Tag Archives: Jim O’Fallon

Don Kahle and Austin Meek on Frohnmayer, Gottfredson, Lariviere, Lillis, Nixon, and Gleason

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8/15/2014 update: RG sports columnist Austin Meek gets Dave Frohnmayer to take a little time out from his work lobbying for BP, to talk about UO and sports:

Critics would say Oregon’s sports boom came at the expense of the school’s academic reputation. Frohnmayer disagrees, saying Oregon made academic progress in spite of severe cuts in state funding.

Frohnmayer is especially emphatic about rebutting the idea that Oregon’s athletic achievements — fueled by contributions from Knight, also the school’s largest academic donor — undermined the school’s educational mission.

“The critics, who I think are either uninformed or malevolent, don’t get it,” he said.

I think Frohnmayer is either defensive or malevolent. Here’s a good Steve Duin column from the Oregonian about some of the sleazy deals he cut with Kilkenny, 2 weeks before he resigned as President in 2009. The academic side is still paying the bill.

And Don Kahle has a skeptical column on the editorial page , comparing the departures of Lariviere, Gottfredson, and Nixon:

Reporters cannot speculate about a private conversation, but columnists can. Here’s how that conversation might have gone.

Chuck Lillis: We’d like you to leave.

Michael Gottfredson: The Oregon University System extended my contract through June 2016.

CL: We could pay you for those two years.

MG: Is that a threat or a bribe?

CL: (silence)

MG: I don’t want to have to answer any questions.

CL: This will be just between you and me.

MG: My contract requires that I give 30 days’ notice.

CL: That won’t be necessary.

MG: (silence)

CL: I’ll look for your letter later today.

The Lariviere bit is even funnier. He ends by asking about the last minute Gleason appointment. I have the feeling there are going to be a lot more questions about Gleason and the FAR job. Say, doesn’t UO need Gleason’s expertise for that important bowl branding work?

8/6/2014: Gottfredson’s last act: appointing Tim Gleason as NCAA faculty rep

I think Gottfredson is technically President until the end of the day, so who knows what other last minute craziness there will be.

This reminds me of when Bob Berdahl gave Randy Geller a 3 year contract renewal, just before he left town. I doubt this will stick as long as the 2 years Randy lasted. In fact the Senate already has a motion scheduled for October for legislation to have the faculty appoint the Faculty Athletics Representative – yes I know that sounds crazy – before Gleason’s term would even start:

Date: August 6, 2014 at 5:05:05 PM PDT
To: everyone <[email protected]>
Subject: [Everyone] message from Julie Newton

This message is sent on behalf of Interim Dean Julie Newton:

Dear members of the SOJC community,

As you may have seen on Around the O, Tim Gleason has been appointed by the president as the University of Oregon’s Faculty Athletics Representative. This will be a .5 FTE position. The other .5 will be as a Professor in the SOJC. Tim’s duties will include teaching, directorship of the Payne Awards for Ethics in Journalism and development and implementation of the budget and plans for the SOJC 100th Anniversary Celebration in 2016. Tim will be back from sabbatical in January 2015.

With very best regards,
Julie Newton

Gottfredson’s announcement:

Dear Campus Community,

It is my pleasure to announce the appointment of former dean Tim Gleason to serve as the university’s Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR), an important position required by the NCAA.
The FAR is responsible for ensuring the academic integrity of the intercollegiate athletic program, promoting the well-being of student athletes, and supporting institutional oversight of athletics compliance and student eligibility.

The opportunity to gain experience from a 15-year dean who is nationally recognized and respected among peers in his field is wonderful for the University of Oregon.

Dr. Gleason began his career at the UO in 1987. During that that time he was awarded the School of Journalism and Communication’s Marshall Award for Innovative Teaching, published two books and many articles in law and history journals, and led the school through major growth, changes in the journalism industry and two major remodels. Since stepping down as dean he has served as a special assistant to the president and provost. Gleason’s teaching and research focus is on communication law and communication ethics. He also serves on the legislative committee of the Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association, on the board of directors of Open Oregon and on the Oregon Bar Press Broadcasters Council where his primary focus is on laws and regulations concerning the gathering and reporting of news.

