>> If you believe that a hockey coach can be AD, could said coach perform both
>> duties simultaneously?  And succeed?  Or would the pressures of both jobs be
>> too much?
 
>As you probably know, Jeff Jackson is both AD and hockey coach at LSSU.
>IMHO, he seems to be succeeding at both jobs (renovations of Norris
>Center, and 1994 NCAA Championship).
 
Some others have written to me reminding me that Gino Gasparini held down both
jobs at North Dakota and Rick Comley currently does both at Northern Michigan.
 
Not intending to offend anyone at any of those three schools, but the MSU
program (not the hockey program, but the overall athletic program) is a bit
different.  For the schools mentioned, hockey is one of only a few (and may
be the only one, to my knowledge) programs that is DivI.  Thus it garners
more attention than it does at a school like Michigan State, which is DivI in
almost all programs.  A hockey coach being AD of an athletic department where
his (or her, not to be sexist) program is "the biggest" would be somewhat
different than being AD at a school where hockey takes somewhat of a backseat
to basketball and football.  (This is to take nothing away from the job
Gasparini did at ND or the jobs that Comley and Jackson do at NMU and LSSU,
respectively.  It's just sort of like comparing the taste of green and red
apples.)
 
My personal opinion is that Ron's name may be out there more as a remote
possibility than anything else.  Right now there doesn't seem to be a clear
favorite for the job (though some would imagine Clarence Underwood as a
leading candidate, but the flap over his memo last year concerning Jud Heath-
cote, the poster boy for masochistic basketball coaches), so the likelihood
of a "dark horse" getting the job increases.  All I can say is, MSU could do
a lot worse (and they have before) than naming Ron Mason AD.
 
G. M. Finniss
Michigan State University 12-4-3, 17-7-3
WVU '87, UTenn '92, MSU who the hell knows when?