Okay, my take may sound very simple minded, but here it is.

Jim Knowlton is the AD at Cal, a member of a major conference, the Pac12. As the Athletic Director, one would think that the two most important duties of his entire job is to hire the head coach in both football and basketball that gives Cal the best chance to win. These 2 sports are by far the highest revenue producers. Success in these 2 sports gives the entire program more visibility, and a better profit than can be used to trickle down to all of the other sports that are part of the program.

Basically, of all his job duties, this is Knowlton's 2nd MOST IMPORTANT DECISION that he has to make in his ENTIRE tenure at Cal, which may last several years. And he needs help from an "outside company" to make this decision?

He should have been on this for the last 3 months, knowing that it was an important contingency to have in place in case he decided to dismiss WJ (he must have known that it was a possibilty.) Instead, it feels like when he did an about face on WJ, it was like starting from scratch. If he had planned for it, I get the feeling the new hire would have been someone else.

Just my 2 cents worth.

we are a swimming school. go bears

calgo430 said:

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we are a swimming school.

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And swimming in red ink.

calgo430 said:

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we are a swimming school. go bears

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Damn, I forgot about that!

RedlessWardrobe said:

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Okay, my take may sound very simple minded, but here it is.

Jim Knowlton is the AD at Cal, a member of a major conference, the Pac12. As the Athletic Director, one would think that the two most important duties of his entire a job is to hire the head coach in both football and basketball that gives Cal the best chance to win. These 2 sports are by far the highest revenue producers. Success in these 2 sports gives the entire program more visibility, and a better profit than can be used to trickle down to all of the other sports that are part of the program.

Basically, of all his job duties, this is Knowlton's 2nd MOST IMPORTANT DECISION that he has to make in his ENTIRE tenure at Cal, which may last several years. And he needs help from an "outside company" to make this decision?

He should have been on this for the last 3 months, knowing that it was an important contingency to have in place in case he decided to dismiss WJ (he must have known that it was a possibilty.) Instead, it feels like when he did an about face on WJ, it was like starting from scratch. If he had planned for it, I get the feeling the new hire would have been someone else.

Just my 2 cents worth.

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I think your premise (in bold), although reasonable, is not true at Cal

I prefer your premise. I just think that those in control feel competing is sufficient and winning is nice.

RedlessWardrobe said:

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Okay, my take may sound very simple minded, but here it is.

Jim Knowlton is the AD at Cal, a member of a major conference, the Pac12. As the Athletic Director, one would think that the two most important duties of his entire a job is to hire the head coach in both football and basketball that gives Cal the best chance to win. These 2 sports are by far the highest revenue producers. Success in these 2 sports gives the entire program more visibility, and a better profit than can be used to trickle down to all of the other sports that are part of the program.

Basically, of all his job duties, this is Knowlton's 2nd MOST IMPORTANT DECISION that he has to make in his ENTIRE tenure at Cal, which may last several years. And he needs help from an "outside company" to make this decision?

He should have been on this for the last 3 months, knowing that it was an important contingency to have in place in case he decided to dismiss WJ (he must have known that it was a possibilty.) Instead, it feels like when he did an about face on WJ, it was like starting from scratch. If he had planned for it, I get the feeling the new hire would have been someone else.

Just my 2 cents worth.

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Agree. In my vision of a good process, the AD is using a search firm for two reasons:

1. contacting candidates and setting up interviews with them (for plausible deniability on both sides)

2. PERHAPS unearthing "long list" candidates that the AD might have missed... maybe they know of someone who is dissatisfied in their current position and is starting to look elsewhere, for example

Otherwise, the AD is using the credible contacts and trusted sources that he has developed over the years, combined with the knowledge he has about the unique requirements of the position, to identify and attract the best candidate. That's one of the main reasons he's worth big bucks.

I suppose I'm naive.

BeachedBear said:

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RedlessWardrobe said:

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Okay, my take may sound very simple minded, but here it is.

Jim Knowlton is the AD at Cal, a member of a major conference, the Pac12. As the Athletic Director, one would think that the two most important duties of his entire a job is to hire the head coach in both football and basketball that gives Cal the best chance to win. These 2 sports are by far the highest revenue producers. Success in these 2 sports gives the entire program more visibility, and a better profit than can be used to trickle down to all of the other sports that are part of the program.

Basically, of all his job duties, this is Knowlton's 2nd MOST IMPORTANT DECISION that he has to make in his ENTIRE tenure at Cal, which may last several years. And he needs help from an "outside company" to make this decision?

He should have been on this for the last 3 months, knowing that it was an important contingency to have in place in case he decided to dismiss WJ (he must have known that it was a possibilty.) Instead, it feels like when he did an about face on WJ, it was like starting from scratch. If he had planned for it, I get the feeling the new hire would have been someone else.

Just my 2 cents worth.

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I think your premise (in bold), although reasonable, is not true at Cal

I prefer your premise. I just think that those in control feel competing is sufficient and winning is nice.

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I think your evaluation of Cal's premise is probably true. I guess that's the reason its so hard to be a Cal Basketball fan.