Jeff Tingey relieved of duties.

[bengalcub]

POCATELLO — As of today, Idaho State University Athletic Director Jeff Tingey has been relieved of duties and placed on administrative leave.

During the course of an operational review of the Idaho State Athletic Department, President Kevin Satterlee felt that it was in the best interest of the University to place Tingey on administrative leave. The University will announce an interim athletic director soon.

ISU is committed to the success of its athletic teams and student athletes. The University will provide continued support and oversight to the department during this period.

Due to this being a personnel matter, ISU officials will not make any further comment.

 

[clawsout]

:shock:

 

[sasquatch]

I really thought this would happen but believed it would take place after this school year. As soon as Satterlee gave F.A.T. back its clubhouse which Tingey took away last year, you knew where this was heading.

Thank to Jeff for all he's done, but I'm excited for the future!

 

[PBP]

Surprised is to mild a word. Don't know what could have been going on behind the scenes but this is a stunner.

It could also be a case where a new President wants their own A.D. This is pretty common in the media, when a new G.M. is hired, they bring in their own people loyal to them.

I'll be interested to see what comes from this and what comes out of this, eventually word will leak out.

Jeff I think, still has two years on a contract so if they university decides to make a change they are probably going to have to pay him.

The guy did a pretty amazing job getting new facilities especially since during part of his tenure the country had that financial meltdown.

PBP

 

[Skippy]

Updated Journal article says Jeff will be paid until his contract expires next June.
https://idahostatejournal.com/news/local/isu-athletic-director-jeff-tingey-relieved-of-duties-placed-on/article_931a8336-2a95-570e-adfc-b63c932044cb.amp.html

 

[PBP]

Updated Journal article says Jeff will be paid until his contract expires next June.
https://idahostatejournal.com/news/local/isu-athletic-director-jeff-tingey-relieved-of-duties-placed-on/article_931a8336-2a95-570e-adfc-b63c932044cb.amp.html

Brad: Reading that story I get the sense the reasons for the change were because (save for women's basketball) ISU has not been doing well record-wise in most sports especially the men's "money generating" ones of football and men's basketball and then the sense that maybe they should be doing better regarding donations / business - company support.

That's just a gut feeling, I have no idea if that's true or not.

Just playing devil's advocate but its hard to have winning seasons when you can't get home games because, as Jeff told me on the coaches show last year, ISU doesn't have the money to pay teams to come to Pocatello and even if they did, coaches simply don't want the hassle of having to fly into SLC or Boise and bus in. Then of course you've got the two "money games" for football every year which really takes a toll on things.

We'll see what happens going down the road but Satterlee is certainly making his presence felt early on in his tenure.

PBP

 

[Skippy]

Updated Journal article says Jeff will be paid until his contract expires next June.
https://idahostatejournal.com/news/local/isu-athletic-director-jeff-tingey-relieved-of-duties-placed-on/article_931a8336-2a95-570e-adfc-b63c932044cb.amp.html

Brad: Reading that story I get the sense the reasons for the change were because (save for women's basketball) ISU has not been doing well record-wise in most sports especially the men's "money generating" ones of football and men's basketball and then the sense that maybe they should be doing better regarding donations / business - company support.

That's just a gut feeling, I have no idea if that's true or not.

Just playing devil's advocate but its hard to have winning seasons when you can't get home games because, as Jeff told me on the coaches show last year, ISU doesn't have the money to pay teams to come to Pocatello and even if they did, coaches simply don't want the hassle of having to fly into SLC or Boise and bus in. Then of course you've got the two "money games" for football every year which really takes a toll on things.

We'll see what happens going down the road but Satterlee is certainly making his presence felt early on in his tenure.

PBP

I claim absolutely no knowledge on this but bottom line for every D-1 program in America is that eventually your “money sports” (football and basketball) have to deliver. As a coach that means eventually you have to win. As an AD that means you have to provide the coaches with what it takes to compete, and then hire winners. The bill always comes due sooner or later.

 

[PBP]

I claim absolutely no knowledge on this but bottom line for every D-1 program in America is that eventually your “money sports” (football and basketball) have to deliver. As a coach that means eventually you have to win. As an AD that means you have to provide the coaches with what it takes to compete, and then hire winners. The bill always comes due sooner or later.
[/quote]

Brad: Certainly sound thinking.

