Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 11/5/07 Section: Sports
What's on the Athletic Director's mind?
Andrew Scurria and Sebastien Angel
DP: Given Bagnoli's past success, has he earned the right to sort it out on his own?
SB: Absolutely. He's one of the best coaches the Ivy League has ever had. And there's no question … I mean, this is not the proverbial vote of confidence. He's an excellent coach. And if I sensed at all that he wasn't as committed, or wasn't as dedicated, then I would have concerns. But he will figure it out.
One school is not supposed to dominate in Ivy League football. It's legislated to such a degree by the Ivy League … it's almost like the pros with having a draft and having a salary cap to guarantee parity. That's the way it should work in college football, in Ivy football too. It's regulated in a way that you should have parity over a period of time. The fact that there was over a decade [where] Penn and Harvard won a majority of the championships … that was kind of an anomaly.
DP: Is there an athletics representative on the search committee charged with finding Admissions Dean Lee Stetson's replacement?
SB: Is there an admissions issue on this campus? I wouldn't have known that. [laughs]
There is not [a representative], but I was given the opportunity last week to go and talk to the search committee … I gave them my sense of the historical relationships between athletics and admissions.
DP: What did you communicate to them?
SB: It's not a secret to know that over 30 years we had a very, very good relationship with Lee Stetson and the Admissions office. A supportive relationship is critical to athletics. If you don't have the talent, you can build all the facilities you want, but you're not going to win.
Right now, there's a little bit of anxiety with coaches when there's the unknown of who the next dean's going to be … I'm hoping it's important enough to the institution … that they'll have someone who has, certainly a sensitivity to athletics, hopefully a background working with athletic departments before. Time will tell.
SB: Absolutely. He's one of the best coaches the Ivy League has ever had. And there's no question … I mean, this is not the proverbial vote of confidence. He's an excellent coach. And if I sensed at all that he wasn't as committed, or wasn't as dedicated, then I would have concerns. But he will figure it out.
One school is not supposed to dominate in Ivy League football. It's legislated to such a degree by the Ivy League … it's almost like the pros with having a draft and having a salary cap to guarantee parity. That's the way it should work in college football, in Ivy football too. It's regulated in a way that you should have parity over a period of time. The fact that there was over a decade [where] Penn and Harvard won a majority of the championships … that was kind of an anomaly.
DP: Is there an athletics representative on the search committee charged with finding Admissions Dean Lee Stetson's replacement?
SB: Is there an admissions issue on this campus? I wouldn't have known that. [laughs]
There is not [a representative], but I was given the opportunity last week to go and talk to the search committee … I gave them my sense of the historical relationships between athletics and admissions.
DP: What did you communicate to them?
SB: It's not a secret to know that over 30 years we had a very, very good relationship with Lee Stetson and the Admissions office. A supportive relationship is critical to athletics. If you don't have the talent, you can build all the facilities you want, but you're not going to win.
Right now, there's a little bit of anxiety with coaches when there's the unknown of who the next dean's going to be … I'm hoping it's important enough to the institution … that they'll have someone who has, certainly a sensitivity to athletics, hopefully a background working with athletic departments before. Time will tell.
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