I've posted this before, but it's still relevant.
In addition to the steps discussed in the other threads, how do you "re-emphasize" a program?
From Froggy Williams memoirs
http://ricehistoricalsociety.org/images/...sNeely.pdf
In 1961 Kenneth Pitzer was selected the
new president of Rice University. It is known
that Dr. Pitzer was not a fan of big-time
athletics. Probably in 1962 a decision was made
to de-emphasize football. It was very simple to
implement.
Neely, the athletic director and head football
coach, was advised that there would be thirty
scholarships a year granted to the football
program. It is not certain how many had been
granted previously but it was probably forty-five
or fifty. In fact, it is probable that there were no
limitations at all.
Neely, being a strict and frugal man, would
not have gone overboard in granting scholarships.
It was common knowledge that the state
universities were averaging somewhere in the
range of ninety to a hundred per year. There was
no limit except by way of limitation of talented
high school graduates who could compete at the
college level in the Southwest Conference.
It is suggested that possibly the board could
be advised that this was a recipe for disaster for
the whole athletic program, since the revenues
from football were substantial enough to carry
the diverse programs. Neely’s answer was
somewhat astonishing: his position was that he
could have a successful program with a limit of
thirty scholarships.
To this day it has been wondered if Neely
was so self-confident that he was unconcerned.
The other alternative might have been that he
had become arrogant because he had done well
for twenty years and was certain that he could
continue to do so under the new circumstances.
One thing for certain is that Neely, as far as is
known, did not heavily resist the new constraints.
As a matter of fact, he explained that if the
program is too big, it gets unwieldy, which is a
detriment to success.
Whatever his feelings were, this decision to
de-emphasize football would haunt the Rice
athletic program for twenty years. It should
be acknowledged that there were some poor
choices for hiring along the way, but once the
program got to the bottom, it was extremely
difficult to reverse the fortunes of the university.
It is also a fact that somewhere along the way
the NCAA limited the number of scholarships
to thirty a year. However, the Rice program has
been difficult to turn around.
