Post by DOOMS on Dec 13, 2010 22:16:31 GMT -5
GREENSBORO -- George Small left the N.C. A&T football program involuntarily Monday with impressive facilities, a relatively recent MEAC title and one thought-provoking caveat.
Asked to speculate on his successor, Small said, "I don't know. It could be anybody. But until the program is supported, it won't matter."
By "supported," Small meant financially. In terms of financial support for athletics, A&T is where it has been for several years in the MEAC -- in the vast monetary middle, but outspent considerably by the top programs. It is not certain if or when the Aggies' relative position in the league will change.
In the past five years, the university has constructed a field house with locker room, weight and training facilities. And in August of this year, a $1 million scoreboard with video replay went up in front of the Bryan Center.
But the program's full financial standing among its conference foes remains unclear, as Florida A&M, Delaware State and South Carolina State have ignored repeated requests from the News & Record to disclose basic but telling financial data concerning their football programs. The MEAC's private football-playing institutions -- Howard, Hampton and Bethune-Cookman -- are not required to answer Freedom of Information Act inquiries.
Some facts have become apparent:
• The A&T football program's recruiting budget stands at $40,000 in the current fiscal year. Former coach Bill Hayes, fired after the 2002 season, said the last budget he had was $18,000.
Dee Todd, who left a position as assistant commissioner of the ACC to become A&T's athletics director June 15, acknowledged that at least three MEAC schools have more than twice the current recruiting budget available to the Aggies. At least two of those programs are believed to spend more than $100,000 in that area.
• This academic year, A&T will spend 55 percent of the money it could conceivably spend on football scholarships under NCAA rules. While the maximum is predicated on the implausible assumption that all players would be from out of state, the 55 percent figure is almost certainly near the bottom of the MEAC.
Norfolk State (70 percent of the theoretical maximum) and Morgan State (74 percent), two programs known to have smaller recruiting budgets than A&T, both fund scholarships at considerably higher levels.
• Only this year were all A&T coaches fully liberated from teaching a class in addition to their football duties. The number of coaches in the classroom has gradually declined to zero, but Small's contract, signed Jan. 14, 2003, said he could be required to teach.
Small said he took the job when A&T's athletics director at the time, Charles Davis, suggested improvements were likely in the near future.
"That's something I addressed with the AD coming in. 'What are the plans?' " Small said. "They had these grand plans laid out. I said, 'Let's go for it.' "
Small said he spoke with Davis again in the spring of 2004.
"He stated it would be a vast improvement within a year," Small said. "But he didn't last that long.
Davis was fired Nov. 12, 2004, for unspecified reasons. Attempts to reach him Monday were unsuccessful.
Todd said a study of A&T's budget she undertook three years ago as a consultant to Winston-Salem State in its impending move from Division II to I-AA, placed the Aggies in the middle of the MEAC. But she said finances should not necessarily compromise a coach's ability to win, a point she will make to candidates during the search process.
"We'll try to come up with an understanding that says, 'This is where we are. Are you able to work with that?' " Todd said.
Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels@news-record.com
Asked to speculate on his successor, Small said, "I don't know. It could be anybody. But until the program is supported, it won't matter."
By "supported," Small meant financially. In terms of financial support for athletics, A&T is where it has been for several years in the MEAC -- in the vast monetary middle, but outspent considerably by the top programs. It is not certain if or when the Aggies' relative position in the league will change.
In the past five years, the university has constructed a field house with locker room, weight and training facilities. And in August of this year, a $1 million scoreboard with video replay went up in front of the Bryan Center.
But the program's full financial standing among its conference foes remains unclear, as Florida A&M, Delaware State and South Carolina State have ignored repeated requests from the News & Record to disclose basic but telling financial data concerning their football programs. The MEAC's private football-playing institutions -- Howard, Hampton and Bethune-Cookman -- are not required to answer Freedom of Information Act inquiries.
Some facts have become apparent:
• The A&T football program's recruiting budget stands at $40,000 in the current fiscal year. Former coach Bill Hayes, fired after the 2002 season, said the last budget he had was $18,000.
Dee Todd, who left a position as assistant commissioner of the ACC to become A&T's athletics director June 15, acknowledged that at least three MEAC schools have more than twice the current recruiting budget available to the Aggies. At least two of those programs are believed to spend more than $100,000 in that area.