I will say this though,its hard to provide coaches with what it takes to compete when you don't have the money to do so and aren't willing (apparently) to go into the red for even a short time period in the hopes you can create an atmosphere to do that. (Or as former White Sox G.M. Kenny Williams once told the media (much to his regret over time) "I can't spend a dollar if I only have .50 cents..."

Now whether or not that is actually true at ISU (i.e. not having the money) I have no idea.

PBP

 

[Spudhead]

Don't stop there.

 

[Skippy]

I claim absolutely no knowledge on this but bottom line for every D-1 program in America is that eventually your “money sports” (football and basketball) have to deliver. As a coach that means eventually you have to win. As an AD that means you have to provide the coaches with what it takes to compete, and then hire winners. The bill always comes due sooner or later.

Brad: Certainly sound thinking.

I will say this though,its hard to provide coaches with what it takes to compete when you don't have the money to do so and aren't willing (apparently) to go into the red for even a short time period in the hopes you can create an atmosphere to do that. (Or as former White Sox G.M. Kenny Williams once told the media (much to his regret over time) "I can't spend a dollar if I only have .50 cents..."

Now whether or not that is actually true at ISU (i.e. not having the money) I have no idea.

PBP
[/quote]

Never said it was easy, especially at ISU. But now you’ve got a president from a university that has become nationally known because of its football team. He knows what a successful athletic program can do for a school. So you have to think he’s going to be looking for performance.

 

[bengalman]

I hate seeing people get fired and I think Tingey has done a good job overall. We finally had stability in that position after years of turnover.

The one positive I see is that we finally have a president that cares about athletics. He obviously wants to build a winner and hopefully he provides the funding to do so.

 

[bengalcub]

Thanks to Jeff for the good that he has done. I wish him the best moving forward.

However, I am optimistic that this change will be good. Time will tell.

 

[orangeandblack]

Contrary to what PBP has said, FAT's main complaint, and the complaint of Mike Machurek and many in Poky, is that Tingey really didn't do much in the way of raising money for facilities. Sure, he's a nice guy and all and it's nice having some stability at that position. But many that are involved in FAT really feel that we need someone with a true sales personality and someone who can do a lot more to raise money for badly need facilities . For example we really need improvements for the dome and it would be nice to eventually get a new basketball arena. Even though Jim Senter was only here for a year, it would be nice to have someone that has the sales abilities that he has. It was mostly Jay McMillan who raised the money for the football practice field. And now Joe Borich is the one that's working his butt off to try to raise money for some of the things we need.

 

[bhumble]

This is the best news coming out of ISU in years.

 

[PBP]

Contrary to what PBP has said, FAT's main complaint, and the complaint of Mike Machurek and many in Poky, is that Tingey really didn't do much in the way of raising money for facilities. Sure, he's a nice guy and all and it's nice having some stability at that position. But many that are involved in FAT really feel that we need someone with a true sales personality and someone who can do a lot more to raise money for badly need facilities . For example we really need improvements for the dome and it would be nice to eventually get a new basketball arena. Even though Jim Senter was only here for a year, it would be nice to have someone that has the sales abilities that he has. It was mostly Jay McMillan who raised the money for the football practice field. And now Joe Borich is the one that's working his butt off to try to raise money for some of the things we need.

Not disagreeing with what you said and you make some valid points but to say that he "didn 't do much in the way of raising money for facilities" is being a little disingenuous.

I have a feeling by your post and the tone of it that you mean facilities that you really care about, i.e. Holt Arena and a new basketball facility.

The fact is there were a number of improvements to a number of facilities overall while Jeff was A.D. including the women's locker rooms for soccer, volleyball, women's basketball, the new courts for both Holt Arena men's basketball and Reed Gym for women's basketball, the redoing of the football locker room, the new scoreboard at Holt Arena, the brand new softball field, immediately come to mind. Those didn't all magically just happen. It was a team effort to do so and Jeff was part of that team. I'm just trying to be fair about this looking in as an outsider. There were more improvements in athletic facilities at ISU in the last 10 years than in the previous 25.

I understand the idea of what really matters are football and men's basketball, those are supposed to be the "bell cow's" at any program but its also important to have well rounded / winning programs across the board if you can help it. Those also need facilities, they can't be ignored. And many of those were in fact, improved, some dramatically. To ignore them not only hurts the overall program at a university but you can also start to get into dangerous Title IX territory (whether you personally agree with that notion or not...the fact is it is the law)

As has been discussed ad naseum, Holt Arena has some unique circumstances that are going to be difficult to solve short of the university coming up with their own version of Phil Knight. I don't know if such person / business is out there, I mean the voters already rejected a proposition to help fund and renovate the arena about 15 years ago as I recall.

