New arena could open can of worms
Depaul ought to be wary of pitfalls of big-time athletics
DePaul once had a big-time basketball program, a highflying show propelled by stars such as Mark Aguirre and Terry Cummings and directed by famous coach Ray Meyer. No more. The Blue Demons are a fly speck in college hoops, a once-was that is so much a not-now. Can you even name their coach? I’ll help. It’s Oliver Purnell. It’s not all Purnell’s fault that the Blue Demons have gone 7-83 in the Big East Conference the last five years.
No, it’s not much of his fault, since he has only been around three seasons.
But it’s somebody’s fault, most likely a whole bunch of people’s faults — from athletic director Jean Lenti Ponsetto to president the Rev. Dennis Holtschneider to all the staff who came before them. And, yes, simply to changing times for urban universities and their priorities.
Nor does DePaul have to have a great or even good or middling basketball program to survive. It could have none at all and flourish.
Remember, DePaul is an institute of higher learning for 25,000 students, the largest Catholic university in the nation. Its purpose is to teach knowledge and impart skills for the rest of its attendees’ lives. Entertainment is not guaranteed.
But here’s the deal: DePaul wants to be big-time in basketball again.
In true Chicago style — that is, with many hands scratching many backs, and many wallets being delicately lifted — a plan calls for DePaul to get a new arena at McCormick Place, a shiny new bauble for Mayor Rahm Emanuel that will cost taxpayers something like $100 million.
This for a team that, according to a report by Crain’s Chicago Business, put only 42,000 fans in seats over the last three years at Allstate Arena. DePaul had reported 127,000 “tickets sold,’’ for its purposes, and you know how these number things go. Anyway, DePaul is in. Big-time or bust. So let’s hope it knows what it’s getting into.
The big-time game is nasty these days, full of immoral souls who see only glory ahead and will do almost anything to get there. En route, those colleges supporting those programs can have their reputations dragged through the filth, their principles undermined, their mission sullied the way an unclean waiter can sully the mission of a fine restaurant.
Winning becomes mandatory because of the economic pressures and the demands from “interested parties.’’ Remember, this is public money building an arena for a private school. Bad coaches can wreak havoc. Take Rutgers. Abusive coach Mike Rice (was he abusive because of the pressure he felt?) gets fired after ugly videos of his screaming, ball-throwing practices arise. Then the athletic director who hired him, Tim Pernetti, takes the next fall.
A new, sharp coach is brought in, former NBA player and Rutgers grad Eddie Jordan. Except he isn’t a grad.
The school hires a search firm to find a quality, unblemished athletic director. In comes former Tennessee volleyball coach Julie Hermann. Hooray!, a woman in this man’s world.
Trouble is, Hermann is no angel, either, being accused by 15 former volleyball players of verbally abusing them years ago. Plus, she had fired an assistant coach for getting pregnant and having a child, costing Tennessee $150,000 in the lawsuit won by the coach.
And a search company paid $70,000 by Rutgers missed this?
Oh, you’d better be careful when you want to play with the big fellows.
And let’s not forget Penn State, the huge-time football program reeling from the Jerry Sandusky sexual-predator fallout. The school has been ordered by the NCAA to pay tens of millions of dollars in fines, and the school has fired back with three lawsuits that will sue the NCAA and Freeh Report author, former FBI head Louis Freeh, and many others back to the T-formation era.
Forget the damage done to one-time saint Joe Paterno or the reputation of the state school of Pennsylvania. You want some of that, DePaul? You gotta get players — real players — and they don’t come easy. Nor are they always prepared for school. Nor do they always care about it.
Ask Notre Dame how it’s working with it’s quarterback situation, after last season’s national championship game quarterback Everett Golson was tossed out of school for academic issues.’
Then, too, you have off-thewall critics like gigantic athletically armed Ohio State president Gordon Gee, a Mormon, who was caught on tape saying that, “You just can’t trust those damn Catholics … ’’
He wasn’t speaking about you, DePaul. He was weighing in on Notre Dame, a fellow religious school. Nice, huh?
The point is, it’s a dangerously petty and wildly dark world out there in big-time college sport. Take care. And good luck.