The University of Wisconsin Athletic Board approved one-year extensions for UW coaches Friday, including men’s basketball coach Bo Ryan, as well as deliberated on developing new standards for institutional control of athletics.
The UW Athletic Board approved extending Ryan’s contract through May 31, 2017. According to a statement, the Board also approved extending contracts for men’s hockey coach Mike Eaves and women’s hockey coach Mark Johnson through June 30, 2017.
The board approved an extension for women’s basketball coach Bobbie Kelsey through May 31, 2017, wrestling coach Barry Davis through May 31, 2015, and men’s and women’s swimming and diving coach Whitney Hite through June 14, 2013, the statement said.
The board also discussed developing a new standard of institutional athletics and the possible role of the Big Ten Conference. Walter Dickey, UW senior associate athletic director, said in the wake of the Penn State sexual assault scandal, chancellors and the presidents voted last November to establish an action plan and created a committee to develop a set of standards to keep power from being concentrated in any one individual at an institutional level.
While currently in draft form, Dickey said the plan seeks to clarify the roles of the president, the chancellor and the athletic department. He said while the plan has an “enforcement arm,” the process will be more “collegial” where concerns are brought to the attention of the institution to be corrected.
“The standards devote particular attention to compliance and to academic support of athletics and are quite prescriptive in setting forth some detailed expectations about the organization of athletic departments as well as who will do and not do what,” Dickey said.
Dickey said every institution, president, athletic director and other specified individuals will have to certify twice every year that they are in compliance with the standards. He added the standards also provide for periodical investigatory audits, as well as audits when the conference receives evidence of deviation from the standards. The audits would not be paper audits but on-campus visits.
The board also discussed the process the transferring of a student athlete with a scholarship who wants to leave UW. UW Director of Compliance Katie Smith said no rules block student athletes from transferring but rather specifies the conditions under which they will transfer. However, if a transfer is denied or the athlete disagrees with the decision, the athlete can appeal.
“Every one of these situations is totally different with different factors, so there is no way you could have a blanket policy to deal with all of them,” UW Athletic Director Barry Alvarez said. “You’ve got to listen to them all out, listen to the reasons, and see if there is anything in the background that would hurt our program.”
During the director’s report, Alvarez said he had spent the previous week in Florida at the Bowl Championship Series meetings and said negotiations have moved closer to approving a new playoff system for college football’s national championship.
He said the discussion is now on who picks the teams and decides how they go about it, whether through coach polls, computer programs or a committee.
“I don’t think anybody trusts a computer that doesn’t tell you how they program it,” Alvarez said. “The computer rankings won’t divulge what the criteria is that goes into deciding that. … I don’t think anybody trust something that is not transparent.”
