Todd Turner gone as AD at Vandy

A massive restructuring of the entire program is being started by Vanderbilt Chancellor Grodon Gee. Various articles follow.

Turner out as AD in restructuring
By Mike Organ, Staff Writer, Nashville Tennessean

After Athletic Director Todd Turner said goodbye to Vanderbilt's coaches in a staff meeting yesterday morning, the coaches turned their attention to Chancellor Gordon Gee.

Gee is now the one who holds their future in his hands and must convince them that his revolutionary concept of integrating athletics into the general university environment at an NCAA Division I school will benefit their individual sports programs.

''Change is hard,'' Gee said. ''And they're going to test me. I think I have credibility because I've been to the top of the mountains probably more than most of them in terms of intercollegiate athletics. They're going to test this issue and I think that most of them will be cheerfully on board once we see the kind of success that will come from it.''

Yesterday, Gee announced a major restructuring of athletics at Vanderbilt. The former athletic department will be folded into the ''Office of Student Athletics, Recreation and Wellness,'' which will oversee the Commodores' 14 varsity sports, their more than 300 varsity student-athletes, their 37 club sports and the university's intramural athletic program.

Turner's ultimate downfall may have been his struggle with the athletic department's budget, which was trimmed by $1.5 million this year, according to John Rich, one of the program's top boosters. A dwindling fan base and drop-off in fundraising has put the athletic department in a financial bind.

''Obviously [Turner] had some disagreements with the chancellor and the vice chancellors, some of which I don't know. I'm not privy to the inside workings of the university,'' Rich said. ''It could have had something to do with the budget and spending the money, that kind of thing. As far as I know, he is a highly respected man in the business, and I'm sure he'll be able to get another job and be very successful.''

Turner, whom Gee asked to serve as special assistant to the chancellor for athletics/academic reform, declined to comment.

While each coach contacted by The Tennessean said he or she was stunned by Turner's ousting, some seemed to accept more readily the new structure being put in place.

''I have a lot of respect for Todd Turner as an athletic director,'' football coach Bobby Johnson said. ''I really count him as one of my closest friends now and I haven't known him that long, so that shows you how much I think of him. I feel for Todd, but we've got to move on.

''Chancellor Gee met with the entire athletics department and assured all of us, not just football, that he is there to help us be successful. And I believe him. He talked about the reorganization and how we're going to do it, and it's an interesting theory.''

Ken Flach was the most successful coach at Vanderbilt this past season. His men's tennis team finished as the NCAA runner-up.

''I think we all like Todd, we feel for Todd — it's just a freaking hard job,'' Flach said. ''What was good to hear was that Gordon is fully committed to playing Division I, SEC football, basketball, all sports. I think we were all worried that, 'Oh no, we're going Division III or something.' And that's just not the case. …

''We worried about a backlash with all of our recruits walking around here. We just don't want a lot of negative press that says, 'Vanderbilt is giving up on athletics,' or anything like that.''

Women's cross country coach Jim Spivey said as another new coach he feels like Johnson does in many ways, but may have a better understanding of Gee's plan because of his connections to Brown, where Gee served as chancellor before coming to Vanderbilt.

''We have one senior, one junior, eight sophomores and seven freshmen so I'm probably a lot like Bobby Johnson in that we're in the building process,'' Spivey said. ''For the long term, where are athletics going to be? Gordon makes it sound like it's going to be the greatest ever. So I look at him and I have to believe what he says is truthful. I look at Brown University, I have a good friend there who is the cross country coach, and he said that Gordon Gee always had athletics in his heart.''

Spivey said he understands Gee's passion to bring the school's athletes and non-athletes together.

''The No. 1 goal for our kids is the relationship they have with the students and athletics as it is combined,'' Spivey said. ''I personally think we do a great job compared to other universities. That's my personal feeling for where athletics is tied in with the university. Gordon wants to move that even further. I think we do a great job and I think we can do a better job though.''

Men's soccer coach Tim McClements was so caught off guard by Turner's dismissal that he hasn't yet decided how he feels.

''I have not had enough time to let it all sink in; we just got the news two hours ago,'' McClements said. ''I think we have to take a look at the new plan and the changes that were made and let it all sink in. It's difficult to react when you just haven't had time to think about it. I will say Todd was great — very supportive.''

Men's basketball coach Kevin Stallings and women's coach Melanie Balcomb left for in-home recruiting trips shortly after hearing the news and did not return calls.

Women's soccer coach Ronnie Hill said the way Gee explained the new plan provided assurance that the administration still is committed to building winning programs.

