No Experience Nece$$ary: Kilkenny buys influence, job, baseball at Oregon

by InterMat

By Jason Bryant
jbryant@intermatwrestle.com

Microsoft’s Bill Gates is the quintessential college drop out.

The guy shuns the “establishment,” makes his own inroads with the creation of Microsoft, its operating system and nearly every PC coming off the assembly line. He’s a successful individual that did things on his own watch and made billions.

Oregon Athletics Director Pat Kilkenny is similar to Gates for two reasons. He never graduated from college and became the CEO of a very lucrative company.

Now, Kilkenny’s running one of the most lucrative college athletics departments in the country at the University of Oregon – and just cut a sport. Yes, two more were added, but with the buku of bucks flowing through Eugene, there was no shortage of funds to allow baseball and wrestling to co-exist.

Hired in February of 2007, Kilkenny was then the school’s #2 booster. He’d donated large sums of money to Oregon over the years and was only behind Phil Knight (yes, Nike’s Phil Knight) in donations to the program.

With deep pockets and a hankering for a sport his school (not alma mater) didn’t have, Kilkenny scraped together some money and was instrumental (read: the guy behind it) in the $2 million buyout of previous AD Bill Moos.

What does University of Oregon President Dave Frohnmayer do? Hires Kilkenny as the AD.

There’s no doubt the guy knows how to run a business, but in the world of college athletics, isn’t the term “student-athlete” supposed to be the most important part of an educational institution that has sports? You know, student first, athlete second.

Can a man that never graduated from college see any value in a college education from an athletics standpoint? Is college athletics a business or a way to enhance educational opportunities?

Whether we like it or not, we all know that college athletics has become a business, and for that reason, Kilkenny was suited for the role. So he comes in, does some schmoozing and then adds his beloved baseball and axes wrestling – a team that had two All-Americans and its second NCAA Division I champion in 2006.

The University of Oregon’s athletic mission is: “To provide educational opportunities for those interested in athletics-related careers, such as coaching, teaching or administration.”

The hiring of Kilkenny, who is on a two-year contract, shows how much control boosters have over their college of choice. Boosters no longer can give cash, gifts or services to athletes, but they can now run an athletic department.

Rachel Bachman’s February 23 story in The Oregonian pointed out Kilkenny didn’t have a degree and also pointed out that Frohnmayer said the job description for AD didn’t require a degree.

Seems like the fix was in.

Kilkenny basically bought his job, the school omitted the requirement for a degree in publications announcing the opening for an AD and boom, we have a hire, one with deep pockets, powerful friends and a passion for a sport his school doesn’t offer.

To further entice Kilkenny, they should have added “No experience necessary, will train,” to the job opening. Sounds more suited for McDonald’s than Division I athletics.

Kilkenny’s statement, as listed on the GoDucks.com site: "As I’ve stated on more than one occasion, this decision was not part of my original directive handed down from President (Dave) Frohnmayer when I was appointed as athletics director. However I felt it was my responsibility to examine all facets of the athletics department and determine how we could improve its operation and fiscal efficiency. The changing landscape of collegiate athletics over the past decades has influenced me to come to the conclusion that these changes will be in the best interest of the future of the university."

So Kilkenny, on the job for less than six months has pointed to the “landscape of collegiate athletics over the past decades” as a reason for adding baseball, which remember, was not part of his original directive. He’s been working for a college athletics department for less than a year and points to decades. From where, a luxury box at Autzen Stadium?

We’re to believe he had no intention of starting baseball when hired back in February. We’re to believe President Frohnmayer wasn’t considering the potential influx of money from Knight and Kilkenny himself when making the hire?

Oregon’s not using any state money to run its athletics department, it’s self-supporting – with a big high-five to Knight and Nike, who have donated millions to the school.

Being self-supporting could be an excuse to deflect any questions about a man without a degree running a department within the state and tax payer-funded education system.

Anyone else see the complete ethical dilemma here?

What does Kilkenny know about eligibility, compliance, APR rates (for which if he were an athlete at Oregon, he’d have lost a point under the NCAA’s current APR formula)?

How much hands-on will he have in controlling the athletic careers of student-athletes? Probably zero, since other than Kilkenny, Oregon has a very good group of educated educators in the department.

He’s going to start baseball, get a new basketball arena and then sit in the luxury box after his contract expires. To hell with wrestling.

Could it have been another sport axed and wrestling was just the lesser of how many ever evils were out there?

According to Bob Clark, a reporter for The Register-Guard, that answer is no. Clark noted in his July 14 story titled “Wrestling supporters voice disappointment,” Oregon Senior Women’s Administrator Renee Baumgartner was asked if any other sports were considered for elimination.

The answer, “no.”

But back to the administrative position in an academic institution which Kilkenny now holds.

How does being an insurance man qualify you to make any educational decision that can affect student-athletes that A) are on pace to graduate and B) are paying the University of Oregon to compete in a sport if they don’t get full athletic financial aid?

Money talks in college athletics. Oregon has no shortage of money. So why wrestling? Why a sport that’s got history, Olympians and former Olympic coaches on its historical dossier? Crew has been discussed; it carries high numbers and could have been what Oregon needed to offset baseball’s roster numbers to maintain Title IX compliance. No, they just replaced one men’s sport for the other and now await Kilkenny’s influence to bring in more money for the Athletics Department. 

Kilkenny’s been a life-long baseball fan. That’s been documented in nearly every sports story in the Oregon print media the last few months that has discussed the option of possibly adding the sport, including Kilkenny’s own “editorial” in The Register-Guard just days before Friday’s announcement was made.

As the last Pac-10 school without baseball, it makes perfect sense to add baseball back to the Oregon roster of sports – however, it does not make sense for wrestling, or any other sport, to be the whipping boy for a man that came in with an agenda -- and a large wallet – working in the educational realm.

Kilkenny stated last week in published reports that discussions to bring back baseball were early in the process and something would be decided in “three months.”

It took less than two weeks. And they called it “restructuring” the athletic department.

Compounding the problem was the “renovation” of the Oregon wrestling room, which will now be used as a training facility for other sports. But the wrestling room was to be moved, re-built, and expanded – that was before Kilkenny arrived on campus. It was used as an excuse to cut the program now.

He wanted baseball and a new basketball arena for his beloved Duck Athletics teams. He could care less about anything that got in the way. 

Will wrestling get a fighting chance to keep its stature in the history books at Oregon? Probably not, since while the move wasn’t “deemed” a Title IX move, any subsequent additions to the athletic department in the coming years will have to have a women's sport added. So what “wasn’t a Title IX issue” before, becomes one if Duck wrestlers ever want to compete after next season.

Kilkenny might be a personable human being; he might be the most fun guy in the world to be around. Who wouldn’t like to hang with him in a luxury box for San Diego Padres games? But Kilkenny’s hiring personifies everything that’s wrong about college athletics.

Think he’ll ever get around to taking Ethics 101 to finish that degree?

Column appears at www.intermatwrestle.com