Dr. Gleason will assume his appointment on January 1, 2015. Current FAR, Jim O’Fallon, will continue in his role until June 30, 2015 as co-FAR to facilitate a smooth transition. I again thank Dr. O’Fallon for his dedication to the university and his willingness to provide continued counsel and expertise as he transitions into retirement.

When Dr. O’Fallon announced his retirement, after more than two decades in the position, I appointed an advisory recruitment committee to oversee the search for his successor. I am grateful the excellent work of the committee members, under the leadership of chair Andy Karduna, for their thorough and thoughtful vetting of the highly qualified candidates for this critical role.

Dr. Gleason exemplifies dedication to the academic success of the university’s student-athletes, along with the ability to collaborate successfully with the varied groups the position serves. Please join me in congratulating Tim Gleason and welcoming him to his new role as Faculty Athletics Representative.

Michael Gottfredson, President

Tough times for Darron Thomas, who made millions for Chip Kelly

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6/30/2014 update: 

Aaron Kasinitz has the rather moving story in the Oregonian, here. And this is a relatively good outcome for a Duck football player. If O’Bannon wins his lawsuit, Thomas might be able to collect some money from the NCAA cartel, someday.

And right on time, here’s news on a partial settlement of the O’Bannon lawsuit. Perhaps UO’s chief sports lawyer and FAR wannabe Rob Illig will comment?

“The filing of settlement terms today signifies an opportunity to provide complete closure to the video game plaintiffs, but should not be considered pay for performance,” NCAA chief legal officer Donald Remy said in a statement.”

Robert Carey, an attorney for the Keller and Alston plaintiffs, said that if a player appeared as an avatar in four different years of the game, he potentially could end up with $20,000 – or $5,000 per appearance year. But if such a player’s photograph also was used in two different years, he could get another $10,000 – again $5,000 per appearance year – for a total of $30,000.

9/5/2012 update: Unpaid internships, but with brain damage.

A paper in the journal Neurology today reports that NFL players are 3x more likely than average to contract Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. And in today’s story on college football brain injuries Ron Richmond of the RG reports that

Dr. Greg Skaggs, the UO director of athletic medicine, also declined a request through an athletic department spokesman to be interviewed for this series.

Not exactly consistent with UO’s academic mission.

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Can Dana Altman pass Dominic Artis off to UC-Berkeley?

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That’s the latest rumor, from the SBNation sports blog.

Frankly it seems wildly implausible that another university will take any of these three, after reading the DA’s report. Yes, Alex Gardner concluded he couldn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that what happened March 8-9 was a gang rape, but most universities have a somewhat different standard for admissions, even for basketball players.

While there are plenty of coaches as desperate and unprincipled as Dana Altman, they can no longer claim plausible deniability, as Altman is still trying to about his decision to take Brandon Austin from Providence. (Still no word about Lorraine Davis’s role.)

And you have to wonder what mojo UO’s Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon is pulling to keep these players academically eligible and pumping up the Duck basketball APR, when they aren’t even on campus going to classes.

If Andrew Greif of the Oregonian hadn’t found out about the rape allegations and made them public, Altman and the Duck AD would have transferred these three quite happily, and quietly, to some other unsuspecting campus, as Altman all but admitted in his press conference:

But for a real pro at dissimulation, watch Rob Mullens’s fake-out when a reporter asks him – twice – if he and Altman knew the names of the three players. He nods profusely, then repeatedly says “we did not have the identities confirmed”. Perhaps true, but that wasn’t the question. So, he did know the names, he just didn’t do anything about it until he 7 weeks later, when he and his coaches had cashed their bonus checks for the NCAA tournament, and couldn’t pretend anymore:

Is Jim O’Fallon the only UO professor willing to work with “the most reprehensible organization God ever created”?

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(Jim O’Fallon, former UO law professor and longtime Duck “Faculty Athletics Rep” to the NCAA)

That’s former running back Jim Brown’s view of the NCAA. He adds “Total exploitation. The kind of money they make, the kind of life they live, it’s embarrassing.”