• This academic year, A&T will spend 55 percent of the money it could conceivably spend on football scholarships under NCAA rules. While the maximum is predicated on the implausible assumption that all players would be from out of state, the 55 percent figure is almost certainly near the bottom of the MEAC.
Norfolk State (70 percent of the theoretical maximum) and Morgan State (74 percent), two programs known to have smaller recruiting budgets than A&T, both fund scholarships at considerably higher levels.
• Only this year were all A&T coaches fully liberated from teaching a class in addition to their football duties. The number of coaches in the classroom has gradually declined to zero, but Small's contract, signed Jan. 14, 2003, said he could be required to teach.
Small said he took the job when A&T's athletics director at the time, Charles Davis, suggested improvements were likely in the near future.
"That's something I addressed with the AD coming in. 'What are the plans?' " Small said. "They had these grand plans laid out. I said, 'Let's go for it.' "
Small said he spoke with Davis again in the spring of 2004.
"He stated it would be a vast improvement within a year," Small said. "But he didn't last that long.
Davis was fired Nov. 12, 2004, for unspecified reasons. Attempts to reach him Monday were unsuccessful.
Todd said a study of A&T's budget she undertook three years ago as a consultant to Winston-Salem State in its impending move from Division II to I-AA, placed the Aggies in the middle of the MEAC. But she said finances should not necessarily compromise a coach's ability to win, a point she will make to candidates during the search process.
"We'll try to come up with an understanding that says, 'This is where we are. Are you able to work with that?' " Todd said.
Contact Rob Daniels at 373-7028 or rdaniels@news-record.com
Ed Hardin column: This latest episode makes us all look bad
Article published Nov 22, 2005
GREENSBORO -- Coaches are hired to be fired, but it has become an art form at N.C. A&T.
George Small, an alumnus with more ties to the school than those who took him down Monday morning, became the latest in a troubling series of transactions that date back, roughly, to the day Chancellor James C. Renick arrived in 1999.
Renick is a good chancellor and a good man. But he's also an Aggies fan, the most powerful Aggie in the long and proud history of the school.
That can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing. It was a bad thing for Small, an Aggie from way back who was hired to replace Bill Hayes, who had been fired after 15 seasons.
For that matter, it was a bad thing for Charlie Davis, the athletics director who was hired to fire Hayes, then hired Small before he was fired himself. Davis took over the AD duties from an interim AD who had replaced Alfonso Scandrett, who had been fired one year earlier.
The latest move was orchestrated in an ugly manner, hardly befitting an alum who returned to the school to guide the football program through a troubling time. Small was kept in the dark about his future until about 9 p.m. Sunday, when an armed security officer walked into the football offices along with an information technology specialist and began disabling computers.
At about 10 a.m. Monday, an armed guard returned with Dee Todd, the current A&T athletics director, and Wheeler Brown, an associate AD. They promised only a news release. Small was given no say in the matter.
This is not the way to treat a man. And it's no way to run an athletics department.
A&T is now looking for its third football coach in four years, the search presumably being led by the third athletics director in five years. The men's basketball program is playing under its third coach in six years, and the women's program has its sixth coach since 1999.
This is insane. This doesn't just make A&T look bad. It makes us all look bad.
The sad thing about this latest episode is that it was so unnecessary. Small never should have been hired in the first place. He was brought in during the school's idiotic flirtation with going Division I-A in football and just as the current Capital Campaign was beginning.
This, of course, is Renick's strength. The $100 million capital plan and the A&T Foundation's expansion project are examples of a school with its priorities in order. The situation in the athletics department is an example of how administrators should stick to concerns of higher learning.
Small was given three years. That was either not enough time or three years too many, but either way it wasn't his fault. He and his family should've been left alone in Hampton, Va., where he was defensive coordinator, his staff never subjected to Monday's armed removal.
That we're even talking about this three years after the firing of the most successful football coach in the history of the school is embarrassing to Aggies everywhere. You have to wonder what Hayes thinks about all this.
No, you don't have to wonder. You can call Hayes, and he'll answer his own phone.
"Hayes, what's going on at A&T?"
