Most Stupid Decision Ever Award

[MV pony]

What school wins the Most Stupid Decision Ever Award?

I vote Tulane for voluntarily leaving the SEC. Your thoughts.

[redpony]

BOT of SMU not fighting the NCAA and getting the death penalty.

[Paladin]

Notre Dame hiring high school football coach Gerry Faust in 1981 as Head Coach

[max the wonder dog]

What school wins the Most Stupid Decision Ever Award?

I vote Tulane for voluntarily leaving the SEC. Your thoughts.

GA Tech would be a co-winner. Sewanee (University of the South) left as well, but it was (and is) too small to ever be competitive in D1.

[bubba pony]

Rutgers turn down an invitation to join the Ivy League. Rutgers would have to convert to a private school but elected to remain a state school.

[SEASPony]

After the death penalty, SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye as university president, ensuring the destruction of competitive athletics and relegated to a minor athletic conference for decades.

[leopold]

BOT of SMU not fighting the NCAA and getting the death penalty.

Would have been the equivalent of FSU suing the ACC at that point - we were cooked and it was our own fault.

Notre Dame hiring high school football coach Gerry Faust in 1981 as Head Coach

Single worst HC hire in history, agreed, and done to sign a recruit whose name nobody can remember now.

GA Tech would be a co-winner. Sewanee (University of the South) left as well, but it was (and is) too small to ever be competitive in D1.

GT made a mistake but it worked out okay for them. The ACC has been relatively good to them due to their higher academic standards, they won a NC after they left and they've been relatively happy until about a decade ago when conference realignment when haywire.

Rutgers turn down an invitation to join the Ivy League. Rutgers would have to convert to a private school but elected to remain a state school.

As you pointed out, the decision was made for them. As the State University of New Jersey they had to remain public.

After the death penalty, SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye as university president, ensuring the destruction of competitive athletics and regulation to a minor athletic conference for decades.

Highering Pye wasn't the mistake, how he handled it was. There was a way forward for the school and the program and Pye was smart enough to see that - he bears that responsibility, not the people who highered him.
Interesting story, I heard from one of the old-school faculty he actually went up to the Ivy League and inquired if they had an opening. Interesting response to being handed the 'death penalty' school.



Yeah, Tulane leaving the SEC gets my vote. They left possibly the most lucrative conference with no real plan ahead and have provided no avenue forward, sticking them in money-hemoragging mediocrity (if that) ever since.

[Finally]

After the death penalty, SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye as university president, ensuring the destruction of competitive athletics and regulation to a minor athletic conference for decades.

Highering Pye wasn't the mistake, how he handled it was. There was a way forward for the school and the program and Pye was smart enough to see that - he bears that responsibility, not the people who highered .[/quote]

Didn’t Pye openly advocate that all college sports should intramural and put into place the anti competitive policies that have been stripped away by coaches since JJ? Kinda sorta a lot sounds like it’s all his fault

[mtrout]

TJ Mcdaniel deciding not to get surgery and instead use his brother's electric machine. Then miss like 20months, end up transferring to NAU, and rushing for 69yds this year.

Oh you said which school...sorry

[PlanoStang]

Probably not the stupidest, but it ranks up there. SMU firing Hayden Fry in 1972.

[RunningStang]

After the death penalty, SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye as university president, ensuring the destruction of competitive athletics and relegated to a minor athletic conference for decades.

Not to mention him trying to kill off the engineering school too. My uncle was part of the save CME campaign. He did kill off Civil and as a result lost major funding that was redirected to UTD. If SMU wants to raise the academic profile, then get the Lyle School of Engineering on a par with Cox school of business. Pye had a crazy idea of making SMU a liberal arts school. Time to get SMU’s academic ranking in the top 40 where it belongs.


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[Insane_Pony_Posse]

SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye

Agreed, hiring Pye was a HUGE mistake.

[SEASPony]

After the death penalty, SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye as university president, ensuring the destruction of competitive athletics and regulation to a minor athletic conference for decades.