So, maybe it’s not surprising to hear at last night’s faculty parties that President Gottfredson is having trouble finding a professor with the necessary shamelessness to replace Duck NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon (Law).

O’Fallon has spent years on the NCAA’s Infractions Committee, taking away student-athlete’s scholarships for egregious violations like getting free BBQ, some medical care, or – god forbid – free textbooks. All while keeping his mouth shut about sham athlete only courses, the millions going to the coaches and NCAA bosses, and felonious bowl game organizers.

But O’Fallon is now way past his sell-by date, and in an effort to find a replacement President Gottfredson has apparently promised that the new FAR can skip those pesky Senate IAC meetings where they might get asked embarrassing questions by the faculty. There’s also the usual away game junket payments, generous stipend and teaching/research releases, and no review for 5 years. It’s heartening to hear that despite these greasy emoluments there are still no UO faculty willing to step into O’Fallon’s shoes.

NCAA to share administrators’ perks and family junkets with the players?

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4/24/2014: This is a stunning development from the NCAA, reported by Rachel Bachman in the WSJ. It must be bitter news for UO’s FAR Jim O’Fallon, who has spent his professional life taking away kids athletic scholarships for just this sort of thing:

Other changes that the five power conferences are likely to consider if their autonomy is affirmed by the board of directors in August include the following, according to an NCAA news release:

  • Enhanced insurance policies for athletes that protect future earnings
  • Greater academic support, particularly for at-risk athletes
  • Allowances for players’ families to travel to games
  • Free tickets to athletic events
  • Payment of expenses related to practice and competition such as parking fees.

1/16/2014 Alamo Bowl junket list drops admins with conflicts of interest:

Dave Hubin’s public records office is still hiding this year’s memo from President Gottfredson inviting his JH admin’s on UO paid Alamo Bowl junkets, but they’ve finally released the list itself, after a variety of sneaky delays.

It appears the Geller family was indeed left off the bus this year, consistent with the timing of Randy’s enraged “fully engaged” holiday letter to the faculty. Also missing are VP for Finance and Administration Jamie Moffitt and family, the Davises, strategic communicator Tim Gleason, and a number of other administrators with rather obvious conflicts of interest related to their responsibility for approving the athletic department budget, paying for its lawyers, approving employment contracts for Rob Mullens and his coaches, etc. Good for President Gottfredson on this one. Interim Provost Scott Coltrane and spouse got a trip, but after spending $2.2M for Jock Box tutoring, I suppose he wanted to see if what he’d bought was worth our money.

In totally unrelated news, U.S District Judge David Campbell has set the sentencing date for former Fiesta Bowl CEO and convicted felon John Junker for March 13. The aptly named Mr. Junker laundered Fiesta Bowl money for illegal political contributions, strip club parties, and presents for the UT admissions office when they admitted his daughter. It’s not clear how much if any money from the Duck’s 2002 appearance was involved. Meanwhile our Alamo Bowl is paying its CEO Derrick Fox well over $500K a year, while giving just $128K for scholarships. Latest IRS report here.

Given all the corruption in big-time college sports, it’s nice to see JH has finally come clean about “Faculty” Athletics Representative and emeritus law professor Jim O’Fallon, now frankly listed as athletic department staff. Of course the academic side is still paying his salary, but rumor has it he’s going to resign soon in the face of a Senate motion for a 25-year-overdue performance review. Not clear if he’ll also have to give up his NCAA infractions committee gig harassing unpaid athletes.

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1/22/2014 update: Correction from the Public Records Office on Jim O’Fallon:

On January 15, 2014 the office released documents in response to your public records request for documents released in response to the following public records request: “the names of all university employees who were invited to as well as those who actually attended the Valero Alamo Bowl for pre-game events in San Antonio, Texas. Second, if it is possible I would also like to request invoices for the costs of their trip that the University of Oregon paid for, in the form of a per diem or any comparable allowance”.

One of the documents you were given has Mr. James O’Fallon categorized as “Athletic Dept. Staff- Faculty Rep”. Mr. O’Fallon should have been categorized as “Faculty Athletics Representative”. This mistake has been corrected, and a corrected copy of this document is attached.

