.ketv.com/r/9478574/detail.html
Sokol's reaction is heavy and maybe over the top. Still, you can't tell me that Nebraska regents didn't want the two programs competing for the state's best athletes. Osborne even admitted that he wouldn't jump in joy over UNO move up a level. Whether Sokol is right or overreacting probably will only come out in time.
Let me be clear, politics and unfeeling business decisions are not unfamiliar to the athletics landscape in colleges across the country. I can understand why decisions are reached to do what you deem as the best for the longevity of the institution. And, in all honesty, this move may prove beneficial to the university. If they can turn a leaking financial athletics ship around, it may prevent that vessel from going under.
This decision of cutting programs wasn't taken lightly by the UNO administration or any other school, including Sioux Falls that also cut a solid wrestling program in recent weeks. In our economy-challenged world, unforeseen circumstances have resulted in the victimization of millions of people. These young men and their families are now enjoined in the victimization process. They have indeed learned a very tough life lesson.
Most of them will move on and learn from this. Some will voice their displeasure but most will simply pack up and move on to another stop in their life.
In a world where new communication technologies are evolving, UNO failed to use the one that has been here forever - face to face straight talk. It is not how you treat rivals and it should never be the way you treat your friends and family.
I am encouraged that the Summit League, and schools like USD, SDSU, NDSU, Northern Iowa, and others gain a midwestern colleague. But I am not encouraged by the cold way it happened.
Mr. Alberts and Mr. Christiansen both said this was a tough decision. But I think gentlemen, when your kids go to college and participate in some activities, I sure hope they don't get sideswiped the way you did to these young UNO football and wrestling student-athletes, their families and coaches.
It is too late to apologize to them and you won't. Your actions are your words.
Identity problems? South Dakota State University might be feeling a little disrespected lately. First ESPNU continually referred to its women's basketball team as San Diego State during the Summit League Championship game. Now, the Nebraska marketing people put up the University of South Dakota logo behind the name South Dakota State. http://plixi.com/p/84211382
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