"I have to be careful now, Ed. I'm an AD myself you know."
Hayes is the athletics director at N.C. Central now, and he hates what's going on at his old school. He's never been one to hide what's on his mind.
"I guess I wasn't as stupid as they thought I was, huh?" Hayes said Monday.
Maybe not. But it's ridiculous that we keep returning to this point. The brains at A&T need to quit watching sports and get back to educating our kids and raising money to educate our kids. The capital campaign is at $73 million and holding, exactly where it's been for months and months.
Most of us have no idea what that means. It's not our field of expertise. But we can all look at Aggie athletics and see three football coaches, three athletics directors, three men's basketball coaches and six women's coaches since 1999 and figure it out.
This makes it harder for the next coaches and for the coaches and AD already there. This makes it look like their jobs aren't important. This makes the school look bad.
This makes us all look bad.
Article published Nov 22, 2005
GREENSBORO -- Coaches are hired to be fired, but it has become an art form at N.C. A&T.
George Small, an alumnus with more ties to the school than those who took him down Monday morning, became the latest in a troubling series of transactions that date back, roughly, to the day Chancellor James C. Renick arrived in 1999.
Renick is a good chancellor and a good man. But he's also an Aggies fan, the most powerful Aggie in the long and proud history of the school.
That can be a good thing, and it can be a bad thing. It was a bad thing for Small, an Aggie from way back who was hired to replace Bill Hayes, who had been fired after 15 seasons.
For that matter, it was a bad thing for Charlie Davis, the athletics director who was hired to fire Hayes, then hired Small before he was fired himself. Davis took over the AD duties from an interim AD who had replaced Alfonso Scandrett, who had been fired one year earlier.
The latest move was orchestrated in an ugly manner, hardly befitting an alum who returned to the school to guide the football program through a troubling time. Small was kept in the dark about his future until about 9 p.m. Sunday, when an armed security officer walked into the football offices along with an information technology specialist and began disabling computers.
At about 10 a.m. Monday, an armed guard returned with Dee Todd, the current A&T athletics director, and Wheeler Brown, an associate AD. They promised only a news release. Small was given no say in the matter.
This is not the way to treat a man. And it's no way to run an athletics department.
A&T is now looking for its third football coach in four years, the search presumably being led by the third athletics director in five years. The men's basketball program is playing under its third coach in six years, and the women's program has its sixth coach since 1999.
This is insane. This doesn't just make A&T look bad. It makes us all look bad.
The sad thing about this latest episode is that it was so unnecessary. Small never should have been hired in the first place. He was brought in during the school's idiotic flirtation with going Division I-A in football and just as the current Capital Campaign was beginning.
This, of course, is Renick's strength. The $100 million capital plan and the A&T Foundation's expansion project are examples of a school with its priorities in order. The situation in the athletics department is an example of how administrators should stick to concerns of higher learning.
Small was given three years. That was either not enough time or three years too many, but either way it wasn't his fault. He and his family should've been left alone in Hampton, Va., where he was defensive coordinator, his staff never subjected to Monday's armed removal.
That we're even talking about this three years after the firing of the most successful football coach in the history of the school is embarrassing to Aggies everywhere. You have to wonder what Hayes thinks about all this.
No, you don't have to wonder. You can call Hayes, and he'll answer his own phone.
"Hayes, what's going on at A&T?"
"I have to be careful now, Ed. I'm an AD myself you know."
Hayes is the athletics director at N.C. Central now, and he hates what's going on at his old school. He's never been one to hide what's on his mind.
"I guess I wasn't as stupid as they thought I was, huh?" Hayes said Monday.
Maybe not. But it's ridiculous that we keep returning to this point. The brains at A&T need to quit watching sports and get back to educating our kids and raising money to educate our kids. The capital campaign is at $73 million and holding, exactly where it's been for months and months.
Most of us have no idea what that means. It's not our field of expertise. But we can all look at Aggie athletics and see three football coaches, three athletics directors, three men's basketball coaches and six women's coaches since 1999 and figure it out.
This makes it harder for the next coaches and for the coaches and AD already there. This makes it look like their jobs aren't important. This makes the school look bad.
This makes us all look bad.
I wonder if we'll ever learn...