The NCAA in Crisis: Today at the UO Alumni building

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Update: UO student journalist Will Rubin has an excellent report on last week’s UO symposium, here. Complete with a brief quote from De’Anthony Thomas – then his lawyer cut him off. AAD Craig Pintens keeps a tight leash on what athletes say in public, so don’t expect any uncensored comments from the Duck’s current revenue producers on unionization, rights to player likenesses, concussions, random pot testing, and so on. Notably absent from the panel were UO’s soon to be replaced FAR and NCAA cartel enforcer Jim O’Fallon (Law) and the UO Senate’s current IAC chair and wannabe sports lawyer Rob Illig.

4/11/2014: Complete with the NYT’s Joe Nocera – our Faculty Athletic Rep Jim O’Fallon’s nemesis. Many other well known speakers. No idea why this wasn’t better advertised. From http://law.uoregon.edu/org/olr/symposia.php
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UO to hold closed search to replace erratic NCAA faculty rep Jim O’Fallon

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It’s called the “Faculty Athletics Representative”. For the last 25 years it’s been Jim O’Fallon (law). He’s never had a performance review, and his reports to the faculty Senate have been, let’s say, erratic:

I pushed for an open search to replace O’Fallon, with finalists to talk with the faculty and answer questions about how they would deal with the many challenges of this important job. That’s not going to happen. Furthermore, the nominee’s names will be kept secret. President Gottfredson will make the decision. We will not know even know who the search committee recommends as finalists.

Given the secret nature of Gottfredson’s search, our next FAR can’t expect to have the faculty’s trust. But hey, it’s still a sweet gig. There’s a 0.5 FTE release, support staff, and of course free Duck tickets, travel, and bowl game junkets. All paid out of the academic budget – only to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest, of course:

Dear Colleagues,

The university is seeking to appoint a new Faculty Athletic Representative (FAR) for the University of Oregon. The current FAR, Jim O’Fallon, is retiring, and has agreed to serve through the 2014–2015 academic year to mentor the new FAR as he or she transitions into the position.

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Faculty Athletics Representative O’Fallon finally reports to faculty

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UO Senate rules call for an annual written report from our NCAA FAR. It’s been years since UO’s FAR Jim O’Fallon did that. (O’Fallon is well known for his work on the NCAA Infractions Committee, including the infamous Nate Miles investigation.) It’s also been a long time since UO’s 2004 comprehensive Athletic Task Force Committee, which included former President Dave Frohnmayer, made recommendation #2 a performance review for O’Fallon. He’s had the job for 25 years now, with no review. I’ve given notice for a Senate resolution to come up in Feb, to start that long overdue process.

It took some prompting, but O’Fallon did show up at the December 2013 meeting to deliver a report about NCAA investigation of Willie Lyles and Chip Kelly. Quick version: Kelly hired Lyles to recruit some Texas players, including one whose mother he was apparently bonking boinking. Kelly then shorted Lyles $25K on the deal, and left UO holding the bag for the costs of the NCAA investigation and, according to UO Warsaw Sports Management Director Paul Swangard, the $20K fine. There’s more in the Oregonian timeline on UO and Willie Lyles, here.

None of that is in O’Fallon’s long monologue, of course, nor did he give the Senate the required advance copy so we could prepare questions. He starts at 102:30, video here.

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And there’s a transcription of sorts here. (Full disclosure: O’Fallon hasn’t threatened to sue me for defamation in more than a year.)

Intercollegiate Athletics Committee retreat and Open Meetings

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10/28/13: Intercollegiate Athletics Committee retreat:

In the absence of formal minutes from the meeting, I’m posting a brief summary. The agenda for the retreat, held Tuesday 10/22, was set by IAC Chair Rob Illig (Law) as follows:

3:00 – 3:15 – IAC Chair Rob Illig leads introductions
3:15 – 3:30 – Senate President Margie Paris introduces our official charge
3:30 – 4:30 – AD Rob Mullens and members of his staff, as appropriate, present information about the athletic department and address recent email questions
4:30 – 4:45 – short break
4:45 – 5:30 – Faculty Athletics Rep Jim O’Fallon discusses the relationship between the UO and the NCAA
5:30 – 5:45 – General Counsel Randy Geller presents information about the Open Meetings Law
5:45 – 6:00 – IAC discusses and approves confidentiality policy
6:00 – 6:30 – break-out sessions for working groups (please bring your calendars)
6:30 – 7:00 – for anyone interested, wine and cheese and easy socializing

Randy Geller didn’t show. In his absence the Chair read an email from him, opining that Oregon’s Open Meeting Law did not apply to IAC meetings, and another saying that UO would defend the faculty, if we were sued for not following that law.

