Trustees Back Delay In Famu 1-a Move


TruBluJAG

TruBluJAG

Smooth as ICE '06' Style
http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/sports/7868358.htm

Posted on Wed, Feb. 04, 2004

Trustees back delay in FAMU's I-A move

By Melanie Yeager and Heath A. Smith
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITERS

A majority of Florida A&M University's 13 trustees say they plan to back President Fred Gainous' recommendation to delay the university's move to DivisionI-A football.

"I'm grateful we're going to stop this train before a huge collision," said Pam Duncan, one of seven trustees who have decided to back the president. Others who agree include Barney Bishop, Al Cardenas, Randy Hanna, the Rev. R.B. Holmes, Bill Jennings and Larry Rivers.

Two of those trustees - Bishop and Duncan - also have voiced concerns about interim athletic director J.R.E. Lee's leadership.

Gainous is scheduled to meet with coaches and other athletic department employees at 8a.m. today. It's likely he will discuss delaying the move at the meeting.

Gainous has recommended that the trustees reconsider the school's application to move up to NCAA Division I-A football at their regular meeting Tuesday. Seven months ago he asked trustees to endorse the move, which they did.

Gainous' recommendation comes after he told the trustees last week that he intended to sever the university's relationship with the Urban Broadcasting Company, which broadcast six FAMU football games in 2003.

Gainous told trustees he made the decision after he concluded the Harlem, N.Y.-based multi-media company was unlikely to generate any revenue for the athletic department based on an incomplete financial statement received from UBC President Peggy Dodson.

"I agreed to go forward (with the move to I-A) ... primarily on the existence of a contract that would pay for added scholarships, facilities," Cardenas said Tuesday. "Availability of those revenues is now in question."

In a January letter, Lee told FAMU alumni and friends that he is still convinced the move is the right thing for FAMU football and said the UBC broadcasting deal would provide FAMU at least $1.5million by June30. Lee has also made presentations to the trustees about the move.

"I think he was shooting from the hip and did not give me a lot of comfort that he had a strategy and a plan in place to get us there," Duncan said of the board's meetings with Lee about DivisionI-A. Any future policy decision needs to be made with a permanent athletic director and in consultation with FAMU's boosters, alumni and coaching staff, she said.

Other trustees said FAMU made the wrong decision when it tried to fast-track a move to DivisionI-A, but she stopped short of criticizing Lee.

"I'm not getting involved in that one. That is the call of Dr.Gainous," Holmes said. "Our job would be to evaluate the president and not his staff."

Gainous said Tuesday he planned to advertise for a permanent athletic director in The Chronicle of High Education as soon as possible. The next edition of the journal comes out Feb.13.

Gainous said several people have already contacted him about applying for the position, but Lee was not among them. Gainous said he has also contacted other people about their interest in applying for the position. He declined to provide the names of any of the people he's talked to about the job.

Gainous said he would begin interviewing for the athletic director position 30 days after advertising the post.

Bill Jennings, board vice chairman, said it's too early to tell whether Lee should stay or go.

"I would be concerned if he was operating in a total autonomous manner without input from the president and others at the university," Jennings said. "If we got as far as we got with DivisionI-A based solely on Lee ... then I have some real concerns about the administration."

That FAMU tried to make the move without doing enough homework is a real embarrassment, he said.

"I relied on the information I got from the athletic director with the president sitting at the table," Jennings said.

Chairman James Corbin admitted in June that he asked Gainous to hire his good friend, Lee, as interim athletic director. Corbin said Tuesday that whether Lee should stay is not for him to decide.

"I withhold any comments I have about that because ... people would say I'm biased because Bob is a lifelong friend," Corbin said. "I'm not going to get into a contest with other board members about who ought to be doing what."

But Corbin does plan to air his views at the trustees' upcoming Tuesday meeting, where the board will discuss the athletic department.

"In my opinion, that's the proper forum," Corbin said.
 



FAMU Trustees Question Lee's Leadership

http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/sports/colleges/florida_am_university/7846721.htm

FAMU trustees question Lee's moves, leadership

By Randy Beard
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

When J.R.E. Lee used a sports information press release in early January to defend the direction in which he has been leading the Florida A&M athletics department, it amounted to another misstep by the Rattlers' interim athletic director, according to several members of the school's board of trustees.

