Two Takes on Orr....

There has been a huge amount of chatter about the Orr decision.  For thoughtful analysis, I would point you to Dave Hackenberg's column and a blogpost from BGSU grad Jon Williams.

The conventional wisdom appears to be developing around the idea that the administration, as a whole, is under pressure due to its plan to eliminate 100 faculty positions.  The thinking goes that it would be difficult to support those cuts when you were paying a basketball coach not to coach for a year.

I did report here that the faculty had been critical of the football program and the heavily subsidized trip to the Military Bowl as part of a list of areas they had concerns about.  (The Faculty Association referred to it as a "failed" bowl game).

I hadn't thought about that directly.  As I posted here, I expected us to have Orr back just because that's our move.  We have not done much buying out.

Meanwhile, Ball State bought out the contract of Billy Taylor in a situation remarkably similar to Coach Orr's.  They started the same year, had nearly the same record, and had the same reputation as being squeaky clean but not winning.  They also were headed into a contract year next year and he was bought out for one year.

This has not gone unnoticed.

My primary contribution is to note that both of the articles linked above talk about the apathy around the program.  It would be better if the fan base was angry, but in general people have stopped worrying about it.  I would say that is the biggest concern.