At least that’s what I think Geller’s emails said. Illig first said he thought he had already forwarded the emails to the IAC. Then he wrote several times to say that he would forward them. Now he is refusing to share them with committee members. He says that Geller has decided to write another opinion on these matters, and that he will share this he receives it from the General Counsel.

9/19/2013 update: Senate Intercollegiate Athletics Committee meets to discuss transparency, confidentiality, e rispetto

The IAC met today to elect a chair. Professors Harbaugh (Economics) and Karduna (Human Phys) gave stirring speeches, but were crushed by Rob Illig (Law), who got 9 of 16 votes cast. Illig is the presumptive contender to replace Jim O’Fallon (Law, emeritus, 24 years as FAR, still without a review) as UO’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative next year. So this will be something of a baptism by fire, and provide some valuable information on his suitability for that important job. We’ll keep you updated, with respect, and within the limits of whatever confidentiality policy the IAC adopts.

9/17/2013: UO’s IAC met this afternoon in a mediated session, moderated by noted dispute resolution expert Eric Lindauer. Lindauer was brought in by Senate President Margie Paris. The objective was to help make the committee, which deals with many contentious high-stakes issues, function more effectively.

Almost all faculty, staff, and student members were present, along with AD Rob Mullens, AAD Lisa Peterson, AAD for Finance Eric Roedl, AAD for Strategic Communications Craig Pintens, the new AAD for NCAA compliance Jody Sykes, and UO’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon. Lorraine Davis was absent.

We discussed many things, most notably:

  1. Civil/respectful/professional/productive meetings and communication.
  2. Mechanisms to ensure the athletics department regularly provides the IAC with information related to its charge, which includes academic issues involving student-athletes, financial information, large donations, adding or dropping sports, new athletic facilities, and hiring of coaches.
  3. A confidentiality agreement for IAC members. The initial draft language for this is below.
Some related documents include:

Draft UO IAC Confidentiality Agreement, from today’s meeting.

For reference, the FAC’s confidentiality policy states:

The Faculty Advisory Council is responsible for providing the President and other Administration officials with faculty opinion and counsel on the wide range of university affairs. In its relations with the President, the Administration, and with the faculty, the Faculty Advisory Council shall act either on request or on its own initiative. To fulfill its mission, members of the Council recognize that its deliberations must remain confidential. The quality and the effectiveness of the advice we give depend on a free and frank discussion of issues, in which all participants can voice their opinions without fear that their positions will be divulged or attributed to them outside of the Council. Furthermore, the FAC often treats issues that are in the public domain. Any information presented at a FAC meeting that is not in the public record will remain confidential. All discussion about information that is in the public record will also remain confidential. Participants in the FAC will not refer to or divulge Council deliberations and comments with specificity in discharging their obligations as faculty, administrators, or staff. By pledging to adhere to the confidentiality of its proceedings, participants in the FAC commit to fulfilling their legislative charge. The Council shall be the forum where the President and other Administration officials seek faculty advice on all important decisions that affect the university before they are implemented, and where the issues that inform these decisions will be considered thoroughly and with mutual respect.

Football player makes money signing his own name to stuff

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8/6/2013: This is unacceptable! But don’t worry, former UO law professor Jim O’Fallon and his NCAA Committee on Infractions are on the case. In the past they’ve made unpaid student-athletes repay these sorts of ill-gotten gains. Still no word on how much Rob Mullens and President Gottfredson made Chip Kelly pay for the Willie Lyles lawyers and infraction costs, and how much they charged to UO student tuition.

