Colorado State fires/hires AD in same day

My alma mater. Really weird turn of events here with the way former AD Kowalczyk's contract is being bought out by private funds and the new AD is a huge booster.

http://www.coloradoan.com/article/20111201/UPDATES01/111201019/CSU-fires-athletic-director-Paul-Kowalczyk-hires-Jack-Graham-replacement?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

 

Hey it worked at Oregon where booster Pat Killkenny put up the money to buy out Bill Moos and then essentially hired himself as the AD, even though he didn't even have a college degree.

Of course that led to handshake deals, coaches with no written contracts, bloated sazlaries, etc., since Kilkenny could raise money but didn't know a thing about running an athletic department.

 

The guy went from owning one of the largest insurance companies in the world...to running Colorado State's athletic department? Weird is an understatement.

 

Everyone I've talked to inside the department said they felt he had another year, simply because CSU couldn't afford to buyout the final year of his contract. But with this, and Pauly K's contact being bought out by private funds, you gotta think Graham might go ahead and axe him.

 

Graham gets a call to donate more money to the athletic department which turns into him running it. Wild string of events. Doubt they have the cashola to get rid of Fairchild.

 

Agree. Kowalczyk came from your Salukis and I thought he was doing a great job. Just take a look at the new facilities in Fort Collins and the hire of basketball coach Tim Miles.

 

Kowalczyk was a complete mess, and with Steve Fairchild sinking, it shouldn't come as a surprise (though the quick hire probably is). Cycled through the three major sports ... he shuffled through three women's basketball coaches IIRC, and if he was going to run Sonny Lubick, the school needed to be doing better than it is given the momentum Lubick left. Additionally, the Moby was a sleepy place to watch a basketball game, and there were too many empty seats at Hughes (made the huge corporate sponsor posters loom even larger).

Miles has proven to be a good hire, but if the folks in Fort Collins can't show a little more life, it will make Colorado State a steppingstone for Miles. As if the way Lubick was treated didn't help the school's ability to be anyone's destination job ...

 

Sonny's still in Old Town, his overpriced restaurant is still down there

 

Frank more or less said that was a primary reason for the move with the first question that was asked.

CSU has potential and has made huge strides over the past decade in academics, research, campus improvements, enrollment and pretty much everything but athletics, which has taken a big dive in just about everything but volleyball. To that extent I understand the move, but it is interesting how it was handled and who knows what took place behind the scenes leading up to the change.

 

I think CSU is a fine university and Fort Collins is a great town. But the school is never getting into a BCS conference. There are four professional teams and CU in the Denver-Boulder market, which contains another 60% of Colorado's population. The Rams draw very little interest within the Denver media market.

The school has had one decent era in football, when Lubick was the coach. Interest in the program is low. They drew an announced crowd of 14,000 last week for Air Force, which the local paper said was actually less than 10,000. And the Academy is only two hours down I-25. I don't know what Mountain West schools make on their television revenue but it can't be much.

I think CSU is an example of a school, and there many others, that should be in Division 1-AA.