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Michigan AD Goss resigns
Posted: Tuesday February 08, 2000 10:48 PM
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) -- Tom Goss, who vowed to bring accountability to the Michigan athletic department, announced his resignation Tuesday after just 2 1/2 years on the job. The resignation is effective at the end of March. The announcement came at a joint news conference with university President Lee Bollinger, the man who hired Goss on Sept. 8, 1997. "It has not been easy, but the positive outweighs the negatives," Goss said. "I believe that while it is time for me to step aside, a course has been defined to lead this department to great accomplishments." A source close to the situation said Bollinger asked Goss to step down and would likely have fired Goss had he refused. "I want to express my admiration and gratitude for the many qualities that Tom has brought to the position as athletic director," Bollinger said at the news conference. "Tom has a deep and emotional connection to the university rooted in his days here as a student athlete." Goss, 53, a former defensive lineman for the Wolverines, was the university's ninth athletic director, but the fourth in the last decade. He was the first black ever to run the department and didn't want to leave.
"I love this place, I'd like to stay, but I think it's time to make the next move," Goss said. Goss, who earned $275,000 per year, was expected to receive $140,250 in severance pay. The departure of Goss comes after he apparently angered Bollinger by not telling him of an NCAA probe of the eligibility of Wolverines freshman basketball player Jamal Crawford, but Bollinger refused to comment on that Tuesday. The NCAA last week suspended Crawford, the team's leading scorer, for six games for his living arrangements while in high school. Goss also has been criticized by some of the university's regents for a budget deficit last year. He was placed under close scrutiny by the administration after a $2.8 million budget deficit was revealed last June. Don Canham, who was Michigan's athletic director for 20 years, said it was a mistake to let Goss go. "Not to have five years is not the way Michigan operates," Canham said. "I'm really upset about it. It's a sad day for everybody who cares anything about Michigan athletics. "This will set us back a good 10 years." Bollinger wasn't expected to pick a permanent replacement until near the end of the school year in May. Published reports also have said that the next athletic director might not have strong ties to the university. When hired at Michigan to succeed Joe Roberson, who retired, Goss became the Big Ten Conference's highest-paid athletic director with his initial salary of $220,000. In April 1998, Bollinger boosted Goss' to $275,000 and paid him an extra, one-time payment of $30,000. Goss, a 1968 Michigan graduate, was an executive in private business, most recently for PIA Merchandising Corp. in California, when Bollinger hired him. In 1998, the NFL's San Francisco 49ers recruited Goss to take over as team president, but he declined the offer.
"He felt his work here wasn't done," Canham said. "They offered him close to $1 million."
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