Sandy Babour Retirement
- Thread starter Str8DBLz
- Start date
I like this and hopefully our next AD (will be picked by Neeli Bendapudi) will understand the importance of wrestling to the school.
I don't understand the hate. As far as I could see, she attended most all of the home duals along with several other high profile wrestling events. During those events , she seemed genuinely engaged with the other wrestling fans, coaches and players.
I think Sandy probably gets a good bit of undue hate. She certainly had her shortcomings and the next hire could well be an improvement, but this notion that she was some sort of disaster feels extremely overplayed to me.
C U tomorrow! I’m hearing from more than one person (within PSU) that Barron told Sandy that a 2 year extension was “not his call”.
If this bears out, wrestling shouldn't have anything to worry about.
Sandy has 126 people in the Athletics Department that have "Director" in their title.
Here are a few examples:
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Women's Gymnastics, Cross Country/Track & Field)
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Women's Soccer, Women's Lacrosse, Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving)
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Wrestling, Field Hockey, Fencing)
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Men's Hockey, Women's Golf)
Here are a few examples:
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Women's Gymnastics, Cross Country/Track & Field)
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Women's Soccer, Women's Lacrosse, Men's and Women's Swimming & Diving)
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Wrestling, Field Hockey, Fencing)
Assistant Director of Strategic Communications (Men's Hockey, Women's Golf)
Great. Not sure what your point is. A Title is just words. Doesn't necessarily have anything to do with what they do and how much they make.
Yep - Companies across America engage in title inflation (especially Banks where a hefty percentage of the employees are VP’s. Giving out a title is less expensive than giving out bigger salaries. If you look at what most of these “directors” do, …. It’s mostly administrative tasks like travel,
Meals, equipment, and gofer work. 😊
Yeah, saw her during the trophy ceremony.
Her hires, and retention of coaches, has been good. She finished the deal in keeping Cael and his assistants here, and I like both of her new basketball hires. I wrote her when Carl’s contract was up and urged her to finalize it and stressed the importance of wrestling to PSU. She emailed me back stating, though she obviously could not discuss details, they planned to do whatever they could to keep him at PSU.
I think her fundraising efforts could be improved and she had some communication misspeaks, especially early in her tenure. PSU has also seen a decline in the performance of some of our main Olympic sports, though I can’t contribute that to just her. Overall, I don’t get all the hate spewed her way.
I think her fundraising efforts could be improved and she had some communication misspeaks, especially early in her tenure. PSU has also seen a decline in the performance of some of our main Olympic sports, though I can’t contribute that to just her. Overall, I don’t get all the hate spewed her way.
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Thanks I watched and didn't see her at ceremony. I know she has always attended in past.
It was when Cael was walking towards the stage. He was quickly on screen with her.
Football crazies gonna football crazy.
Our athletic department has people to make up names for new positions. Nothing against Sandy, but we can do far better.
She was also at the post match reception and spoke at length to the attendees about how lucky we are to have this coaching staff, how well the student wrestlers represent PSU and how we need to NEVER take what they are accomplishing for granted.
Some of this, but I think it goes more to the distrust/dislike of any one associated administratively at Penn State, and the handling of the Sandusky situation. Sandy had nothing to do with that, but she was hired by the people who did.
Agree! What she said was heartfelt and spot on. I talked to her briefly as we have a mutual acquaintance. She mentioned how much she loved the State College vibe.
My impression was that it was the Paterno Forever faction, that would find any excuse to be dissatisfied with a 5-yr undefeated football run. The players don't shave? FIUR EVERYONE!!
Barbour did come with a legitimate question mark -- she was not known as a strong fundraiser, to be hired into a high-focus fundraising job.
But that was an excuse to most -- her real sin was being an outsider, and especially an outsider who oversaw an uncompetitive football program.
No doubt it was the Paterno faction. But, the emotions tied up in the way the University mishandled the situation and the associated impact on Joe’s legacy is not to be minimized.
They did the man wrong. No doubt about that. But, like I said, Sandy had nothing to do with that.
How about we take a "donation" from Franklin's salary and spread it across the wrestling coaches. The difference between Penn State football and Penn State wrestling is one whines and the other wins.
I'm a fan. She has been a fabulous supporter of Penn State wrestling and the wrestling booster club. Not much is perfect in this world, so burps and hiccups aside, she's been great for Penn State wrestling.
Could you look it up instead of hypothesizing?
You're asking, on a forum dedicated to PSU Wrestling, if there are any sports in which we have more B1G and National titles since 2014 than before?
Oh, I'm not really trying to give her credit. I don't know how anyone really gauges the performance of an athletic director, to be honest.
