But something akin to it regarding this hot news item: Rodriguez won't take Tide job
University of West Virginia coach Rich Rodriguez decided this morning that he would not accept the University of Alabama’s offer to become the Tide’s head football coach.
Rodriguez informed his Mountaineers team of the decision at a meeting at 2 p.m. Central time.
Representatives of Alabama and Rodriguez reached an agreement in principle Thursday night on a 6-year, $12 million contract. Rodriguez’ agent indicated to Alabama officials that his client would accept today, but that did not happen.
Rodriguez met this morning with the University of West Virginia president, and met with the athletics director several times. Rodriguez’ wife, Rita, was in his office for several hours this morning.
"Yes I'm staying," Rodriguez said as he walked past reporters. [...]
All of them cackled about how WVU hadn't jumped fast enough to keep RR (as he's come to be called), how they'd reneged on their commitments to upgrade facilities, how weak the Big East Conference was and how that meant that the Mountaineers would never get a prime BCS spot, what a rinky-dink place Morgantown is, how much money was being dangled just for the plucking, the allure of the playing in the Grand Exhalted Shrine of Football That Bear Built.
No one ever really seemed to ask the question (honestly, at least) about why on Earth he'd want the job.
There has yet to be an honest appraisal amongst the fan base about what constitutes big-time college football nowadays, and why fan and booster and trustee expectations might be a bit over the top. About why a man would leave his home and alma mater for a pressure-cooker environment amongst a group of people who have more than a slightly elevated self-opinion of the value of their tradition (admittedly a hard-fought and deserved one).
Seems Coach Rodrigues might have taken the time to realize that all that glisters is not gold.
I hope Alabama finds a good coach, I really do. But I hope that they would remember they're much more in a place similar to the straits they were in when they hired Coach Bryant, not the heights they were at when he retired. And everyone also needs to remember that this makes choosing someone else that much harder--whoever it is will be seen for what he is--the second (or fourth, or sixth) choice.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at December 8, 2006 03:08 PMCall me cynical, but having seen some of this stuff from the inside with our BB team...I'd be willing to bet RR walked away from the UWV offices with a contract extension/increase in pay, and firm commitments to capital improvements. Being publicly courted by another university is pretty much the same thing as renegociating the current contract.
As a loyal university employee, I shouldn't be saying this, but I'm beginning to think the IRS is right to question the exempt status of the NCAA. The world of college sports has gone far beyond being an "integral part of the college experience" and a way to offer scholarships to kids who might not otherwise be able to attend college. My hope is that being under the eye of the IRS will encourage the NCAA to clean up some of its act.
I'm not holding my breath.
Posted by: Diane at December 8, 2006 04:52 PMFrom what I've seen over the weekend in the news (as if anyone can trust that) you are exactly right about what Coach Rodriguez got out of the deal--more money, better facilities, and he gets to stay at home.
As for the NCAA, they just need to hope that some upwardly-mobile US attorney doesn't start getting visions of RICO in his head...
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at December 11, 2006 08:27 AM