Penn State scorn versus Michigan State scorn

That's been the tale there for 50 years, if not longer.

 

Herbstreit went on a rant against Sparty one year. I want to say it was 2006 when they blew a fourth-quarter lead against Notre Dame. Pretty much said, "this is why Sparty will always be Sparty."

I've tried to find the clip, never have been able to.

 

The MSU board of trustees has been fucking idiots for 70 years. There are many many reasons for this, all the way up to the provision in the state constitution by which the board is selected by partisan statewide elections, resulting in board members:

1) being nominated by the state parties mainly on the basis of vague public name recognition, leading to a high percentage of candidates who happen to be former varsity athletes (or coaches) and thus have public images as "true Spartans"

2) having a HIGH percentage of nominees who want to be big wheels around the athletic program. Trustees pack luxury boxes at every home game and are frequently flown on luxury road trips to bowl games and NCAA zatournaments. Trustee nominations are often handed out as perks to influential statewide politicial movers and shakers who like to fly to bowl games.

3) Trustees are frequently swept in or out of office along with governors who win solid statewide victories. Michigan allows straight ticket voting so if a gubernatorial candidate rolls to a big win, a lot of minor races like university trustees are swept along with them. The trustee seats are based on irregular four and six year terms so particular trustees cannot attach to individual governors.

The governor does not have direct control over the trustees except they can name temporary replacements to replace ones who resign mid-term. I think the governor can call for removal of trustees in cases of extreme misconduct or malfeasance but this is an impeachment-like process that requires legislative approval and thus is difficult to impossible to actually do.

The problem is the biggest examples of athletic department maladministration cut across all party lines, with trustees who identify as liberal progressives on most real life issues forming alliances to support old-white-boy leatherneck coaching regimes for decades and decades on end.

The utter obsession with "tradition" and making previous service under previous coaching regimes dating back to Duffy Daughterty vs Biggie Munn in the Fifties for christs sake, tantamount to hiring requirements, ensures that Sparty returns to its own vomit again and again over the decades.

The board members for both the University of Michigan Bosrd of Regents and the Wayne State University Board of Governors are elected through similar but not identical processes. I believe the board members at the other state universities are directly appointed by the governor.
Wayne State sports are D-II, not a big enough deal for the trustees to get involved fucking around. U-M has had some trustee shenanigans but nothing approaching the decades long rolling clusterfucks of Sparty.

 

To illustrate the dog-to-the-vomit aspect of the whole Sparty culture, it was brought up last night thst Dan Enos had been dumped by offensive coordinator at Arkansas.
Sure enough, there have suddenly been some apparently serious suggestions thst Enos should be listed as a realistic prospect to replace Tucker, because.... (deep breath) Enos .... played quarterback ..: (sigh) ... under George Perles ... from 1988-92.

Happily that idea doesn't seem to be gaining much real steam, but it carries echoes of the 1981 episode in which Daryl Rogers abruptly disappeared from the head coaching position (although this was not a result of Rogers being revealed to be masturbating on phone calls with female contractors, he just got more money out of Arizona State) so with national signing day bearing down, they needed a hot young coach.

They were all set to nab former Spartan George Perles who at the moment was a rising young name as a Steelers assistant.

The deal was all set and the press conference was called, literally minutes before it was to be all announced, the press all assembled, Perles got more money out of the Steelers so he called and said, "never mind."

So the big wheels at MSU said, "holy shit, it's three days before national signing date (a very big deal at the time) and we ain't got no football coach. Holy shit! We need a new football coach, like right now!! Who do we know who will take this job sight unseen with no questions asked?" and somebody said, "hey, how about that old fella Muddy Waters, he played under Biggie Munn 35 years ago. He's coaching at Saginaw Valley State, he could jump in his car and be here in an hour."

And the rest was history. Dan Enos, stand by.

 

James Franklin bolted from Vanderbilt to Penn State and took a vaunted recruiting class with him. Vanderbilt has never been the same. Actually, it's been the same as it was before he was there -- utter shite. I blame him and wish nothing but ill will toward Happy Valley.

 

And that's not even in the area code for the most gross thing Franklin did there.

 

After Saturday, I believe a healthy cross-section of the Keystone State is right with you. It sounds like everyone suddenly realized that they're always going to be 10-2 under Franklin with losses to tOSU and Michigan.

 

Starman - You are correct in that the other universities' boards in Michigan are appointed by the governor. That said, U-M and WSU have had their share of board problems. At U-M, they kiss the athletic department's butt, too, but haven't had morons like George Perles and Joel Ferguson on the board like at MSU. At WSU, they're too busy fighting among themselves to effectively govern.

 

Being a Pac-12 alum, I'd love to say the schools out here obviously are a lot better managed than Michigan State but....

 

How's that worked out at Nebraska? Or Cal, post-Tedford?

Since Penn State has been in the Big Ten, it's almost always been behind THE Ohio State and Michigan.

Fire Franklin, fine. The three defensive penalties on that drive in the second quarter drove me nuts. But you better have someone in hand that is a better fit for the situation, and he better have the resources to beat the top of the Big Ten. Hire a Bill Callahan type and that place will be half-empty in a year.

 

Well, hold your beer.
Almost lost in thr current Sparty shitshow and the momentary brouhaha over the alleged Harbaugh "cheating" was the threat made by Sparty administration to not play the game on Saturday.
Forfeiting/canceling a nationally televised game would trigger contract violation penalties and lawsuits probably into nine figures. I would suspect if carried out it would be conference-expulsion level stuff.
Such a threat could probably only be made by one of three people:

-- the university president
--- chairman of the board of trustees
-- the athletic director

the university "president" of the moment is a temporary acting interim figurehead who has no authority to do anything more than order a pizza.

-- the athletic director is Alan Haller, whose primary qualification for the job is he once played for.... George Perles (and was a teammate for some time of Dan Enos!!)

Haller's undergraduate degree at MSU was in criminal justice, the jock major under Perles.