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AD Cleary stepping down

B

bigskyconf

Active member
Valerie Cleary taking a job with the Multnomah Athletic Club.

https://goviks.com/news/2021/7/15/featured-valerie-cleary-leaving-portland-state-for-position-at-multnomah-athletic-club.aspx
 
This is where I lament forgetting how much my sister was getting from MAC for being a part-time ski coach. She certainly wasn’t quitting nursing for it.

Which doesn’t mean there’s a drop in salary for Ms. Cleary, and that’s the question on my mind. It is the MAC, after all.
 
I am somewhat surprised that there has been so little comment on our AD's departure. One columnist for a out-of-town paper noting her new job said: "What?" I make note of that here because it was my first reaction as well. My next reaction was: "Why?" We know PSU as a whole has big, really big budget problems; and, the athletic department is very, very deep into the red with essentially no significant income beyond the millions from PSU's General Fund and student fees. Maybe she couldn't or wouldn't deal with it. Then there is the report on PSU's athletic program being prepared by an outside consultant. Could she have been anticipating bad news, news she didn't want to hang around for. It does appear that something is up with PSU athletics. I am not hopeful but not yet depressed.
 
Ready for wanton speculation? That’s what message boards appear to be for, after all.

Remember a few months ago, when Val went on radio and basically all but admitted that she made it really hard for the administration to cut football by, well, er, helping ensure the penalties for canceling the money games would be high?

You kind of had to think there would eventually be consequences for that. Except direct punishment for that would ALSO limit the school’s options… because folding football is possibly NOT a decision the school is behind and a harsher action would have sent an obvious signal that would become self-realizing. So she stays quiet and finds an out and the administration has a larger range of options.

Wanton speculation, generally free of evidence, but a possibility.
 
Pounder said:
Ready for wanton speculation? That’s what message boards appear to be for, after all.

Remember a few months ago, when Val went on radio and basically all but admitted that she made it really hard for the administration to cut football by, well, er, helping ensure the penalties for canceling the money games would be high?

You kind of had to think there would eventually be consequences for that. Except direct punishment for that would ALSO limit the school’s options… because folding football is possibly NOT a decision the school is behind and a harsher action would have sent an obvious signal that would become self-realizing. So she stays quiet and finds an out and the administration has a larger range of options.

Wanton speculation, generally free of evidence, but a possibility.
Click to expand...

It's bigger than football. If it was only football, Barnum would have been the first to leave. I'm going back to the odd circumstance of Kennedy leaving for McNeese, a job that typically is perceived to be a lower level job than any in the Big Sky (including PSU). Soemthing is going on behind the scenes and, because not many in the Portland media have shown any interest in following PSU, no one is questioning it. Peery's leaving made sense, but typically a successful coach (Kennedy) does not take a position that is considered to be a step down. Then, the AD does not generally leave for a job outside of college athletics (unless there is something that forced them out).

I'm still digging, however.
 
bigskyconf said:
It's bigger than football. If it was only football, Barnum would have been the first to leave. I'm going back to the odd circumstance of Kennedy leaving for McNeese, a job that typically is perceived to be a lower level job than any in the Big Sky (including PSU). Soemthing is going on behind the scenes and, because not many in the Portland media have shown any interest in following PSU, no one is questioning it. Peery's leaving made sense, but typically a successful coach (Kennedy) does not take a position that is considered to be a step down. Then, the AD does not generally leave for a job outside of college athletics (unless there is something that forced them out).

I'm still digging, however.
Click to expand...

That math leads to dropping a division.

Except a study like this is usually commissioned to justify your current position. Dropping is what happens when the administration doesn’t locate an independent party to produce an “independent result.”

Or so the trend goes. EWU seemingly just had this discussion.

EDIT- as I think about the similarities between the EWU situation and this, think of the coaches who left EWU. Are those the budgets that got cut? Is that what happens at PSU?

Thing is, Cleary leaving is a big difference in the situations.
 
Pounder said:
Thing is, Cleary leaving is a big difference in the situations.
Click to expand...

This is so true, which makes it all the more weird (not Portland weird, but just weird). If programs are slated to be cut, you need a strong AD to advocate for all the programs. You can't have the AD leaving in the middle of it.

Still digging, though.
 
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