Athletic Department Culture

[slu92]

This info is coming from some former employees and very high profile former employees about how AD and his “assistant” run department behind closed doors day to day. It sounds pretty bad. AD just held his annual staff day of gratitude event apparently. It’s all for show to fool higher ups and majority of staff and coaches are about fed up with the act. The term “gratitude trap” was used to explain how AD manipulates the staff on day to day basis. Question is this….how can all these former employees be out to get this guy and his “assistant” and why are all them saying pretty much the exact same things? Why doesn’t Pestello survey employees or do exit interviews? If somebody has to force others to be grateful that’s a huge red flag. Beating a dead horse about AD, but wondering if anyone else has heard anything similar?

 

[slu92]

This is how SLU should be striving to model their athletics department……takes vision and able leadership, which they currently do not have in place. It’s a shame. 

https://www.papercitymag.com/culture/renu-khator-sees-eddie-nunez-new-houston-athletic-director-doubling-budget-tilman-fertitta/

[slu92]

Best description is May tries to run place like WWT and has Harris Stowe budget and zero original ideas in his brain. He thinks he’s a big time CEO and can’t get a job anywhere else. Thank god for Chaifetz and Kavanaugh. 

[slu92]

For the record, met Coach Schertz over the summer….incredible, incredible, incredible person, love what he’s doing and am so excited regardless of how dumb/bad AD is. Thank you Dr. Chaifetz! However, I feel for rest of dept and primarily the student athletes if half this crap is indeed true. That’s not right or fair. 

[cheeseman]

What do you mean - he won a national award!  This is why those awards really don't mean anything.  If it was really that bad employees would do something about it by sinking him.  How do such successful businesspeople get hoodwinked by him?  Just asking.

[billikenfan05]

2 hours ago, cheeseman said:

What do you mean - he won a national award!  This is why those awards really don't mean anything.  If it was really that bad employees would do something about it by sinking him.  How do such successful businesspeople get hoodwinked by him?  Just asking.

While @slu92 is not wrong, he’s also not being helpful in the way he’s going about his posts.

Why would employees take such a risk in their career and livelihood by attempting to “sink” their boss via subterfuge? They either decide it’s worth the hassle or just move on. 

Why are you assuming that these successful businesspeople(who are you talking about by the way?) are aware of the day to day culture inside the athletics department? 

Do you really think Chaifetz, Kavanaugh, Novelly, any of the BoT Members, etc etc are taking time out of their busy schedules to check in on how a marketing manager or a sports psychologist feels about department leadership?

[slu72]

Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the AD hire some up and coming star from Mizzery’s ADept? I seem to recall that this guy was bringing some much needed direction and vision to the ADept. 

[billikenfan05]

41 minutes ago, slu72 said:

Correct me if I’m wrong but didn’t the AD hire some up and coming star from Mizzery’s ADept? I seem to recall that this guy was bringing some much needed direction and vision to the ADept. 

You’re a bit off base. The discussion here is not about direction or vision, it’s about workplace culture. Which is not something an Assistant AD for Compliance is hired for. 

Matt Jokobsze was hired away from his private practice. He Erike Mercer who left under questionable circumstances including the Brad Ezewiro waiver and foreign recruit eligibility issues last season. He was a part of Mizzou compliance during the initial NIL gold rush, he helped them work with missouri legislature on applicable laws. He is certainly someone with NIL vision. 
 

 

[Box and Won]

This sh-- is kinda exasperating.

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, Box and Won said:

This sh-- is kinda exasperating.

It is, thus my point above about the OP. 

[slu92]

7 hours ago, cheeseman said:

What do you mean - he won a national award!  This is why those awards really don't mean anything.  If it was really that bad employees would do something about it by sinking him.  How do such successful businesspeople get hoodwinked by him?  Just asking.

That’s the $64k question isn’t it? Why do so many former staff and coaches tell similar stories, all say nobody believes them because it’s so outrageous. Apparently SLU leadership either doesn’t care or is that dumb. I just need to come to grips with the program is what it is and what it could be is just fantasyland. Enjoy good years when they come along and spend time on other stuff when they are bad. AD position is a managerial role at SLU. 

[slu92]

1 hour ago, billikenfan05 said:

You’re a bit off base. The discussion here is not about direction or vision, it’s about workplace culture. Which is not something an Assistant AD for Compliance is hired for. 

