Today: The Ridiculous State of College Athletics & KU Football

Money talks..

While the heinous child abuse coverups at Penn State and Syracuse are the best examples of how big bucks have corrupted big time college sports, there are others.

Take Lowly KU’s dealings in the hiring and firing of football coach Turner Gill.

KU athletics director Sheahon Zenger wasn’t the one who stepped in it by hiring Gill. That distinction goes to ousted, former KU AD Lew Perkins who laid a $10 million contract on the unproven, ex-Nebraska footballer. The obvious-but-overlooked question being, why cough up $10 million for an untested coach with a losing record?

Zenger is the dude who blithely agreed to cut Gill a $6 million farewell check like it was no big deal.

Perkins, btw went down amidst a $2 million ticket scandal, which pales in comparision to the $9 million buyouts for football coaches Mark Mangino and Gill

But nobody really seems to care, because money is no object when it comes to college sports. And now Zenger can go out, roll the dice again and cut some other coach a multi-million dollar deal. Someone like former Texas Tech coach Mike Leach. That’s the talk anyway.

Star sports scribe Sam Mellinger even characterized the hiring of Leach by KU as the "best case scenario."

Hold it right there….

Leach is the dude Texas Tech fired for player abuse, the same thing KU fired former football coach Mark Mangino for two years ago. Then Leach filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Tech – a lawsuit still pending – and a suit against ESPN. In other words, he’s what they call litigious.

And this is the kinda guy KU needs to hire?

A coach who was terminated because of "his irresponsible treatment of a player diagnosed with a brain concussion and his unwillingness to work with Tech leadership to resolve the issue," the university contends.

Oh, I forgot. Leach is a winner and KU could makes lots of money. Who cares if he’s a standup guy?

Turner Gill was a standup guy and look where that got KU.

All of which shich speaks to my point yesterday; unless someone steps in and finds a way to dial out the ridiculous profits in college sports – take them out of the hands of the power brokers that currently control them – corruption and waste will continue to reign.

Nothing will matter except winning. Money will remain no object. And whatever needs to be covered up to keep the good times rolling will continue to be covered up.

The question that remains is, will Gill’s replacement be able to afford to take over the payments on Gill’s seven-figure manse at Fall Creek Farms in Lawrence? Count on it.

http://www.mb-kc.com/
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9 Responses to Today: The Ridiculous State of College Athletics & KU Football

  1. smartman says:

    Here’s How It Works
    The pointy headed Marxist academic swells that seek both tenure and indoctrination of our youth grudgingly look the other way at the dirty,filthy, rotten, lucre driven athletic programs they secretly despise since they provide the fuel for their cause.

    If the athletic money dries up so do their academic careers. Very few public colleges would survive without the money they siphon off from big time sports programs.

    Education is no longer the primary mission at most FBS schools. SURVIVAL IS! Education, much like medicine and law have become more about business then being “professional arts” dedicated to inspire, nurture and heal the mind, body and soul.

    As for Turner Gill. Looks like Jesus sent him to walk through the fires of hell at KU and he came out the other side with a $6,000,000.00 check. Can I get an AMEN?

  2. bschloz says:

    ROLL TIDE
    “I know I know– this $10 mil has nothing to do with the cost of education in Lawrence”
    said bschloz as he steady’s his hand to write 2nd Semester tuition check.

    Always got a good laugh during Perkin’s little ticket scam that everyone in in the dept. was knocking down 6 figures ….. Ankle tapers….Fitness coaches ..ticket takers..water boys. What do they have like 7 assistant basketball coaches?

  3. YEAH says:

    NEVER should have fired the fatman. He was THE MAN!! Fk those pussy ass players who whined that he was mean to them…… OF COURSE HE WAS MEAN TO THEM….IT CREATED WINNERS…… as compared can contrasted to this pussy breeding Nebraska wimp known as Turner shill…FK THIS DOUCHEBAG…. KICK HIS ASS OUT…WHAT A DEBACLE…..GOOD RIDDNACE…. It is pathetic that this fkng loser get 6 million more…… fk him….We should put in the next contract that if you dont win 30% of your fcking games, THEN YOU FIRES YOURSELF…NO MONEY….fkg bullshit..Turner gill is a loser who bred losing with his no cussing, no names on jerserys fkg pussy creating BS!!! ……

    Bring on a winner..and let him do it right….grab those face mask, punch kid….lock em in sheds…what ever it takes. they are slaves tto the NCAA …treat em like slaves….. WE WANT WINS!!!!!

  4. harley says:

