Some people are never happy

http://www.hogville.net/yabbse/index.php?topic=154001.msg2412777#msg2412777

We just bought ourselves a ticket to staying mediocre with Long.
Posted by Arazorbackguy1
Doesn't seem like this is going to be the hire everyone was hoping for. White has his pretty boy fingers all in it (we saw what happened with Dana Altman). I look for Nutt to leave after this year and we will hire a nobody coach from a small school to help save some money for academics.

What Chancellor White doesn't see is that 20,000 students make up the UofA and they are the ones that benefit from academics. If an athlete chooses to get the most out of the academics that the school offers, then good for him. Please don't punish the fans of the University of Arkansas because you want to be on the same academic playing field as Vanderbilt.

So long Frank Broyles, thank you for giving us so many great memories, facilities, fodder, and so much more. I hate to see someone come in and ruin the fun, all because of academics.

To John White: AD stands for ATHLETIC Director, not Academic Director

GO HOGS

Smarter Hogville Analysis: Yeah, we totally screwed this one up.

It is not that posts like this are wrong. We're fully aware that a considerable segment of the population thinks that academics don't have anything to do with FOOTBALL. We're certainly not interested in pushing academics at the expense of athletics. If we were, we'd support Vanderbilt, Rice, or the Ivies.

It is that there is something in the figurative water over at Hogville that makes people post things, like this, that are spectacularly wrong.

We did a little research on Jeff Long's career. Some of what appears below would be considered plagiarism if this were a college term paper. It's not a term paper, so we're not going to worry about quotes and citations. If you care about that, just do the research yourself.

Pitt's success was revealed when the university was visited by the NCAA Division I Committee on Athletics Certification this past year. A "certified" designation is given when an institution operates its athletics program in conformity with principles established by NCAA Division I membership.

In 2005, Pitt Athletics launched the "Quest for Excellence" campaign. The athletic department's "Quest" is focused on the enhancement of the Pitt student-athlete experience. It aims to increase endowed athletic scholarships, capital gifts for building and improvement projects and annual contributions for student-athlete scholarships. Just over two-and-a-half years into the campaign, nearly $34 million has been raised.

Pitt has played in a BCS bowl.

Prior to his Pitt appointment, Long served as the senior associate athletic director at the University of Oklahoma for two-and-a-half years. He oversaw all external affairs, including development, marketing/promotions, licensing, media relations, ticket operations, radio/television and SoonerVision productions. He additionally was the primary administrator for football and men's basketball and the sport supervisor for baseball, wrestling and men's and women's golf.

Prior to Oklahoma, Long was the athletic director at Eastern Kentucky University. He significantly improved Eastern Kentucky's athletic infrastructure during his two years with the completion of several facility projects and the formation of viable corporate partnerships and sponsorships.

Long also served a short tenure at Virginia Tech as associate athletic director prior to his Eastern Kentucky post. The majority of his career in collegiate athletic administration, though, was spent at the University of Michigan. Hired by legendary coach and athletic director Bo Schembechler, Long elevated through a number of administrative posts at Michigan before ultimately reaching associate athletic director. Long has also held football coaching and administrative positions at Rice University, Duke University and North Carolina State University.

A 1982 graduate of Ohio Wesleyan with a bachelor's degree in economics, Long earned seven varsity letters in football and baseball. He received his master's degree in education from Miami University (Ohio) in 1983 after serving as a graduate assistant football coach.

Now, does that sound like the resume of an AD who doesn't know how to strike the appropriate balance between athletics and academics?

Two more things:

1) Wasn't Dana Altman a Frank Broyles hire?
2) Wasn't John White sued for, among other things, not disciplining Houston Nutt according to NCAA regulations? Last we checked, the NCAA is pretty big on academics.