UNL Student Newspaper: Husker Football Is Fully Corporate
Daily Nebraskan Staff Editorial
February 26, 2007
Nebraska football is more corporate than caring.
We have seen Nebraska football change since Tom Osborne retired in 1997 and Steve Pederson took over as athletic director in 2003.
Some say it has changed for the worse, citing a shift from the "Nebraska family" to a sterile business. Others say it's changed for the better and that Nebraska athletics had to change before it was left in the dust.
The shift is visible: Players no longer hail primarily from Nebraska, as recruiters shift their focuses to California and Texas. Memorial Stadium morphed into an even larger monumental coliseum - and the Athletic Department had no problem selling tickets for the extra 6,000 seats. Students without season tickets can catch glimpses of the game with a pair of binoculars aimed toward the gigantic screen in the north end zone.
But compare personnel rosters from 10 years and today, and it is difficult to find many employees who stuck around to see the changes firsthand.
Football trainer Doak Ostergard had to cross his name off that short list nearly two weeks ago. He was one of the last to leave, and it wasn't by choice - NU Coach Bill Callahan told him the team was going "in a different direction" and he would no longer have a job.
It's the same phrase other Athletic Department employees have heard - or have expected to hear and left before it could happen.
But Ostergard never thought he would hear the line. After all, Nebraska football was his life and passion. Players were like his honorary kids.
Unlike university professors with tenure or athletic coaches with contracts, Ostergard was an at-will employee; the Athletic Department could legally fire him at any time. Officials also don't have to give a reason for doing so - even though Ostergard joined department in 1984.
The Daily Nebraskan tried for days to get an interview with an Athletic Department official who could comment on Ostergard's ouster or explain the department's at-will employment policies. For the calls that were returned, the reporter was told that no one could comment on personnel decisions.
We would have liked to give Pederson and Callahan's side of the story, but - yet again - they would rather ignore the media, not answer challenging questions and, therefore, deny Nebraska fans any information about how the Athletic Department actually works.
In his more than two decades as a trainer, Ostergard watched the football program evolve.
He was around for the years when Osborne took players from Nebraska high schools and won championships. He saw how the department staff dramatically changed when Pederson became director, just like political staffs change when a new party is voted into office. And when Callahan came on board, Ostergard saw football players get less support - the team psychiatrist was gone and trainers were pushed out of their coach-like statuses and into offices.
For Ostergard, being fired by a coach without reason was final proof that the football program had officially changed. And for the worst, in his opinion.
It's the final proof for us, too. Nebraska football is officially a business. And the Athletic Department seems to answer to no one but itself.
If the Athletic Department were still held accountable by the University of Nebraska Board of Regents, it would have received approval from the board to purchase a multi-million dollar stadium screen before constructing a framework to hold it
If all university athletes were students first in the eyes of the administration, it would not have taken nearly 24 hours for the vice chancellor for student affairs to learn that student and football player Marlon Lucky was hospitalized.
And if the Athletic Department were anything but a bottom-line business, employees would at the very least receive an explanation as they were shown the door.
There is no arguing that Nebraska football has changed. And the argument of "for worst" instead of "for better" is becoming clearer each day. And with each resignation.
© Copyright 2007 Daily Nebraskan
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