''While (Gee's) new reform might seem radical I think it's imperative that people understand that we are still committed to our goal of competing in the Southeastern Conference,'' she said.

Johnson, for whom Turner was a huge supporter, said he would like to see Turner stay at Vanderbilt, even in the limited role offered to him by the chancellor.

''I hope it's going to work out that he can stay around the university if he wants to stay around,'' Johnson said. ''Because I think he's an asset.''

 

Vanderbilt announces athletics program restructuring
Vanderbilt News Office
9-9-2003

NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Saying that intercollegiate athletics must be totally integrated into the academic and student life of the University in order to survive, Chancellor Gordon Gee today announced a major restructuring of the Vanderbilt athletics program.

Under the new organization, Vanderbilt will bring together intercollegiate sports and recreational activities for students in a single department that will be part of the Division of Student Life and University Affairs. In addition, the University will take a leadership role in the national reform agenda for college sports.

“For too long, college athletics has been segregated from the core mission of the University. As a result, we have created a culture, both on this campus and nationally, that is disconnected from our students, faculty and other constituents, where responsibility is diffuse, the potential for abuse considerable and the costs – both financial and academic -- unsustainable,” said Gee. “Nothing short of a revolution will stop what has become a crisis of conscience and integrity for colleges and universities in this country. Let there be no misunderstanding of our intention: Vanderbilt is committed to competing at the highest levels in the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA, but we intend on competing consistent with the values of a world-class university.”

Gee has asked David Williams II, vice chancellor for student life and university affairs, himself one of the most respected executives in college athletics, to lead the development of this new structure. Before joining Vanderbilt in 2000, Williams served as vice president for student life and community affairs at Ohio State University, where the nation’s largest intercollegiate athletic program reported to him.

In the most significant change, Vanderbilt will combine the programs and operations of its varsity sports with those of student recreation, intramurals and community sports programs into the new Office of Student Athletics, Recreation and Wellness. Assistant Vice Chancellor Brock Williams, a longtime Vanderbilt administrator, will directly oversee the day-to-day internal operations of the new office, which is now responsible for 14 varsity sports, more than 300 varsity student athletes, 37 club sports with more than 1,000 participants and an active student intramural program.

Other changes will affect the operational and support elements for Vanderbilt athletics:

--Management of all sports facilities, including Vanderbilt Stadium, Memorial Gymnasium, Charlie Hawkins Field, the Currey Tennis Center, as well as the Student Recreation Center and playing fields, will be consolidated in a new Office of Facilities and Conferences initially under the leadership of Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life Steve Caldwell. This will allow Vanderbilt to accommodate student activities as well as additional community programs and conference services.
--The University’s award-winning Division of Public Affairs, led by Vice Chancellor Michael Schoenfeld, will assume responsibility for athletics media relations, marketing, broadcasting, publications and websites, working in close coordination with the Office of Student Athletics, Recreation and Wellness.
--The National Commodore Club will continue to serve fans and donors under the aegis of Robert Early, executive associate vice chancellor for development and alumni relations, along with the Major Gifts Office and annual fundraising campaigns.
--Financial and administrative operations, including the ticket office, will be combined with the Division of Student Life and University Affairs under the leadership of Patricia Marett, associate vice chancellor and chief of staff for the Division of Student Life and University Affairs.
--Lucius T. Outlaw, associate provost and professor of philosophy and African American studies, will assess and assist in making any necessary changes to better coordinate the academic support activity with academic advising provided by the faculty.

“This is about students and coaches,” said Gee. “We have assembled perhaps the best cadre of coaches in this country. They are dedicated to team success and individual growth, and we will provide them an environment in which they can thrive as members of a vibrant and enthusiastic university community in which they are valued as teachers and mentors.”

Todd Turner, who has served as director of athletics since 1996, has been asked to serve as special assistant to the Chancellor for athletic/academic reform. In this expanded role, Turner would focus on advancing a national agenda for the reform of intercollegiate athletics. Turner currently serves as chairman of the NCAA’s Incentives and Disincentives Committee, which has developed proposals for sweeping changes designed to improve the academic performance of athletes.

“Vanderbilt cannot be a passive observer of athletic reform on the national scene – we simply must be an active participant,” said Gee. “And the only way we can do that is to have a full-time, constant presence at the highest levels. Todd is a forceful and respected advocate for the highest ideals of college sports.”

Under Turner’s leadership, Vanderbilt completed its most expansive capital construction project in its history, building or renovating state-of-the-art facilities for football, baseball, soccer, lacrosse and golf while achieving significant success in a number of sports. The University was also recognized for its consistently high academic achievement and graduation rates of student athletes.

