Who's the boss?
Hierarchies dwindle
College coaches often in charge, not athletic directors

By Berry Tramel

Published: February 19, 2007

Barry Switzer was on some long-forgotten television show, oh, must have been 20 years ago and was asked the best question I've ever heard Switzer asked.

"Who's your boss?”

Switzer being Switzer, he didn't hedge.

"My boss is President Bill Banowsky.”

That was the era of weak athletic directors. ADs rarely hired football coaches, rarely fired football coaches, rarely made meaningful decisions. So Switzer was being totally honest.

But in 2007, athletic directors have risen in stature. Now, more often than not, ADs hire and fire coaches. ADs chart the course of collegiate athletic programs.

Athletic directors once took marching orders from presidents and regents and influential boosters. Now ADs, the good ones, make the call and keep those same powerbrokers informed.

But still, they're not the boss.

Escalating economics continue to impact college sports, and high-salaried coaches do not have to answer to the athletic directors who hire them.

On things of vital import, like scheduling, to items that don't even affect a team, like names on the backs of jerseys, coaches rule and athletic directors follow suit.

Only a few true hierarchies remain, one fewer than last week, because Arkansas dinosaur Frank Broyles stepped down Saturday at the age of 82.

Collegiate sports suffer from the same warped financial model that afflicts major-league sports. Star athletes are the true team bosses; a player making five to 10 times as much as the coach is not subservient. The supervisor ladder is mangled beyond repair.

Same with football and basketball coaches making 10 times as much as an athletic director. We are kidding ourselves to think otherwise.

Awhile back, I asked Bob Stoops who his boss is.

"Well, I've got several,” Stoops said. "Begins with President Boren and Joe Castiglione. Ultimately, President Boren is the boss of the entire university, so he's first with everybody.

"I don't need to show you the tree, do I? I report to Joe Castiglione and it goes from there.”

Stoops is half right. At OU, Boren wields unusual power and calls any shot that interests him, from creating colleges to keeping Bob Barry Sr. as voice of the Sooners.

But no one takes serious the notion that Stoops answers to Castiglione.

On wins and losses, if it reaches a critical juncture that it never has in the Stoops era? OK. Castiglione, with Boren's blessing, could axe Stoops for the high crime of losing football games. But on nothing else does the AD have authority.

Joe C. says his relationship with Stoops is not necessarily employer/employee but rather co-worker.

"I tell coaches, ‘I want you to come to work for us, and if you come to work for us, then I am going to go to work for you,'” Castiglione said.

Joe C. raves about Stoops. Says some of his fellow ADs envy their relationship.

"In some places, they spend more time fighting about things that don't matter,” Castiglione said.

Castiglione admits the relationship has changed since Stoops was hired in December 1998. A national championship, four Big 12 titles and a burgeoning athletic budget changes the dynamics.

"I recognize that,” Castiglione said. "It would matter if you wanted different things. But he understands the institutional environment.”

Maybe. No great reason to think otherwise, but if Stoops doesn't understand the institutional environment, the institution changes, not the coach. That's what winning football and $2.6 million per year in salary does.

That's not the same for Castiglione and new basketball coach Jeff Capel, or for Oklahoma State athletic director Mike Holder and his relatively new and young coaches, Mike Gundy and Sean Sutton.

Young coaches just try to get their footing. At OSU, Holder's still the boss. But he wasn't when Eddie Sutton was coaching hoops.

What happens if Gundy wins big? Will Gundy be the boss? Bet on it.

"I hope you get to ask me that question a few years from now,” Holder said, then quoted from the gospel of Castiglione. "I'm not really too concerned who makes the decisions or how we get there. The objective is to get there.

"Somebody's got to be actually in charge, but if you start worrying about who's making decisions or who's getting credit, you're probably not going to be very successful.”

Call that an attitude of concession. No reason to fight it. Winning coaches rule.