According to “insiders” on the popular N.C. State fan message boards packpride.com and redandwhitefromstate.com head football coach Chuck Amato is finished. These loyal Wolfpack fans have tried, judged and proclaimed the “death sentence” for the embattled football coach. Unfortunately these insiders have little to no insight into Amato’s future employment status.
I don’t want to imply that the individuals posting to these message boards are just flat out wrong — but they are. First, a decision on Amato’s employment has little to nothing to do with his coaching ability or win/loss record. The verdict to let Amato go and buy out his multi-million-dollar contract is purely a monetary decision. And the verdict rests squarely on the shoulders of Chancellor James L. Oblinger. The only other individual whose opinion may matter is University benefactor and trustee chair Wendell Murphy.
Will the Chancellor let Amato go? Oblinger is a relatively new chancellor in the middle of a billion-dollar fundraising campaign. N.C. State is one of a handful of universities to undertake the challenge of raising $1 billion or more. The chancellor’s bosses, the N.C. State Board of Trustees and UNC System President Erskine Bowles, will measure his job performance on the success of the “Achieve!” campaign. Fortunately for the chancellor and his job security, the campaign is on track to reach its goal with more than $950 million raised so far.
The Athletics Department, through the NCSU Student Aid Association (aka Wolfpack Club), has committed to raise $180 million for the Achieve campaign. That’s almost 18 percent of the total goal. The majority of the funds will go towards student-athlete scholarships and the construction of new facilities.
So back to the initial question — will the chancellor fire coach Amato for his poor performance?
Not this year, because Chuck Amato is responsible for the boom in athletics facilities and thus the success of the achieve campaign. The proof is the newly renovated, and, yes, beautiful Carter-Finley Stadium. Improvements include the Wendell H. Murphy Football Center, the Wayne Day Family Field, the Curtis and Jacqueline Dail Football Practice Facility, the C. Richard Vaughn Towers and the north end zone seating. None of this existed before Amato.
But football is not the only beneficiary of Amato’s tenure. Both the tennis and baseball programs have new stadiums — J.W. Isenhour Center and Doak Field. Soccer, track and softball are scheduled to play in new facilities coming online in the next few years.
At this University, rightly or wrongly, the athletics program drives fund-raising. So — Chancellor Oblinger is going to reach the billion-dollar goal, even if it means opposing some vocal members of the Wolfpack family and keeping Amato.
This is not about sports. It’s about money. Donors don’t give multi-million dollar gifts and expect to see the program’s figure head booted out after an underperforming season.
Money should not be the sole factor in determining the tenure of a coach, or even an administrator or faculty member. But it is, and it is a problem facing all of higher education.
According to the 2001 report from the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, “the problems of big-time college sports have grown rather than diminished.”
“The most glaring elements of the problems outlined in this most recent Knight report — academic transgressions, a financial arms race and commercialization — are all evidence of the widening chasm between higher education’s ideals and the reality of college football and basketball,” the report said.
Rightly so, a major focus of the Commission is graduation rates of student athletes. The commission recommended that “Continuing eligibility to participate in intercollegiate athletics will be based on students being able to demonstrate each academic term that they will graduate within five years of their enrolling. Students who do not pass this test will not play,” and “Student-athletes, in each sport, will be graduated in at least the same proportion as nonathletes who have spent comparable time as full-time students.”
In an ideal world head coaches, including Amato, would be judged by the parameters outlined by the Knight Commission. Until all of academia adopts that model we are stuck with the big business of college athletics.
So don’t expect Amato to be going anywhere anytime soon.
Contact Andrew at viewpoint@technicianonline.com.
