UNM’s Krebs did one thing right: He quit

You can criticize Paul Krebs for a lot of things regarding the disfunctionalilty of The University of New Mexico athletic department, but he can do one thing right.

The former athletic director sure knows when it’s time to leave.

Monday’s revelation that the athletic department had yet to collect $435,000 for payments of those “hot-item” suites in The Pit was just another black mark on Krebs’ tenure. Krebs had to be acutely aware this piece of information would become public, especially as UNM administrators, the state’s Attorney General’s and State Auditor’s offices along with the media smelled scandal brewing after the golf junket fiasco.

Add to that the shoddy way he handled the exit of men’s basketball coach Craig Neal, decreasing revenue and shrinking attendance figures for football and men’s basketball plus an athletic department budget that finished the fiscal year in the black just twice in the past 10 years, and Krebs knew he was soon to be an athletic director looking for a new job.

After all, you can only spend so much of other people’s money before they start asking about it. The athletic department clearly lost control of its fiscal sensibilities long before Krebs’ departure. It was like he had a no-limit credit card and dared to push the boundaries of it until somebody stopped him. Yeah, he made needed improvements to many of the school’s facilities (baseball, football and tennis in particular) and the school had some athletic success. Those highlights are grossly overshadowed by Krebs’ fiscal negligence.

Krebs’ biggest blight is spending $60 million to ruin the department’s greatest asset — The Pit. Even worse, the remodel didn’t even address one of the chief reasons for it — to bring in NCAA Tournament games. Because the court does not fit the cookie-cutter dimensions the NCAA wants for its tournament floor, chances are The Pit will never see another March Madness game again.

Krebs also ran off the best football coach the school ever had (Rocky Long, and don’t believe the narrative that he resigned on his own accord), then hired a Long clone in Bob Davie when splashy hire Mike Locksley’s sizzle fizzled rapidly. Now, Davie has the football team where Long left it in 2008 — perhaps in a better position — but who would know it?

The community practically ignored the football team over the past two years, and Krebs has to wear that because the department appeared so blasé about letting the town know about it.

And then there’s the men’s basketball program. In hindsight, Neal was the wrong hire for the program, but it wasn’t apparent in 2013. When South Florida showed interest in Neal after an initial 27-7 record, Krebs extended Neal’s contract and saddled the department with a draconian $950,000 buyout clause. As Neal’s star plummeted and Lobos fans groused about it, the buyout became the overriding factor in delaying Neal’s dismissal.

Money became the overriding factor in Krebs’ demise at UNM.

It’s too bad the wrong party is paying for it now.