Matt Jokobsze was hired away from his private practice. He Erike Mercer who left under questionable circumstances including the Brad Ezewiro waiver and foreign recruit eligibility issues last season. He was a part of Mizzou compliance during the initial NIL gold rush, he helped them work with missouri legislature on applicable laws. He is certainly someone with NIL vision. 
 

 

Mizzou fired him. That’s real story. And lady he replaced got a new job at Minnesota.  

[slufanskip]

The OP clearly has an agenda

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, slu92 said:

Mizzou fired him. That’s real story. And lady he replaced got a new job at Minnesota.  

Who left under dubious circumstances herself.

As long as he does his job well and isn't a criminal, I could care less why he left Mizzou, really. His expertise made him the right hire at the right time. He's been doing his job well from what I've seen. Better than his predecessor. 

[slufan13]

Just win baby

[cheeseman]

11 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

While @slu92 is not wrong, he’s also not being helpful in the way he’s going about his posts.

Why would employees take such a risk in their career and livelihood by attempting to “sink” their boss via subterfuge? They either decide it’s worth the hassle or just move on. 

Why are you assuming that these successful businesspeople(who are you talking about by the way?) are aware of the day to day culture inside the athletics department? 

Do you really think Chaifetz, Kavanaugh, Novelly, any of the BoT Members, etc etc are taking time out of their busy schedules to check in on how a marketing manager or a sports psychologist feels about department leadership?

You just named them all.  Yes I think people who give millions do want to know what is going on with their money especially if they have had to bail the AD out more than once.  If they don't do it themselves, they will hire someone to look into it.  Yes I have seen employees sink their boss more than once.

[brianstl]

6 hours ago, slu92 said:

Mizzou fired him. That’s real story. And lady he replaced got a new job at Minnesota.  

She got hired in a position at Minnesota that would be considered a demotion.

[billikenfan05]

1 hour ago, cheeseman said:

You just named them all.  Yes I think people who give millions do want to know what is going on with their money especially if they have had to bail the AD out more than once.  If they don't do it themselves, they will hire someone to look into it.  Yes I have seen employees sink their boss more than once.

Look man, believe what I’m saying or not. At the end of the day I’m confident I have it correct. 

[cheeseman]

10 hours ago, billikenfan05 said:

Look man, believe what I’m saying or not. At the end of the day I’m confident I have it correct. 

I haven't made a judgment about it - all I did was ask some questions.

[HoosierPal]

School switch:  Mizzou is up 48-0 at the 2 min mark last night against Murray State.  The spread is 50.5 according to DraftKings.  Mizzou kicks a 27 yard field goal to beat the spread, 51-0.  I wonder how much $ was riding on the spread in the Mizzou locker room and staff offices. 

[Lord Elrond]

8 minutes ago, HoosierPal said:

School switch:  Mizzou is up 48-0 at the 2 min mark last night against Murray State.  The spread is 50.5 according to DraftKings.  Mizzou kicks a 27 yard field goal to beat the spread, 51-0.  I wonder how much $ was riding on the spread in the Mizzou locker room and staff offices. 

Part of the new landscape in sports. Better question: how many death threats would the coaching staff and players gotten from Mizzou backers who bet on them to cover the 50.5 point spread if they hadn’t made that field goal?

[billikenfan05]

2 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Part of the new landscape in sports. Better question: how many death threats would the coaching staff and players gotten from Mizzou backers who bet on them to cover the 50.5 point spread if they hadn’t made that field goal?

Don't feed the trolls. Non-Billiken fan predictably talking about a non-Billiken team. 

[HoosierPal]

23 minutes ago, Lord Elrond said:

Part of the new landscape in sports. Better question: how many death threats would the coaching staff and players gotten from Mizzou backers who bet on them to cover the 50.5 point spread if they hadn’t made that field goal?

You probably saw that Notre Dame suspended their men's swim team for a year after an independent investigation found that most team members engaged in gambling throughout the season, including placing over/under wages on times and betting on “how many women would cry after their races.”

Yep, it is here.

[cgeldmacher]

They kicked the field goal to satisfy the boosters who had bet on the game, not players or staff.  This is something that has been done long before the prevalence of online sports betting.

[billikenfan05]

20 minutes ago, cgeldmacher said:

They kicked the field goal to satisfy the boosters who had bet on the game, not players or staff.  This is something that has been done long before the prevalence of online sports betting.

Pretty much this. 

Most of us have been on this site longer than we can remember, but running up the score in college sports to satisfy ranking criteria has been along much longer than that.