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Secret meeting update. Chip Kelly was a cheat who skipped town on his debts

4/24/2013: Secret meeting update: 

SI is reporting UO held a meeting with the NCAA infractions committee last week to negotiate penalties. The charge of the UO Senate’s IAC says the IAC shall be consulted by the

3. The faculty athletics representative about all ongoing investigations and major violations.

And the Frohnmayer DOJ opinion says these investigations are a matter of public record. But FAR Jim O’Fallon and AD Rob Mullens have kept everything secret from the IAC, including this meeting. While making the academic side pay half the legal bills.

Another update: Duck sports and public records get the “O” brand priceless national recognition in the NY Times.


Update: Oregonian sports columnist John Canzano is unimpressed with Dave Hubin’s game:

Without that, there is no real transparency. There is no accountability, either. Oregon has played games with the media charged with covering one of this state’s biggest public entities, refusing to adequately and decently meet public-records requests. The Ducks have withheld information and moved slooooooooowly, then suddenly released documents on Friday nights, and on game days. UO released the original Lyles scouting reports, and said, “This is all we have,” then, a day later, recanted with, “Oh, yeah, that wasn’t all. Here’s a little more.” …

Glazier is a legend in a case such as this. And maybe he’s just trying to justify the steep cost of retaining him. The UO general counsel’s office and the athletic department are sharing the cost of his specialty law firm, which only means that taxpayers are on the hook here. 

Yes, the taxpayers deserve transparency. Yes, the public deserves a quick and reasonable turnaround on public records requests. And yes, Oregon’s athletic department needs to come to the NCAA, hat in hand, accept its punishment, and let the football program move forward. 

4/16/2013: That’s the conclusion from the documents UO released yesterday to KATU after 6 months of stalling by the Public Records Office. Randy Geller and Doug Park had been arguing NCAA docs were exempt, but I dug up this 1981 opinion by Frohnmayer’s DOJ saying just the opposite. Too bad guys.

Adam Jude has the story and the links in the Oregonian. The costs of the investigation and the sanctions UO is trying to negotiate with the NCAA will probably run into the millions. It’s been a huge distraction for new Pres Gottfredson – from what I can tell from his calendar he’s spent far more time in meetings about sports than about academic issues like Espy.
Here are the latest billings from the law firm of Mike Glazier, the NCAA fixer Rob Mullens hired to try and deal with this. Last I heard Randy Geller was still making the academic side pay half his bills:
Mullens and UO’s “Faculty Athletics Representative” Jim O’Fallon refused to talk about any of this with the UO Senate athletics committee, claiming NCAA rules prohibit it. They don’t. There was a clause in Kelly’s contract allowing UO to fine him for costs like this, but from what I can tell Rob Mullens let him leave town without asking for a dime. It’s much easier to spend other people’s money on your friends when nobody’s looking over your shoulder, right Rob and Jim?

10 Comments

  1. Anonymous 04/16/2013

    Our athletic department is a shit hole of coercion and deceit. The only relevant questions are 1) does it need to be a shit hole of they need to be a shit hole to compete, and 2) if so, we we value competition enough to keep up this shit game?

    • UO Matters 04/16/2013

      That’s three. Focus that anger. Fill out the Senate committee form and run for the IAC

  2. Geoff Ziemer 04/16/2013

    You are whining about chump change. But hey, disregard the sudden surge in out-of-state tuition, and the ‘O’ becoming a lucrative international symbol. I’m sure that’s all just a coincidence that has no benefits for our academic issues. I guess we could sink to OSU’s level and start losing money? Tally up all the concrete dollar signs you want, the intangible ones add up to a far, far greater sum.

    • Anonymous 04/16/2013

      U of Colorado had 35% out of state students and UO had 37%. Guess the success of the football team doesn’t have much of a role compared to the implosion of the California state system. But hey, disregard even basic attempts to find the real causes.

    • Anonymous 04/16/2013

      It’s a year’s salary for, say, a biology professor.

    • Anonymous 04/16/2013

      We should pressure administration to cost everything non-academic they do in terms of faculty lines. Another admin? How many faculty lines is that?

    • Anonymous 04/17/2013

      Yes, because only faculty do anything critical on campus.

  3. Anonymous 04/16/2013

    “intangible dollar signs” ? “the ‘O’ becoming a lucrative international symbol” ? Typical sports marketing shinola.

  4. Anonymous 04/17/2013

    The way this works is that coaches use every trick, legal and illegal, so that they can get their teams to the top. Then when they get to the top they’re ready for the big money in the NFL. When the NCAA comes knocking on their door about the violations that got them to the top, they jump ship for the NFL money, leaving the schools to deal with the violations. Pete Carroll did this to USC… In the Chipper’s case he also gets nice $50K/mo PERS checks after leaving Oregon to deal with his NCAA violations. Just gotta love this system!

  5. Awesome0 04/17/2013

    Lets take his 50K pers and keep that until it pays off his fines (and maybe then some).

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