Until they demolish Ryan Field and somehow import a fanbase, no one is solving those issues.
Polisky picked as AD
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Until they demolish Ryan Field and somehow import a fanbase, no one is solving those issues.
Interesting inquiry though - Which is more doable, having someone with a strong marketing background add academic support/student services skills or vice versa? Upon reflection the former seems more tenable IMHO.
With the Washington State AD no longer an option, it really didn't look like any of the other remaining outside candidates had as strong marketing and fund raising backgrounds as those of our now new AD.
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Yep. One of the primary gripes I am seeing about Polisky is that he hasn't solved our attendance problem. Name me an AD at a small, private school in a major metropolitan area who has solved this problem. Polisky might not have solved it in his prior role, but I think his efforts to grow the fan base have been mostly impressive.
What specifically has he done in the last decade to grow the fanbase? Because other than the jump in football attendance between 2009 and 2010, when he was hired, I'm not seeing a lot of growth other than schedule-dependent bumps from opposing fans. And that's not even getting into the basketball debacle with the arena remodel and price-gouging of longtime fans.
The guy is a commercial sorta AD. He was key to removing NU fanbase from a mom and pop, longtime loyalty program to a $$$$. He wouldn't even give longtime supporters grandfather rights to their seats with rights of first refusal. First was the bright idea of $600 for parking lot passes, then that wasn't even good enough as he just scrapped parking lot plans and started anew with parking lot passes based on wildcat points. That meant that those of us who had deep pockets like me could gobble up all of the passes. Problem is that most had even deeper pockets than me, and were pretty much corporate dudes who barely came to games or gave them to corporate accounts. Most ended up going to opposing fans in friendly corporate deals. Thus, booting longtime loyal fans out of the lots and destroying tailgates, and replacing them with "Big dollar" fans who had tons of disloyal corporate clients who flooded the lots with opposing flags created an infestation of opposing fans.
Then came the dopey move of abolishing opposing fans and liscense plates or colors. That wad dumb.
But the worse is scheduling trash OOC opponents. It hurts our players matchups for NFL, and makes the price of the ticket too expensive. Should be able to pick up tickets for any of our games for $6 on secondary markets. Parking should be no problem with only 11,000 fans. Tailgating, other than corporate tailgating, has long been gone in the lots. Sorta like this site. Used to be serious discussion but now only polyanna stuff is allowed.
God forbid anyone is not in unform! Site is a shell of what used to flow on this site a couple years ago.
Then came the dopey move of abolishing opposing fans and liscense plates or colors. That wad dumb.
But the worse is scheduling trash OOC opponents. It hurts our players matchups for NFL, and makes the price of the ticket too expensive. Should be able to pick up tickets for any of our games for $6 on secondary markets. Parking should be no problem with only 11,000 fans. Tailgating, other than corporate tailgating, has long been gone in the lots. Sorta like this site. Used to be serious discussion but now only polyanna stuff is allowed.
God forbid anyone is not in unform! Site is a shell of what used to flow on this site a couple years ago.
I heard that Pat Ryan pushed for his promotion and it came with a big donation to the football program. Personally, I think the cheerleader controversy has a lot of validity. Their scholarships were held over their heads when they complained about their treatment by the big fundraisers. They voiced their concerns to the coach who told them to suck it up and deal with inappropriate groping. The coach acted inappropriately, but the insistence that the cheerleaders attend fundraising events clearly came from Polisky and others in AD office. NU also wasted an opportunity to be a leader with the hiring of a female AD.
I know my opinion is likely not popular on this board. Although I will remain a support of NU sports I believe the Polisky hire was a mistake. An outside AD and/or female AD would have been a much wiser decision
There was also a pretty scathing article in The Athletic today....
Greenberg: Is the promotion of Mike Polisky to AD just business as usual at Northwestern?
We all know the hypocrisies of college sports, but Northwestern has always marketed itself as being a little different, even if it’s not.
theathletic.com
Going from bad to worse.....There was also a pretty scathing article in The Athletic today....
Greenberg: Is the promotion of Mike Polisky to AD just business as usual at Northwestern?
We all know the hypocrisies of college sports, but Northwestern has always marketed itself as being a little different, even if it’s not.
This had to be expected by the key decision makers. Hopefully NU’s internal investigation was thorough. One bad revelation turns a local story into a national one.
