Wanna be a Dean?

We've got a funny little situation here at the UO. It started a couple of years ago when our track team didn't do so well. Phil Knight (Nike. For those not from Eugene, Knight ran track at Oregon and that is where he got involved with Bowerman and the shoes) wanted the track coach fired. For whatever reason, Athletic Director Bill Moos didn't fire him (right away, He was fired a year later). Knight, apparently, decided that Moos needed to be fired. Scuttlebutt is that to get Moos fired, Knight pledged not to donate toward the building of a new basketball arena. A couple of months ago Moos announced he was retiring. A couple days later, the UO announced that they were going to buy a security clause for Moos. Essentially, if Moos didn't take another AD job for 5 years (I think), they'd give him $2 million. Anticipating criticism about the golden parachute, the UO got a donor to give the entire buyout cost. This donor, Kilkenny, just happens to be second biggest donor to the UO and a friend of Knight. Got it so far? A friend of Knight paid the Oregon AD $2 million to "retire."

Whatever, right. Of course athletics is run by money and don't give a shit about the larger institution. This is news? Is the Pope still Catholic?

The new twist, the new Nike flash that Oregon is always bringing to the party came when Oregon announced their new AD. How 'bout AD Kilkenny. Yep, the donor took over. He, quite literally, bought the Athletic Director's job at a major sports university. The kicker, of course, is that no one seems to care. The move is largely seen as acceptable. It occurred to me that if they had name Knight the AD, then there'd be outrage. Instead, they just hired the second largest donor and good friend of Knight. Oh well, that's okay, then. As long as you didn't hire Knight. That would be wrong.