In life, it’s important to know with whom you’ll be working.
Whether it’s a research project, a business venture or a marriage, knowing just who you’ll be climbing into bed with (so to speak) is vital to your peace of mind.
In that regard, the folks who run the athletic department at the University of Maryland, as well as the school’s top officials, should have received a window last week into the soul of Jim Delany.
Delany is the pit boss, er, commissioner of the Big 10 Conference, the league to which Maryland’s sports programs will be members as of the 2014-15 school year.
And if Maryland President Wallace Loh and athletic director Kevin Anderson needed any proof that Delany is a tough-minded, win at all costs type of administrator, they got it last week.
Of course, Anderson and Loh should have gotten that message last fall when Delany demanded that Maryland negotiate to become the 13th member of the Big 10 in total secrecy, essentially violating state open meetings rules.
They should know now as the university has had to loan the athletic department more than $21 million with the possibility of having to shell out more to keep the department from going further into the red, according to the Washington Post.
And Delany and the Big 10 haven’t offered to lift a financial finger to help.
Last week, Delanytold a group of reporters that football and men’s basketball players who aspire to be professionals in their games should do their training in minor leagues and not trouble the colleges for scholarships. Delany channeled his inner 18th century French ruler and said to kids "Let them eat cake."
For over a century, the model of giving talented athletes a mere scholarship has worked pretty darned well for fat cats like Delany. But the kids are starting to realize that they deserve more of a cut of the billions that roll through college sports.
Yet, here's Delany telling them to take a hike.
Delany spits in their faces, ignoring the truth that there would be no Big 10 television network, no multi-billion dollar television rights fees with ESPN, no new big money college football playoff, no March Madness college basketball tournament without the toils and sweat of those players. The 21st century athletic leader has to recognize that and change with the times. Jim Delany is hardly that leader.
Too bad Wallace Loh and Kevin Anderson didn’t realize that sooner before they signed on with him.
Or, maybe they did and they just don’t care.