"I'm concerned about his inability to correctly predict what the lay of the land is going to be over the near horizon," trustee Barney Bishop told the Tallahassee Democrat Saturday. "We're told that we've got schools wanting to compete with us when they don't. We've announced a stadium deal that we don't have. We've got optimistic (financial) numbers that (Lee) hasn't met. You just have a litany now of things that have happened that make me think this person is not appropriate to lead our athletic department."

Randy Hanna added that it has become increasingly apparent that too many decisions in the past six months regarding the athletics department have been made without first seeking the input of President Fred Gainous or the full board of trustees.

"We need to send the message to the university, our alumni, our supporters that we are moving forward to improve the athletic program," Hanna said. "In order to do that we have to make sure we have a consistent message, and we've not had that consistent message to this point."

That message became more clouded this week after Gainous sent two e-mails to the trustees. In one of the two memos obtained by the Democrat, Gainous confirmed that a deal with the Urban Broadcasting Company, which Lee negotiated, had failed to generate promised income. In another e-mail, also sent Thursday, Gainous recommended that the trustees reconsider the school's application to move up to NCAA Division I-A football at their Feb.10 meeting.

It was just seven months ago that Gainous asked the trustees to endorse the I-A move.

Two other trustees, Rev. R.B. Holmes and vice chairman Bill Jennings each said Friday that they would join Bishop and Hanna in supporting Gainous' recommendation to return to I-AA football. Holmes and Bishop also want Gainous to inform the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference of FAMU's desire to remain a member in all sports.

"We've seen the UBC contract fall apart. As you know, some of us supported it because we thought that was a tremendous financial opportunity," Holmes said. "Well, it didn't happen and we need to take a step back ... When we do this thing again, we'll make sure all of the significant parties are involved in the decisions - trustees, the legal team, the president's office, the alumni, the boosters. We have to do a better job of networking and bringing significant players along."

All of the trustees who were contacted by the Democrat believe FAMU eventually can make a successful transition to Division I-A if facilities are upgraded, conference affiliation is secured and financial support from boosters is strengthened.

The school already has bond money set aside by the state to improve facilities - $14 million for Bragg Stadium and $15 million for a new physical education building/teaching gymnasium - but FAMU officials are still studying options to repay the additional debt that will come with those projects.

Gainous' latest position on the I-A move comes three weeks after the Jan.10 open letter Lee sent to FAMU alumni and friends. In that release, Lee stated: "I want to assure everyone that I remain committed to this move and I'm absolutely convinced that this move is the right thing to do for Florida A&M football."

Distributed to state media outlets as part of a sports information release, Lee again proclaimed that the broadcasting deal with UBC would pay FAMU "a minimum of $1.5 million by June 30." He also announced that the school's move to I-A football had increased interest in the program and had led to offers of a $20 million naming-rights deal for Bragg Stadium and a possible "in-kind gift of a Cessna Citation aircraft for travel and recruiting."

The trustees have yet to receive evidence that any of those gifts are forthcoming, according to Bishop.

Bishop said that he endorsed the move to Division I-A last June because the application already had been made to the NCAA before a presentation was made to the trustees.

"I made the motion to accept it because I felt like they were hanging out there on it, and the decision already had been made," Bishop said. "I felt confident that if the president already had decided to do it, that it was the right thing, and I wanted to show support for the administration."

But in subsequent board meetings, including one in which Lee made a presentation about projected athletic department revenue, Bishop and Hanna each cautioned Lee about overestimating gate receipts and other revenue sources.

"I told him twice I really felt very strongly that he needed to take a very conservative approach," Bishop said.

Hanna also asked Lee to back up his financial projections. "There were a lot of questions that weren't answered to my satisfaction," Hanna said.

"I've lost confidence in the athletic director's ability to direct this program," Bishop said. "I'm going to be fully supportive of the delay to move to I-A because I don't think it has been properly planned by the athletic department ... I think the athletic director has led us down a primrose path that is not primrose anymore. I feel like I've been misled.

"I think it is time for a change, the sooner the better."

Hanna said he didn't want to comment on a personnel matter, but was relieved to see Gainous taking an active role in athletic department decisions. He said Gainous is in the process of developing a long-range strategic plan for athletics.

"That's what we told him to do at the last board meeting, that's what needed to be done, and I think this is what you see him doing," said Hanna.
 
Just wondering if Oklahoma, Illinois, and Tulane are gunna let FAMU outta their contracts..... And how much will it cost FAMU.......