Aasif Mandvi has more on these greedy athletes, and this South Park episode, inspired by Taylor Branch, is pretty wicked too. Branch, a Pulitzer winning MLK biographer, wrote that there “is an unmistakable whiff of the plantation” about big-time college sports. The story on what O’Fallon did to UConn player Nate Miles is here.


Latest on Lyles. DOJ orders UO to release NCAA infractions info.

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7/19/2013: Mark Johnson of the RG sports desk gets another dump of Kelly/Lyles docs from UO – 3 months after he made the public records request. UO NCAA Rep and former law professor Jim O’Fallon used to argue that these sorts of records were top secret, despite the DOJ ruling below, which he either didn’t know about or hid from the faculty. The redactions seem far in excess of what Dave Frohnmayer would have allowed back when he was AG:

Full PDF here. O’Fallon still won’t tell the UO Senate Intercollegiate Athletics Committee anything substantive about this investigation. I’m on the committee, and I had to get this news from the RG website. But whatever, this is almost certainly O’Fallon’s last year in the job, and he’s certainly going out in style: without having had a performance review in 25 years.

1/23/2013: Breaking news. Full text of the order here. Sure, it’s from 1981, written by the DOJ when Dave Frohnmayer was Attorney General – but it’s a pretty strong order. It still stands as precedent, and it is cited in the most recent DOJ Public Records Manual, here. Sportswriters, file your public records requests for the Kelly / Lyles allegations and findings now, through Dave Hubin’s public records office, here.

Duck sports roundup with NCAA report.

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6/26/2013 update. The public NCAA report is here. Hilariously pompous. Public Censure and Reprimand. Presumably much more will be released eventually, thanks to this public records opinion from Dave Frohnmayer’s DOJ. The NYT has this quote from Kelly:

Kelly, in a statement issued through the Eagles, apologized to the university and its fans. “I accept my share of responsibility for the actions that led to the penalties,” he wrote, adding that the investigation did not have a role in his decision to leave the university.

Whatever you say Chip, but are you gonna pay UO back for the $200K we spent on lawyers? One quick excerpt from the NCAA report, dealing with a special admit problem:

The institution discovered a deficiency in prospect H’s Scholastic Aptitude Test
(SAT) while performing a review of his academic credentials. Due to the deficiency,
prospect H was required to return to Houston immediately to take the earliest available
SAT. 

An assistant football coach and the former assistant director of operations sought
the assistance of the recruiting service provider in facilitating the prospect’s taking of the
SAT. The recruiting service provider contacted prospect H via telephone and ultimately
delivered to him the required SAT registration packet at a Houston area gas station the
evening before the test.  

Further, there was evidence that the recruiting service provider was involved in the
arrangements for prospective student-athletes to travel to the institution for their official
visits. Following the official visits of prospects E and F, the former assistant director of
operations sent the recruiting service provider a hand-written note he composed under the
former head coach’s signature, stating: 

I really appreciate your help in getting [the names of the visiting
prospects] and the whole crew here this past weekend. We’ll work on
getting [prospect A] here soon too! Thanks for orchestrating everything
and all your help with these guys. I hope you enjoyed the game . . .Go
Ducks! 

Rob Mullens, Lorraine Davis, and Jim O’Fallon have opposed letting the UO IAC be involved in special admits, despite language in UO’s most recent NCAA recertification saying the situation was under control. I wonder how much of that they conveyed to the investigators?

6/26/2013: After rejecting UO’s proposed plea bargain, Jim O’Fallon’s NCAA Committee on Infractions is expected to hand down the penalties this morning. O’Fallon’s recused, of course. Still no word on who will replace O’Fallon as UO’s Faculty Athletics Representative to the NCAA.

UO has now spent more than $200K on NCAA cleaner Mike Glazier, to defend the Duck brand against the Kelly/Lyles infractions. More if you value the opportunity cost of Randy Geller’s time at something positive. The academic side has paid about half this. No word yet if Gottfredson will go after Chip to try and recoup the legal and the other costs of his infractions.

