When he was the University of Hawaii athletic director, Ray Nagel liked to describe the job of operating the state’s only major college athletic program as "daily crisis management."
And that was in the early 1980s, when he could smile about the turbulent period he had just piloted UH through.
Nagel, who was the AD from 1976 through 1983, guided the rise out of an NCAA scandal amid wholesale athletic department turnover, heavy governmental and booster meddling and facilities deficiencies to help bring UH to a solid Division I footing and entrance into the Western Athletic Conference in 1979.
Monday, Ben Jay, formerly an associate AD at Ohio State, officially moves into the office that Nagel operated out of in his later years and is charged with bringing the department out of one of the most turbulent chapters in its history.
Though all six ADs of the Division I era have faced significant challenges running a major college program 2,500 miles from the mainstream, the task Jay inherits might be the most arduous encountered since Nagel stepped aboard from Washington State.
Or, as a media executive put it recently, "The two questions everybody wanted to ask at Jay’s opening press conference were: ‘Do you know what you’re getting yourself into?’ and ‘What the (bleep) were you thinking when you took it?’ "
Jay’s predecessor, Jim Donovan, was reassigned in July after he fell out of favor with the administration, the department lost $200,000 in the Stevie Wonder Blunder and the political infighting made for juicy testimony in two state Senate hearings televised statewide.
Here are the major issues confronting Jay:
1. The budget
At some point someone is going to have to make a decision on what is to be done with the fiscal cliff the athletic department has been operating on for a decade.
As the $11.3 million accumulated net deficit suggests, the outdated financial model for running a competitive athletic department is badly broken, and it looks like it has fallen to Jay to come up with a solution.
Whether that is getting the university to forgive the deficits over the howls of other units on campus, UH contributing more toward the operation, the Legislature coming through with some aid, an aggressive fundraising effort by the athletic department or an outside-the-box remedy, the hot potato has landed in Jay’s lap.
The UH athletic department ran a $1.8 million deficit for the fiscal year that closed June 30 and projects a $2.3 million — and climbing — deficit for the current one.
The last AD to have an open checkbook was Herman Frazier (2002-08), when Evan Dobelle was UH president — which was also, not coincidentally, when the era of accumulated net deficits began.
2. Conference musical chairs
The announcement of Jay as Hawaii’s new AD was barely out of UH Chancellor Tom Apple’s mouth in December when college football’s tectonic plates began shifting, again.
Since Jay accepted the job, Boise State has negotiated its way back into the Mountain West Conference — though who knows for how long. San Diego State has first right of refusal to come back by the end of the month, while the conference said it has talked to several other schools.
Meanwhile, UH is but a partial MWC partner as a football-only member with limited leverage, while most of its other teams are in their inaugural year in the Big West.
It will be up to Jay not only to get a grip on what’s going on, but to position UH for the future.
It is probably not lost on Jay that one of the reasons there was a job opening at UH was that the administration professed a dissatisfaction with the way his predecessor responded to the breakup of the Western Athletic Conference in 2010.
Or, as UH President M.R.C. Greenwood succinctly put it when asked about where Donovan and the administration began to part ways, she said, "The WAC and Mac" (football coach Greg McMackin).
3. Autonomy
How much unfettered control will Jay retain in the operation of the athletic department?
Early in her presidency, Greenwood used to label athletics as "Virginia’s teams" a reference to then-UH Chancellor Virginia S. Hinshaw that illustrated Bachman Hall’s detachment from the department.
But increasingly, Greenwood’s office, as well as that of the regents, became involved in a series of issues. Even the governor offered "suggestions."
Will Jay, as hearing testimony suggested was the case for Donovan, be dictated to on a choice of committee members in picking a new coach and overruled on coaches’ contracts? Will he even be required to continue with the cumbersome committee system?
Donovan had strong support from the governor and legislators, many of whom sought to get him restored as AD. Will Jay, who has few ties in the islands, also be able to line up political support?
4. Public perception
The confluence of the Wonder Blunder, infighting, mounting deficits and consecutive losing football seasons has left UH with an image problem. So much so that it has rekindled the issue of how much a university really needs an athletic program.
When the "front porch for the university" as former president David McClain used to refer to athletics, is in disrepair, for better or worse, the pall is noted statewide.
The choice of Jay, as some on the search advisory committee have suggested, is partially calculated to bring a fresh face to the department and put new eyes on its problems.
That Jay is considered an "outsider" here "is actually a good thing," said one person involved in the process. "He starts with a clean slate in most minds, which is what UH needs right now."
Various constituencies, boosters, faculty and staff have generally reacted favorably to Jay’s selection, or at least been willing to give him room before rendering an opinion.
5. Scheduling
In recent months, responsibility for football scheduling has passed from the administration, where it had been for most of the 37 years of UH’s Division I existence, to the football coach.
Does Jay reclaim it since football, even in the current down times, is the department’s biggest money-maker?
And, if he keeps it under his purview with input from coach Norm Chow, what philosophy does he bring to the process? For example, will so-called "guarantee" games in which UH plays a marquee nonconference foe on the mainland for a large financial guarantee become a feature?
Donovan preferred to schedule nonconference road games on a home-and-home basis, but his predecessor, Frazier, scheduled UH for one-shot paycheck games at Alabama ($650,000) in 2006 and Florida ($600,000) in 2008. Two months ago, acting AD Rockne Freitas secured a purported $1 million deal at Michigan for 2016.
In addition, will Jay take a stronger hand in scheduling for men’s basketball and fill more seats at the half-full 10,300-seat Stan Sheriff Center to help balance the budget?
Sheriff, the late AD who died on the job and for whom the arena is named, used to say, "There’s never a dull day on this job. But I keep hoping."
6. Presenting UH’s case
The NCAA’s almost annual snubbing of the Rainbow Wahine in postseason seeding and placement underlines the need for someone who can persuasively make UH’s case in the halls of power.
Can Jay, with his myriad connections built up over the last couple of decades, convince NCAA headquarters and committees that Hawaii is, indeed a full member and entitled to equality?
And, maybe, even a regional now and then?
