A new boss in Indy

Is Brand the solution to NCAA's woes? We'll see

More in this column: • Coaching tip sheet • Bum deals • Parting shots

Judging from media accounts trumpeting his move just up the highway to NCAA headquarters, Indiana University president Myles Brand will go down as the man who oversaw the firing of Bobby Knight.

And, hey, the image of a guy who stood up to the bully plays well in a lot of quarters. So with a fair number of college presidents looking to tone down big-time athletics and, heaven forbid, pushing academics first, you could argue Brand is a win-win choice to take over as president/CEO of the NCAA in January.

But is the dragon slayer label legit? Is the 60-year-old Brooklyn-born philosopher the best person for the job?

We have two answers for you: It depends on whom you ask. And only time will tell.

All we know for certain is that if Brand truly is a reformer, then his first order of business ought to be ordering a pay cut for the NCAA boss (Stop the laughter, please). Here you have a guy earning $307,000 in his current gig -- for overseeing a $3.4 billion budget and eight campuses, including Bloomington -- about to replace Cedric Dempsey, whose package approaches $750,000.

Two NCAA senior VPs -- Tom Jernstedt ($597,000) and Dan Boggan ($475,000) -- have packages that pay them more than Brand earned at Indiana, according to NCAA tax filings.

What’s wrong with this picture, we ask?

As for the credit Brand deserves for firing Knight two years ago, we tried going directly to the source. But it seems Knight is too busy with his Texas Tech basketball program to take on the subject. So we sought the opinion of another well-placed source, IU English professor Murray Sperber, who tends to have a handle on both the academic and athletic pulse at Indiana.

Sperber penned Beer and Circus: How Big-Time College Sports is Crippling Undergraduate Education and was one of the loudest voices calling for Knight’s ouster after the coach was caught on videotape assaulting former player Neil Reed during a practice.

Here’s his take.

CNNSI.com: Does Myles Brand deserve the kudos for bringing down Bobby Knight?

Murray Sperber: He did fire him, I will say that. But if you remember, there was that whole zero-tolerance period regarding Knight’s behavior. I think Knight finally fired himself. ... I think he and Knight had had a good relationship. And he was very supportive of Knight. As the record shows, Brand was hired in 1994 and he enabled Knight [to keep his job] for quite a number of years.

CNNSI.com: What was the IU reaction to Brand being named to head the NCAA?

Murray Sperber: It was a pleasant surprise that they’d actually bring in an academic. I thought it would be another good ol' boy, but in a fancier suit. This is the first person in charge of the NCAA who hasn’t been from the athletic department world. So that was a positive.

CNNSI.com: What kind of a job has Brand done overseeing his own athletic program?

Murray Sperber: He’s certainly been very supportive of [Knight replacement] Mike Davis. That is going terrifically, of course. So I think people cut him a lot of slack because of the Knight stuff. He personally took so much heat. But sports here isn’t like Tennessee. People are pleased it has been a clean program. He’s given some credit for that and the athletic department people and the coaches who enforce that. In that sense it has been pretty positive, although he himself has not been that concerned with IU athletics. To be fair to him, the way it is structured, he oversees eight campuses.

CNNSI.com: Do you see him leading a serious NCAA reform movement?

Murray Sperber: I am skeptical. Maybe he is the guy who can deal with power coaches and power athletic directors, who live in their own little worlds and don’t see why they can’t do exactly what they want to do. That is finally who you’ve got to come up against. But he really has to prove himself as a serious reformer. He’s talked the talk, but he’s never walked the walk other than firing Knight. And again, Knight essentially fired himself.

Coaching tip sheet

Sitting alongside a very well-placed Florida State insider on a recent flight, the conversation got around to possible replacements when Bobby Bowden finally decides to step down. According to this former FSU official, Texas coach Mack Brown probably tops the list (if they can afford him), with North Carolina State coach Chuck Amato not far behind.

Let’s not pile on, but why is Brown such a hot ticket? He works with some of the best talent in college football -- if not the best -- and yet he’s now 3-8 against Top 10 teams and couldn’t beat a Bob Stoops-coached team if he borrowed the Miami Dolphins for an afternoon.

As for the Seminoles, they remain a nice team, but the edge has been gone the past two seasons. The loss of top assistants Amato and Mark Richt (Georgia) -- both of whom have undefeated teams at this point -- have hurt more deeply than folks in Tallahassee imagined. Amato was a dogged recruiter, particularly successful in South Florida. And Richt oversaw the offense and trained the quarterbacks, both of which have been sub-par since his departure.

Bum deals

Rarely do you hear about a deal going bust for both clubs before the first real tipoff. Well, the New York Knicks and Denver Nuggets both gambled this summer and lost -- swapping medical cases Marcus Camby and Antonio McDyess.

Camby is on the shelf for three months after undergoing hip surgery last Thursday. True to form, he blames the Knicks for his current condition, even though the Nuggets’ medical staff signed off on the trade. On Saturday, the blockbuster evened out when McDyess, limited to 10 games last season, fractured his left kneecap and is likely out for the season.

A news flash to fans in Denver and the Big Apple: You’ve now officially entered the LeBron James lottery.

Parting shots

With the recent firing of GM Dean Taylor in Milwaukee, understudies of John Schuerholz are now 0-2, and you have to wonder if Chuck LaMar will still be around in Tampa Bay after his contract expires next season. Dick Balderson, who studied under Schuerholz earlier in Kansas City, had a brief, unsuccessful run with the Seattle Mariners. OK, Schuerholz is one of baseball’s most astute general managers, but just because a guy worked in the same office doesn’t guarantee a winner. Then again, his proteges have struck out with dysfunctional clubs that also lacked owners with deep pockets. ... Syracuse football coach Paul Pasqualoni has survived fan unrest before, but you have to wonder if this time it might be different. The Orangemen are 1-5 after losing to Big East doormat Temple last Saturday and after three winnable games close against the conference’s Big Three: Virginia Tech, Boston College and Miami. If administration fails to back Pasqualoni, count on ex-Georgia Tech coach George O’Leary shipping off an updated resume. O’Leary, a former Syracuse assistant who also coached high school ball in the area, has let it be known that he wants back in as a head coach.

Mike Fish is a senior writer for CNNSI.com.

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