Gee said he hoped the new Vanderbilt structure could be a model for other universities seeking respite from the increasing disenfranchisement of big-time athletics programs from the university, but he is under no illusion that systemic changes will be quick or easy.

“There are many who say that the entrenched interests – television, alumni, legislators, among others – will never truly accept anything less than a continuation of the status quo,” said Gee. “But that is simply unacceptable -- as educators, we have an obligation to try to make things better. I love college sports. However, institutions of higher learning are in danger of being torn apart by the ‘win at all costs’ culture we have created for ourselves.”

Added Gee: “I am confident that Vanderbilt will compete at the highest levels. We will make Vanderbilt athletics fun and something that every student, faculty member, alumnus and sidewalk fan can be proud of, and participate in. And we will thrive with an athletic program that puts the goals of the University first.”

 

Vanderbilt restructures, scraps athletics department, Division I sports remain but will be under new philosophy
By Michael Cass, Staff Writer, Nashville Tennessean

Vanderbilt University could become a national example of reform if Chancellor Gordon Gee's athletic reorganization plan works out.

Gee announced yesterday the plan to scrap Vanderbilt's existing athletics department, saying athletics has gotten too far away from the rest of the university and its core mission: academics. While Vanderbilt will continue to play football, basketball and other intercollegiate sports, student athletes are expected to become more a part of daily campus life, and the same administrator will oversee employees involved with varsity athletics and organizers of intramural sports.

''This is a different way of thinking,'' Gee said in an interview. ''It's a return to the first principles of why we started playing games at universities in the first place — for a confluence of mind and body and spirit.''

Whether the plans will produce real reform or merely amount to a new look remains to be seen, but Gee said the changes don't mean Vanderbilt is inching toward an easier level of competition than the NCAA's Division I and the Southeastern Conference.

They do mean a reassignment or departure for Todd Turner, Vanderbilt's athletic director for the past seven years. Gee said Turner, who declined to comment, will have a chance to serve as a ''special assistant to the chancellor for athletic/academic reform.'' The move, effective immediately, stunned Commodores coaches.

The athletic department as it has been constituted for years at Vanderbilt and other universities — as an entity devoted entirely to varsity sports — will be a thing of the past at the Nashville school. Department employees now will report to Brock Williams, assistant vice chancellor for student life. He will report to David Williams, the university's vice chancellor for student life and general counsel.

Brock Williams, not related to David Williams, will head a new Office of Student Athletics, Recreation and Wellness, which will coordinate intercollegiate athletics and student recreation activities. David Williams said Brock Williams will be expected to spend most of his time at McGugin Center, the university's athletic headquarters, while other officials handle day-to-day duties in recreation and wellness.

McGugin is on the western edge of Vanderbilt's campus, and David Williams said Vanderbilt's student athletes have been on the edge of student life for years. While they live in the same residence halls and take the same classes, they don't participate in many of the same clubs and organizations. Williams said some former student athletes have said they didn't feel they were really a part of campus life.

''We've got to figure out how we can get them more integrated into the university,'' said Williams, who has been overseeing the athletic department for more than a year and did similar work at Ohio State University, where Gee was president from 1990 to 1998. ''Is there a portion of the college experience that they're not getting a dose of?''

Williams said that when he went to school at Northern Michigan University, very few employees worked only with athletes. He said he hopes Vanderbilt can get closer to that model.

''There is a bigger university, and you need to be a part of that university,'' he said.

Vanderbilt coaches said they were shocked by Turner's dismissal and would have to wait to see the effects of the announced changes, but they said they would put their faith in Gee, an avid sports fan who has been active in national discussions of reforming intercollegiate athletics.

''Our feelings are mixed right now because we're saddened by the loss of our leader, Todd Turner, whom we all believed in greatly, and we thought he gave tremendous support to the athletic program,'' women's soccer coach Ronnie Hill said. ''However, we now have to refocus our energy and give our support and trust in the chancellor.''

Vanderbilt head football coach Bobby Johnson would not allow his players to discuss the issue with reporters after yesterday's practice.

Sheldon Steinbach, general counsel of the American Council on Education, a national higher education organization, said Gee sent a strong message.

''It's certainly a detailed, but I think dramatic, affirmation of a desire by the chancellor to get his hands around the athletic program and have it be part and parcel of the university, rather than existing as a fringe element,'' he said.

Steinbach said it was hard to know whether other schools would follow Vanderbilt's lead. Every college or university tends to do things its own way, he said, and some might replicate Vanderbilt's basic structure but fill in the blanks differently.

