University of Georgia president Michael Adams warned against letting football become too powerful…
“(The university’s athletic interests) are increasingly dominated nationally by media and entertainment organizations and their values. We have worked hard to improve the balance, but it is a constant battle,” said Adams, who steps down as UGA president June 30.
“The academic establishment has to control the athletic establishment, not the other way around. Last year’s troubling news out of Penn State made that quite clear.”
Honestly, if Charles Knapp were saying that (and later in the article Adams actually has the gall to pretend that he’s somehow a continuation of Knapp), I’d take it seriously, perhaps. But Adams? Don’t make me laugh.
If you want “the academic establishment to control the athletic establishment”, take the school out of the SEC. Otherwise, shut the hell up.
By the way, if all it takes to keep Adams out of the public eye after his retirement is not enclosing Sanford Stadium, keep that west end open.
Get The Picture 
You forgot about the friggin carillon.
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Isn’t this the man who insisted Jim Donnan be fired because the football program wasn’t good enough?
Hypocrisy: The tribute that vice pays to virtue.
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More significantly, Adams is the man who brought the Harricks to Georgia. Nobody has done more to damage the reputation of my degree than Michael Adams.
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Changing the subject, but while you’re bringing up basketball coaches. In hindsight Tubby Smith could have had a nice long term gig at Georgia. Was he made unwelcome or did he move becuase of ambition? You know where I live, and I don’t get the inside dope.
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Tubby left out of ambition, in no way was he forced out. From my understanding, Tubby was not going to leave UGA unless an opportunity became available at a handful of places- UK was one of those places, where he was an assistant under Pitino (and really UK is arguably the best CBB job in the country, tough to turn down).
I couldn’t really be too mad at him when he left but man I wish he would have stayed at UGA- and though he did have success w/ the cats and a championship, I think in retrospect he can probably see that a very long and fruitful career at UGA would have been pretty easy to obtain. He certainly would not get fired here after a 20+ win season.
Man, things would be really different if UGA could have held onto Tubby.
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Tubby Smith allegedly promised the AD who hired him, VD, as a condition of being offered the UGA HC job, that he would not leave to take the UK job (where he had been the #1 assistant under Rick Pitino) if it became available. He then used UGA as a stepping stone to the UK job. So much for his word being worth anything. That said, he had the Dawgs turned around into one of the top programs in the nation and the UGA BB program has never been the same since he left. Leaving was totally unnecessary. UGA would have become another UK had he stayed and probably would have won multiple National Championships had he stayed. Personally, I hope Tubby Smith rots in hell.
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There is a recruiting difference to each school. He had better players at Ken than at UGA. I think it would have been the same old-sameold if he had stayed and our recruits didn’t get better.
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That’s the whole point Ballsack. Tubby had recruiting clicking and was getting better players. You get a first-rater who can really coach ’em up to the next level and players will show up at your school. Look what happened at FU under Billy Donovan. UGA at that time was almost exactly where FU was.
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He left to coach round ball at KY, any more questions?
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Yeah, we refused to match Kentucky’s offer, and wished him well on his way. Of course, people will cry “But Kentucky, we didn’t stand a chance”. We didn’t try, with a son on the roster, another about to be, and a third at a tender age he wanted to give stability. We didn’t try. When Kentucky came calling for Billy Donovan, Florida tried, and he stayed. We didn’t try.
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A-freakin’-men! How Adams gets out of the blame for hiring Harricks, and for the secret deal to Donnan, are beyond me. The guy is an egotistical jerk.
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Doesn’t that fit the man’s point? The academic should control the athletic, just like when he gave Donnan an under the table bonus, or as you say, led the charge to have Donnan fired, or tried to shove Terry Donahue down our throats, did shove Jim Harrick down our throats, etc. His actions clearly show a man that thinks the academic side should control the athletics.
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But this is also the guy that stood up to Dooley, and got rid of him. For that, I will always be grateful. Vince Dooley and Jimmy Carter, brothers separated at birth! Look up “shameful self-promotion,” and there will be their photos! I want Mark Richt (or someone) to when a BCS to finally shut Dooley up! No question that Adams leaves a LOT to be desired. But getting rid of Dooley shot his stock ovr the moon for a LOT of people.
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Not for me. I was sad to see Dooley forced out. I’d take Dooley over Adams any day of the week. Dooley brought in Richt.
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Dooley deserved it. Talk about bringing shame to one’s degree…he was the kind of that, even now.
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king
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I wonder: would Vince or Jimmy ever have trouble spelling “win.” Or are there other, more fundamental problems you are having with written English?
Stay classy.
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Agreed. And he got rid of Donnan when Dooley didn’t want to.
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This is all you need to know about the difference between Bama and UGA. The gap between the two is much greater than the five yards that separated them on the field. If Bama’s president said anything close to what Adams is quoted as saying, he would be hung in effigy and run out of town.
