| | SOUTH BEND, Ind. -- Perception is everything at Notre Dame.
And the prevailing perception is that there's a problem in the
athletic department.
So athletics director Mike Wadsworth knows his departure is as
much about image as anything else.
"There is a broad perception out there that's a problem, and
perception is very important," Wadsworth said Tuesday. "Notre
Dame has an outstanding reputation nationally and internationally.
Anything that threatens that, it's the responsibility of the board
of trustees and the officers of the university to look at it.
"The best way of dealing with that is turn the page and start
fresh."
After a series of embarrassing incidents the last several years,
including being put on probation by the NCAA, Notre Dame cleaned
house as part of a "restructuring" of the athletic department.
Wadsworth will step down after a tumultuous five years, and
executive vice president E. William Beauchamp will no longer
oversee the department, ending a decades-old practice.
Wadsworth said Tuesday he would've preferred to stay on another
year after his contract is up this summer, but that wasn't part of
the university's plan.
"They knew I'd been contemplating leaving sometime in the near
future, and they obviously had had some discussion about what they
wanted to do in terms of starting with a fresh page," said
Wadsworth, reached at a hotel in Philadelphia, where the men's
basketball team was to play Villanova on Tuesday.
The more surprising move was university president the Rev. Edward A. Malloy's decision to assume control of the athletic
department, stripping Beauchamp of responsibilities he'd had for 13
years.
After more than 50 years in which the university vice president
oversaw athletics, the athletic director will now report directly
to Malloy. The university president will be in charge of every
major decision, including chairing the committee that will look for
Wadsworth's successor.
"I've always been involved in the major decisions," Malloy
said. "But it will be a clearer line of reporting."
Wadsworth's departure could mark the end of a sometimes
embarrassing period in the university's storied history that
includes Lou Holtz's departure, former assistant Joe Moore's age
discrimination suit and Notre Dame's discussion with the Big Ten
about joining the conference and ending football's independent
status, which outraged many alumni.
Wadsworth will also forever be linked to former booster Kimberly
Dunbar, whose relationship with more than a dozen players
eventually led to the university's first major NCAA rules violation
and probation.
Malloy said the university has been considering the changes in
the athletic department for sometime, but the NCAA probation
accelerated the decision.
Though the university escaped any penalty for institutional
control, the report still chided some football coaches for not
doing enough to investigate the relationship between Dunbar and
more than a dozen players over a five-year period.
"When you have some of the problems that we've talked about
that are particularly damaging to this broad perception, sometimes
you want to take steps because you feel it's necessary to change
the perception," Wadsworth said.
Beauchamp did not return a call seeking comment Tuesday. But
Wadsworth said he always felt the university had appropriate
control over the athletic department under the old system.
"I have always felt that I could speak with him (Beauchamp)
about different decisions and he always had time for me," said
Wadsworth, who will stay on until a new athletic director is
selected or his contract is up. "He knew what was going on and as
a result of that, I always felt that the athletic department had
the support that we needed. That has worked very well for many,
many years." | |
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