When we say Poor Aggies...its not Joke. They are running out of money. The Athletic Department staff is lot smaller this morning.
Building Champions - a little cheaper
Published Friday, July 03, 2009 2:21 AM
By Robert Cessna
robert.cessna@theeagle.com
View all Robert's Blogs
Billy Pickard, Jim Kotch and Chris Harrell became mere numbers Thursday as the Texas A&M athletics department had to whittle another million off the budget to complete a mandated $4.5 million budget cut.
It's so disheartening, because they are much more than that. They are pillars of the community, good friends and hard workers. But most of all they are good people. They are guys who always represented A&M in the best possible way, mostly because they are men of character.
Those qualities, though, don't translate into cash - or in this case, savings.
Money. It always gets back to money, even in an athletics department with an annual budget of $70 million.
Pickard, Kotch and Harrell along with approximately 10 others (reportedly, four positions already were vacated) will pay the price for a struggling economy or poor management - or maybe a combination of the two.
These layoffs are not shocking. Budget cuts in athletics departments throughout the country have been well documented. Ditto in the private sector. I work in an industry that's seen massive layoffs and cost cutting. The message might remain the same, but the bloggers almost change daily.
A&M's layoffs, though, are somewhat different. What about that $16 million loan that former president Bob Gates gave athletics director Bill Byrne? What part does it play? How will we remember it in say 20 years? Did it make A&M competitive across the board, but what will be the final price?
What would have happened this week had the athletics department not accepted that loan? Maybe, no layoffs? But would A&M have finished 13th in the Directors' Cup this year and a record 12th last year without it? Or would it have been 33rd and 32nd? Unfortunately for the football program, that $16 million loan bought it only a 25-24 record in the last four years, which is unacceptable, much like the layoffs.
But the bottom line is the athletics department has to repay that loan starting in November. So they made cuts. A&M could have reduced salaries across the board or made employees take unpaid days off (furloughs), which the state of South Carolina was one of the first to implement.
Whatever plan A&M adopted, there would have been upset folks. These are no-win situations. You can blame Byrne, you can blame Gates, you can blame the economy. There will be those who will blame former football coach Dennis Franchione for not winning more and leaving town with a cool $4.4 million.
I don't know who to blame, even though I minored in economics. These are tough times. I know those who got canned aren't to blame, which is what really makes this stink.
Pickard, Kotch and Harrell were excellent workers. I don't know that for a fact, since I wasn't their supervisor. A guy once told me I didn't live in his town and pay taxes there, so I had no right telling him and his neighbors what to do. He was right.
But I do know this. Pickard and Kotch worked a combined 73 years at A&M. Harrell was a full-time SID for 10 years. That speaks volumes. These guys loved their jobs and they love A&M. Poor Jim Kotch, he deserved much better. He once was ticket manager, always a tough job, but those duties were transferred a few years back to the 12th Man Foundation, and Kotch was forced to do something else. Kotch is again on the move. Hopefully, he'll land on his feet. Pickard is an A&M institution. Hopefully, he got a good settlement and will be hanging around. Aggies need Pickard. Harrell poured his heart into women's swimming and equestrian. It was hard to say no when Chris called or e-mailed.
Someone, though, gave them the cruelest no possible. They no longer have the jobs they wanted.
Dave South, the voice of the Aggies, also was somewhat a casualty. Officials granted his request to become a part-time employee. He will continue to boom his voice for the Aggies and get paid by Texas A&M Sports Properties through a deal with Learfield Sports.
"It's the best it's ever been," is the standard comeback for the upbeat South if you ask him how his day is going.
I doubt if he said that on A&M's Black Thursday.
Aggies already are worried about beating Arkansas, OU, Tech and Texas, but first they need to root that guys like Kotch and Harrell land on their feet.
Before Aggies can build more champions, they need to take care of the winners they've been forced to show the door or else A&M will cease being well, A&M.
Building Champions - a little cheaper
Published Friday, July 03, 2009 2:21 AM
By Robert Cessna
robert.cessna@theeagle.com
View all Robert's Blogs
Billy Pickard, Jim Kotch and Chris Harrell became mere numbers Thursday as the Texas A&M athletics department had to whittle another million off the budget to complete a mandated $4.5 million budget cut.
It's so disheartening, because they are much more than that. They are pillars of the community, good friends and hard workers. But most of all they are good people. They are guys who always represented A&M in the best possible way, mostly because they are men of character.
Those qualities, though, don't translate into cash - or in this case, savings.
Money. It always gets back to money, even in an athletics department with an annual budget of $70 million.
Pickard, Kotch and Harrell along with approximately 10 others (reportedly, four positions already were vacated) will pay the price for a struggling economy or poor management - or maybe a combination of the two.
These layoffs are not shocking. Budget cuts in athletics departments throughout the country have been well documented. Ditto in the private sector. I work in an industry that's seen massive layoffs and cost cutting. The message might remain the same, but the bloggers almost change daily.
A&M's layoffs, though, are somewhat different. What about that $16 million loan that former president Bob Gates gave athletics director Bill Byrne? What part does it play? How will we remember it in say 20 years? Did it make A&M competitive across the board, but what will be the final price?
What would have happened this week had the athletics department not accepted that loan? Maybe, no layoffs? But would A&M have finished 13th in the Directors' Cup this year and a record 12th last year without it? Or would it have been 33rd and 32nd? Unfortunately for the football program, that $16 million loan bought it only a 25-24 record in the last four years, which is unacceptable, much like the layoffs.
But the bottom line is the athletics department has to repay that loan starting in November. So they made cuts. A&M could have reduced salaries across the board or made employees take unpaid days off (furloughs), which the state of South Carolina was one of the first to implement.
Whatever plan A&M adopted, there would have been upset folks. These are no-win situations. You can blame Byrne, you can blame Gates, you can blame the economy. There will be those who will blame former football coach Dennis Franchione for not winning more and leaving town with a cool $4.4 million.
I don't know who to blame, even though I minored in economics. These are tough times. I know those who got canned aren't to blame, which is what really makes this stink.
Pickard, Kotch and Harrell were excellent workers. I don't know that for a fact, since I wasn't their supervisor. A guy once told me I didn't live in his town and pay taxes there, so I had no right telling him and his neighbors what to do. He was right.
But I do know this. Pickard and Kotch worked a combined 73 years at A&M. Harrell was a full-time SID for 10 years. That speaks volumes. These guys loved their jobs and they love A&M. Poor Jim Kotch, he deserved much better. He once was ticket manager, always a tough job, but those duties were transferred a few years back to the 12th Man Foundation, and Kotch was forced to do something else. Kotch is again on the move. Hopefully, he'll land on his feet. Pickard is an A&M institution. Hopefully, he got a good settlement and will be hanging around. Aggies need Pickard. Harrell poured his heart into women's swimming and equestrian. It was hard to say no when Chris called or e-mailed.
Someone, though, gave them the cruelest no possible. They no longer have the jobs they wanted.
Dave South, the voice of the Aggies, also was somewhat a casualty. Officials granted his request to become a part-time employee. He will continue to boom his voice for the Aggies and get paid by Texas A&M Sports Properties through a deal with Learfield Sports.
"It's the best it's ever been," is the standard comeback for the upbeat South if you ask him how his day is going.
I doubt if he said that on A&M's Black Thursday.
Aggies already are worried about beating Arkansas, OU, Tech and Texas, but first they need to root that guys like Kotch and Harrell land on their feet.
Before Aggies can build more champions, they need to take care of the winners they've been forced to show the door or else A&M will cease being well, A&M.
