Used properly, search firms are an important piece to the college athletics hiring process and we surely have no concrete evidence that CSA was not used properly. We can all talk about conspiracy theories (and I'll throw one out there in this post just for fun) but the reality is, almost everybody uses search firms and they are important and here's why:
- Most D1 head coaches are not able to talk to other schools unless receiving permission from their AD. It is in their contracts. So, without a search firm, a guy like Barnes would have to call, say Andy Enfield's dad, Will Wade's dad, etc and ask if they would be interested in talking. Or he'd have a mutual friend not associated with Pitt in any way reach out directly to those coaches. Then, he'd wait by the phone. So, yea, one of Barnes's buddies in college athletics somewhere could have done that but they would be doing Pitt work and they don't work for Pitt. Insert Search Firms. They are the middle men. They get paid a lot of money to guage interest and give an intial sales pitch for the job. Instead of Barnes's buddy at Utah State doing him a solid and contacting 10 coaches, he hires a real firm for a few hundred K. Everybody does it. And one of the biggest reasons is these search firms are supposed to act very fast. These coaches need hired in a week or 2 in most cases, mostly for recruiting reasons, so they can contact and vet many coaches quickly.
I admit its one heck of a gig. Give any of us a phone and a database and its one of the easiest jobs you can think of....and if you own the company, it pays awfully well. The need for a search firm was born out of the fact that coaches need permission to talk to other schools...........and who puts that in the contracts? ADs? And who owns search firms? Old ADs in some cases. Funny how that works.
The other thing search firms do very quickly is vet the candidates resumes and backgrounds. Were they arrested? Did they lie on their resume? Funny thing is USF's search firm did not discover that Steve Mariello (is that his name) lied about completing his UK degree until after USF hired him so what was the point?
Pitt cannot go out and do all of this for all the candidates so they hire someone. OK, pretty standard.
So, here's a conspiracy theory. I'm not saying I think this is what happened but for entertainment purposes, I thought I'd throw it out there:
1. Todd Turner hired Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt and Scott Barnes at Washington. Barnes and Turner have a professional relationship and Barnes trusts him. OK. Fine. We all like to work with people we know and trust. No big deal.
2. Turner knows Stallings is going to get fired but that Vandy would rather not pay the buyout. Lets say the buyout is $3 million to throw a number out there. Turner contacts Vanderbilt and says "If I can match Kevin up with a new job, can you give me a commission?" The Vandy AD says "yes, if Kevin lands a HC job where we do not have to pay the buyout, your commission is $500K." This may be unethical but it is not illegal. Its business.
3. Turner now has Pitt and Vanderbilt as mutual clients. One is looking to get rid of a coach, one looking to hire a coach. Turner's company and maybe even himself stand to benefit greatly if Pitt or another school hires Stallings. So:
a) either Turner sabotages Pitt's search so that we cant do any better than Stallings
b) Turner just puts on a massive sell job to Barnes on Stallings
c) Turner offers a part of his Vanderbilt commission to Barnes if he hires Stallings
I don't think this happened but there you go.
- Most D1 head coaches are not able to talk to other schools unless receiving permission from their AD. It is in their contracts. So, without a search firm, a guy like Barnes would have to call, say Andy Enfield's dad, Will Wade's dad, etc and ask if they would be interested in talking. Or he'd have a mutual friend not associated with Pitt in any way reach out directly to those coaches. Then, he'd wait by the phone. So, yea, one of Barnes's buddies in college athletics somewhere could have done that but they would be doing Pitt work and they don't work for Pitt. Insert Search Firms. They are the middle men. They get paid a lot of money to guage interest and give an intial sales pitch for the job. Instead of Barnes's buddy at Utah State doing him a solid and contacting 10 coaches, he hires a real firm for a few hundred K. Everybody does it. And one of the biggest reasons is these search firms are supposed to act very fast. These coaches need hired in a week or 2 in most cases, mostly for recruiting reasons, so they can contact and vet many coaches quickly.
I admit its one heck of a gig. Give any of us a phone and a database and its one of the easiest jobs you can think of....and if you own the company, it pays awfully well. The need for a search firm was born out of the fact that coaches need permission to talk to other schools...........and who puts that in the contracts? ADs? And who owns search firms? Old ADs in some cases. Funny how that works.
The other thing search firms do very quickly is vet the candidates resumes and backgrounds. Were they arrested? Did they lie on their resume? Funny thing is USF's search firm did not discover that Steve Mariello (is that his name) lied about completing his UK degree until after USF hired him so what was the point?
Pitt cannot go out and do all of this for all the candidates so they hire someone. OK, pretty standard.
So, here's a conspiracy theory. I'm not saying I think this is what happened but for entertainment purposes, I thought I'd throw it out there:
1. Todd Turner hired Kevin Stallings at Vanderbilt and Scott Barnes at Washington. Barnes and Turner have a professional relationship and Barnes trusts him. OK. Fine. We all like to work with people we know and trust. No big deal.
2. Turner knows Stallings is going to get fired but that Vandy would rather not pay the buyout. Lets say the buyout is $3 million to throw a number out there. Turner contacts Vanderbilt and says "If I can match Kevin up with a new job, can you give me a commission?" The Vandy AD says "yes, if Kevin lands a HC job where we do not have to pay the buyout, your commission is $500K." This may be unethical but it is not illegal. Its business.
3. Turner now has Pitt and Vanderbilt as mutual clients. One is looking to get rid of a coach, one looking to hire a coach. Turner's company and maybe even himself stand to benefit greatly if Pitt or another school hires Stallings. So:
a) either Turner sabotages Pitt's search so that we cant do any better than Stallings
b) Turner just puts on a massive sell job to Barnes on Stallings
c) Turner offers a part of his Vanderbilt commission to Barnes if he hires Stallings
I don't think this happened but there you go.
