C'mon, C'mon listen to the money talk

You have to wonder how many other letters there are like this one (Page 1, Page 2). You certainly have to listen when one of your biggest, highest-profile donors has something to say, particularly when it involves the loss of $500k in donations to the athletic department. Some of the most telling statements include:

Numerous occasions of disagreement between Pete Boone and the coaches are well known across a majority of the fan base. Many of the items I view as petty and designed to harass.

and

The Chancellor (Khayat) has heard rampant criticism of Pete Boone from every corner of the State. In the face of all the known turmoil, the Chancellor gave Pete a four (4) year extension!

and

I cannot continue to support this mismanagement. I respectfully suggest you remove (my) pledge from your budgeting process.

Let me preface the rest of this post with this… I’m not a big Pete Boone fan. In all the dealings I had with him when I was in school, he came across as a smug jackass. His banker-engrained penny pinching ways have rubbed many a person the wrong way over the years. He’s made some questionable decisions (and non-decisions) throughout the years that have brought about a firestorm of message board threads and blogger posts.

But right now, in mid-2009, the Ole Miss athletic department is doing just fine, thanks. Outside of Florida and potentially LSU, there’s not a school in the entire SEC with as strong a money-sport coaching trio as Houston Nutt, Mike Bianco, and Andy Kennedy. The IPF is gorgeous and the new basketball facility will be top-notch as well. The new scoreboard at VHS looks great. The list goes on.

That said, it’ll be interesting to see how long Boone sticks around after Chancellor Jones takes over. Boone is a product of the Good Ol’ Boy Network so prevalent at Ole Miss at times... but then again Jones appears to be as well. While I feel Boone doesn’t get enough credit for the good he’s done recently, I don’t feel he’s the man to lead the athletic department where it is capable of going in the upcoming years.

Hopefully, the Chancellor Jones will – as Millette so eloquently put it – “possess the fortitude to correct this problem.” It remains to be seen whether Jones views Boone as a "problem" or he'll just settle for the status quo already in place.