Dodds vs Patterson

[Juan]

Very nice post, thanks for sharing that insight. I would be careful about judging Patterson based on anything that happened last week. He found himself in a gunfight and didn't even have a butter knife at his disposal to deal with things. Try walking into the President's office and telling him and the Chairman of the Board (Jamail) your firing their protected buddy and see how that goes over. Patterson was the lowest ranking guy in the room and didn't have much/any room for maneuver under the circumstances. In fact, his only real play was to let what happened happen knowing that it would trigger an avalanche of movement on the issue once the Steamrollers found out Powers had betrayed them and Mack had sabotaged everything with the help of Jamail. Now we find ourselves cleansed of Mack Brown and Powers mortally wounded politically in terms of his relationship with the Steamroller contingent...which includes 2 Board of Regent members with the swing votes to remove him from his position at any time. He can now move forward empowered. If things turn out great with our coaching hire...who might still be Saban...then his handling of an incredibly difficult situation will be viewed as a great success.

Nice work. I admit that made me think a little more. If that is true then Patterson was using game theory to work through all potential variables and outcomes throughout the courtship and negotiations. If so, then bravo to him.

The part that bothered me is "Try walking into the President's office and telling him and the Chairman of the Board (Jamail) your firing their protected buddy and see how that goes over."

All of the implications of this should have been fully discussed ahead of time. They had to be. Patterson must have demanded that his power with regarding hiring/firing coaches (all of them) be clearly delineated before he signed the contract. Is this not one of the primary duties and responsibilities of all ADs? Patterson is not just bright and well-educated but he is experienced. As a teen, he learned at the feet of his dad Ray who not only negotiated all the Rockets' contracts, but the stadium operations and payroll as well. This is environment he lived in during his formative years. Given that, plus his other experiences and the law degree, I have to assume he insisted this be part of his contract before he signed. And, if so, then he should not have had to go Powers for permission. And certainly not Jamail.

However, if we assume this part to be true, then add the rest of what you wrote, it does make some sense. Again, if that is the way it went from Patterson's perspective then color me impressed.

 

[Pancho Negro]

I LOVED his "We are the Joneses" comment.
As for Deloss and his metrics, Deloss changed the nature of UT athletics by dictating that if we don't have a legitimate shot at competing for a championship in a sport, we weren't going to be in that sport. By doing that, we field fewer teams than most schools, but we also don't have the drain of non-revenue sports.

I hated the "We are the Joneses" comment. We are a smug enough school/fanbase as it is...

While I understood where Dodds was coming from with not adding more sports, it goes against the logic to say the reason we didn't is because of the notion that "we don't have a legitimate shot at competing for a NC." That could be said about 3/4ths of the programs we field currently. Moreover, none of us can predict the future. We don't know what we would and wouldn't have a shot at competing for a NC in. Not to mention, we have the most money in the world. We could easily add two sports and it probably wouldn't even be noticed money wise.

There are several sports we can add without accruing debt, I think. And these are sports that are increasing at the high school level in Texas.

 

[Mr. Cosell]

Nice work. I admit that made me think a little more. If that is true then Patterson was using game theory to work through all potential variables and outcomes throughout the courtship and negotiations. If so, then bravo to him.
The part that bothered me is "Try walking into the President's office and telling him and the Chairman of the Board (Jamail) your firing their protected buddy and see how that goes over."

All of the implications of this should have been fully discussed ahead of time. They had to be. Patterson must have demanded that his power with regarding hiring/firing coaches (all of them) be clearly delineated before he signed the contract. Is this not one of the primary duties and responsibilities of all ADs? Patterson is not just bright and well-educated but he is experienced. As a teen, he learned at the feet of his dad Ray who not only negotiated all the Rockets' contracts, but the stadium operations and payroll as well. This is environment he lived in during his formative years. Given that, plus his other experiences and the law degree, I have to assume he insisted this be part of his contract before he signed. And, if so, then he should not have had to go Powers for permission. And certainly not Jamail.

However, if we assume this part to be true, then add the rest of what you wrote, it does make some sense. Again, if that is the way it went from Patterson's perspective then color me impressed.

From my understanding, Powers overstepped his power here and took back what was agreed upon. In fact, it is in the duties as an athletic director's decision. But what can you do if you are a new employee and your boss goes back on his word?

I'm going to refrain from judgment until more history on the subject in question.

 

[Randolph Duke]

I hated the "We are the Joneses" comment. We are a smug enough school/fanbase as it is...
While I understood where Dodds was coming from with not adding more sports, it goes against the logic to say the reason we didn't is because of the notion that "we don't have a legitimate shot at competing for a NC." That could be said about 3/4ths of the programs we field currently. Moreover, none of us can predict the future. We don't know what we would and wouldn't have a shot at competing for a NC in. Not to mention, we have the most money in the world. We could easily add two sports and it probably wouldn't even be noticed money wise.

There are several sports we can add without accruing debt, I think. And these are sports that are increasing at the high school level in Texas.

We don't have lacrosse, equestrian, bowling, wrestling, fencing, men's soccer or a number of other sports that we could field, because when Deloss took over in the early 80s, none of those had a natural recruiting base in the state of Texas. Deloss decided if we couldn't recruit at a high enough level in Texas to field a championship caliber team, we wouldn't be competing in that sport. That is what I meant about winning championships. Theoretically, we could win a national championship in men's gymnastics, but even without being to see into the future, its reasonable to say the odds of recruiting in-state and building a championship caliber team are slim.