Save Jay Jacobs!

[Townhallsavoy]

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama - Beating New Mexico State was nice, especially for the players that have suffered through this horror show of a football season, but the only game that really matters at Auburn now is happening off the field.

It’s probably too late for head coach Gene Chizik to save his job, but there’s a movement under way behind the scenes to keep Jay Jacobs as athletics director.

That movement includes some well-known and powerful Auburn people. One of them is former trustee Earlon McWhorter.

“I consider Jay a friend,” McWhorter wrote me in an email, “but as always, my real concern is Auburn and what is best for Auburn, and I strongly feel keeping Jay Jacobs gives us the best chance to get through some difficult times.”

There are other Auburn supporters who feel just as strongly that firing Chizik but keeping the man that hired him won’t solve the problems that exist but will make it harder to hire the kind of strong, no-nonsense, get-out-of-my-way head coach that Auburn needs.

There are Auburn supporters who believe that standing up for Jacobs or Chizik now is a matter of putting individual relationships ahead of Auburn’s best interests. Interesting that McWhorter would address that point without being asked.

You may remember McWhorter. He was one of two trustees that flew on a private plane, along with the school president and AD at the time, to hire Bobby Petrino to replace Tommy Tuberville in 2003 the same week Tuberville was preparing for the Iron Bowl.

You could say that McWhorter has traveled from Jetgate to Jaygate, with a twist. If Jacobs stays as AD, the chances of Auburn hiring Petrino as head coach would all but vanish.

McWhorter alerted me to the Save Jay campaign in a strongly worded email taking exception to last week's column, in which I wrote that Auburn needs new leadership in the football program and the athletics department.

In the first of a series of emails we exchanged - he declined my interview request - McWhorter included a letter written last week by Jack Smith, director of strategic communication for Auburn athletics, to the department’s strategic advisory committee (the letter is posted to the bottom of this post). The letter puts a positive spin on the performance of the athletics department under Jacobs.

The committee, which includes about 40 Auburn supporters, McWhorter among them, was formed about five years ago as a sort of kitchen cabinet, to borrow a political term for a team of advisers, for Jacobs. They meet in Auburn twice a year in the fall and the spring, and this fall’s meeting took place Sept. 14. There was a different vibe at 0-2 than there is at 2-7.

Smith confirmed to me that he wrote the letter to the strategic advisory committee and said his purpose was to provide some perspective on Chizik’s buyout, for which Jacobs has been widely criticized, and to paint a broader picture of the entire athletics department.

The letter says that, according to Auburn’s research from a college athletics database, at least 18 college football and basketball coaches have higher buyouts in their contracts than Chizik’s, which drops monthly and will hit $7.5 million Dec. 1.

One example from the letter: “Nick Saban would be owed $22 million if terminated.”

Curious logic there, using Saban’s buyout to justify Chizik’s to support Jacobs and the contract he pushed through for Chizik after Auburn won the BCS title. The letter notes that, at the time Jacobs advocated the new contract, Chizik was 22-5. There was no mention that he’s 10-12 since.

“On the other end of the spectrum,” the letter says, “Houston Nutt and Turner Gill, neither of whom ever won a conference title, much less a national championship, were each paid $6 million when they were terminated.”

So Jacobs could’ve done worse in 2008. He could’ve hired Gill when he had the chance rather than Chizik.

The letter also includes an “Auburn Athletics Pride” publication that Smith wrote before this football season. Some of the highlights:

“Auburn has ranked in the top 10 percent of the NACDA Directors' Cup (which compares us to our peers across a wide range of men's and women's sports) for 8 consecutive years. Auburn has won 22 SEC titles since Jay Jacobs was named AD. That is fourth most in the league (behind Florida, Georgia and track/cross country stalwart Arkansas). Since 2004, no SEC school has won more National Championships than Auburn.”

The counterpoint: Auburn was 31st in the country in the last full-year Directors' Cup standings. Auburn, which has the third biggest athletic budget in the SEC, was only seventh among SEC teams, eighth if you count Texas A&M.

Success in swimming is nice, but everything related to athletics at Auburn revolves around football, which has spiraled into the dirt since the Tigers won the national title.

The debate on Jacobs and his future is heating up. Will Auburn President Jay Gogue have the stomach to fire his AD? Or will Gogue listen to people such as McWhorter and stick to his own basic instinct to keep the status quo?

Stay tuned. Only at Auburn could the politics of the athletics department rival a presidential election.

Drop a civil comment below. Write Kevin at scarbinsky@gmail.com. Follow him at www.Twitter.com/KevinScarbinsky. Listen to him weekdays from 6-10 a.m. on the Smashmouth Radio Network on ESPN 973 The Zone.

***

(Copy of Jack Smith's email)

Dear Strategic Advisory Committee,



I have had the pleasure of meeting most if not all of you as members of the Auburn Athletics Strategic Advisory Committee.



When this group was assembled, one of the goals was to arm its members with facts and information so that they could be effective advocates for Auburn Athletics. That is my purpose in writing you today.I want to share some facts and dispel some fiction.



In my prior career as a newspaper editor, my job was to ensure that we reported the facts. Not speculation. Not assumptions. The facts. It's not enough to repeat something because you believe it to be true, you have to investigate it. I discovered that even the best reporters who worked for me often failed to challenge basic assumptions. 



