Then again, the ad also doesn't say that the "successful candidate" will inherit a bit of a train wreck, the demise of the Bill Moos era in a $2 million buyout.
It doesn't say that the "successful candidate," like a character in "Lord of the Rings," will be entrusted with the Thus Far Impossible And Yet Very Important Job of building a new basketball arena by quickly earning the trust of the single donor essential to making that happen.
The decision will be Frohnmayer's, and should be. In my view, at some point, after the groundwork is done, Frohnmayer needs to get on an airplane, or walk over to the Casanova Center, and come back with his arm around his choice. End of story.
That the process doesn't seem closer to that now is disconcerting, given that Frohnmayer and Moos were discussing exit strategies since early last fall, but perhaps that's the process-laden nature of higher education vs. the get-it-done pace of private business.
But there should be a sense of urgency now, a sense that each week that goes past is a week lost toward building a new and ever-more-expensive basketball arena. Price said Frohnmayer "wants to have the person named by April 1, and my goal is to have it done before that."
Where will the search lead? If there is a three- or four-person short list for Oregon - and Price indicated that the university isn't quite that far yet - then, in my view, it should include Tom Jernstedt, the Oregon grad from Carlton who is NCAA senior vice president, and Vin Lananna, the high-powered and visionary associate athletic director and director of track and field, and it would include the best sitting athletic director available, and perhaps an "X factor," if you will, an outside-the-box choice.
At this point, it seems unlikely that the list would include Kentucky football coach Rich Brooks, the former Oregon coach who also served two years as athletic director here. Brooks, who just led Kentucky to victory in the Music City Bowl, said Friday that he is "getting very close" to signing a new deal with the Wildcats that would add three years and a rollover clause to the year he has remaining on his contract.
(To read the entire column click on the title above for a link)
