Big Ten’s Delany could get additional power [with poll]
Big Ten Conference commissioner Jim Delany wants more power than he already wields. He wants to swing a bigger bat.
According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, Big Ten presidents and chancellors are studying a proposal that would give Delany the power to fire a coach if they do something that brings disrespect to the conference.
Any action, however, must be approved by the conference’s presidents.
The proposal comes just months after the Penn State situation, where an independent investigation said that top school officials – including football coach Joe Paterno – “concealed” what they knew about sexual abuse on young boys by former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
“This whole situation is unprecedented,” University of Iowa president Sally Mason told the Chronicle of Higher Education. She is the chairman of the conference’s presidents and chancellors.
“It’s sports-related, but there were very significant moral, legal, and institutional failures,” she added.
Mason declined the Des Moines Register’s interview request Thursday.
Paterno died in January, two months after being fired. Sandusky was found guilty on 45 counts of sexual abuse, and could face a 450-year prison sentence.
Potential legal action against other Penn State officials, including former president Graham Spanier and former athletic director Tim Curley, is pending.
The Nittany Lions will play football this season, including Oct. 20 in Iowa City, but beyond that is anyone’s guess. NCAA president Mark Emmert hasn’t closed the door on potential sanctions. The Big Ten’s bylaws give the conference’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors the right to punish disgraced programs, providing at least 70 percent of the league’s president-chancellor council agrees.
The Penn State situation will be a hot topic at the Big Ten’s annual Media Days next Thursday and Friday in Chicago.
Category: Iowa Hawkeyes Football