Let me give you an example. Several writers who cover Auburn Athletics have recently written stories or commented on the buyout clause in Coach Chizik's contract. One breathless media account even called it "the most generous in the history of college athletics."



That is simply wrong, and it's not even close. Coach Chizik was given a contract extension with a buyout that currently stands at $7.5 million. Keep in mind that the extension, which was approved by the Trustees' Compensation Committee, was awarded after our first National Championship in 53 years. Coach Chizik's record at Auburn was 22-5 at the time.



Unlike the reporters who have written on the topic, we actually did the research. We found that at least 18 coaches have higher buyouts, and more than half of those have buyouts are twice as high as Coach Chizik's. 



As a few examples, Nick Saban would be owed $22 million if terminated, Kirk Ferentz at Iowa would be owed $22 Milllion and Bobby Petrino would have been owed $18 million if terminated without cause prior to this season. 



A few other coaches with buyouts higher than Coach Chizik's include Dana Holgerson ($13.8 Million), Bo Pelini ($9 Million), Ben Howland ($8.8 million), Mike Sherman ($8.8 million), Thad Matta ($8.45 million) and Bret Bielima ($8.4 million).



On the other end of the spectrum, Houston Nutt and Turner Gill, neither of whom ever won even a conference title much less a National Championship, were each paid $6 million when they were terminated.



Facts sometimes do get in the way of a good story.



Each of you should have received an "Auburn Athletics Pride" publication that I put together prior to football season. It is attached in PDF form for reference. (If you open it, be sure and note that it is a two-page PDF and you have to scroll down to see the entire document).



I will let the document speak for itself, but I did want to share a couple of facts below, some of them updated to include new information.



WINNING

Auburn has ranked in the top 10 percent of the NACDA Directors' Cup (which compares us to our peers across a wide range of men's and women's sports) for 8 consecutive years.



Auburn has won 22  SEC titles since Jay Jacobs was named AD. That is fourth most in the league (behind Florida, Georgia and track/cross country stalwart Arkansas).



Since 2004, no SEC school has won more National Championships than Auburn.



ACADEMICS

Currently, 51 percent of our 540 student-athletes have a cumulative 3.0 or higher GPA.



Auburn has had 5 student-athlete Rhodes Scholar finalists and 1 Rhodes winner in the past four years, the most of any school in the SEC. (The next closest SEC school has had only 2 student-athletes as Rhodes finalists over that span).



FINANCES

Auburn Athletics has operated in the black for 22 consecutive years.



Auburn Athletics has put $15.1 million in reserves over the past six years.



I share these facts with you because they are often lost on the media and even our own supporters.



It is also worth noting that Jay Jacobs was selected as the permanent chair of the SEC Athletic Directors, a strong testament to the esteem in which he is held by his 13 peers. He also serves on the NCAA Administrative Cabinet. Both roles are asked only of administrators who lead their institutions admirably and responsibly.



As we learned in 2010, it is vitally important that an institution's AD be respected as a person of integrity when dealing with potential NCAA issues. In our conference, it is equally  important to have the respect and confidence of the commissioner, which we quite clearly have. If you have followed the news on schools that have been subject to significant NCAA penalties in recent years, you will note one common thread: they were cited for unethical conduct. Having an AD who operates a program with integrity is more important than ever.



One other quick update: The Auburn Tiger Career Development Center, which started as Jay's vision several years ago, is open and is flourishing. I recently wrote a story about it for an upcoming edition of Tiger Roar magazine. More student-athletes visited the career center located in our academic building in its first month than visited the campus career center the entire previous year. The new director has already helped a number of student-athletes get full-time jobs, job shadowing opportunities for their chosen profession and acceptance into graduate and professional schools of their choice. 



I hope you find this update to be informative and helpful.



If may ever be of assistance to you, please do not hesitate to contact me.



War Eagle!



Jack



Jack Smith

Director of Strategic Communication

Auburn Athletics

http://www.al.com/auburnfootball/index.ssf/2012/11/scarbinsky_save_jay_jacobs_as.html#incart_river_default

[AUownsU]

[AUownsU]

Asked Scarbs on twitter but maybe one you guys can explain this to my dumbass. If McWhorter's guy is BMFP (on the plain in '03) and Scarbs says that if JJ is retained their is 0 chance BMFP is hired, what the fuck is McWhorter doing campaining for JJ? Reckon it be Lowder behind the scenes who is the one campaining for BMFP?

[Godfather]

Because Jay Jacobs is McWhorters butt boy. That's why. Bottom line Housel never wanted to get on that plane but was told his ass better be on that plane or he wouldn't have a job. Admittedly he chose the wrong decision, and it lead to Jacobs becoming the AD.

Jay Jacobs has been an abomination to the AD's office since he took over.

Gouge do the right thing.

[Pell City Tiger]

Hopefully, an overwhelming majority of the power people McWhorter contacted told him to go fuck himself. As for that little sniveling shit named Tim Jackson; I will be seriously upset if he didn't have numerous drinks thrown in his face when he made his rounds up in the luxury boxes begging for support this past Saturday.

[noxin]

Auburn Athletics has put $15.1 million in reserves over the past six years.

Time to tap into the emergency fund