Is This Guy Serious?

By now, I'm sure many of you have already heard about this story, but there's this guy Robert Burton who's demanding that UConn give back the $3 million donation he made to the football program.  Why?  Because he wasn't consulted in the decision-making process to hire the replacement for Head Coach Randy Edsall, who left for Maryland.  Burton's even retained lawyers to make sure UConn returns the money.  He has to be kidding.

If I was UConn AD Jeff Hathaway, I'd tell this guy, "Screw You!  Here you go."  I understand that donors are alums or other program supporters with a lot of money, and sometimes they make donations that are clearly earmarked for a specific purpose.  Sometimes larger donations do come with certain conditions, but it's usually something like the name that goes on the building or that a scholarship be academic or the criteria to determine an award.  Granted, there are extreme cases like Ralph Engelstad, who told the University of North Dakota that he'd donate all of the necessary funds to build a new hockey arena as long as the team kept the "Fighting Sioux" nickname.  But that situation is entirely different.  If North Dakota didn't want to give in to Engelstad, they didn't have to.  They most likely would've been able to still build the new arena, and probably gotten a naming rights deal to cover most of the remaining costs.

But Burton's really got some nerve.  Just because you donate money, that doesn't mean you get a say in the day-to-day operations of the organization that you donated it to.  It especially doesn't mean that you get a say in personnel decisions.  Jeff Hathaway was hired to run the UConn athletic department.  Not Robert Burton.  Burton also said that the main reason Edsall was left was because he couldn't work with Hathaway.  Yes Rob, I'm sure that was why.  The multi-million dollar multi-year contract at the bigger-name program had nothing to do with it.  Even if Edsall and Hathaway didn't get along, how would Burton even know, and how is that any of his business?  He's not there everyday, so he doesn't know what really goes on in those offices on a daily basis.  He also tried to make it look like Hathaway doesn't get along with either Geno Auriemma or Jim Calhoun, which Geno says isn't true.

Boosters are a necessary evil in college sports.  Anybody who doesn't understand this is either ignorant or a fool.  But boosters are also the main reason why there are problems in college sports.  They often end up hurting a program far worse than they think they're "helping" one.  Why is USC currently on probation in both basketball and football?  (And why did Reggie Bush have to give back his Heisman?)  Boosters.  Why did Cam Newton get in trouble at Auburn?  Boosters.  Why did the SMU football team receive the NCAA "death penalty" in 1987?  Boosters.

Now, boosters and donors aren't the same thing.  The main difference is that boosters do what they can to try to bring players to a school, while donors use their money to improve conditions for the student-athletes already at that school.  But neither group has any direct involvement with the running of the specific program (or athletic department in general) at that school.  Nor should they.  I don't expect to have a say in the way the Obama Administration runs the country simply because I donated to the President's campaign. 

So where does Robert Burton come off?  He has a lot of money.  Big deal.  If you don't want to donate it to UConn, go spend it somewhere else.  It was Jeff Hathaway's job to hire a football coach.  He did that.  He didn't consult you because he didn't care what your opinion on the subject was.  He was responsible for finding the right football coach for the University of Connecticut.  Hathaway is a grown man.  Believe it or not, he's able to make decisions all by himself.  If he made the wrong one, he's the one responsible for it.  So, why does Burton think that makes his opinion on the subject so important?

In that same letter where he demanded his money back, Burton told Hathaway that he'd have fired the AD long ago if he had the authority.  But he has no authority.  All he has is money.  Apparently he thinks that gives him the right to run the University of Connecticut's football program.  It doesn't.  Would somebody do me a favor and explain that to him?