Maybe new blood, new thinking, new ideas can change that narrative. We'll see... history does show however that over the past 20 years or so, under a number of different people in charge of athletics, it has been a difficult nut to crack.

One thing this move does show clearly as Brad said, is that this new guy does care about athletics (a refreshing change) and everyone in positions of authority in that department has been basically put on notice.

PBP

 

[up for the challenge]

I agree with Skippy and PBP on what they had to say. In my opinion, Jeff did a lot for ISU but at the D-1 level you better win 50% or better of your games at football and men's basketball to stay employed. It would appear that this new president is making a statement out of the gate that it is time to win or be replaced. If Jeff would have won 50% or better of the games at football and men's basketball last year I bet he would have remained the A.D.

 

[Tacoma5]

My hope in all this is that Joe B. either retain his position or is promoted to AD. This guy is a people person and from what I've seen is passionate about our teams and the players at ISU. Was he handcuffed in certain aspects? Did he have ideas that went unnoticed? Who knows, but hopefully we'll see some significant progress in our program going forward.

I also want to thank Tingey for his efforts at ISU, but as with several of you, it was time for a new direction and no better than the present.

 

[PBP]

My hope in all this is that Joe B. either retain his position or is promoted to AD. This guy is a people person and from what I've seen is passionate about our teams and the players at ISU. Was he handcuffed in certain aspects? Did he have ideas that went unnoticed? Who knows, but hopefully we'll see some significant progress in our program going forward.

I also want to thank Tingey for his efforts at ISU, but as with several of you, it was time for a new direction and no better than the present.

My personal opinion, not based on anything, is that the school will promote someone to temporarily fill the position from outside the athletic department itself. In the mid 90's they did something like this when Kelly Wiltbank, who I think was the school's legal council was named to the position on a temporary basis. I suspect the school will want to have the time to do a thorough national search and not rush into anything.

I'd be surprised if anyone currently in the department was named to the post temporarily (although there are some benefits to doing that) but I'd also be very surprised if anyone else currently in the department was put on leave or moved to another department.

And I agree about Joe, he has a very engaging personality.

There's also one other potential circumstance that hasn't been mentioned yet in all this. Jeff took his orders too. Who knows if he proposed certain things, was willing to take certain risks, maybe wanted to step outside the box only to be told no by those above him on the other side of campus?

Not saying it did happen, just saying that's also something else to consider.

PBP

 

[Isudad]

As a parent of a former football player, I say it’s about time. The whole time my son played in this program which was five years he never went so far as to even introduce himself to us. We traveles to most away games and every home game. I’m not sure if it’s a personality issue or I really hope not religious issue but we never felt welcomed by him at all in the program. Our son shared our senatment. Idaho State has several inherent challenges and I really feel a good high-quality AD could help with some of these. To top everything off as my son finished his senior year they gave them an Idaho State blanket with his name emrodered and they misspelled my sons name. With Mr. Tingey being relieved of his duties I would feel more likely to come up with ways to help support this program now.

 

[PBP]

As a parent of a former football player, I say it’s about time. The whole time my son played in this program which was five years he never went so far as to even introduce himself to us. We traveles to most away games and every home game. I’m not sure if it’s a personality issue or I really hope not religious issue but we never felt welcomed by him at all in the program. Our son shared our senatment. Idaho State has several inherent challenges and I really feel a good high-quality AD could help with some of these. To top everything off as my son finished his senior year they gave them an Idaho State blanket with his name emrodered and they misspelled my sons name. With Mr. Tingey being relieved of his duties I would feel more likely to come up with ways to help support this program now.

There should be no excuse for something like a misspelling happening when that is easy to check. I know the same thing happened a few years ago when one of the WBB players crossed the 1,000 point mark and the ball they gave her commemorating the event misspelled her name as well.

However I don't think that falls under the proviso of the A.D. That is someone else's responsibility. You could make the case though that after it happened once something should have been put in place to prevent that from happening again perhaps that would come under the A.D. saying something like, "this doesn't need to happen again, make sure it doesn't." That's assuming of course that they were even told about it by someone.

PBP