Rumor is that a group of traitorous UO law profs are writing to President Gottfredson to protest the UO decision to effectively prohibit small local Duck paraphernalia manufacturers from getting licenses to use the Duck brand. Don’t these ingrates know who paid for their building, and what eternal reciprocal obligations they incurred in exchange?

Dev Sinha to replace O’Fallon as NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative?

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6/14/2013: President Gottfredson has to decide who will replace retired UO law professor Jim O’Fallon very soon. O’Fallon has been the FAR for 23 years – since back when he actually was faculty – without ever going through a performance review. This is a clear violation of OUS rules, and in addition the 2004 UO Task Force Report on Athletics – signed by Dave Frohnmayer and then AD Bill Moos – specifically called for a review of O’Fallon.

Bullet point #2:

This never happened. O’Fallon’s contract is here. His current deal is set to expire in two weeks: 


The FAR job is a pretty sweet one for a professor who likes sports and junkets to the UO games – paid for out of the academic budget of course. Rumor down at the faculty club horse barn is that the jockeying to replace O’Fallon has begun in earnest. Prominent among likely contenders would be former Intercollegiate Athletics Committee chair Dev Sinha, who recently demonstrated his loyalty to the Ducks with this impassioned 32 page powerpoint to the UO Senate, opposing the motion to get the athletic department to follow Task Force recommendation #1 on contributions to the academic side (posted with permission):

You can catch Dev’s lengthy speech to the Senate, cut short by President Kyr out of mercy to the Senate and Prof Sinha, here:


Unfortunately for professor Sinha the motion to end the subsidies and start the contributions passed 19 to 4, so it seems unlikely the Senate would be happy with his appointment. 
Other likely contenders include UO law professor Rob Illig, in his second year on the IAC, and biology professor and former IAC Chair and UO representative to the Coalition on Intercollegiate Athletics Nathan Tublitz. Or President Gottfredson could appoint longtime Duck booster Lorraine Davis, an AD designee to the IAC who never shows her face, and whose current contracts are also set to expire in a few weeks:

PR request update: NCAA wastes Gottfredson’s time on more sports crap

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5/23/2013: UO is on the verge of being kicked out of the AAU.

Meanwhile, the self important pissant jock-sniffers on the NCAA Infractions Committee don’t think the UO President has anything important to do with his time. So they “invite” him to come to their meeting in Indianapolis and explain to their pompous selves what coach Chip Kelly did wrong at UO, years before, and how much UO should now pay for his sins.

OK, I know I’ve bitched about Gottfredson’s $540K salary. But putting up with people like this? Triple it and he’s still underpaid. Assuming, of course, that the athletic department and their boosters are the ones compensating him for this humiliation, and not our students. And for his travel expenses to Indianapolis. And I hope that ticket was first-class.

…
Full document here. These documents are public only because, after more than a year of O’Fallon trying to hide this expensive disaster from the UO IAC and the press, I found this ruling from Dave Frohnmayer’s DOJ in 1981, stating that NCAA infractions documents were public records in Oregon. 
UO has a Senate committee to deal with athletics issues. The charge is here:

As part of its function and in order to carry out its governance function, the IAC shall be consulted by: …

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

But since UO’s NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon will not even tell the IAC what’s going on, much less consult with us, let’s see what President Gottfredson told the NCAA about UO’s Loss of Institutional Control over our athletic department:

Dear Ms Thornton: 

This is a public records request for a copy of the remarks, notes, or talking points prepared for or presented by President Gottfredson and other UO employees or attorney’s or consultants for the Feb 23 2013 meeting of the NCAA Committee on Infractions in Indianapolis. 

I ask for a fee-waiver on the grounds of public interest. Under our charge the UO Senate IAC should have been briefed on this situation, but Faculty Athletics Representative Jim O’Fallon has told the IAC nothing, and did not even inform the IAC of this meeting. 

I note that the 1981 public records opinion by then Attorney General Dave Frohnmayer’s DOJ makes clear that these sorts of records are subject to disclosure: https://uomatters.com/2013/01/doj-orders-uo-to-release-ncaa.html 

Thanks,
Bill Harbaugh
UO Prof. of Economics