The University of Hawaii, it seems, is a good school that does not want to be a great one.
The John A. Burns School of Medicine produces students who consistently score in the top half in the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam. Shidler College of Business is nationally respected. Once upon a time, UH even cloned mice. (Although I live next to a mountain, and it appears mice have no trouble reproducing themselves.)
But when it comes to choosing the next athletic director, UH produces a screening system that appears to favor in-house candidates and eliminates Bill Gates, Mark Cuban, Jerry West, Pat Riley, Michael W. Perry, Oprah, Josh Green, Peter Ho, Barack Obama, and anyone else who does not have three years of collegiate athletics administrative experience. Even Charlie Baker would not qualify. Who? He’s the new NCAA president.
In opening the application process, UH announced a list of minimum and desired qualifications.
Let’s make this simple. There should be only two requirements:
1) A college degree. (This is a decorated research institution; the paper matters.)
2) No felony convictions.
A third, if necessary, could be assurances that there won’t be a long-forgotten tweet that could bite an applicant in the okole. But that’s it. Open it up and see what’s out there. Maybe an on-campus applicant is the best. There certainly are very capable people in Manoa. But we’ll never know until the pool is widened.
There also should be additions to the search advisory committee.
UH men’s volleyball coach Charlie Wade was a wise selection. He has won two national championships with some players from towns that might not show up on Google Maps. He also can spread the financial equivalent of 4.5 scholarships over a 21-man roster. Wade, who probably could feed 16 Thanksgiving guests with one turkey, can ask the tough money questions, like “How are you going to raise more money?”
Women’s basketball coach Laura Beeman, who can identify talent and knows about budgets and leadership, also is on the committee.
Thing is, Wade and Beeman are both in season. It is demanding a lot to prepare for matches and games while sorting through a stack of applications.
Whoever assembled the rest of the committee failed to acknowledge UH is a two-league school. It is a football-only member in the Mountain West, with most of the other sports in the Big West. There is nobody with a football background on the committee. With conference shifts and the race for name, image, likeness hookups and television revenue, UH needs an AD with football or TV connections or both. It’s not too late to extend a committee invitation to former UH football coach Bob Wagner.
The committee also should include former student-athletes. The rules have changed, and players are essentially professionals.
The days of tuition, room and board being good enough began eroding when coaches collected fat paychecks and conferences earned tax-exempt television revenue. By not sharing a little before — pizza money or a cut of NCAA Football video games — schools have to pay more now that players are cashing in on their earning power. That’s today’s reality, from Power Five conferences to restaurants closing because of the lack of servers. To understand what student-athletes need and want, they should be represented on the committee.
The UH job is difficult. The Legislature is like the uncle who gives you a few bucks and then nitpicks about how you spend the money. Mainland uku-billionaires want to buy property not courtside seats. And UH still doesn’t have a permanent football stadium.
UH needs to widen the parameters and expand the search committee. Under the current guidelines, UH might find a good replacement for retiring AD David Matlin. But in these changing landscapes, it needs a great one.