Are those the same faculty members who don’t bother to show up at the games?
Yes, but care about the integrity of the institution.
Same faculty that teach students and contribute to research, you know, the things that make NU an academic institution
There are 3,300 faculty members at Northwestern. The latest round of protestors totals six from what I've read and the previous letter was signed by 80.
While it is never ideal to have faculty members or other interested parties making public noise, let's not make it out to be a significant chunk of the faculty that is up in arms about the AD selection.
That’s a different point than what was being responded to, which is that faculty opinion shouldn’t be respected just because they don’t go to the games.
But in general faculty stuff is less worrisome than the multiple student athletes who are willing to publicly and formally make accusations against Polisky.
Where are the multiple student athletes who are willing to publicly and formally make accusations against Polisky?
I'm not at all in love with the hire, albeit primarily for reasons not being discussed here. The optics of the hire and announcement/rollout thereof have been absolutely dreadful. But there's no reason to hyperbolize the actual facts at hand as we know them.
Tell that to Wisconsin football. That was what they did with Dave Doeren replacing Mike Hankwitz, though it could be argued Doeren was a better recruiter than Hank. NU's defensive stats improved dramatically after Hank was hired while Wisconsin's defensive stats dropped.*
* I had a bar graph on Photobucket for years showing the dramatic change in defensive performance for both schools before and after Hank was fired and came to NU. I tossed it a month ago thinking I would never need it again. LOL. This is not going to help my "hoarding" issues.
Johnny Vassar in his lawsuit specifically has complaints against Polisky. So does Hayden Richardson in her lawsuit. If you read the tribune article, there’s another cheerleader who singles out Polisky and emphasizes his role when she spoke to the NU internal investigator.
That’s 3 people and counting. All are public and all the accusations were done either in a lawsuit or to an investigator. Tell me where the hyperbole is.
And Vassar voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit without comment nor and real discovery: https://www.martindale.com/legal-news/article_goldberg-segalla-llp_2510554.htm
At the end of the day, we only have one side of both stories. NU did its own homework and was confident enough to move now in naming him AD. Could well turn out to be an awful move, but still not a reason to hyperbolize.
Actually the Vassar suit was re-filed in state court.
Johnnie Vassar’s lawsuit dropped in federal court, re-filed against Northwestern in state court
Former Northwestern men’s basketball player Johnnie Vassar dropped from federal court his antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and Northwestern, and re-filed in Cook County circuit court a similar version of the lawsuit, now solely against the University, earlier this month. Vassar had filed the...
dailynorthwestern.com
There’s still no hyperbole. Even if you are (falsely) discounting what happened with Vassar, we have two cheerleaders who have specific complaints against Polisky. One isolated issue can perhaps be explained. Three separate complaints is not hyperbole, unless you think NU student athletes just get a thrill out of suing their own university.
Actually the Vassar suit was re-filed in state court.
Johnnie Vassar’s lawsuit dropped in federal court, re-filed against Northwestern in state court
Former Northwestern men’s basketball player Johnnie Vassar dropped from federal court his antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA and Northwestern, and re-filed in Cook County circuit court a similar version of the lawsuit, now solely against the University, earlier this month. Vassar had filed the...
There’s still no hyperbole. Even if you are (falsely) discounting what happened with Vassar, we have two cheerleaders who have specific complaints against Polisky. One isolated issue can perhaps be explained. Three separate complaints is not hyperbole, unless you think NU student athletes just get a thrill out of suing their own university.
Kevin Trahan? That you?
Morty wrote a letter published yesterday that notes the search firm hired a former FBI agent and that "there is no information to suggest that Mike engaged in any conduct that is a violation of policy." He also interviewed seven candidates. Interesting stuff.
Is this serious? Are you actually trying to argue that the faculty at NU don’t get to have a voice regarding what kind of person NU hires as a senior member of the administration unless they attend football games? That’s just a silly argument.
Many thoughts here, and I fully acknowledge my opinion does not really matter.
1. I'm wait and see on Polinsky. I don't have any issues, in principle, with the hire (although I would have preferred a student development person over a marketing person). As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I am truly hopeful that NU's investigation of the cheerleading situation actually CLEARED him of any wrongdoing as opposed to "did not find any evidence of violations."
