Texas Makes Curious Decision To Fire Athletic Director Steve Patterson

By Jason Fletcher

As opposed to head coaches, athletic directors of universities typically only lose their job if one of three things happens:

1. They choose to take another job.

2. They choose to resign.

3. They breach some sort of rule or law, or embarrass the university in some way.

University of Texas athletic director Steve Patterson didn’t do any of these three things, but he has been fired by the school. Patterson, who came from Arizona State after only spending 18 months at the school, has only been at Texas for 22 months which makes this firing rather curious.

According to reports, the reasons behind Patterson’s firing are as follows:

1. He raised ticket prices this season after a 6-7 record in 2014.

2. He created a “loyalty” program for season ticket holders that benefited some, but kicked other long-time season ticket holders out of their seats.

3. He struggled to connect with university officials and supporters.

4. He refused to engage in a breach-of-contract lawsuit filed by Oklahoma State against Texas offensive line coach Joe Wickline.

Those are some pretty petty reasons to fire an athletic director who has brought in two of the best coaches in the country in Charlie Strong and Shaka Smart to coach the football and men’s basketball teams, respectively. Patterson was doing a solid job from my outside prospective, and those four issues being the reason he was fired is hogwash.

Patterson’s firing is about one thing and one thing only — money.

At last Saturday’s home football game against Rice, someone paid for a plane to fly across the stadium with a banner that read “Patterson Must Go.” I’m going to go out on a limb and say in some way, that banner was connected to a booster, and the boosters are the ones who wanted Patterson out. So, they told new University President Gregory Fenves, who has to listen because that’s where the cash flow comes from for universities. It may be a conspiracy theory, but I’d be willing to bet that’s the truth.

Jason Fletcher is a Senior Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @JasonFletcher25, “Like” him on Facebook, or add him to your network on Google+.

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