    WOW…INCREDIBLE NEWS FOR MU FANS
    1. fOOTBALL RECRUITING….talked with one of the head mu recruiters and this could be the banner year.
    They could get 4 great players out of florida that are from the miami area and outside orlando. Huge pick up.
    Along with the greatest passing qb in high school history in the nation…great running back from texas…
    and talk that franklin could become one of the top qbs in the nation next year…wow…
    2. Bowl bid…the big 12 won’t help mizzou so theyu expect a minor bowl…but they are excited. Pinkel has
    to learn how to keep the players motivated till the game 3-4 weeks later. He’s had problems doing that in the
    past. Makes no difference…probably go somewhere in texas to play….still huge and anotehr game against
    get this another SEC team…that would be really neat.
    3. Basketball….top college bball analyst named gottlied was on whb thoday…said MU is now playing like the
    best team in the nation. Wow….and thye just got ranked above KU> Now that 40 minutes of hell is over and
    anderson is gone…maybe mu can be a great bball school. The analyst loved english…and the fact that they
    destroyed a national ranked team cal. Still to be seen…but this could top offf a great end of the football season
    for mu fans….a great team thts doing well….we’ll see….as everyone knows this whole thing can change quickly
    but i look for soe great things from mu bball finally!
    4.ALL MU MMA FIGHTERS ARE UNDEFEATED….mu wrestlersare now doing incredible in mma.
    Ben is champion and michael chandler just won the bellator championship from eddie alvaraz who was the
    4th ranked fighter in the weight class in the world. He won by submission. There are like 3 or 4 former mu
    grads now in the mma ranks…all undefeated and heading vfor the big big lights of ufc…wow…more great
    news…I follow these guys because they are incredible athletes in incredible shape…….

    SO FOR MU …NEWS IS GREAT…AND WE’RE WAITING FOR THE MOVE TO THE SEC. ….
    IN todays star…pinkel was ecstatic about the move to the sec saying “now we can be what we want to be””””’

    GOOD LUCK KU GETTING A NEW COACH….IF YOU HIRE LEACH YOU WILL BE THE LAUGHING STOCK OF
    AMERICA….YOU DON’T NEED A GUY WITH ALL THAT BAGGAGE. There are so many good openings for coaches
    right now ku may have to go to the lower tier but leach is a huge mistake….
    As far as another ku-mu football game…mu fans say no big deal if theres not one…in the sec we will get to
    play 3 non conference games and that should be eough cupcakes for the mu team. We don’t need another
    26 point dog to play iin kc….see ya later ku…won’t miss you

  5. Sid says:

    mu nutjobs preoccupied with KU?
    As all KU fans fans continue to laugh their asses off at how preoccupied mu retards are at EVERYTHING KU.

  6. Mark X says:

    ….ridiculous …
    It’s all ridiculous … spot on, Hearne…

    I guess we (BIG 12 school fans) should just be thankful we don’t have a Penn State / Syracuse mess on our hands. (no pun intended)

    It COULD be worst, Jayhawk fans …

  7. devils advocate says:

    Good old Fall Creek
    Hearne…i love the column….
    i had the priviledge to be graced with those of Fall Creek royalty for quite a few years. The house that you show as the Gill Home is like the “double wide” of the development. Danny Manning lives just a little ways down the road, and Self’s first house in Lawrence was one of the first off of the beaten path just into fall creek (just off tomahawk drive). The company I worked for’s initials are GF (construction)…(i hope i don’t get offed anonymously!)…it is a sad day when we have coaches that everybody wants (mike leach) that will be off on court dates who knows how much of the season…that did the same a-hole stuff that a perfectly good fat-man… gi no did and was given a golden parachute for. most of us reading the column would do the same as gill and the fatgenious did for 1/10th of the money or less. then we have the penn-state stuff, and must ask ourselves??? Is any program in college athletics able to function at a high level without being crooked…i say the answer is no

    btw the new coach will set his family up nicely in Fall Creek for no less than 1.3 mil

    i feel sorry for them

    sincerely…devils advocate

    t.i.n.g.

  8. Orphan of the Road says:

    Reckoning Dat

  9. PB says:

    Timely Indeed
    A coach who was terminated because of “his irresponsible treatment of a player diagnosed with a brain concussion and his unwillingness to work with Tech leadership to resolve the issue,” the university contends.

    Nothing like using a one-sided quote from the party he is SUING to prove your point. That’s about as responsible as ONLY using Mike Leach quotes as your source…

    “Craig James told Tech chancellor Kent Hance that Adam had spent three hours in that electrical closet based on instructions from Pincock. That night, Craig called Larry Anders (chairman of the Tech board of regents) and complained that Adam had been forced to practice with a concussion and had been locked in an electrical closet. We’d already held out the starting quarterback for a month that season because he had a concussion — the starting quarterback. Adam was forbidden to practice because he had a concussion. We wanted him away from the field.

    According to both his and Anders’s depositions, Craig demanded that I be fired. Hance called me and said that Craig had phoned Anders to complain about his son being forced to play before his concussion was healed, which was simply not true. I explained the situation to Hance, and also told him how often Craig called up the Tech coaches to lobby for more playing time for his son. I told him that Adam had been a constant discipline problem and that I planned on cutting him from the team. Hance told me not to cut Adam.”

    Comparing Leach to Mangino, who had multiple infractions of this nature, is not only irresponsible “reporting”, but just flat out false. Leach was a target of James and hence ESPN and those erroneous reports about his son’s abuse were simply used as a tool to fire Leach with cause so that Texas Tech wasn’t required to payout an incentive bonus that Leach had EARNED.

    Is Leach a bit of a rebellious flake and a non-comformist who perhaps doesn’t like to grab his ankles for the university hierarchy? Certainly, but the man is a proven winner and that’s what KU football desperately needs right now. We tried the nice guy approach and it failed miserably. Time to go back to an a-hole and continue the KU HFC cycle of the last few decades…

    Valasente = Nice guy/sucked
    Mason = A-hole/success
    Allen = Nice guy/sucked
    FatMan = A-hole/success
    Gill = Nice guy/sucked
    Leach?

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