Oregon Football
Knight brushes off -- even relishes -- some rumors of his meddling, such as one that he suggests plays to football coach Mike Bellotti. Knight laughed at another story making the rounds, one alleging that he was in the replay booth for a controversial call in Oregon's favor during a game earlier this season against the University of Oklahoma.
"Every now and then I give Mike Bellotti a play -- but he hasn't used any of them," he quipped. "The time he starts taking my advice on what to do in football is when I quit donating."
Bill Moos & New AD
He similarly brushes off suggestions that he masterminded last month's resignation of athletic director Bill Moos, with whom Knight clashed in recent years.
Knight said he sharply disagreed with Moos at times, particularly with regards to previous track coach Martin Smith, whose leadership so angered Knight that he and some other alumni temporarily cut off donations to the program. But he maintained that he had nothing to do with Moos' decision to step down, offering in a half-joking tone that "maybe I made his life so miserable" Moos wanted to leave.
But Knight said his up-and-down relationship with Moos during the past 12 years was largely positive. "I had a lot more favorable dealings with him than unfavorable," Knight said. "As I told him, the ratio is something like 12-to-4 of favorable versus unfavorable. And that's better than most of the people at Nike."
He said he is not one of the donors contributing to the $1.8 million financial package that Moos will receive over the next 10 years as part of his resignation agreement.
It remains to be seen how much influence Knight might wield in the selection of a new athletic director. The Nike chairman said he expects the administration will probably "let me know what they're doing, and if I don't like it, I'll say so. But at the end of the day it is (UO President) Dave Frohnmayer's choice, and that's fine."
(In the audio portion of the interview available on-line Knight says the AD job will get "lots of good applicants" because it is a good job what with the increased Athletic Department budget. He says they will get a lot of outside people to apply but based upon his experience at Nike it might be better to hire from inside... he says this in a joking manner)
Basketball Arena
Suspicions about Knight's influence-by-innuendo also percolate with regard to the stalled project to build a new basketball arena to replace aging McArthur Court. Frohnmayer announced the project in 2003 with Knight's financial support. But there has been little progress, sparking questions over whether Knight is holding back funding over displeasure with Moos or men's basketball coach Ernie Kent.(To read the entire interview click on the title above for a link)
Knight, however, said Moos had overly ambitious plans for the arena from the beginning.
"His original thinking was to throw everything but the kitchen sink in there," Knight said, including 24 luxury suites and an alumni center. "It was way more than what anybody was willing to pay."
The university scaled it back, and Knight and other donors committed to the project but it stalled over the university's unwillingness to issue bonds to finance the gap between private donations and higher-than-expected project costs. He remains willing to donate under "certain conditions," which he declined to detail.
"My degree of influence is somewhat overstated," he said, rebutting accusations that he withholds or grants money as a way to achieve results. "I just don't think that's right at all."
