Kansas University Chancellor Doug Girod just fired a “shot across the bow” and Athletic Director Sheahon Zenger just happened to be standing on the bow! Dead hit. Or as Donald Trump would say, “You’re fired!” In case you need an interpreter for all of that, it means, WIN SOME DAMN FOOTBALL GAMES!
Since Zenger was named KU’s AD in 2011, the Jayhawks have gone 12-72 and won just three of 63 Big 12 football games. Even a national championship in basketball wouldn’t wipe away that humiliation. The noose just got tighter around current football coach David Beaty’s neck. My guess is that if he doesn’t win four, maybe five, games this season, he will walk the plank with a sword at his back!
Other than all of the losing, here’s what may be driving all of this: More conference realignment. The rumblings are growing louder that there is about to be another period of conference realignment. The leadership at Kansas knows that football is what drives the bus in collegiate athletics. Yes, Kansas is an attractive addition because of their stellar basketball reputation BUT, and it’s a BIG BUT, they simply don’t draw crowds, fans or television rankings with a football team that isn’t even competitive with mid-major schools.
There are a ton of schools who are great at basketball but not at football that can’t get even a sniff from membership in a Power Five conference. See Gonzaga, Villanova, Georgetown, Connecticut, Creighton among many more. If you don’t strut your stuff on the football field, you probably are not getting membership in a Power Five Conference. Why is that membership important? Money. Gobs of it!
Kansas is a member of a Power Five conference, the Big 12. With just 10 members it is one of the biggest rewarders when it comes time to divvy up the television money each year. Eventually though, each school is expected to contribute something, football wise. Kansas has been tredding water since the misguided firing of Mark Mangino. Kansas then hired Turner Gill, Charlie Weis and David Beaty. Each season things got worse, not better.
You can bet that Chancellor Girod didn’t fire Zenger. He was told to by the Big Cigars of the University, the folks who give the big money. Tailgating in the parking lot of a beautiful Fall afternoon followed by getting embarrassed on the football field doesn’t exactly fit with their idea of fun after donating a million smackers!
Right now Kansas is in the midst of a huge fund raising program to upgrade Memorial Stadium. We’re talking $350 million here. Former AD Zenger even named it. “Raise The Chant”. That advertising program carries those words, asking alums to give. Chancellor Girod did just that. He “raised the chant”. He chanted, “You’re fired!”
This is a high stakes game that Kansas is involved in. Leaders know they must be competitive in football while maintaining their loyalty to a basketball program that is second to none. Future conference participation depends on it AND all of that money that’s being borrowed for facility upgrades will eventually have to be paid back. The only way to do that is to put some fannies in those seats on Saturday afternoon.
Can it be done? Yes it can. Kansas doesn’t have to win conference championships in football. They’ve just got to win 5 or 6 games a season and be competitive. Can a new athletic director fix that? Only if they’ve got football connections. It will be a “high-wire” act. Win football games while keeping Bill Self and the basketball program at the very top.
“Raise The Chant”, indeed!
Buddy Tabler is a guest columnist for the Great Bend Tribune and his views don’t necessarily reflect those of the paper. He can be reached at budtabler@gmail.com.