Highering Pye wasn't the mistake, how he handled it was. There was a way forward for the school and the program and Pye was smart enough to see that - he bears that responsibility, not the people who highered him.
Interesting story, I heard from one of the old-school faculty he actually went up to the Ivy League and inquired if they had an opening. Interesting response to being handed the 'death penalty' school.
===================
leopold,
I appreciate your perspective, and while I agree that Pye was in charge and responsible for destroying our athletics department (don't forget basketball and Larry Johnson), and as RunningStang mentioned also nearly killed the engineering school from which I graduated, the university leadership that hired Pye, in my view, were first and foremost responsible. When I interview people for senior positions at my employer, I ask questions like, "How will you handle this specific issue or problem?" or "what is your vision for how we should handle this or that project?" If the SMU leadership did not ask him about the value of athletics for the university or how he will fix the problems caused by the cheating scandal and keep SMU as a leading academic and athletics institution, they were incompetent at best. The people who made the hire should have known what he was planning. That said, perhaps they did. As I recall, the people who were driving excellence in athletics (and cheating) were all swept away including the President, AD, and our beloved Governor and leader of the banditos (and big money boosters). Perhaps the anti-athletics crowd took over and hired Pye with intent to make SMU an academics only institution.

But here we are looking at a new day and an exciting opportunity to get back on the big stage. I'm not bitter or anything...

[Graceland Tar Heel]

BOT of SMU not fighting the NCAA and getting the death penalty.

Would have been the equivalent of FSU suing the ACC at that point - we were cooked and it was our own fault.

Notre Dame hiring high school football coach Gerry Faust in 1981 as Head Coach

Single worst HC hire in history, agreed, and done to sign a recruit whose name nobody can remember now.

GA Tech would be a co-winner. Sewanee (University of the South) left as well, but it was (and is) too small to ever be competitive in D1.

GT made a mistake but it worked out okay for them. The ACC has been relatively good to them due to their higher academic standards, they won a NC after they left and they've been relatively happy until about a decade ago when conference realignment when haywire.

Rutgers turn down an invitation to join the Ivy League. Rutgers would have to convert to a private school but elected to remain a state school.

As you pointed out, the decision was made for them. As the State University of New Jersey they had to remain public.

After the death penalty, SMU’s hiring of A. Kenneth Pye as university president, ensuring the destruction of competitive athletics and regulation to a minor athletic conference for decades.

Highering Pye wasn't the mistake, how he handled it was. There was a way forward for the school and the program and Pye was smart enough to see that - he bears that responsibility, not the people who highered him.
Interesting story, I heard from one of the old-school faculty he actually went up to the Ivy League and inquired if they had an opening. Interesting response to being handed the 'death penalty' school.



Yeah, Tulane leaving the SEC gets my vote. They left possibly the most lucrative conference with no real plan ahead and have provided no avenue forward, sticking them in money-hemoragging mediocrity (if that) ever since.

GT got into the AAU only after being in the ACC. So the school has gained a good deal from the ACC. The ACC problem in it is that the ACC waited a decade too long to add GT after its football status had dropped precipitously. Another ACCC move made too late to really make a big impact.

[leopold]

If the SMU leadership did not ask him about the value of athletics for the university or how he will fix the problems caused by the cheating scandal and keep SMU as a leading academic and athletics institution, they were incompetent at best.

Bingo.

The SMU administration was incompetent. Shields was notoriously soft and had lost control - the NCAA was just the one said it publicly with "Lack of institutional control." The BOG either didn't know what was going on, didn't care, or were in on it and all indications were that they were in on it so once the story become public they had lost all validity. The AD, HC, and influential boosters were all guilty and there is a reason all these people resigned in disgrace.

So by that point the only way to get a handle on the problem was to bring a strong hand to get control and move the school forward, so that limits the options you can have. Pye was the Guiliani to SMU's 70's NY, the Judge Landis to the Blacksox and so on - there absolutely, undeniably had to be a '[deleted]' hired to deal with the issue. Now, you can ask him all the questions you want to upfront about football, or engineering schools or whatever but once you hand over the keys to this type of personality they've got the wheel and they're driving - sit in the back and shut up.

Pye wasn't a moron and for someone to come in and take control they get the responsibility. You want 'big boy' influence, then you accept the results like a big boy.
Pye found the one college president job he could use his talents for, and then immediately showed his shortcoming for his vision for the school forward - that's entirely on him.