2. I absolutely 100% do not know what happened with the cheerleaders and neither does anyone here. I do work at a university and I will say that *most* college students have a tendency to exaggerate their experiences a bit. Case in point: student rides the el and there is a homeless person sitting across from them becomes, "oh my god this crazy homeless guy almost killed me on the train today," in their creative retelling of the experience. Does this apply to the cheerleader experiences, where they are regularly forced to mingle with you gross old men? I don't know, but I think either side could be exaggerating or downplaying the reality of what happened. I did read one article where the cheerleader asserted that Polinsky "blocked access" to Jim Phillips...and all I can say to that is I probably sent 6-8 emails directly to Phillips during his tenure as a run-of-the-mill fan and he responded to each one personally in less than 12 hours. So...did she try to email him? And if that is being misrepresented...
3. I agree with all the criticism of Morty, Fitz, Ryan that they HAD to see this coming. Did they really think Polinsky was SO much more qualified than Blais, who was good enough to serve as interim director, that it was worth all this bad press? Or was this a classic case of three rich white guys pulling the "you can't tell us what to do!" to support their bro of 10 years?
1. I'm wait and see on Polinsky. I don't have any issues, in principle, with the hire (although I would have preferred a student development person over a marketing person). As I've mentioned in an earlier post, I am truly hopeful that NU's investigation of the cheerleading situation actually CLEARED him of any wrongdoing as opposed to "did not find any evidence of violations."
2. I absolutely 100% do not know what happened with the cheerleaders and neither does anyone here. I do work at a university and I will say that *most* college students have a tendency to exaggerate their experiences a bit. Case in point: student rides the el and there is a homeless person sitting across from them becomes, "oh my god this crazy homeless guy almost killed me on the train today," in their creative retelling of the experience. Does this apply to the cheerleader experiences, where they are regularly forced to mingle with you gross old men? I don't know, but I think either side could be exaggerating or downplaying the reality of what happened. I did read one article where the cheerleader asserted that Polinsky "blocked access" to Jim Phillips...and all I can say to that is I probably sent 6-8 emails directly to Phillips during his tenure as a run-of-the-mill fan and he responded to each one personally in less than 12 hours. So...did she try to email him? And if that is being misrepresented...
3. I agree with all the criticism of Morty, Fitz, Ryan that they HAD to see this coming. Did they really think Polinsky was SO much more qualified than Blais, who was good enough to serve as interim director, that it was worth all this bad press? Or was this a classic case of three rich white guys pulling the "you can't tell us what to do!" to support their bro of 10 years?
Of course it is. It would be incredibly stupid to put forth anything more substantive in the midst of an ongoing lawsuit.
Were Vassar's time cards falsified (he claims his name was outright misspelled on at least one) and, if so, under whose direction did that happen?
The trustees/coaches/donors/other alums on the hiring committee were comfortable with Polisky.
It makes sense from the perspective of continuity as there's already a major transition soon with Schapiro leaving next year.
From the DailyNorthwestern:
'The University also engaged an independent investigator to examine any new or existing concerns of “discrimination, harassment or retaliation,” the release stated. Schapiro wrote the initial inquiry portion of the investigation concluded there is “no information to suggest” Polisky violated policy.
Polisky’s background, the release stated, was also examined through interviews by a former Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisory special agent and a review by a former federal judge. Schapiro wrote that their findings gave him “further confidence” to hire him as athletic director.'
It sounds like they did their due diligence. Of course there's always a non-zero risk of this turning problematic or embarrassing, but this doesn't sound like something that was done without at the very least considering the allegations in the various lawsuits that the AD is dealing with...
I'm fine with the hire, but time will tell as it always does. Some of the media articles about it reek of self-righteous piling on, which is just not a good way to conduct university business. Doesn't mean that the leadership should be tone deaf, but at the same time, if they concluded that Polisky didn't violate any laws including Title IX or any other university policy, then I don't see how you hold it against him as a candidate.
It makes sense from the perspective of continuity as there's already a major transition soon with Schapiro leaving next year.
From the DailyNorthwestern:
'The University also engaged an independent investigator to examine any new or existing concerns of “discrimination, harassment or retaliation,” the release stated. Schapiro wrote the initial inquiry portion of the investigation concluded there is “no information to suggest” Polisky violated policy.
