The wealthy donors primarily responsible for keeping Rich Rodriguez as head football coach at West Virginia University 53 weeks ago are angry and frustrated over his departure this week for the University of Michigan.

 

Their ire isn't directed at Mr. Rodriguez.

 

It's aimed at WVU administrators.

 

"I tell you what, I've never seen anything mishandled as much as this was," Bob Reynolds, former chief operating officer of Fidelity Investments, said yesterday. "Here's a university that made a $200,000 decision -- it probably could've cost less than that [to keep Mr. Rodriguez] -- and it's going to cost them millions" in booster support, potential bowl money and revenue from football success.

 

"I've had calls from at least six major contributors to the program, and they're all done [donating] because they know the Mickey Mouse things that have gone on there," Mr. Reynolds continued. "I've been in business 36 years, and it's the worst business decision I've ever seen. I've been the COO of a 45,000-person company. When somebody's producing, you ask, 'What can I do for you to make your life better?' Not 'What can I do to make your life more miserable?' They have no idea how big this is. It's frightening."

 

Mr. Reynolds declined to discuss it, but one source said he informed university officials yesterday that he planned to withdraw $12 million in donations he pledged to the school.

 

http://postgazette.com/pg/07352/842541-144.stm

Mr. Reynolds declined to discuss it, but one source said he informed university officials yesterday that he planned to withdraw $12 million in donations he pledged to the school.

 

OUCH!!!

Will UC learn from this?

Will UC learn from this?

Let's hope so. Make true on your promises or lose the coach. Pretty simple...

This is the $200, 000 that he is talking about.

 

 

 

In separate meetings with Athletic Director Ed Pastilong, Chief of Staff Craig Walker and, finally, late Saturday night with newly installed President Mike Garrison, he asked the university to do the following:

• Allow at least an additional $100,000 in bonus money for his assistants.

• Allow scholarship players to retain possession of textbooks at the end of each term, which meant they could have sold them, as apparently happens at other programs.

• Waive a $5 ticket fee for each high-school football coach attending Mountaineer home games, a fee that generates an estimated $5,000 for the university each season.

• Hire seven graduate assistants and a new recruiting coordinator, to ease the duties performed by secondary coach Tony Gibson.

"You could do them in 15 minutes," Mr. Reynolds said of the wish list.

 

 

 

http://postgazette.com/pg/07352/842541-144.stm

Those supporters, who pledged millions last December for the six-year, $1.9 million-per-year contract that helped to keep Mr. Rodriguez from accepting the University of Alabama coaching position, offered to absorb the additional costs. Their offer was denied.

 

I read this paragraph 3 times. I still don't think I believe it...

Very interesting.

Rodriguez to Fight Buyout

This is the $200, 000 that he is talking about.

 

 

 

 

• Allow scholarship players to retain possession of textbooks at the end of each term, which meant they could have sold them, as apparently happens at other programs.

 

 

 

 

http://postgazette.com/pg/07352/842541-144.stm

 

Can you ask for this? They didn't buy the book in the first place:confused::confused:

Can you ask for this? They didn't buy the book in the first place:confused::confused:

 

 

You're asking the wrong person. When I was at UK my scholarship was courtesy of Dad and Mom's financial services. I always had to buy me books, and the money went back to Dad and Mom's financial services when I sold them. :lol:

You're asking the wrong person. When I was at UK my scholarship was courtesy of Dad and Mom's financial services. I always had to buy me books, and the money went back to Dad and Mom's financial services when I sold them. :lol:

 

:thumb::thumb::thumb:

 

 

I don't agree with what they did to him (Rodriquez)...if in fact all true.

 

But isn't that book thing an NCAA violation of some sort?

Can you ask for this? They didn't buy the book in the first place:confused::confused:

 

907 years ago when I was at UofL the athletic department only bought books they didn't already have in their "athletic library". You only got brand new books if used books weren't available in that collection and all books had to be returned at the end of the semester or you had to pay full price for them.

 

I don't know what they do now.

 

Another thing, if selling shoes that the school provides for you can be construed as an NCAA violation the how can selling text books that the school provides not be?

Can you ask for this? They didn't buy the book in the first place:confused::confused:

 

It is my understanding that buying books is something that most scholarships take care of for athletes.

I know when I was at WKU, I made sure to buy my own books (well my parents ), that way I could keep the money with no re-course...

From a journalist's point of view, I have a question:

 

Why is there neither comment nor references to an attempt to get a comment from any WVU official in this story? Very one-sided and not very well-researched; this would not have gotten out of my first newspaper writing course in college.

 

And another thing ... I came away from this story feeling that all the boosters that commented were Rich's boys. Where's the rest of them? That's another problem from a sourcing point of view.