But the comment I responded to asked about B1G/National titles pre- and post-Barbour. If that's your measure, the numbers are pretty clear.
i took a look at the director's cup standings, which try to say which schools have the best overall athletics by assigning points to each sport's finishing position at ncaa's. PSU has shown a massive decline in 20-21 finishing 39th in division 1, compared to finishing 5th in 13-14 before barbour's arrival.
going sport by sport, the biggest decliners were women's volleyball (1 to 9), women's gymnastics (7 to 32), women's basketball (9 to unranked), swimming (w - 18 to unranked, m - 17 to 31) and women's track and field (outdoor - 12 to 33, indoor - 14 to unranked).
the only sport to improve from 13-14 to 20-21 was women's soccer going from 17 to 9, which is really just winning 1 more game in the ncaa tourney. if you want to go back to pre-covid (there were no rankings for 19-20) we can also include football going from unranked to 17, men's lacross going from unranked to 3, and women's soccer was even higher at 5 for that year.
03-04: 13
04-05: 20
05-06: 15
06-07: 21
07-08: 9
08-09: 19
09-10: 11
10-11: 13
11-12: 12
12-13: 6
13-14: 5
—————
14-15: 8
15-16: 20
16-17: 8
17-18: 12
18-19: 13
19-20: N/A
20-21: 39
21-22: 5 (after fall semester)
I don’t think she can be rated on one 20-21 Covid year. Take that out, and PSU has been slightly better under her.
Excellent choice for comparison. Good objective criteria.
03-04: 13
04-05: 20
05-06: 15
06-07: 21
07-08: 9
08-09: 19
09-10: 11
10-11: 13
11-12: 12
12-13: 6
13-14: 5
—————
14-15: 8
15-16: 20
16-17: 8
17-18: 12
18-19: 13
19-20: N/A
20-21: 39
21-22: 5 (after fall semester)
I don’t think she can be rated on one 20-21 Covid year. Take that out, and PSU has been slightly better under her.
Aggregate rankings is one of several good ways to look at Sandy’s overall impact on Athletics. We should also consider her impact on the culture, the finances, and how the athletes feel about the coaching they receive. Overall, I think she has done a reasonable job in a challenging era.
03-04: 13
04-05: 20
05-06: 15
06-07: 21
07-08: 9
08-09: 19
09-10: 11
10-11: 13
11-12: 12
12-13: 6
13-14: 5
—————
14-15: 8
15-16: 20
16-17: 8
17-18: 12
18-19: 13
19-20: N/A
20-21: 39
21-22: 5 (after fall semester)
I don’t think she can be rated on one 20-21 Covid year. Take that out, and PSU has been slightly better under her.
If we’re talking more money for the wrestling program, then I WONDER if it is time to give BJC a go. Cael has hinted at it. I’m a little worried about empty seats in a 16k arena, but there’s a lot more ticket (and refreshment) revenue to be had than what Rec Hall provides.
Penn State hires BC's Kraft as athletic director
Penn State has hired Boston College's Patrick Kraft to become its next AD, replacing the retiring Sandy Barbour.
Overhead in extremis I imagine is the point.
She has been a complete disaster, with PSU’s on the field performance weakening significantly under her reign ( someone did a great job comparing and contrasting her performance with her predecessor. Dreadful.
Given her history prior to PSU, I thought Sandy was a very bad hire.
Seeing what she has accomplished, including retaining Cael, I am free to admit my original opinion was wrong. From my POV she has done a very good job. Individual sport's performance is mostly up to the coaching staffs and the AD needs to hire the right coaches, and equip them to win.
I hear rumors and innuendo that she is a big part of the problem tied to NIL. I can't be sure if that is accurate or an issue with compliance who in theory should operate somewhat independent. If she has been a negative force for remaining competitive in the age of NIL and the portal, then maybe her time has come. We need to remain ultra competitive on all fronts. I hope the next AD is fully committed to doing so.
As for Sandy, I think she deserves a pat on the back, PSU athletics were alive and well during her tenure.
Seeing what she has accomplished, including retaining Cael, I am free to admit my original opinion was wrong. From my POV she has done a very good job. Individual sport's performance is mostly up to the coaching staffs and the AD needs to hire the right coaches, and equip them to win.
I hear rumors and innuendo that she is a big part of the problem tied to NIL. I can't be sure if that is accurate or an issue with compliance who in theory should operate somewhat independent. If she has been a negative force for remaining competitive in the age of NIL and the portal, then maybe her time has come. We need to remain ultra competitive on all fronts. I hope the next AD is fully committed to doing so.
As for Sandy, I think she deserves a pat on the back, PSU athletics were alive and well during her tenure.
Telling paragraph from the ESPN article:
He [Franklin] also wanted someone who can be aligned with him and the president and "streamline some things" to be able to push the program forward in "a little bit less bureaucratic way." Simply put, Franklin said he is looking for someone who can get things done to help Penn State compete nationally.
≈==========
PSU (not just athletics) is extremely bureaucratic, and responsive at glacial speed.
That was deeply entrenched long before Barbour arrived. Also her dept is no more agile today than when she was hired.
The new President and new AD need to change that culture.
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