Polisky’s background, the release stated, was also examined through interviews by a former Federal Bureau of Investigation supervisory special agent and a review by a former federal judge. Schapiro wrote that their findings gave him “further confidence” to hire him as athletic director.'
It sounds like they did their due diligence. Of course there's always a non-zero risk of this turning problematic or embarrassing, but this doesn't sound like something that was done without at the very least considering the allegations in the various lawsuits that the AD is dealing with...
I'm fine with the hire, but time will tell as it always does. Some of the media articles about it reek of self-righteous piling on, which is just not a good way to conduct university business. Doesn't mean that the leadership should be tone deaf, but at the same time, if they concluded that Polisky didn't violate any laws including Title IX or any other university policy, then I don't see how you hold it against him as a candidate.
What a novel approach. Look for and hire the best qualified. candidate.
A friend of mine works in the athletic department...here's what he/she says.
- Everyone there loves Polisky, he'll change things up enough to put his personality on it...but keep Jim's culture in tact.
- Anyone blaming any one person for attendance or game experience at Ryan Field is an idiot. The stadium sucks, the team has had a few rough seasons over the past 10 years, it's a small private academic school. Do Duke, Wake, Vandy and Stanford have good attendance? And other than Vandy...those schools are in college towns with nothing else to do.
- Polisky didn't "invent" the internship program in the Vassar case. Plenty of student-athletes who need work study hours or who mess up and need volunteer work end up with the groundskeeping staff, this happens across the country. All Polisky did was support it. Wasn't even his idea.
- The University did do its digging on Polisky, which is why it took so long. He didn't do anything wrong in the cheer case either...
- In addition, he didn't block anyone from going to Jim Phillips...if you have a criminal complaint, you don't take that to the AD, you go to the police or the office on campus that handles that...again, Polisky was just following the proper protocol, why would he allow Phillips to get caught in this mess?
- Which, is the reason MANY people in the athletic department think Jim named his successor. Polsiky would've been interim AD, but that had to appoint Blais with the investigation not over. Jim's fingerprints are ALL over this hire.
- So while Polsiky is a "good guy" and he didn't do anything wrong in EITHER case...many people feel like he got the job because he is Jim's guy, he is a sport administrator to Football, so he's Fitz' guy, and of course Morty and Pat Ryan. White guys looking out for white guys. Good ol boy network.
- Also in the cheer case...b/s is what I'm told, did inappropriate stuff happen? Maybe, and if it did, those people should be charged. But cheer, band, the mascot, sometimes even players are at these events. No one was exploited. Again, cheer going to the press box or donor events isn't unusual, neither is the band or having Willie there. I've been at events where basketball players are assigned tables with donors for dinner. And again, every school does this. It doesn't make it criminal. What's the difference between that and having the cheerleaders go into the stands during a game? The same things can happen, drunk creepy men are still around them. It's gross, they don't deserve it, and if it happens I hope people go to JAIL. But you can't blame Polisky for that (and then turn around and complain about the game atmosphere).
- Time will tell with Polisky, I personally think hiring a Jim-lite is the wrong move.
- The final comment from my friend "As much as I love Mike, Janna should be the AD...they could've still promoted Mike and made him the #2 external person and made Kevin White, the internal/CFO, the #2 internal person. Janna has much better leadership qualities, but it's Mike's name that carries weight when you talk about the Ryan family, raising money and growing the brand."
I appreciate the insights, very helpful. Regarding #3, while all that is true, that’s not what was alleged in the Vassar case. What was alleged is that Collins no longer wanted him on the team because he was not good enough and in order to drive Vassar off they forced an after the fact condition on the student/athlete in order to retain the scholarship. As I said, I have no idea if Polisky was involved in that incident but if he was, he and anyone else involved has no business being part of NU.
Fact, Chris Collins chose to offer Vassar a full scholarship to play basketball as a student athlete at NU, which Vassar accepted
Fact, after a period of time, Vassar was no longer on the basketball team even though he continued to attend NU as a student,
Fact, in order to retain his scholarship at NU, Vassar was forced to accept an after the fact condition that required him to work as a janitor.
None of us know the full details. For all we know CCC told Vassar he wasn’t good enough to see minutes. Vassar didn’t like it and his presence or lack of presence became disruptive. A FU to The team. I got my 4 year ride, I will do whatever I want. There are obligations to keep that 4 year scholarship.