Gee and several Vanderbilt athletic boosters said the university remained committed to competing in the SEC, in which it is the only private school and has often struggled. Vanderbilt's football team hasn't had a winning season since 1982, though the men's tennis team finished second in the country last year.

John Ingram, vice chairman of the Athletic Committee of the university's Board of Trust, said the plan was ''emphatically not'' a signal that Vanderbilt would downsize its athletic program.

''If it were, I wouldn't stay involved,'' he said. ''I really think that's first and foremost. Our goals to compete at the highest levels remain the same.''

Gee, who described the ideas as fiscally prudent rather than as cutbacks, said he didn't intend ''unilateral disarmament'' in the athletic ''arms race'' of high salaries for head coaches and awe-inspiring facilities. But he said it was time for Vanderbilt to get back to some of its older values.

''We can be competitive by doing things in a way that makes the best sense for Vanderbilt,'' he said.

 

Are you in or out?

Gee whiz, what happens when no one follows Vandy's lead?
Commentary by David Climer, Staff Writer, Nashville Tennessean

For years, I've defended Vanderbilt's role in the Southeastern Conference. To me, Vanderbilt needs the SEC and the financial support it assures, but the SEC also needs Vanderbilt and the credibility it brings.

In a world of checks and balances, the SEC wrote the check and Vanderbilt brought some balance.

Things changed yesterday. Vanderbilt called in sick. Too bad. Take two Ivy Leagues and call me in the morning.

In a self-indulgent announcement made all the more bizarre by its awkward timing, Vanderbilt fired its athletics director, restructured its athletics program and appointed itself the beacon for national reform of college sports — in no particular order.

An unsolicited word of advice: Achieve success in a sport that really matters to the masses (Sorry, men's tennis and women's golf need not apply) and then promote yourself as a model for doing things the right way.

But that's not Vanderbilt's style. Gordon Gee has charted a course intended to — and I quote from the university's news release here — ''take a leadership role in the national reform agenda for college sports.''

Funny, but I thought Vanderbilt already had done that. Of all the schools in the SEC, Vanderbilt is the one that has it most together in terms of integrating its athletes into the total university experience. You need more than a bare-bones SAT to get into school. There is no welding major in which to hide at-risk athletes. Just because you average 20 points a game, you are not exempt from final exams.

And now you deem it necessary to realign a department so scholarship athletes will intermingle with intramural players? Who's piloting this ship, Commodore Pollyanna?

The model Gee is promoting is the same one in place at his previous administrative stop, Brown University. There, the intercollegiate athletics program falls under the umbrella of the Office of Recreation, Fitness and Wellness. At Vanderbilt, varsity sports are being folded into the new Office of Student Athletics, Recreation and Wellness.

This just in: Brown is in the Ivy League. Vanderbilt is in the SEC. For now.

All of which kind of makes you wonder what will transpire at Vanderbilt Stadium on Saturday, an SEC football game between the Commodores and Auburn or a flag football game between Carmichael West and Chi Omega.

In stating his agenda, Gee said: ''Vanderbilt is committed to competing at the highest levels in the Southeastern Conference and the NCAA, but we intend on competing consistent with the values of a world-class university.''

But the rest of the SEC and most of the NCAA are not committed to competing consistent with the values of a world-class university. Oh, they talk a good game. They'll even slap you on the back and nod along while you're extolling the virtues of reform in intercollegiate athletics.

Hey, everybody thinks it's just peachy when you graduate a large percentage of players and win most of your football games. There's nothing quite like holding a sheepskin in one hand and a Sugar Bowl trophy in the other.

But when push comes to shove, few will follow you very far down this path. They'll give a little ground on tying graduation rates to scholarship allotments. They'll even accept tougher policing of their indiscretions. But they still think the good of college sports outweighs the bad.

If Gordon Gee is surprised by this, then he needs to loosen the knot in that bow tie.

Meanwhile, the SEC office awaits word from Kirkland Hall: Are you in or are you out?

 

I like this move. It is cool that a BCS school is fed up with modern day college athletics. Had a non BCS school done this, it would have less meaning.

 

metro, I think you may see this occur as more D-I schools, though they will probably be of the private variety, Duke, Wake Forest and especially at this time, Baylor come to mind.

I wonder if it would've made much difference had Vandy traditionally been powerhouses in some of the major sports.

 

It's probably the sort of thing that is going to start at the bottom and work up. Schools with large endowments and sucky sports programs. Kind of let the pros build their own farm system and get back to the student athletes because well own real student athletes can't compete with fake ones. would be nice to see the vanderblts and wakes and davidsons playing one another again in gentlemanly contests. No really.

 

Turner did a lot of things at State that I never agreed with.