You're All Converts, III
Let's go back to the original discussion.
Right now the state of ETSU athletics are in demise, but as of now nothing is being changed.
I keep hearing that we need to be patient and that change will be made. And I understand Brian Noland will want to get the lay of the land.
But I also heard David Mullins would retire this summer. And instead, he oversaw the athletics part of the 125 Committee.
The thing is that Mullins could have been fired for cause due to just the events of Noland's tenure (athlete conduct, another venue built behind schedule, losing teams, and whatever else that I can't think of off the top of my head), and he has not.
Why?
Here's what I can come up with-
A- With the increase of athletic budgets at ETSU, one can only assume that Mullins has been more successful in raising money. It may have gone to things like soccer and softball, but regardless.
The thing about those Hawaii trips is that while they cater to a few wealthy donors but seperate the basketball team from the common fan. When ETSU beat Georgia a few years ago out there it had no reasonance with the locals because the game ended at 3 a.m. And I'm not sure the checks written by wealthy donors who would go to Hawaii surpass being an athletic program in tune with the common fan.
But that's the big key. ETSU can drop in conference, embarass themselves when building facilities, see attendance decrease, and lose a lot of games. But if Mullins can get his cult of cronies to fund a soccer program, it is the creedence Stanton needed when he said Mullins was the best AD he'd ever had.
The problem is that money goes to fund losing softball teams and not into sports that would actually get ETSU attention. Of course, to a college president and some athletic administrators that's perfectly okay. But if the goal is to get ETSU sports on the map, it isn't.
B- Mullins is a long time employee at ETSU and as such has to have a level of popularity. When he was hired, there were plenty of posters who came on and said "he's a cool guy" and criticized me for saying he was the sort of guy you hired when you wanted to drop football.
But wouldn't it stand to reason he has built some internal loyalty if that was the initial reaction to his hire? Consider he has only fired, what, one coach in 10 years at the helm?
For the past 10 years ETSU has been able to do whatever they want and the only reprisal they've faced is this board, which is led by a moderator who himself is less than interested in leading a change and is more interested in getting a meaningless leak or two about a high school basketball player.
Skole can put out losing team after losing team, Bartow can bring in thugs and play zone for 40 minutes while opponents score from outside at will; nothing.
Bow-tie Wearing Businessman may not want to upset that apple cart. And if so; forget the SoCon, forget any real hope for advancement, and I look forward to ETSU playing in their new arena with no scoreboard or concession stands to start out with.
Remember Slappy White mysteriously coming on here and telling us that Noland was already working on making all our dreams come true? Admittedly we have to believe a guy who doesn't know how to use capital letters is this great insider to the athletic department, but, hey, this is east Tennessee.
He hasn't been on here lately to preach the ETSU company line, has he?
C- Something everyone has forgotten. Noland is a college president, not an athletic director.
What I mean is that Noland has other priorities. Basically, what a college president does is let the AD run the program and just give final approval. And so far that's basically what's happened.
D- Noland wants to change conferences; therefore he will keep on the old hand AD to oversee this transition.
If this theory is true (and I'm not saying it is, but it does have a bit of merit), Noland needs to be fired today for being clueless. Mullins has burned bridges with the SoCon and OVC, he has built the athletic program for success in the A-Sun, and he's the one you want to get ETSU into the CAA?
E- We need to be patient, it's only early.
Which I can believe. And I still am somewhat optimistic in that while I've heard Noland praise Bartow glowingly, he has yet to give the same praise to Mullins to my knowledge.
So let's say Noland is just getting the lay of the land. Let's just say that Mullins overseeing the 125 Committee is a formality. Let's say Noland does have the stones to make changes.
When do we start to hold him accountable?
Because the time to start making changes is now. There are too many moves being made with conferences to pass them by, and the best way to make a dramatic rise is to come up with a concrete plan for a new arena and not have the AD who consistently oversees facilities being built behind schedule oversee it.
I'm kind of hopeful that Mullins' extended stay in Hawaii was sort of a trip to maybe scout out a retirement home or something, but you have to admit that idea has a lot of wishful thinking elements in it.
So if Noland is the mover and shaker for athletics he has been made out to be, we have to think that the young, bright innovator wouldn't want a tired old hand who is responsible for the current lot of things running the athletic department.
I can wait through the summer. But after that, I have to think a lot of opportunities will have passed and the same old same old will still be alive and well.
I don't want to hear about retirement packages or whatever. The department, the university, and the community demand priority ahead of the retirement package of a single, small minded, counterproductive, unethical individual currently making a six-figure annual income.
If Mullins doesn't have a good nest egg by now, then he obviously lacked the skills to be a good AD in the first place and the error must be changed.
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