I dont think that you could've hired two of the worst back-to-back Athletic Directors in the Pac-12.
But we did.
Write for California
Nick Kranz
8/16/23
3. The hiring of Mike Williams as athletic director
In 2014, long time athletic director Sandy Barbour announced that she would be leaving Cal. Barbour led Cal during what was, in retrospect, a golden era for Cal Athletics.
To replace her, Cal turned to debt trade and corporate financier Mike Williams, who came to the attention of Chancellor Nicholas Dirks via his role serving on various alumni boards, including the Chancellor's Task Force on Athletics and Academics. It was that task force that was convened in response to declining graduation rates in some Cal sports programs, and it was that task force that produced a report that influenced Cal to raise entry requirements for recruits. Bizarrely, Williams started as an interim who claimed to not want the permanent job, before being hired permanently almost a year later.
Considering his professional background, my assumption was that Williams was hired to fix Cal's budget, and that the Chancellor's primary concern was that Cal athletics not spend more money than it earned. Meanwhile, I feared whether someone without a background in athletics administration (or, for that matter, the bureaucracy of public service) could run the non-financial aspects of Cal athletics.
As it turned out, his tenure saw no meaningful improvement in Cal's financial outlook, the implosion of Cal basketball (more on that below) and the slow alienation of Sonny Dykes to the point where he was all but openly begging anybody else to hire him out of Berkeley. At the time, Cal fans turned on Dykes for his open desire to leave. Now, in retrospect it's not hard to wonder if Cal's inability to support Dykes was less a negative reflection on Dykes having unreasonable demands and more a reflection of Cal and Mike Williams' inability or refusal to even try to compete with their nominal football peers.
4. The hiring, extension, and continued employment of Jim Knowlton as athletic director
Hindsight is 20/20, and Jim Knowlton's pre-Cal resume (AD at Air Force) wouldn't necessarily preclude him from being a successful athletic director at Cal. One could (and I would!) argue that service academy athletics is sufficiently different from a power conference job, but at least this was an in-industry hire.
Instead, I want to focus on the decision to hand Knowlton a massive eight year extension in August of 2021, and Cal's continued employment of Knowlton following well documented reports of his failure to properly report and respond to abuse allegations within Cal women's swimming despite a year long investigation into the problem.
At the time of Knowlton's extension, it was clear that his chosen basketball hire was a failure (more on that below). Since that point faith in Knowlton's ability to steward Cal athletics has only sunk further, and many fans find his conduct in response to complaints from Cal's swimmers utterly disqualifying.
Knowlton by himself isn't to blame for the disintegration of the Pac-12 or Cal's lack of a major conference home, but it is also true that this possibility was distinctly clear more than a year ago. And yet somehow it appears that Cal's campus administration has been caught flatfooted by the sudden collapse of the Pac-12. It is possible that it is too late for anybody to salvage Cal athletics; but I am sure that Jim Knowlton is not the best person for that job.
Five Cal decisions that have put Athletics on the brink of relegation (writeforcalifornia.com)
But we did.
Write for California
Nick Kranz
8/16/23
3. The hiring of Mike Williams as athletic director
In 2014, long time athletic director Sandy Barbour announced that she would be leaving Cal. Barbour led Cal during what was, in retrospect, a golden era for Cal Athletics.
To replace her, Cal turned to debt trade and corporate financier Mike Williams, who came to the attention of Chancellor Nicholas Dirks via his role serving on various alumni boards, including the Chancellor's Task Force on Athletics and Academics. It was that task force that was convened in response to declining graduation rates in some Cal sports programs, and it was that task force that produced a report that influenced Cal to raise entry requirements for recruits. Bizarrely, Williams started as an interim who claimed to not want the permanent job, before being hired permanently almost a year later.
Considering his professional background, my assumption was that Williams was hired to fix Cal's budget, and that the Chancellor's primary concern was that Cal athletics not spend more money than it earned. Meanwhile, I feared whether someone without a background in athletics administration (or, for that matter, the bureaucracy of public service) could run the non-financial aspects of Cal athletics.
As it turned out, his tenure saw no meaningful improvement in Cal's financial outlook, the implosion of Cal basketball (more on that below) and the slow alienation of Sonny Dykes to the point where he was all but openly begging anybody else to hire him out of Berkeley. At the time, Cal fans turned on Dykes for his open desire to leave. Now, in retrospect it's not hard to wonder if Cal's inability to support Dykes was less a negative reflection on Dykes having unreasonable demands and more a reflection of Cal and Mike Williams' inability or refusal to even try to compete with their nominal football peers.
4. The hiring, extension, and continued employment of Jim Knowlton as athletic director
Hindsight is 20/20, and Jim Knowlton's pre-Cal resume (AD at Air Force) wouldn't necessarily preclude him from being a successful athletic director at Cal. One could (and I would!) argue that service academy athletics is sufficiently different from a power conference job, but at least this was an in-industry hire.
Instead, I want to focus on the decision to hand Knowlton a massive eight year extension in August of 2021, and Cal's continued employment of Knowlton following well documented reports of his failure to properly report and respond to abuse allegations within Cal women's swimming despite a year long investigation into the problem.
At the time of Knowlton's extension, it was clear that his chosen basketball hire was a failure (more on that below). Since that point faith in Knowlton's ability to steward Cal athletics has only sunk further, and many fans find his conduct in response to complaints from Cal's swimmers utterly disqualifying.
Knowlton by himself isn't to blame for the disintegration of the Pac-12 or Cal's lack of a major conference home, but it is also true that this possibility was distinctly clear more than a year ago. And yet somehow it appears that Cal's campus administration has been caught flatfooted by the sudden collapse of the Pac-12. It is possible that it is too late for anybody to salvage Cal athletics; but I am sure that Jim Knowlton is not the best person for that job.
Five Cal decisions that have put Athletics on the brink of relegation (writeforcalifornia.com)
"Cults don't end well. They really don't."