"How Do You Like Me Now?" Dr. Barchi and the Big Ten.

[Caliknight]

I agree. I think it WAS low on his priority list. He entrusted a very visible area of the University to people who had misplaced agendas, which provided negative results on balance.

Then he realized he needed to fix it. He tightened the circle to trusted people, including being more hands on.

Now we have adult professionals in charge and we are seeing the results.

 

[MoobyCow]

I never viewed him as anti-athletics, but did feel like athletics was low on his list of priorities (which, when running a major university, shouldn't be the top priority). I think the series of embarrassing and inept circumstances surrounding athletics, and the distractions they caused, forced him to be more involved.

Exactly so. I think he figured we had highly paid professional in place whose job it was to run athletics, and he was just going to let them do their jobs. Once he got fed up by them not doing their jobs he stepped in.

 

[DJ Spanky]

I've heard that the TWU is a big supporter of his.