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Which is why I’m glad I went to Georgia.
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+1
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Amen
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I lived in Athens as a businessman during the Charles Knapp -> Micheal Adams years and I knew a woman who was one of Adams’ secretaries – he has about 4 secretaries at a time. I went to a lot of sporting events as guest of Adams.
I read the Deloitte and Touche Report from 2003.
(https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:WFERQHL6lvoJ:alt.cimedia.com/ajc/pdf/adams/adams.pdf+&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESi_0VpGlOs2BTnaM35GM1jSOHZDXG-frBoH2jM6N4lYxGWKOM7czCG7RQax3KYQNLWCOjlLS-7M0IqM-lafawPVdzgr1uPVVRlu5nRuom-ynPsnlhLPItw4KogSM8OGzd3TtX3R&sig=AHIEtbTQpW1Mm8xP-0GRJ1B5FHV84cLozA )
The woman I know wasn’t interviewed, which is pretty remarkable, because she had signature authority on his slush finds. Deloitte and Touche didn’t interview an important witness and whiffed on a lot of facts. The same goes for the book “Behind the Hedges”. Never interviewed.
If you are a writer- find this woman. She knows where the skeletons are. You would make news.
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“Dickhead”??? My penis is offended.
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LOL! Best comment yet!
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If you are looking for an example of the academic leading the athletic, look no further than Tennessee. Their slide to mediocrity started in 2002, the year acedemia took over.
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Tennessee and “academia took over” sounds mutually exclusive to me.
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Where is it written that we can’t be excellent in both academic and athletic pursuits?
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“2012 BCS National Title Champion Alabama” is where that’s written.
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Fall 2012 freshman acceptance rate:
University of Alabama 43.5% accepted; 6,397 students enrolled.
University of Georgia 55.1% accepted; 4,970 students enrolled.
Athletic success has raised the applicant pool at Alabama. It is has become a larger, more selective university.
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Amen.
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and by amen, i mean i would rather lose and be GA than win with Saban
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Hate to say it, but the Nerds say the same kind of thing about us.
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Yeah, but they’re wrong and we’re right. 😉
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And the Ivy League says the same kind of thing about everybody.
There’s always somebody who tries to act holier than thou.
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Why is it that anytime anyone suggests raising the bar around here, people throw out “Alabama” and “Saban” as if it proves something?
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Adams is a big brown stain on the drawers of my Alma Mater. Harrick. Jim f’n Harrick. At Adams’ insistence. Donnan. And – of course – throwing a festivus for his son’s graduation on the university’s dime. Good riddance.
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Uh…he fired Donnan. Dooley wanted to keep him (big surprise).
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Uh…he also fired Donnan after giving him an extra $250k in a secret deal. He’s a pompous dick.
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Greatest president in the history of UGA.
Saved football.
Quadroupled the endowment.
Yes, the cocktail party thing was dumb, but that pales in comparison to all the good.
Haters gotta hate I guess.
Sad.
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Muckie, Mike Adams taking credit for any improvement at the University of Georgia is the same as the rooster taking credit for the sun coming up. He was just at the right place at the right time, padding his expense account all the while.
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What he said is perfectly in line with us spending less money on football than most of our rivals. If you read between the lines, what he’s really saying is that football/athletic department profit is more important than winning. Gotta spread that money out for the “overall good” of the university.
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Read the book “Behind the Hedges”
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+1. Adams should have been canned over financial irregularities and prosecuted. The only reason he survived was Sonny.
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You think Sonny makes that call? There is a liquor distributor who scoffs at such nonsense.
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Maybe we’ll get a president who sees the football program as the #1 ambassador for the university, instead of just the #1 revenue generator that should be strictly controlled for profit maximization.
Then again, the Board of Regents needs to think that way too or it really doesn’t matter.
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Mike Adams had told Donnan he had another year also. He only fired him when his main benefactor and drunk buddy demanded it. His bogus hiring was the sleaziest episode in UGA history.
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Speak nicely of Dr. Adams. He was just named to the NCAA Committee on Infractions.
Since he is prosecutor, judge, and jury and knows where the skeletons are buried here, he can further “balance” academics and athletics here by slapping a nice multi-year probation on UGA football.
But then again, we’ve been recruiting to probationary numbers for most of his term anyway.
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The guy who is apparently going to replace Adams, Provost Jere Morehead, has been on the Athletic Board for a good while. As it happens, I knew him in law school, and liked him a lot. Very smart, and actually very funny.
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Adams is one of the biggest liars and hypocrites around. Every road football game, guess who is down on the field walking around before the game. Guess who is in the locker room celebrating every victory? (Am 99% sure I saw him on the podium at the bowl game too!) For someone who claims not to want athletics to trump academics, he sure has spent a lot of time ingratiating himself with athletics….
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