:smh:
 
Houston ? the **** has officially hit the fan. I heard that FAMU is the first school in the nation to fail to achieve 1-A status after submitting its paperwork. Is this true?
 
When will they learn that friendship and politics don't mix? People of higher education "NEVER" cease to amaze me.

This sure makes all those arrogant fans that posted all that crap look like plum fools, sour plums at that.
 
Taylor-Made'90,

Just wondering if Oklahoma, Illinois, and Tulane are gunna let FAMU outta their contracts..... And how much will it cost FAMU.......
Click to expand...

Why would they have to let FA&MU out of their contracts for next season?

Do not forget. Even if Florida A & M University decides to inform the NCAA that they are moving back down to the NCAA Division I AA level. They will still remain as a NCAA Division I A provisional program for the 2004-2005 calendar year. So, they will not hurt their NCAA Division I A opponents. This is will only come into play on the issue of return visits depending on the contractual agreements.

They will still have to follow the NCAA guidelines that will require them to follow a two year probationary period as they now would transition back down to the NCAA Division I AA level. During those two years they would be a NCAA Division I AA provisional program. Further more, in my opinion, they would not be eligible for the NCAA Division I AA playoffs under the current NCAA bylaws.

No matter, what decision they make now, as a football program for the next three years, in my opinion. They will be in purgatory for lack of appropriate term. They will be in a holding pattern.

I do not think people reconize that the NCAA is not set-up in away that would just allow programs to move from level to level at a given notice and return to a level at a given notice without having to deal with the recourses.
 
Jafe....

It would seem that there'd be a greater concern about RPI strength-of-schedule rankings, now that FAMU is trying to 'undo' the 1-A thing...

And your rationale makes sense to me. And FAMu should still be considered a 'provisional member' of 1-A until it's request is 'rescinded'.

But if your Oklahoma, you knew already (going in) that FAMU's RPI rating would be low (or high, whatever). But now that they appear to not want to compete at the 1-A level, wouldn't Oklahoma's stregth of schedule 'index' fall considerably more now, than before?????

That's my point/question/contention............

:smh:
 
Keeping them on will lower their strength of schedule rating. Plus having FAMU on the schedule might hurt home ticket sells for those teams. Who knows, maybe they can schedule somebody else instead of the Rattlers in an effort to increase their chances of securing another televised game. You know, get some team that is a lot sexier than the broken rattlers. Lastly, the MEAC may force FAMU back into the conference in all sports including football.

We simply don?t know what will happen.

J please post verifiable documentation for your assertions because they sound excessively optimistic a la your original pro FAMU 1-A posts on MF.com several months ago. Oh and don?t get mad at me for asking you to back up your words.
 
Taylor-Made-90,

You make a valid point. Honestly, I do not think it would really matter for Oklahoma with the strentgh of the Big 12 and a championship any team member in that league with a have strong enough strength of schedule argument to just about hold off anybody. He would not be any worse than LSU play a NCAA Division I AA member last year and still have a strong enough stength of schedule because of the SEC to jum over USC.
 
Webdrone,

I am not mad. But, if you have a problem with the information you are welcome to do your own homework. I am secure with the information I have researched. I provide the board with information if it is not exceptable to an individual they are more than welcome togo find out the information is correct on their own. Like anything else you are welcome to set back and wait to the article is posted.
 
Taylor-made:

Who knows? We will see. jafus makes an interesting point.

webdrone:
If you did your research in the NCAA bylaws, you wouldn't have to question Jafus, now would you?!?!? :D:p If you need help, go to NCAA Bylaws, Section 20 - Division Membership

As far as RPI, if we remain 1-A provisional, our RPI may be dependent on who we get to fill the last 3 games. Keep in mind some successfull 1-AA teams in recent years (like Delaware, GA Southern) make the top 75-100 in Sagarin near the end of the season, meaning they were higher than some non-BCS 1-A teams
As far as OU and Illinois, we play them at the beginning of the year, so our RPI and Sagarin as a new 1-A team was going to be near the bottom of 1-A anyway. Stop reaching to fuel your hate.

bluedog:
yeah, FAMU fans have cornered the market on arrogance :rolleyes:
Besides there were only about 8 posters max who were talking that ying-yang, everyone else (but cholly) was laying low taking a wait and see, especially with JRE Lee guiding the ship.
 
Originally posted by bluedog
When will they learn that friendship and politics don't mix? People of higher education "NEVER" cease to amaze me...........

.
Click to expand...



You are right on point.
 
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