Tegen Sues Wisconsin for Discrimination

hammer from madison wrote:

And now we have the head football coach taking over as athletic director. Look out minor sports!

Actually, I've seen ex-football coaches moving to AD positions being a positive for minor sports in many situations. Cutting sports or budgets is usually due to inadequate fundraising by the athletic department and AD. Major program football coaches are usually very good at this and already have major donor connections, while many others including ex-minor sports coaches struggle. Many ex-football coaches are prideful and want to be seen as a great AD, so they promote all sports. Of course I am aware there are exceptions to my observations. Let's just hope it works for UW. Tegen has built a great program and it would be a shame to see one of the premier collegiate programs slide. Coach Tegen has always been approachable and helpful and I wish him the best in his lawsuit.

the program fell off because the school asked him to change things. the lack of scholarships doesn't allow for a full team, so the performances fell

Help me here. The news link says the university elected not to roll over his contract for another year. Since when is it a given that a state employee - and I am going to presume that is in fact what he is since the university of state-supported - has a contract for life? Not one post has said anything about the terms of his contract, so we only know that it was renewable each year at the discretion of the university.

Tegen may be a fine coach and there may be facts related to his departure that are not public knowledge and will come out during the discovery phase of his suit, but frankly, based on the facts as they have been presented here, his age discrimination claim has some mighty big hurdles to overcome before he has any chance of success.

As for the allegations against Cheryl Marra, but some substance to them, otherwise keep them out of this forum.

I can't speak for Wisconsin, but in two other states I have AD experience. There are not contracts for life, but in order to be dismissed,a pattern of 'ailing to address and correct problems' must be shown. So, if Coach X is failing in some way or another, the AD must make this known to them, develop a plan to correct the problems, and adequate time given to correct them. So, it should never come as a surprise that an employee is going to be fired. For severe breech of contract, these steps are not needed, but extensive proof is. It is not as difficult to prove age discrimination as you might think. The problem is most are not willing to continue fighting when usually it just means returning to the position, now in a hostile environment. Getting a cash award is much more difficult and requires a larger burden of proof and both sides are usually willing to settle long before this.

chub wrote:

So, if Coach X is failing in some way or another, the AD must make this known to them, develop a plan to correct the problems, and adequate time given to correct them.

So, essentially, he did not turn into a female coach in an adequate amount of time.

? wrote:

So, essentially, he did not turn into a female coach in an adequate amount of time.

I wonder if the athletic department gave Tegen a plan to correct this problem?

Many Athletic Departments are required give yearly evaluations to coaches. If Tegen wasn't evaluated and warned of the so-called problems in the program, he probably has a case against Wisconsin. If he WAS told and did not make any changes, the Dept. probably has grounds for dismissal (despite whether we feel that it is right or wrong).

From within the running community this seems pretty shocking, especially anyone who has been around the program. This guy has been held in such high esteem in that place I still can't believe they want to get rid of him. We're talking Wisconsin here, the hugely successful women milers and distance runners were always highly publicized there. There would be a feature article in the local papers weekly while the men were lucky to get mentioned once a season. You should have seen it back when they had Herbst, Favor, Wickes,Thorsett, and others.

Personally I think is sort of a prima donna but the bottom line is he's probably one of the best teachers ever in womens' college coaching and he's been taking 5:00 milers and turning them into All-Americans forever. The guy has got to be one of the top 5 or 6 coaches in the country period. He might be the best womens middle distance coach ever in this country. But a great coach is not always a succesful one in every situation. It appears he doesn't have the support and scholarships he's used to and they certainly have slipped as a program lately. And it probably doesn't help that the men's teams are doing better than ever in terms of Big 10 success. They seem to be adapting and I would be surprised if there getting as much backing as the womens teams if what goes on every where else these days holds true.

Tegen can coach girls to improvement but the Athletic department would rather see Big 10 titles and done as economically as possible. I admire Tegen for holding his ground and standing up for his program but I think its going to be hard for him to prove discrimination.

I hope he wins though. And gets paid a ton.

I don't know if it will happen in this instance, but I've seen athletic directors reduce scholarships/budgets/admissions help etc. and fire one coach and then after hiring the new coach restore the scholarship/budget/admissions help.

Then the athletic director points to the sudden uplift of performance as proof that the change was justified.

I would find it hard to believe that Wisconsin doesn't have the NCAA limit of 18 scholarships. Schools like Penn State and Michigan seem to be able to field full teams with that same amount. It just appears that Wisconsin isn't getting the talent that they used to. Tegen is no doubt a great coach but you have to have the talent to work with.

who would be some good candidates to take over for Tegen? Any Big-10 assistants possibly? How about Sully's wife? What about Stinzi? Doesn't sound good for men. Maybe a return to the MidWest by Walt Drenth? There are some good MAC/C-USA head coaches that would be good: Parks, Uhrich, Mitchell, Hadsell, McRaven?

It is going to be an uphill battle for anyone as the cupboards will be bare.

Initially you should take out all of the males in that list. Mostly likely they will look for a female. The application ratio will be something like 20:1 (men to women), if not higher. If they are going to hire another white male, why would they cut loose Tegen. That being said, someone like Parks would probably do a very solid job at a place like Wisco.

Correction, I meant to say 10:1.

Not knowing anything specific to the situation at Wisconsin, I would submit that a big reason for this move is that Tegen is simply making more $ than they want to pay, based upon his seniority. They can easily hire a young coach who will be willing to work for 1/3 of what they pay Tegen, and while the results may not be as good, do any of you honestly think they care?

This really bites. I grew up in Madison and went to the UW from '89-'93. My parents both worked for the university (one still does, other retired). I worked there for several years myself. I'd love to go back. But the way they're treating Tegen is making me feel bad about my hometown and my alma matter....which totally sucks.

When I started as a frosh in '89, the football team sucked ass, the basketball team sucked ass, baseball was being cut altogether. The only bright spots were hockey and women's running....how times have changed!

This is exactly the issue! The AD has always dragged its

feet when it came to compensating the women's (sport's) coaches and Peter's surely at the top of the pay scale (or whatever) and the AD would like to save some money (for football undoubtedly or their own bloated salaries).

For Pete's sake (no pun intended?), this coach has garnered more all-americans than any other coach at UW, I think this talk of "decline of the program" is insulting and absurd.

Look at other Big Ten track programs who have coaches coaching for decades who have pathetic records (they are still there!)...well, a few off years does not warrent this complete lack of respect!

In any case, with all that is going on with Peter Tegen, it is going to be a tough situation for whoever takes over the job.